Jon Lester went 7 1/3 innings while David Ortiz and newcomer Adam LaRoche both backed him up with home runs as the Boston Red Sox went on to a 7-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles in front of 38,063 at Fenway Park on Saturday night.

It’s the 11th straight win over the Orioles for the Red Sox (57-39) at Fenway Park and it moves them to within 1.5 games of the AL East-leading New York Yankees, who lost earlier in the day. The cellar dwelling Orioles fall to 41-55.

Lester’s mastery of the Orioles continued although he did allow his first runs of the season against him. His curveball was downright nasty and he had good velocity on his fastball. He allowed 2 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9 batters.

The bullpen kept it’s post-All-Star break scoreless streak up as well.

Daniel Bard brought the heat as he hit 100 MPH on the gun in 2/3 of an inning. Ramon Ramirez allowed 2 hits in the 9th and had a strikeout.

Jeremy Guthrie got hit hard early but settled down late. He went 6 2/3 innings, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 2.

Mark Hendrickson allowed 2 runs on 2 hits out of the O’s bullpen and old friend Cla Meredith retired both batters he faced.

Big Papi’s 3-run homer in the first got things going for the local nine. LaRoche’s 2-run homer came in the 8th inning and was his only hit in four at-bats in his first game in a Red Sox uniform.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Jason Bay both had two hits each with Ellsbury adding 2 RBIs and his 43rd stolen base of the season. The only member of the starting nine without a hit on the evening was the reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia.

Great outing for Lester and it was really nice to see the Red Sox bats wake up and score some runs. They had scored only 16 runs since the All-Star break coming into Saturday’s game.

John Smoltz will look to continue the Orioles’ misery against the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon while David Hernandez will look to stop it.

The Boston Red Sox snapped a five-game losing streak last night with a 3-1 win behind some stellar pitching from Brad Penny. A win tonight against the Baltimore Orioles could put them 1.5 games behind the Yankees who lost this afternoon.

The game tonight will start at 7:10 PM EDT and will be televised in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Orioles television market, you can catch the game on MASN. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Jon Lester looks to push the winning streak to 11 games at Fenway Park against the Orioles tonight. He is 8-7 with a 3.87 in 19 starts this season. Lester has dominated the Orioles this season and in his career. He is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA (0 ER/14.0 IP) this season and is 8-0 with a 2.18 ERA in 10 lifetime starts. Lester is 5-0 with a 2.70 ERA against the Orioles in 5 starts at Fenway Park.

Jeremy Guthrie looks to end that 10-game losing streak to the Red Sox at Fenway Park for manager Dave Trembley tonight. He is 7-8 with a 5.12 ERA in 19 starts this season. Guthrie is 1-2 with a 4.01 ERA in 9 games (8 starts) in his career against the Red Sox. He is 0-1 with a 5.09 ERA in four games at Fenway Park.

Nerves nibbling at LaRoche with first start looming [Projo Sox Blog]

Bailey still nearly two weeks from return [Projo Sox Blog]

Rice, Rickey to Become Part of Hall’s Storied History [NESN.com]

Waiving Kotsay a Necessary Evil for Red Sox [Heidi Watney – NESN.com]

Look for Boston Red Sox to pull off deal for offense [Chicago Tribune]

The Rice retrospective [Boston Herald]

Rice a hero in a big way for a young boy [ESPN.com]

Youkilis gets day off for LaRoche debut [One If By Land]

Saturday Foolishness [Center Field]

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

The Boston Red Sox bats woke up a little bit last night as they had nine hits off of Baltimore Orioles starter Brad Bergesen. While the Red Sox only scored three runs fortunately for them it was enough as Brad Penny had one of his better outings in a Sox uniform.

The win couldn’t have come at a better time for the local nine as they were mired in a 5-game losing streak and falling quickly in the AL East. A loss last night would have dropped them to 3.5 games behind the Yankees who have now won eight straight. Instead, they head into tonight’s game still sitting 2.5 games back. They are four games ahead of the Rays in the AL East and 2.5 games ahead of the Rangers in the wild card standings.

Penny had a little extra velocity last night as he was consistently hitting 97 MPH and touched 98 MPH on occasion. He had good control and command of all his pitches. Of course though it was a typical Penny outing with a high pitch count as he threw 108 in 6 1/3 innings. It was the first time he had pitched into the 7th inning since May.

Luckily for Penny, the Red Sox bullpen has seemed to put their pre-All-Star Game doldrums behind them and picked him up last night.

Red Sox steer out of skid [Boston Globe]

Caught in squeeze, Kotsay out [Boston Globe]

Worse things have happened to LaRoche [Boston Globe]

LaRoche excited to join a contender [RedSox.com]

Brad Penny gives Orioles no quarter [Boston Herald]

Adam LaRoche cool with any role [Boston Herald]

Cruel bounce denies excitement [Boston Herald]

Justin Masterson keen to keep focus [Boston Herald]

Tough day for Mark Kotsay [Boston Herald]

Introducing Chris Duncan [Full Count]

Penny shines on at Fenway [Providence Journal]

LaRoche is willing to play less in exchange for a shot at the postseason [Providence Journal]

Red Sox journal: Dice-K, management are communicating [Providence Journal]

Five Things We Learned: Home Is Where the Wins Are For Red Sox [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.

