Red Sox Homestand Ends on a Down Note.

Hola amigos,

I've been busy with both Farm maintenance issues and pre-season softball organizational nonsense, hence the lack of posts this week. I see Scotty the Liar is stepping down. Now if only we can persuade his boss and his boss's crew to do likewise...

Anyway, since all the better blogs have tackled that subject, I'll go on to do my baseball thing. The Red Sox ten-game homestand ended on a down note last night as they dropped the final game of their series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-1. The Sox ended this homestand with a 6-4 record, making their season record 11-5.

Once again, the Sox brought out the wiffle bats in "support" of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield who has given up six runs in his last two starts (17 innings) only to see his mates get shut out by Seattle last Saturday, and score a single run last night (courtesy of Dustan Mohr's second homer of the season).

The Sox did almost nothing against Tampa Bay lefty Scott Kazmir. This kid has a live arm, and deadly stuff when he is throwing strikes. He had to leave the game in the sixth inning with cramps in his hand. Unfortunately, the Sox could do nothing against reliever Lance Carter who shut them down until the ninth when, after an atrocious Ty Wigginton error (he made two the previous night in left field) that should have been a game-ending 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Mike Lowell loaded the bases (Wigginton also pulled a rock on the bases the previous half inning by getting picked off of third base. On a fly ball to shallow right field, Wigginton tried to draw a throw from Trot Nixon. The throw went all the way to catcher Josh Bard who threw behind Wigginton as he stumbled in an effort to change direction, and was out to end the inning. I don't imagine that Wigginton will have fond memories of this trip to Fenway). Dan Miceli then came in and struck out Trot Nixon and got Jason Varitek to fly out to end the game. Young Tampa Bay DH Jonny Gomes launched two solo homers, his sixth and seventh of the season, to lead the Devil Rays offense.

The Sox now travel to Toronto for a three-game series this weekend against the Blue Jays.