After a very frustrating loss yesterday to the Seattle Mariners and even more frustrating 2-4 west coast swing, the Boston Red Sox return home to Fenway Park tomorrow night where they’ll take on the first place Toronto Blue Jays for 3 games before the New York Mets come to town.
It was Nick Green’s throwing error that would ultimately do in the Red Sox yesterday. Green has made 8 errors on the season and up until yesterday, none of them had been costly.
Ever since they traded Nomar Garciaparra and brought in Orlando Cabrera then didn’t resign him, the shortstop position has been a bit of a black hole for the Red Sox. They tried Edgar Renteria in 2005 and that experiment failed miserably. They ultimately found success with Alex Gonzalez during the 2006 season but in 2007, they brought in Julio Lugo and we’ve had to live with him sucking on the field.
Jed Lowrie filled in at times for Lugo in 2008 and we thought the hole had been plugged. The pair entered spring training this season in a competition for the starting shortstop position only to have Lugo go down with a knee injury, handing the job to Lowrie.
Lowrie’s played solid defense and played through a wrist injury last year only to have said wrist affect him at the plate this season and require surgery. Green’s done an admirable job at shortstop and we all know how Lugo has been.
But how long will it be until Theo Epstein goes out and finds a shortstop that can give them good defense and a decent bat at the plate. Or will that be Lowrie when he returns in a month or two from his wrist injury. One thing’s for certain, defense and good pitching win championships and we’re solid in those areas other than shortstop.
On a programming note, things should now start to get posted at normal times in regards to this post now that the Red Sox are back on the east coast. Also, I will be in North Carolina from Friday to Sunday morning so the I probably won’t be doing much with the site in those days. I will do what I can and I’ll be back in time for Sunday afternoon’s game against the Mets.
Lesser lineup was caught in the middle [Boston Globe]
Bumpy road leads Red Sox back home to Fenway [Boston Herald]
Green’s errant throw sets up walk-off loss [Providence Journal]
Masterson is ready to pitch in any role [Boston Globe]
David Ortiz feels good about time off [Boston Herald]
Lugo misses game, but says groin injury not serious [Providence Journal]
Giving away outs takes win out of Red Sox’ reach [Boston Globe]
Shortfalls on ‘D’ [Boston Herald]
Francona not sure if Ortiz will return to third spot in order [Providence Journal]
Red Sox minor leagues update [Wicked Good Sports]
Monday Sickie Quickie [Nuggetapalooza]
Blue Jays coming in with something to prove [Projo Sox Blog]
Tribe not trying to move Martinez, but would they? [FOXSports.com]
Salem State gives Pesky his first honorary degree [Wicked Good Sports]
Boston banking on strong return from middle order hitters to break offensive funk [Projo Sox Blog]
Five Things We Learned: A Big Week Ahead For Sox [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]
Kotsay’s return coming shortly — hopefully [Projo Sox Blog]
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.
And if the enemy papers are more your thing, you can check out the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Tacoma News Tribune websites.
