After beating the Cleveland Indians for their 11th straight win last night, the Boston Red Sox awake to find themselves in a first place tie in the AL East with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Red Sox are 13-6 and are percentage points ahead of the Jays who are 14-7.
Jason Bay and Tim Wakefield were the heroes of last night game for the Red Sox. Bay crushed a Kerry Wood fastball out of Progressive Field in the 9th inning that provided all of the Red Sox runs last night. All Wakefield did was throw 7 innings of one-hit ball without giving up a run.
Bay has been nothing short of spectacular since coming over to the Red Sox in a trade deadline deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is hitting .306 (75-of-245), with 14 home runs and 56 RBIs. He has an OBP of .408, a slugging percentage of .571 and an OPS of .979. Those are pretty solid numbers folks. With those numbers, he’s a relative bargain with a salary of $7.5 million this season. He is definitely playing himself into a nice payday as he is a free agent at the end of the season.
Wakefield has been the ace of the Red Sox staff this season. His record for the 2009 campaign is 2-1 in 4 starts with an 1.86 ERA. Last night, the knuckleball was nasty once again and kept the Indians hitters at bay as they managed one hit off of him. Wake did issue 4 walks but had 5 strikeouts and got some glove love from his defense. In his last 3 starts, teams are hitting just .123 against him and he’s given up just 3 runs on 10 hits in 23 innings.
Sox streak to 11th [Boston Globe]
Wakefield and Bay pave the way to 11th straight win [Providence Journal]
Oh Bay Bay! Red Sox sizzlin’ [Boston Herald]
Bay continues to carve out his own niche [Boston Globe]
Off to a great start, Lowell’s recovery from hip surgery is a hit [Providence Journal]
Tim Wakefield on a big roll [Boston Herald]
Team still goes Green [Boston Globe]
Drew held out of lineup as a precaution [Providence Journal]
Red Sox fly high on ‘The Jet’ [Boston Herald]
Double dose of talent and flair [Boston Globe]
Ellsbury’s great asset — speed — doesn’t show up in box score [Providence Journal]
Mike Lowell quick to respond [Boston Herald]
Five Things We Learned: New Colors, Same Results [WEEI]
Don Orsillo’s Decapitated Bobblehead: Big Papi hits like RemDawg [Wicked Good Sports]
The Jason Bay Era [Center Field]
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.
And if you must check out the enemy sites, you can head over to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.
