Jon Lester hadn’t had a good start to the 2009 season for the Boston Red Sox. Well he changed all of that this afternoon with a return to his 2008 form.

Lester went 7 scoreless innings and a couple of 2-out RBIs were all the Red Sox needed in a 2-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles in front of 37,869 of their closest friends on an absolutely stunning afternoon for baseball at Fenway Park.

The win for the Red Sox is their fourth straight as they improve to 6-6. The loss for the Orioles is their fourth straight and they fall to 6-6.

For the first time all season, Lester had complete command of all of his pitches and had great velocity. He allowed only 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9 in the 7 innings of work. He also had a pickoff of  Ty Wigginton at first base. Ramon Ramirez continued his excellent start to the season with a scoreless inning of work. Jonathan Papelbon wasn’t available to pitch today so Takashi Saito worked the 9th, allowing a run on 2 hits but held on to pick up his first save in a Red Sox uniform.

Despite taking the loss, Koji Uehara was impressive for the Orioles this afternoon. He went 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on just 5 hits while walking one and striking out 5. George Sherrill gave up a hit in his inning of work.

Jacoby Ellsbury had 2 of the six hits for the Red Sox. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and Nick Green had the others with Pedroia and Lowell each driving in a run on 2-out hits.

The Red Sox got on the board first in the 2nd inning.

Youk continued to tear the cover off the ball as he led off the inning with a double. Uehara got J.D.  Drew to foul out and he struck out Jason Bay, who saw his 24-game streak of reaching base come to an end this afternoon. Lowell followed the strikeout with a RBI single to give the Red Sox the 1-0 lead.

Lester ran into a bit of trouble in the 3rd after striking out the first two batters giving up a single and a walk but recovered to get the final out.

Uehara started the 5th inning with a strikeout of George Kottaras, who got the start behind the plate this afternoon.  Green followed with a double but Ellsbury flew out for the second out of the inning. Pedroia delivered Green home though with a single to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.

Things stayed that way until the top of the 9th inning when Saito came into close it for the Red Sox.

Nick Markakis led off the inning with a single and went to third on an Aubrey Huff single. Wigginton brought Markakis in with a groundout to third. Saito got Luke Scott to fly out and then struck out pinch-hitter Gregg Zaun to give the Red Sox a 2-1 win.

The run by the bullpen today was the first they’ve given up in 17 2/3 innings but nonetheless they continue to shine. It was great to see Lester return to form as he will be counted on all season long to keep doing that. When he did get in trouble this afternoon, he was able to work out of it, something we hadn’t seen yet this season.

Tomorrow is the annual Patriot’s Day game for the Boston Red Sox. It’s a busy day in Boston as well as you have the Red Sox game, the Boston Marathon,  a Boston Celtics playoff game and the Boston Bruins also play although they are in Montreal.

Justin Masterson will make his first start of the 2009 season in place of the injured Daisuke Matsuzaka. Former NBA player Mark Hendrickson will start for the Orioles. First pitch is scheduled for 11:05 AM.

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It was a great win for the Boston Red Sox yesterday as Kevin Youkilis powered them to a 6-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles in game 2 of a 4-game set.

Today at 1:35 PM, the Red Sox look to continue the momentum they’ve built during the last 3 games. The game will be televised on NESN and you can also catch the game on the radio on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Jon Lester looks to rebound from two disappointing starts (0-2, 9.00 ERA) this season this afternoon. In his career against the Orioles, Lester is 6-0 with a 2.81 ERA in 8 games started.

Koji Uehara makes just his third MLB start for Dave Trembley today. Uehara is 2-0 with a 7.20 ERA on the season.

Since I decided to combine the morning post and afternoon post, there will be a plethora of links today. Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups can be found by clicking the continue reading link.

Winning combination has Red Sox locked in [Boston Globe]

Sox stick it to Orioles [Patriot Ledger]

Red Sox’ bats hit stride [Boston Herald]

Red-hot Youkilis leads Sox past Orioles, 6-4 [Providence Journal]

Beckett gave to the cause [Boston Globe]

Lowrie wrist watch tops updates [Patriot Ledger]

No shortage of relief [Boston Herald]

Not so fast on Lowrie surgery [Providence Journal]

Green starting to like it here [Boston Globe]

Papi situation pressing [Boston Herald]

Sooner than expected, Sox forced to lean on bullpen, backup depth [Providence Journal]

Matsuzaka ordered to rest ailing shoulder [Boston Globe]

Nick Green back in bigs, fits nicely [Boston Herald]

Ortiz knocks two hits, giving teammates reason to hope [Projo Sox Blog]

Varitek day off, Lowrie to AZ [Full Count]

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.

The lineups and batter/pitcher matchups are after the jump.

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The Boston Red Sox today asked Josh Beckett to drop his appeal from the incident last weekend in Anaheim and he did so, receiving a 5-game suspension instead of the original 6-game suspension.

Beckett isn’t happy about dropping the appeal though:

“Everybody has to answer to somebody, and my boss told me this was the best thing for the ball club,” Beckett said. “If it was up to me, obviously, we would have gone through with this whole thing, because I don’t think I deserve even one game. When your boss tells you that something is best for the whole group, that’s what we do.

“I don’t support this at all. If it was up to me, we would have gone through this whole process. It could have eventually been a lot worse if we had gone through with the whole thing. Everybody has got to answer to somebody. When your boss tells you to do something, you do what’s best for the team.”

Because of the Red Sox off day this week on Thursday, Beckett will move back one day and start on Saturday with Jon Lester starting on Friday against the New York Yankees with normal rest.

