Boston Red Sox News & Notes – 5/3

Baltimore Orioles Ty Wigginton, center, runs away from Adam Jones and Cesar Izturis after he drove in the winning run against the Boston Red Sox during the 10th inning of a baseball game Sunday, May 2, 2010 in Baltimore. The Orioles won 3-2.(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

How bad were things for the Boston Red Sox this weekend? We had a Baltimore Orioles fan talking trash on the site.

Basically you can sum up the entire weekend to way the 2010 season has gone for the Red Sox. They look great at times and they look like awful at other times. We saw a mix of that this weekend.

After some poor starts, Josh Beckett looked pretty good out on the mound at times. While he was having trouble with his curveball at times, the rest of his other pitches were working. He ended up scattering six hits over seven innings while allowing two runs. He didn’t walk anyone and finished with six strikeouts.

Daniel Bard got himself into trouble in the 8th inning, loading up the bases but he was able to work himself out of trouble and keep the Red Sox alive. After allowing a double to Matt Wieters with one out in the 9th, Jonathan Papelbon retired the next two batters to send it to extra innings.

But unfortunately he had some trouble in the 10th as he walked Nick Markakis and then made a throwing error trying to pick Markakis off at first that moved him to second. Ty Wigginton followed that with a double to deep center to give the Orioles the three-game sweep.

There was one thing I didn’t understand in the game yesterday.

The Red Sox had Jason Varitek on second base with one out in the 8th. Terry Francona then pinch-hit Victor Martinez for Jonathan Van Every and he ended up flying out to center. The part I didn’t understand was that if he knew Bill Hall was coming into the game to take over for JVE, why didn’t he pinch-run Hall for Tek and have VMart catch.

After a walk to Marco Scutaro, Dustin Pedroia hit a single to left. While third base coach Tim Bogar made the right call in sending Tek home, a perfect throw by Orioles left field Nolan Reimold easily nailed him at the plate. Now if Tito had pinch-run Hall for Tek, it’s quite possible that Hall could have scored.

Instead, the Red Sox head back to Boston with their tails between their legs much closer to last place than first place. And the schedule doesn’t get much easier the rest of the month as they’ll kick off a 10-game homestand with four games against the Angels and then three with the Yankees.

We’ll be back later with a look at the week ahead with The Bottom Line and Fenway West as well as the lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day but for now enjoy the overnight links.

Things We Learned: Red Sox’ road only gets tougher [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]

X’d out by O’s [Boston Globe]

Sox’ power supply is cut short [Boston Globe]

Josh wasn’t joking around [Boston Globe]

Birds-eye view: Sox swept [Boston Herald]

Big changes looming after Sox swept by lowly O’s [Boston Herald]

Josh Beckett back up to speed [Boston Herald]

Jonathan Papelbon grinds through rough patch [Boston Herald]

Pedroia: ‘A lot of guys are not used to this’ [Clubhouse Insider]

Sox swept away in Baltimore [CSN New England]

Not-so-fun facts [ESPN Boston]

Problems piling up [ESPN Boston]