Thursday’s Tiptoe Around the AL & NL Central

The Astros’ Chris Burke is starting to get his swing back.

Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt isn’t going change his pitching style after being warned about taking too much time on the mound.

Yovani Gallardo is adjusting to life in the bullpen for the Brew Crew.

Scott Elarton struggled in his latest rehab start for the Royals.

Ryan Ludwick got his first start in center for the Cardinals.

Craig Monroe has gone just 9-for-70 during his last 19 ballgames for the Tigers.

Twins reliever Pat Neshek is getting help from some fans on YouTube in the final vote.

Koyie Hill made sure he voted for his Cubs teammate Carlos Zambrano in the final vote.

The White Sox aren’t sure if they are going to be buyers or sellers.

Struggling Pirates outfielder Jason Bay is looking for answers to his struggles.

Javier Valentin will see more regular playing time for the Reds.

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Red Sox Are Heading To Japan, Again

Chibba Lotte Marines LogoThe Boston Red Sox and Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Baseball League announced a “strategic alliance” between the two teams on Wednesday. Chiba Lotte is managed by an American, Bobby Valentine.

The partnership comes on the heels of the Red Sox tapping into the Japanese market with the $103 million spent on Daisuke Matsuzaka and the signing of Hideki “Darkman” Okajima, in which the Chiba people had helped with the information gathering on the players.

“I think a lot of teams have these agreements, and pieces of paper get filed away in a drawer,” Lucchino said. “We hope to make this like a living, breathing panoply of different endeavors. And one that we’ve already discussed is taking a team of coaches and players into China.”

“Baseball is an Asian sport. Let’s start with that proposition. We obviously think of it as an American sport, but it’s also an Asian sport. And they play it with passion and skill, and with some different approaches. The more we can collaborate with each other, the better we, the Red Sox, will be. And the better off Major League baseball will be.”

Craig Shipley, who is the VP of International Scouting for the Red Sox, was instrumental in this process. It was his close work with Chiba that helped get this partnership started.

“We see this as an alliance that will help us to learn more about the way they develop players, about the way they scout players, about the way they teach their players,” Shipley said. “They also want to learn from us the way we do those things. It’s not something we’re doing to come over here to raid Japanese baseball.”

“We did the evaluating,” Shipley said. “They just provided us with some information that we thought we needed to make our evaluation.”

Both teams will share scouting and player development information. They will also do an exchange of front office personnel, coaching and scouting staff.

This will be huge for the development of the game overseas and here in the States. We all know the quality of baseball in Japan is at a high level and it will be evidenced more by this working agreement.

Russian City To Host 2014 Winter Olympics

2014 Winter Olympics LogoThe Russian city of Sochi was awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee today in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Sochi beat out PyeongChang, South Korea and Salzbur, Austria for the right to host the Winter Games. PyeongChang had been the favorite to win. Salzbur had been knocked out in the first round of secret balloting.

This will be the first time in the history of the Olympics that Russia has hosted a Winter Olympics. Russia has won the most winter medals in Olympic history with over 600 medals.

Sochi is a Russian resort city on the Black Sea located in southern Russia. Some events will take place in the Caucasus Mountain Range. Sochi will also build 4 ice venues as well as part of $12 billion infrastructure that will be funded by the Russian Government.

Sochi bid leader Dmitry Chernyshenko told Reuters: “We are happy and satisfied and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the IOC.”

Now Sochi must go from an bidding to organizing committee and get the construction and planning going for the Games.

Lowell, Bench Players Lead Sox To 7-5 Win

Fenway on July 4th, 2007

Lowell and Luis AliceaOn a beautiful July 4th matinée game at Fenway, it was Mike Lowell’s 2-run homer and some solid hitting from the bench players that led to a 7-5 win over the slumping Devil Rays. The loss was the D’Rays 10th consecutive. Wakefield went 6â…“ innings for his 9th win. Jonathan Papelbon worked the 9th inning for his 20th save. Lowell’s homerun was one of his 2 hits on the day to go along with 2 RBI.

The local nine waisted no time getting a run on the scoreboard. Coco Crisp led off with a triple down the right field line off of Rays starter Edwin Jackson. One of the aforementioned bench players or as they like to be known, “I-75 Crew”, Alex Cora, brought in Crisp with a perfectly executed safety squeeze. Big Papi continued his slumping ways with a strikeout. J.D. Drew, batting in the 4th spot with Manny off today, roped a double to deep center but Mike Lowell was unable to bring him in as he lined out to Carlos Peña at first.

After working out of a mini-jam in the 1st inning, Wakefield served up a gopher ball with 2 outs in the second. After getting Delmon Young and Ty Wigginton to fly out, Raul “I am not your ” Casanova took a Wakefield knuckler the opposite way into the Green Monster seats to tie the game at 1.

In the 3rd inning, Wakefield allowed a single to Carl Crawford, his first of three hits. Crawford would go to second on wild pitch from Wake but would go no further as Brendan Harris would foul out, Peña would walk and Greg Norton struck out swinging. He had an easier 4th inning as he set the D’Rays down in order.