Beckett gets five games, disagrees [Extra Bases]

Beckett Buzzes The Abreu Tower [SOX & Dawgs]

It’s parade day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they will be honored with a parade in Hartford today at 3 PM and will be covered live on FOX61. If you are planning on attending, the temperature is expected to be around 63° with a west wind at about 11 MPH. And here is the UConn Women’s Basketball Parade Map.

And if you missed this great video from ESPN about the UConn women’s perfect season, here it is for you to enjoy again.

[youtube width=”480″ height=”295″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2wH-3diits[/youtube]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Faris Honored by Parade Magazine [Rich Elliott – UConn women’s basketball]

UConn women’s commemorative section [Hartford Courant]

UConn championship parade [Connecticut Post]

Should Huskies’ Payoff Be More Than Parade? [Hartford Courant]

UConn’s Auriemma, visiting tournament in Hampton, relishes Olympic opportunity [Daily Press]

UConn Football links

Huskies Keep It Basic In Blue-White Game [Hartford Courant]

Easley Does It On Spring Day [Hartford Courant]

Rough Cut Photos: UConn Blue-White Spring Game [Hartford Courant]

Video: UConn Blue-White Spring Game [Hartford Courant]

Frazer shines during UConn’s Blue-White Game [Connecticut Post]

UConn football notebook [Connecticut Post]

UConn football players await NFL Draft [Connecticut Post]

UConn and NFL draft [Connecticut Post]

Edsall, Huskies get quality air time in scrimmage [Waterbury Republican-American]

UConn football notebook [Waterbury Republican-American]

WR Easley impresses in Blue/White Spring Game [Norwich Bulletin]

Walk-on Easley makes it look easy [New Haven Register]

Edsall Pleased With Offense In Annual Blue-White Game [New London Day]

With Edsall, Schoolwork Is Not An Option [New London Day]

Blue Defeats White in Annual Spring Football Game 83-57 [UConnHuskies.com]

Other UConn related links

Notre Dame Denies UConn in Lacrosse Loss on Saturday [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Nemeth, Glynn Lead Huskies Past Georgetown 10-2 in BIG EAST Action [UConnHuskies.com]

Kevin Youkilis went had 4 hits, falling a triple short of the cycle, and had 4 RBIs to help the Boston Red Sox to a 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in front of 37,559 on a crisp night for baseball at Fenway Park. It’s the third straight win for the Red Sox after losing their previous three games.

Youk has been by far the hottest hitter on the Red Sox (5-6) this season as the four hits tonight raised his average to .467 and he also has 3 home runs and 9 RBIs. And we were worried about David Ortiz not having protection behind him without Manny Ramirez this season.

Josh Beckett (2-1) started this one for the Red Sox and looked dominant early on. He faltered a little bit in the 5th inning and ended up going 6 innings. He allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits and 4 walks while striking out 5. The bullpen continued it’s good run as Hideki Okajima, Takashi Saito and Jonathan Papelbon closed the door on the Orioles (6-5). Okajima and Saito both had 2 strikeouts while Saito and Papelbon gave up a hit apiece.

David Ortiz showed a little life at the plate as he had 2 hits. Mike Lowell also had 2 hits and drove in one while Jason Varitek added an RBI to the cause as well.

Adam Eaton (0-2) took the loss for the Orioles as he lasted just four innings. He gave up 6 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.

The Red Sox got on the board first in the 2nd inning.

Youk got it started by leading off with a double. After a J.D. Drew fly out, Jason Bay walked but Eaton got Lowell to line out to left. The Captain brought in Youk with a double of his own to make it 1-0 Red Sox as Bay had to stop at third. That’s all the Red Sox would muster up though as Nick Green grounded back to Eaton for the final out.

After Jacoby Ellsbury flew out to start the 3rd, Dustin Pedroia singled to right and then went to second on a Big Papi single. They wouldn’t be there long though as Youk took an Eaton offering and crushed it for a 3-run homer to put the Red Sox up 4-0.

Eaton got the second out of the inning when Drew struck out looking. He then walked Bay and with Lowell at the plate, Bay stole second. It proved to a be a good baserunning move as Lowell singled to score him and make it 5-0 Red Sox.

Youkilis singled in the 4th inning with two outs to give the Red Sox a 6-0 lead.

After getting out of trouble in the 2nd inning, Beckett couldn’t repeat the task in the 5th when he channeled his inner Brad Penny.

Cesar Izturis had been mired in a 0-for-18 slide but decided to bunt his way on. Brian Roberts got him over to third with a double and then Beckett walked Adam Jones and then Nick Markakis to force in a run. Aubrey Huff followed with a double that scored Jones and Roberts and an error by Green allowed Markakis to score and cut the Red Sox lead to 5-1.

Beckett got the first out of the 5th when Wigginton lined out to third. Beckett then got Luke Scott to ground to Lowell at third who decided to get Huff in a rundown and record the second out. Zaun flew out to end the inning.

Another good win for the Red Sox as things continue to click on all cylinders.

These same two teams are back at it again at 1:35 PM tomorrow afternoon as Jon Lester and Koji Uehara will exchange pitches.

Continue reading →

After last night’s comeback, the Boston Red Sox will look to keep the momentum going from the past two games. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM and the game will be televised on NESNPlus. You can also catch the game on the radio on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Josh Beckett will make his third start of the season for the Red Sox. Beckett is 4-2 with a 3.93 ERA in 9 career starts against the Orioles.

Adam Eaton makes just his second start for the Orioles and has never faced the Red Sox in his career.

His numbers down, Ortiz isn’t [Extra Bases]

Red Sox vs. Orioles Matchups, 4/18 [Full Count]

Sox Bullpen Leads Way to Wild Win [Projo Sox Blog]

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

Sorry for the quick post with not too much information. I am down on the shoreline of Connecticut.