Mark Kotsay's double gave the Red Sox a 5-4 win.

Mark Kotsay knocked in Jeff Bailey in the bottom of the 8th inning to help the Boston Red Sox to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians in front of 37,719 at Fenway Park.

The win keeps the Red Sox very slim AL East title hopes alive. I say slim because the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles tonight to cut their magic number to 1 for the AL East crown.

With the score tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 8th, Rafael Perez took over for Rich Rundles and struck out Kevin Youkilis for the 1st out. Bailey pinch-hit for Jonathan Van Every and narrowly missed a home run by about 6 inches off the Green Monster and ended up with a triple. Kotsay followed with the double to knock in Bailey to put the Red Sox on top 5-4.

Manny Delcarmen worked around a walk to Grady Sizemore in the top of the 9th to close the door on the Indians to pick up his 2nd save.

Paul Byrd wasn't at his best against his former teammates.

Paul Byrd started or I should say auditioned for a playoff spot tonight and wasn’t at his best although he was the victim of some bad defense in one inning. He went 5 innings, alllowing 4 runs on 11 hits and 1 walk while fanning 4. The bullpen was strong behind him as Mike Timlin, David Aardsma and Delcarmen combined for 4 scoreless innings of work.

Kotsay broke out of his slump with a 2-for-4 showing including 2 RBI, one of which was the game-winner. Dustin Pedroia added two hits to raise his average to .325 while Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 15 games. David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Chris Carter had the other RBI for the local nine.

The Red Sox did most of their damage off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona in the bottom of the 1st inning.

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Sorry for the lateness of this post, the afternoon siesta went into overtime.

I have a few quick links to share with you concerning the Red Sox spring training.

Lee County is in a fight with Sarasota to keep the Red Sox from moving there.

Lee County has unveiled 3 different sites to keep the Red Sox in Ft. Myers.

Local business owners in Ft. Myers held a rally on Tuesday to keep the Red Sox there.

78-78

1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Jamey Carroll, 3B
3. Shin-Soo Choo, RF
4. Jhonny Peralta, SS
5. Victor Martinez, C
6. Travis Hafner, DH
7. Ben Francisco, LF
8. Ryan Garko, 1B
9. Josh Barfield, 2B

– Fausto Carmona, SP

92-65

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Mark Kotsay, 1B
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Chris Carter, LF
9. Alex Cora, SS

– Paul Byrd, SP

And here is how the hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers.

Normally the day before a football game preview comes out, I don’t do a daily roundup of UConn Huskies news but today will mark an exception to the rule.

The only football news I will bring you today isn’t really news but something that must be checked out. UConn football senior defensive tackle Rob Lunn has his own blog entitled “Thoughts From a Fat White Guy“. It’s actually quite humorous so be sure to check it out. It’s also been added in the UConn links section on the right sidebar.

UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun was in Washington, DC yesterday to promote cancer research.

The draft stock of Hasheem Thabeet is slowly falling.

UConn has released the student lottery information for basketball tickets.

David Gillett has a look back at the UConn Huskies vs. Memphis Tigers game last season.

The UConn Huskies and IMG College have partnered up on a 10-year $80 million multi-media rights package.

The UConn men’s soccer team picked up two weekly awards.