Jackson had settled down and worked a perfect 2nd and 3rd innings. However in the 4th inning, he ran into a bit of trouble. Big Papi led off with a single. Drew proceeded to strikeout and Lowell followed that with a single, moving Papi to second base. Jackson would get Eric Hinske to strikeout bringing “the Kid”, Jacoby Ellsbury, to the plate. Ellsbury got his first career RBI when he hit a double to deep center bringing in Papi, making it 2-1 Sox. Lowell would go to third on the play. Wake’s personal catcher, Doug Mirabelli followed the “Kid’s” double with a 2-run single of his own, giving the Sox a 4-1 lead. Julio Lugo, 0-3 on the day, flew out ending the inning.

The Boys from Beantown got to Jackson for 3 more runs in the 5th inning. Coco led off with a fly out. Cora lined a double to rightfield for his second extra base hit of the game. Papi flew out for the second out. The Sox then had some fun with two outs. Cora moved to third on a Jackson wild pitch and came around to score when Drew smacked a double to left. Lowell put a Jackson offering into the Green Monster seats for a 2-run homer and a commanding 7-1 lead for the Red Sox.

Wake tip o' the capWake had a relatively easy 5th and 6th innings, allowing just a single to Crawford. However in the 7th inning, the seams came unglued. Wigginton and Casanova started the 7th off with singles. Wake would get Dustan Mohr to strikeout. Akinori Iwamura then hit a single loading up the bases for the D’Rays and chasing Wake from the game. Javier Lopez came into face the lefty Crawford and was rudely met with a double from Crawford. The double brought in Wigginton and Casanova, cutting the Sox lead to 7-3. Lopez got Harris to strikeout. C. Peña hit a 2-run single plating both Iwamura and Crawford, making it 7-5 Sox. 3 of the 4 runs scored were charged to Wakefield. Jonny Gomes came into pinch-hit for Greg Norton and Manny Delcarmen would relieve Lopez. Delcarmen got Gomes to strikeout looking on a fastball.

Wake went 6â…“ innings, allowing 7 hits, 4 runs, and 2 walks. He struck out 2 on 90 pitches.

Neither team could muster up any offense the rest of the game as both bullpens remained strong. Delcarmen had a good 8th inning and looks like he’s on his way to being the righty setup man with his velocity and command. Papelbon worked a 1-2-3 9th inning for his 20th save in 21 chances.

The local nine will go for the sweep of the D’Rays tomorrow night as Josh Beckett takes the hill for a chance at his 12th win. Gametime is 7:05 PM and the game will be broadcast locally on NESN.

Paps and Tito

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Sweet Fútbol Goal

Here is a pretty sweet fútbol (soccer) goal from Freddy Adu in the under 20 World Cup in Montreal against Poland. Adu had 3 goals in a 6-1 win.

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Red Sox News & Notes – 7/4

Manny love for JulioIt was a good night for the Japanese players on the Red Sox last night. Hideki “Darkman” Okajima found out he had overtaken Jeremy Bonderman in the final vote for the All-Star Game (voting goes until 6 PM ET on Thursday). Daisuke Matsuzaka was masterful on the mound again out nine and most importantly giving the bullpen, sans Papelbon, a nice night off. But that wasn’t the big story. The big story was Julio Lugo’s bat. Lugo’s bat decided it missed hitting balls in a game as it gave Lugo two hits last night and 2 RBI. Red Sox Faithful responded in a nice way to Lugo. Normally we would throw him under the bus but this still has the makings of a special season. So before you go off to your cookouts and eat your Fenway Franks or drink your American beer on this glorious birthday of America, take a look at the headlines about the game and happenings from the Boston and Tampa area media outlets.

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The unknown (Matsuzaka) and the familiar (Lugo) lift Boston past the Rays. [St. Petersburg Times]

Hot stuff. [Boston Globe]

Rays Fall To Red Sox 4-1. [Tampa Tribune]

Dice-K keeps on dazzling: Matsuzaka gets 10th win in beating Rays. [Boston Herald]

Crawford part of order revamp. [St. Petersburg Times]

Lugo (2 Hits) Ends Skid At 33. [Hartford Courant]

Crawford Still Struggling At Plate. [Tampa Tribune]

Rays drop shift vs. Ortiz, with similar results. [Pro Jo]

Lugo breaking through? Oh-fer goodness’ sake! [Boston Globe]

Hell no, he shouldn’t go: Let Ortiz skip Star trip. [Boston Herald]

Ortiz trying to find himself. [Pro Jo]

Runs for his run. [Hartford Courant]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune websites.

Wednesday’s Half Marathon Around the NL

Top Astros prospect Troy Patton got called up to Triple-A and might get a September call up.

John Smoltz isn’t clear when he will make his next start for the Braves.

Carlos Villanueva has been great out of the bullpen for the Brewers.

Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter got shelled in his first start.

Cubs skipper Lou Pinella and coach Gerald Perry are helping Jacque Jones and Felix Pie with their struggles at the plate.

Bob Melvin is trying to shake his Diamondbacks lineup by making some changes to it.

Jason Schmidt has a long road back to the Dodgers.

Barry Bonds has played in 74 of the 81 games the Giants have played.

Hanley Ramirez was supposed to miss Tuesday’s game with a hamstring injury but provided some late-inning heroics.

Pedro Martinez threw a simulated game for the Mets on Tuesday.

The Nationals signed one of their sandwich round picks, Michael Burgess and he will report to the Gulf Coast Nationals.

The Padres top pick Nick Schmidt threw a bullpen session at PETCO Park.

Ryan Freel returned from the DL for the Reds.

The Rockies lost Jason Hirsh to the DL with an ankle injury.