6 Sox, 1 Royals

Our line up may be in shambles however, when you have Jon Lester on the bump everything should be ok, and it was.



Lester, didn't have that impressive of a line (6innings, 1er, 4 walks, 3 ks) but he was able to get the job done. When Tito pulled Lester in the 7th, Bard came in with 2 runners on and was able to get out of it with a K, a pop up and a ground out. Bard came back in the 8th and Dan Wheeler finished it up in the 9th.



Darnell McDonald and Marco Scutaro rewarded Tito for giving them the nod. Darnell was lugged into the 2-hole and produced three hits, including a solo homer to get the Sox on the board in the 5th. Ahead of Darnell was Marco Scutaro, who collected a hit and a walk.



David Ortiz "might" come back today.

Red Sox @ Royals Preview

The Red Sox offense has struggled of late, and scoring runs becomes even more difficult with Kevin Youkilis joining David Ortiz on the DL. Yet, playing the last place Royals have a way of helping ease those pains. Still, last night's game was no picnic and I feel tonight's won't be either.



Two lefties faceoff as Andrew Miller goes against Jeff Francis. This is most likely Miller's last start of the season, so one hopes he can make the most of it. Overall on the season he is 4-1, but his 5.40 ERA is what cost him his spot in the rotation. Miller had a rough time of it against the Royals earlier this year giving seven runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings, although the Sox ended up winning that game.



Jeff Francis is 0-3 with a 4.80 ERA in his last five starts at home, and 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA over his last three starts overall. If there was a time for the Sox to break out of their offensive slump this would seem to be the guy to do it against.



On paper this should be a high scoring game, but with the Red Sox hurting, and the Royals being a terrible I think this will be another low scoring (kind of), hard fought, close game.



Red Sox win 5-4

Player of the Game: Pedroia

Game starts at 8:10pm

4 Sox, 3 Royals

Dustin Pedroia, Dustin Pedroia, Dustin Pedroia. The Muddy Chicken drove in 3 of the 4 runs last night in a semi exciting game. Dustin went 3-for-4, with a double and 2 singles. Pedey's 3 RBI night was huge especially with Ortiz and Youk out of lineup. Ryan Lavarnway went 0-for-4 in his debut, with a strikeout.



Josh Beckett didn't have his best game, but still got the win with pitching 7 innings, with 7 hits, 3 er and 4 ks for his 10th victory on the season.



Good win, we keep up with the Yankees by being .5 back

Red Sox @ Royals Preview

The Red Sox have been slipping lately, and it has cost them their AL East division lead. They hope they can get it back while facing the lowly Royals. Tonight we see Beckett vs. Luke Hochevar.



Beckett is looking to bounce back from a tough outing against the Mariners. It wasn't really that bad of a start just a bad first inning. He allowed five runs on eight hits over five innings of work in the 5-4 loss, but all 5 runs were scored in the first inning. Shit happens, and I except him to bounce back in a big way tonight, as he has dominated the Royals in his career going 6-1 with a 2.44 ERA.



Luke Hochevar outpitched Beckett last month, allowing 2 runs in 7 innings of work. However, he has yielded 11 runs, 15 hits and 6 walks over 10 2/3 innings while going 0-2 vs Boston at home. Hochevar overall has been pitching well of late going at least 6 inning in each of his last 4 starts and only allowing more then 2 runs once during that span. With the Red Sox offense that has not been producing that could be trouble.



Part of me thinks the Red Sox are due, and that they could come out and crush the Royals tonight, but with Big Papi still out the Red Sox could continue their piss poor hitting ways. It seems like when the Sox are missing any of their top 5 hitters (Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzlez, Youk, Ortiz) they have a hard time scoring runs. Looking through the bottom of the lineup it is it easy to see why. I say the Sox win tonight, but it will be another tough game.



Red Sox win 4-2

Player of the Game: Beckett

Game starts at 8:10pm

Bubba Starling Picks Royals Over Cornhuskers

The clocked ticked to midnight on the East Coast on Monday night and Bubba Starling decided his future was with the Kansas City Royals and not with the Nebraska Cornhuskers.



