Red Sox News & Notes – 4/3

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher John Lackey(notes) sits in the dugout after he was pulled from the game in the fourth inning of the baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, April 2, 2011.

Do me a favor, step back from that ledge my friend. There’s really no need to be lining up at the Tobin Bridge just yet. It’s only two freaking games.

Sure they haven’t exactly been pretty and yes another starting pitcher got lit up but hitting the panic button at the two game mark is utterly redonkiculous.

Some questioned Boston Red Sox skipper Terry Francona when he announced that John Lackey would be his No. 2 starter to start the 2011 season. After all, you still have Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz. But Francona felt that Lackey would be a better matchup against the Rangers with Beckett getting a start against the lowly Cleveland Indians.

Francona must not have looked at Lackey’s career stats at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. In 16 starts there, Lackey was 6-5 with a 6.11 ERA. And now after last night’s 12-5 shellacking, Lackey is 6-6 with a 6.78 ERA.

It wasn’t pretty at all. Just like on Opening Day when Ian Kinsler connected for a leadoff homerun in the 1st inning against Jon Lester, he did the same against Lackey. And after David Ortiz gave the Red Sox the lead, Lackey gave it right back. And when Ortiz tied it up in the top half of the 4th, Lackey imploded in the 5th.

He did retire the first two batters he faced the inning and would have gotten out of it had Jacoby Ellsbury been able to make a spectacular diving catch on a ball of the bat of Yorvit Torrealba. Julio Borbon followed that with a triple to bring in Torrealba and then he issued a walk to Kinsler. Elvis Andrus hit an RBI double. The Red Sox decided to intentionally walk Josh Hamilton to load the bases up and that turned out to be a huge mistake.

Lackey left a pitch out over the plate to old friend Adrian Beltre and he sent it high into the Texas sky for a grand salami and the rout was on.

Dan Wheeler had a tough outing as he was roughed for two runs on four hits in 2/3 of an inning. Tim Wakefield should never be allowed to face Nelson Cruz as Cruz hit a solo home run off of him and is now 6-for-6 against Wake in his career. Dennys Reyes bounced back from his four pitch walk effort on opening day to retire the side in the 7th and Bobby Jenks was perfect in his Red Sox debut.

With his three RBIs, Ortiz now has 1,004 as a DH in his career and that tops the great Edgar Martinez for the most as a DH. Adrian Gonzalez continued to rake as he had another three hits and is now 5-for-9 in his first two games in a Red Sox uniform. Ellsbury also showed some power as he blasted a two-run homer.

Carl Crawford‘s rough start continued as he was 0-for-3 with a strikeout but he did finally get on base with a walk. Dustin Pedroia, Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis had the other hits for the Red Sox.

The Red Sox will look to leave Texas with a win this afternoon. The game is scheduled to begin at 2:05 p.m.

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Red Sox again are Texas toast [Boston Globe]

After losses, not at loss for words [Boston Globe]

Great early read on Gonzalez [Boston Globe]

Buchholz took right steps [Boston Globe]

His head was in the game [Boston Globe]

Red Sox continue to empower Rangers [Boston Herald]

Charlie Hough doffs his cap to Tim Wakefield [Boston Herald]

John Lackey at a loss [Boston Herald]