The ineffectiveness of Julian Tavarez and the Red Sox bullpen was the story in chilly Texas last night as the Red Sox lost to the Texas Rangers by a score of 8-4.

Tavarez only lasted 4 innings, giving up 6 runs, 4 runs, 4 earned runs. He walked 5 batters and struck out 3 in 87 pitches. He got away from his two-seam fastball which had helped thru a smooth 1st inning.

The main culprit in the bullpen was J.C. Romero who gave up 5 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs without retiring a batter. He also allowed Sammy Sosa’s 589th career home run.

Curt Schilling takes the hill for the Red Sox on Sunday night and will be opposed by Vincente Padilla.

Sorry I didn’t post this earlier but Friday night was the my fantasy baseball auction draft. My team ended up ok. I have some great pitchers but my hitters are another story.

Texas Rangers pitcher Robinson Tejada outdueled Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield on Friday afternoon in Texas and led the Rangers to a 2-0 win. Tejada threw 7 innings, gave up 2 hits, walked 3 and struck out 1. Wakefield threw 6 innings, gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned run, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. The Red Sox bullpen threw another scoreless 3 innings.

It was Sammy Sosa’s bloop single scoring Michael Young gave the Rangers the lead 1-0. A Dustin Pedroia error in the 2nd inning and a stolen base by Brad Wilkerson led to the second run being scored for the Rangers.

Manny Ramirez, Coco Crisp and J.D. Drew were the only Sox players to manage hits in the game.

Julian Tavarez will try to right the ship on Saturday night as he faces off with Kevin Millwood.

After Dice-K took the baseball world by storm back in December when he signed with the Boston Red Sox, he did the same thing in his first Major League start on Thursday afternoon. So what is the world saying about Dice-K’s debut. Let’s take a look.

First up is from Red Sox pitcher and resident blogger, Curt Schilling:

Daisuke. Wow. I can’t say I was surprised, but it was fun as hell to watch. The kid can flat out pitch and the line score he trotted out was even more impressive when you factor in he wasn’t as sharp as he can be. The one word that continues to come to mind every time I see him is poise. Regardless of the ‘pressure’ the media thinks he has on him, I don’t think anyone will ever exceed the expectations he has for himself. His track record speaks for itself. In the biggest games of his life, he’s pitched his best. That takes different makeup, and a confidence level you can’t fake. No doubt he was nervous. The only two things I could muster up in Japanese today were “Ten-o-sheen-day” (that’s how I pronounce it, not how it’s spelled), which means “have fun” and “Yokoo Yatta” or “eeyo” which means “good job”. Obviously I got to say the second one often, he was lights out today. After he settled into a rhythm he got on a roll. He has a large array of weapons and every one of them is an out pitch. He also has the ‘dial up’ fastball that great power pitchers have. With two strikes or in tight spots great pitchers can add 3-5 or more MPH and still maintain command of their fastball, which he did a lot today.

Tim Daloisio from The Red Sox Times gives us his impressions of Daisuke.

Over seven innings, the man known as Dice-K, stepped up and delivered a solid performance allowing six hits, one walk, and one run on a solo home run by Royals centerfielder David DeJesus, while striking out ten Royals along the way. Over 108 pitches of a variety beyond that of most American born pitchers, Matsuzaka kept Royals hitters off balance by starting hitters out with strikes with his cutter, his change, his fastball, or whatever else he and catcher Jason Varitek deemed appropriate. Once hitters got behind in the count (20 of 26 batters were started out with a strike) Matsuzaka would work both sides of the plate with an array of speeds and movement. Where it is estimated that many pitchers rely on their fastballs up to 90% of the time, only 45% of Matsuzaka’s pitches were fastballs.

Jason over at My Baseball Bias shares this with us about the start:

Talk about a debut. I watched the game today and came away very impressed. I know he faced the Royals, but his ability to throw so many different pitches and paint the corners kept him effective from start to finish.

I’ve said this many times before, but I’ll be very interested to see how he pitches against a patient hitting club…like the Yankees. I simply can’t wait for that match-up.

Here is his final line – 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K’s, 108 Pitches (74 for strikes)

If that doesn’t impress you…I don’t know what will.

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Unfortunately for Gabe Kapler, his Greenville Drive team couldn’t get him the win as they lost 1-0 to the Charleston RiverDogs 1-0 in 10 innings. But that wasn’t the biggest story to come out of the game. It was Jon Lester’s return to game action.

Lester had been out since August after he was diagnosed with cancer. He may not have pitched in a big league game but it was a real game that counted and meant something. From all accounts, Lester looked great. He threw 4 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and one walk while striking out five RiverDogs. At one point, he hit 96 MPH on the radar gun.

He is scheduled to make 3 more starts for the Drive, who are the Red Sox single A affiliate and then quite possibly could move up to Pawtucket.

“I felt good out there,” he said. “There were a little jitters, but overall I was feeling really good. I’m about as close as you can get to feeling 100 percent.”

“Everything’s coming around,” Lester said. “It’s just a matter of repetition and getting those innings built up.”

“I would like to return [to Boston] tomorrow. We’ll have to sit down and see where we are. Hopefully, in four starts I’ll be in [Triple-A] Pawtucket or Boston.”

Obviously this is great news for Jon and the Red Sox. His next big battle withe the doctor will come when he goes in for his next checkup at the end of the month to see if he is still cancer free. In the meantime, he will next start for Greenville on Tuesday.

If he continues to keep pitching well, what will the Red Sox do with him. Obviously if Julian Tavarez doesn’t have success starting Lester could fill his role when he has built back up his stamina and arm strength. But what happens if Tavarez pitches well. Do they leave Lester in the minors even if he should be in Boston?

Lester proved he belonged in Boston last year posting a 7-2 record with a 4.76 ERA before being diagnosed with the cancer. All I can say if it was me pulling the strings, I’d rather have a healthy Lester over Tavarez any day of the week.