And if you want to check out the enemy papers, head over to the Baltimore Sun and Annapolis Capital websites.

UConn Football links

Could UConn play Army at Yankee Stadium? [UConnReport.com]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

WNBA media day in the book [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

Diana’s loving Maya Moore’s game [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

WNBA All-Stars in the house – Diana’s the one in the middle [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Faris, U.S. Roll Past China [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Taurasi, back in state, admits mistake [Connecticut Post]

WNBA notebook: 5 UConn all-stars [Connecticut Post]

Husky Greats Return To Connecticut For WNBA All-Star Game [Hartford Courant]

Diana Taurasi Moving On From DUI [Hartford Courant]

Lobo strong candidate for Hall of Fame honors [New Haven Register]

All-Star game is a UConn reunion [New Haven Register]

Taurasi: ‘I made a mistake’ [New Haven Register]

WNBA All-Star Game: Jones settling into stardom [Norwich Bulletin]

On court of public opinion [Boston Globe]

‘Embarrassed’ Taurasi back in Conn. for WNBA All-Star game [Projo Sports Blog]

All-Stars know each other well [ESPN.com]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Ask around: UConn’s Trice is all right [New Haven Register]

Brad Penny pitched into the 7th inning and the offense got him 3 runs as the Boston Red Sox went on to a 3-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles in front of the 515th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park on Friday night.

With the win that ended a 5-game losing streak, the Red Sox (56-39) stay 2.5 games behind the New York Yankees who beat the Oakland A’s.

It was a typical Penny outing with a high pitch count but overall he was outstanding. He had a little extra giddy up on his fastball as well. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 4 strikeouts to pick up his 7th win of the season and lower his ERA to 4.71.

The Red Sox bullpen was great behind him although Jonathan Papelbon did make it interesting in the 9th by loading up the bases.

Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima combined for 1 2/3 hitless innings with MDC striking out 1. Papelbon allowed 2 hits and a walk while striking out 2.

Brad Bergesen wasn’t bad but he definitely wasn’t as good as the last time he faced the Red Sox. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits and had 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.

Matt Albers and Danys Baez shut the Red Sox down for the final 2 innings.

The Red Sox had 9 hits on the night with Kevin Youkilis (3 strikeouts and a walk) and Jed Lowrie the only ones without one. Lowrie did have an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia paced the local nine with two hits each from the top of the order. Ellsbury also added his 42nd stolen base of the season.

J.D. Drew ended a 0-for-24 streak with a single and had an RBI as well. Jason Varitek added the other RBI to the winning cause.

While the Red Sox offense only put up three runs on the evening, it was great to see Penny throw the ball well. If he could just only keep his pitch count down, he might see the end of the 7th once this season.

It should be a good pitching matchup at the Fens on Saturday night. Jeremy Guthrie gets the ball for Dave Trembley and Terry Francona will counter with his lefty ace in Jon Lester.

After an 1-5 road trip that saw the Boston Red Sox hit .192 as a team and have the starters take 5 losses, they return home to the friendly Fens to take on the Baltimore Orioles.

The game tonight will start at 7:10 PM EDT and will be televised in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Orioles television market, you can catch the game on MASN. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Brad Penny will try to jump start the Red Sox and maybe even last longer than 5 innings this time as he could be pitching for his job in the rotation. He is 6-4 with a 5.02 ERA in 18 starts. Penny has made one start against the Orioles this season and in his career. He took a no-decision as he gave up 8 earned runs in 3 innings. The Red Sox came back to win that game 10-8.

Brad Bergesen looks to keep the Red Sox bats silenced as he starts for Dave Trembley tonight. Bergesen has faced the Red Sox once in his career back on July 1st. In that start, he allowed just one run on 4 hits in 8 innings before watching his bullpen blow the lead.

In case you missed the news this afternoon, the Red Sox waived Mark Kotsay to make room for Adam LaRoche on the 25-man roster.

Kotsay, Dice-K and Wake [Extra Bases]

Meet Adam LaRoche [Extra Bases]

Kotsay: Move was ‘unexpected’ [Extra Bases]

Montero might have been a missed opportunity for Sox [Full Count]

Rice’s case for enshrinement was enhanced by steroid era [Tony Massarotti]

David Ortiz Talks About His Restaurant and the Slumping Sox [Fenway West]

Redbird Thoughts on Chris Duncan [Center Field]

American League East Roundtable [Batter-up with Bruno]

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

With the acquisition of Adam LaRoche earlier in the week, the Boston Red Sox needed to make room on their 25-man roster for him. Unfortunately for Mark Kotsay, this means he’s now out of a job.

The Red Sox announced this afternoon that they have placed Kotsay on waivers designated Kotsay for assignment. The Red Sox now have 10 days to trade him or release him.  Kotsay was signed for $1.5 million before the season.

In 27 games, Kotsay was hitting just .257 with 1 home run and 5 RBIs. He missed the first two months of the season after undergoing back surgery before spring training.

It’s a shame that it had to be Kotsay to go but it was probably between him and Baldelli to lose their job. With Rocco being a right-handed hitter and LaRoche a lefty, the Red Sox decided to keep the righty bat on the bench.