Shockingly enough, unless you lived in Japan, today’s Red Sox exhibition game versus the Florida Marlins wasn’t on television here. And if your fortunate enough to have MLB Game Day Audio, you were able to listen to the game like I did today. I’ll be honest, I only listened to the innings that Dice-K pitched.

He had a relatively easy first inning today. He threw 15 pitches, 11 of which were strikes. He retired former Red Sox prospect, Hanley “Don’t Call Me Manny” Ramirez, on a ground out to the mound. Dan Uggla hit a curveball for single, then he got Jeremy Hermida to pop out to short, and then he struck out Jason Stokes on a 3-2 curveball.

His second inning of work today was a little more difficult. He started out the inning with a walk to Joe Borchard, then struck out Miguel Olivo. The next batter, former New Haven Raven John Gall, hit a ground rule double. Odds are that Borchard would have scored had the ball not bounced out of the park. Dice-K pitched well while he was in this jam, striking out Scott Seabol and then he got Eric Reed to pop out on a bunt attempt.

His third and final inning of work was a relatively easily one. Ramirez lined out to Matsuzaka then Uggla and Hermida popped out to the mound. All in all, a good day for Dice-K. He threw 31 strikes on 47 pitches.

For me, it was nice to see him be able to work out of jams this early in spring training. A lot of pitchers would have just tried to get there work in but not Dice-K. Being in the jam allowed him to pitch out of the stretch at times.

Dice-K spoke with the media after the game and had this to say about how prepared he thinks he is at this point of spring training:

”My readiness for the season is difficult to judge from the outside,” Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. ”I’m probably 40 to 50 percent there.”

Technorati: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox

Kalana Greene led three UCONN Huskies in double figures on Monday night as they defeated the Louisville Cardinals 76-50 in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament in Hartford. Greene had 20 points on 10 of 13 shooting while Renee Montgomery added 14 points. Charde Houston had another double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds and Ketia Swanier had 9 points and 6 assists. Angel McCoughtry and Michelle Pointdexter both had 9 points to lead the Cardinals. McCoughtry, the reigning Big East Player of the Year spent most of the game in foul trouble and eventually fouled out.

Once again, the game was only televised on ESPNU and if you are like most of us in Connecticut, you had to listen to the game on WTIC 1080 AM. Don’t fret though Husky fans, you will be able to watch them play on Tuesday night when they face Rutgers. The game will be on espn2 and starts at 7:00 PM.

Technorati: UCONN Huskies, Geno Auriemma, Big East Conference, Louisville Cardinals

Just hours after Jon Lester returned to the hill in a “B” game, the Boston Red Sox “A” team took on the Los Angeles Dodgers at City of Palms. The Sox lost the game 2-1 to the Dodgers.

Josh Beckett took the hill for the Sox on Monday. He threw 3 scoreless innings throwing 30 pitches. He gave up 3 hits and struck out 2 batters. He didn’t walk anyone. Hideki Okajima threw a scoreless inning as well, allowing one hit and striking out 1. Brendan Donnelly took the loss giving up a run on 2 hits. He did strike one out 2 batters. The Sox only managed 5 hits in the game. Dustin Pedroia had a double for the only extra base hit.

Other notes from the Fort.

Josh Beckett suffers from eczema. This doesn’t help him with the blisters at all but he is taking meds to combat the situation.

There was many familar faces on the Dodgers at the Fort on Monday. Manager Grady Little, bench coach Dave Jauss, players Nomar Garciaparra, Rudy Seanez, Damian Jackson, Ken Huckaby and Matt White, and Bill Mueller were all there. Little had this to say when a reporter, Jason Varitek, asked Little about his thoughts on Varitek:

“Jason Varitek knows what I think about him,” Little said of his former backstop, after the two exchanged hugs. “A lot of people talk about who’s the best catcher in the game right now. If you’re talking about anyone besides that kid, you might be off base a little bit.”

Varitek snuck into the throng of reporters and pretended to use his bat as a microphone.

Next up for the Sox is Daisuke Matsuzaka’s second spring start and first against Major League batters in Jupiter as the Red Sox head over there to take on the Marlins.

Technorati: Boston Red Sox, Josh Beckett, Jason Varitek, Los Angeles Dodgers

Curt Schilling and the Red Sox headed across town on Sunday to take on the Minnesota Twins for game 2 of the Mayor’s Cup. The Red Sox won the game 6-1.

Schilling was outstanding in his second start of the spring. He threw 3 1/3 innings, giving up 1 run on 2 hits, he struck out one and walked one. One of the hits he gave up was a homerun to Michael Cuddyer. The rest of the bullpen all had good games today. Javier Lopez, trying to be one of the lefties in the bullpen, gave up 1 hit in 1 2/3’s innings. David Pauley threw 2 innings giving up 1 hit and walked 1. Craig Breslow threw a perfect inning and Travis Hughes gave up 1 hit in his 1 inning of work. Coco Crisp was 1 for 3 with 2 rbi’s and Julio Lugo was 2 for 3 with an rbi.

Some other news and notes from Sox camp.

Schilling worked on his changeup during the start on Sunday. He said he threw about 10 of them in the start.

Ian Browne has a good article about some of the minor leaguers who are making an impression in camp so far.

The big news on Monday isn’t that Nomar Garciaparra will be traveling with the Dodgers as they come to the Fort tomorrow. The BIG news on Monday is the return of Jon Lester to the mound. He will be pitching 1 inning in a “B” game against the Twins. Josh Beckett will be on the hill for the Sox against the Dodgers.

With the start of minor league camp, I would expect the Red Sox to start sending some of the minor leaguers back to their own camps. It’s a crazy time of year down there right now. I know spring training is hard to get excited about, but with all the exciting stories coming out of Sox camp this year, it’s hard not too.

Mayor’s Cup Standings: Boston 1-0-1, Minnesota 0-1-1

Technorati: Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, Jon Lester

Charde Houston and Tina Charles both had double-doubles to lead 4 players in double figures, as the UCONN Huskies beat up on the South Florida Bulls by the final score of 74-54 in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament. Houston had 19 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists while Charles contributed 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. Kalana Greene had 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting and Renee Montgomery added 10 points for the Huskies. Jessica Dickson led the Bulls with 18 points, while ChiChi Okpaleke had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Nalini Miller chipped in with 10 for the Bulls as well. UCONN now moves on to the semifinals to take on the Louisville Cardinals at 6:00 PM on Monday night. The game will be televised on ESPNU so if your like most of us here in Connecticut, your SOL on watching it.