Boston Red Sox News & Notes – 6/23

Now that the USA has advanced on to the second round of the World Cup thanks to a very late Landon Donovan goal, we could move forward to the business at hand involving the Boston Red Sox.

Jon Lester #31 of the Boston Red Sox waits to bat against the Colorado Rockies during the game at Coors Field on June 22, 2010 in Denver, Colorado - Getty Images We sort of expected tonight’s game with Ubaldo Jimenez pitching for the Colorado Rockies to be the low scoring game of the series but it happened last night when Jon Lester and Jhoulys Chacin squared off on the bump at Coors Field.

Chacin looked virtually unhittable for the first two innings but ran into some trouble in the third when the Red Sox loaded the bases up. But they could not push a run across against him in that inning or for his 6 2/3 innings. The Red Sox only managed four hits against him and couldn’t take advantage of the five walks Chacin issued.

The Red Sox had another chance in the 7th with the bases loaded but pinch-hitter David Ortiz grounded out. The man he pinch-hit for by the way was Lester.

Lester matched Chacin with zeroes through the first four innings but the Rockies broke through against him in the 5th for a run. Lester ended up being a victim of the National League rules because he was pinch-hit for by Big Papi. Had they been in Boston or if interleague rules allowed the DH, Lester would have probably gone out to pitch the 7th since he had thrown only 90 pitches through the first six innings.

While the Red Sox did rally for a run in the 9th, it wasn’t enough since the Rockies added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th on a sure fire double play ball that took a bad hop over the head of Marco Scutaro.

Instead the Red Sox saw their six game winning streak snapped and find themselves in a virtual tie for second still with the Tampa Bay Rays. Both teams are 1.5 games behind the Yankees for first place. The Red Sox are also still second in the majors with 43 wins.

Josh Reddick did find himself back in the big leagues and in the starting lineup as it’s now thought J.D. Drew will be out until at least Thursday’s game. At least that’s what the Red Sox are hoping as they’ll have to make a roster move with Daisuke Matsuzaka coming off the disabled list to start. Robert Manuel, who didn’t see action while in Boston, was sent back to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Josh Beckett is also progressing in his rehab and will throw another side session tomorrow. He threw a total of 42 pitches, all fastballs, in yesterday’s side session. It still appears though Beckett is at least two weeks away from going on a rehab assignment.

Let’s hope that John Lackey is on top of his game tonight as runs should be hard to come by against Jimenez, who did leave the ballpark early yesterday do to sickness. It still should be a great game tonight either way. Let’s hope the Red Sox can come out on top.

We’ll be back later with tonight’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, news and any links but for now enjoy the overnight links.

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Red Sox can’t mount much offense in loss [Boston Globe]

With Drew down, Reddick is back up [Boston Globe]

Colorado ace Jimenez in rarefied air [Boston Globe]

Red Sox recap: Rocky Mountain low [Boston Herald]

More misery for Mike Lowell [Boston Herald]

Ubaldo Jimenez aces his start [Boston Herald]

NL ball takes bite out of Red Sox [Boston Herald]

Westmoreland to speak today [Clubhouse Insider]

Sox come up empty in Colorado [CSN New England]

Beckett’s schedule accelerates [ESPN Boston]