Starling, the No. 5 overall selection in June's draft, agreed to a deal reportedly worth $7.5 million guaranteed.USToday



Well that's awesome, I hate Nebraska so seeing them lose their potential starting quarterback makes me feel happy. Starling is a freak talent, and will be one of the best outfielders in baseball. I'm talking as good if not better than Bryce Harper. Kansas City has a whole army of awesome prospects and this year should only add to a very promising future.

4 Royals, 3 Sox

Sometimes you split series with Kansas City.

The Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead on shitty pitcher Luke Hochever, and it seemed as if we were going to cruise to another win. Then Josh Beckett hit a little rough patch a half inning later and gave up the 4 Royals runs.

The Sox just were shut down after that. Adrian Gonzalez and Drew Sutton had multi hit games and Pedroia was able to extend his streak in the 8th with a home run, but other than that.

It happens.

Royals @ Red Sox Preview

When we look back on this season we might sit back and say that the Red Sox have 4 of the top 10 offensive players in the AL. Ellsbury, Gonzalez, and Pedroia are all and the MVP hunt, and it is hard ignore what Ortiz has been doing.

If that wasn't enough for Red Sox to drool over Beckett takes the hill today and he could easily be in the Cy Young race. Beckett is 9-3 with an outstanding 2.07. One our biggest question marks heading into the season is now one of the Red Sox biggest assets.

Going against Beckeet is Luke Hochevar. I feel like we have been waiting for year for this kid to break out. He has the stuff to do it, but is very much an underachiever, which is shown by his pedestrian 6-8 record and 5.29 ERA. The thing that has been real disappointing about him is that most scouts thought he could be a real strikeout pitcher and year only has 66 Ks in 131 innings. To make matters worse for Royals' fans Hockevar has been lit up by the Sox in his career (1-3 7.94 ERA). Plus, the Sox seem to win every day game.

Red Sox win 11-2
Player of the Game: Beckett/Pedroia
Game starts at 1:35pm

12 Sox, 5 Royals

Chicks dig the longball, and that's what the Sox provided last night. Homeruns all around Ellsbury, Pedroia, and Ortiz. Ellsbury and Pedroia lead off the game with back-to-back home runs. Ellsbury is now batting .325 with 17 homers (8th this month) on the season, next Ricky Henderson I tell ya. Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 24 games with the 1st inning homer and had a 3-4 performance. But the biggest home run of the night comes off Papi's bat as he demolished a grand slam for his 20th of the year and 10th of his career. It was also his 1000th of his Red Sox career.

Lackey was Lackey, going 5.2 innings, giving up 11 hits, 4 runs (3 earned) and striking out 3. With our offense hitting the way it is we can make up for the fact John Lackey is on the team.

This is the best Red Sox team I have ever witnessed, hands down.

Royals @ Red Sox Preview

The Royals piled on some runs last night, but the Red Sox offense is just better and Aceves was able to shut them down. The question is who will shut down the Royals tonight if Lackey gets in trouble. That could be the difference in this game.

I hate what I'm about to say, because every time I say it Lackey gets lit up, but... He is pitching better of late. Over his last 3 starts he is 3-0 letting up a total of only 4 runs. Still, if you look close you would notice they were against shit teams (not that the Royals are good), and he let up 21 hits as well over those starts.

Going against him is the surprising Bruce Chen. Chen is 5-3 with a 3.30 ERA, which is impressive on such a bad team, but the wheels are starting to come off as he is 0-3 with a 5.21 ERA over his last 8 appearances.

Even though I have a terrible feeling about Lackey (who has an ERA ranks as the highest in all of baseball among pitchers with at least 90 innings... 6.28) I still can't pick against the Sox with this offense.

Red Sox win 11-6
Player of the Game: Pedroia
Game starts at 7:10pm

13 Red Sox, 9 Royals

Even though Andrew Miller has been John Lackey esk the passed few starts, we won, no harm, no foul. At least we didn't have to put OF Mitch Maier to pitch for us. Let me rant for a second about Andrew Miller. Miller kind of sucks, sure he is 4-1 with a 4.65 era but I would rather have Aceves start than him. Miller constantly is in trouble, and constantly has short outings making us use our bullpen. I believed that Miller could be the next big thing for us, but at the end of the day he's just a waste of a roster spot. Should have let the Yankees grab him, but we should also thank the Yankees for giving us a disaster specialist in Alfredo Aceves. I don't know where the Sox would be without him. Other than Beckett he's been our 2nd most impressive pitcher all year.

Our 3-4-5 hitters were on point as they went 10-13 and drove in eight runs. Pedroia flirted with a cycle in the eighth. He hit a line drive but it was caught in front of the monster. Pedey is hitting .429 in the cleanup spot this season.

Royals @ Red Sox Preview

The Red Sox offense didn't show up last night, but I can't see that being the case again tonight. The Royals send youngster Danny Duffy to the hill. This will be his first start against Boston, but is coming off one of his strongest starts when he went 7 innings allowing 2 runs against the White Sox.

The Red Sox counter with Andrew Miller, which could be good news for Boston as they are 5-1 in games in which Miller has started. One thing he needs to do though is cut down on his walks. Last time out he let up 6 walks in 5 2/3 innings, which is a big reason why his start was cut short. If he can do that I could see him going deep into this game.

Boston should win this game, and I think last night was just a hiccup, it happens from time to time and the Red Sox were due for a slow game after how hot they have been.

Youk will not be playing tonight, as he recovers from a tight hamstring suffered in the 8th inning of last night's game.

Red Sox win 7-3
Player of the Game: Pedroia
Game starts at 7:10pm

3 Royals, 1 Sox, Marco Scutaro Blows

When can we cut Marco Scutaro. He's one of the worst players in baseball and he costed the Sox another game. He was asked to do a simple task which is bunt the ball. Instead he got a single and tried stretching it to a double and got thrown out. He is a veteran player, not paying attention to signs is inexcusable. This was in the 12th inning too, thanks Marco.

On a positive note, Jon Lester looked pretty good. He went 5.1 innings, let up 7 hits, 1 er and 6ks. We desperately need him back and in good shape going forward as our pitching staff is a mash unit.

Shitty loss, cut Scutaro.

Royals @ Red Sox Preview

The Red Sox have won 9 in a row at Fenway Park, and are lightning it up against these terrible teams. Yet another one heads to Fenway, and this time it's the Royals. The Royals started off the year well, but have gone back to their sucking ways and are once again in last place.

To make matters worse for the Royals Jon Lester is back and he has crushed the them in his career going 4-1 with a 1.22 ERA. Meanwhile, the Sox go against Kyle Davies who has been especially bad on the road this season, posting a 9.35 ERA, even though he is 2-0 against Boston in his career.

The Sox have won 17 of 20 games in July. That's just silly, and they are going to pound this team tonight. Look for Ellsbury to have another huge night tonight as he has a .462 BA with 3 HRs and 7 RBIs in the last 7 days, and let's be honest Davies is only going to help those numbers.

Red Sox win 10-2
Player of the Game: Ellsbury
Game starts at 7:10pm

Why Not?

Why not see a lady gettin' all feisty over Jeff Francoeur's bat.



Seriously, that old lady has nothing to gripe about. When something ends up in the stands it is an all out free-for-all, and everyone knows it. You're gonna have to bring it a little harder than that, Grandma if you want to get your mitts on a MLB bat.

Ok, all kidding aside though I don't think there is one player on the Royals I would fight over a bat for. Maybe Eric Hosmer in the small chance he ends up with a HOF career.

Red Sox Trading For A Right Fielder?

As we all know by now Mike Cameron has been let loose. We also know that JD Drew sucks, and won't give us anything (except good fielding). That leaves Reddick in RF when the playoffs come around. One would wonder if the Sox would make a move to bring one in. There have been a couple names that have been popping up on the rumor mill around the league that would seem to fit the Sox (Jeff Francoeur, and Michael Cuddyer).

If we are picking between these two I will go with Cuddyer everytime. Sure is isn't as good of a fielder as Drew or Francoeur, but he tends to talk more then Francoeur and man play a ton of different positions (LF, RF, 1st, and 2nd). That's a great type of player to have on your bench and would give the Sox a lot of options depending on matchups, injuries, ect.

This is just a thought, but I do think he would be a very good fit here for the Sox.