5/16 Online Seats Game Thread: Rubber Match in The Rock City

Prev. Gm: Boston Red Sox (19-18) @ Detroit Tigers (21-16) John Lackey (4-1, 4.60) @ Armando Galarraga (0-0, 0.00) 1:05…

Oscar Tejeda: Trying to get ahead of the pack.

First the good news about shortstop Oscar Tejeda: he won’t hit the “ripe” age of 21 until December 26. Now the bad news: Boston has a veritable glut of shortstops in its farm system including, in no particular order, David Renfroe, Derrik Gibson, Jose Iglesias and Yamaico Navarro. And just imagine if Boston decided it would be best served by having Casey Kelly play shortstop instead of pitch. In a sense, Tejeda has been running on a treadmill in that last season was his second at low-A Greenville. But the fact he returned to the Drive might have been expected considering he contracted a staph infection in a forearm which hampered him much of the 2008 season. And that was after he had off-season surgery to repair a tiny hole in his heart.

Sox historically a step behind, but only a step

Mired on the Bruins beat as I was for the last half of the season, I could not help but start to think about some correlations between what I saw from the spoked B’s in January through March to what we have seen come out of the Fens in the first month-and-a-half of the Major League Baseball season.Two teams, beloved by the people, incredibly inconsistent and frustrating. Both came into their years with high expectations (run prevention and projection adding “another eight to nine wins” is simply not going to happen), both have trouble scoring at times and are dealing with low return on investment and injury.

The historic collapse of the Bruins notwithstanding, both teams are probably better than they have looked. Yes, the Flyers just ripped the heart out of the Hub, but the Black and Gold did deliver a second consecutive conference semifinals appearance to Causeway Street and that was not entirely a fluke.

So, I got to thinking about recent Sox history. I thought to myself: ‘haven’t we seen some frustrating starts in recent years only to come back and win 95 games?” Then I went to the numbers. Here are the May 15th runs scored, allowed and projected win-loss since 2004.

5/15 Online Seats Game Thread: Lester Gets the Go

The Boston Red Sox were helped out by the big bat of David Ortiz in the series opener in Detroit last night. Tonight, Jon Lester will take the mound to take the second game of the series.

I want egg on my face

On May 5th, I thought David Ortiz should be released. Even though he hit two home runs a few days prior in Baltimore, they were on average fastballs that measured 90 and 91 miles per hour. Ortiz or any quadruple-A slugger like Jack Cust should be putting those in the seats when he knows it is coming. I was not impressed and my patience was running thin. The hope of October baseball at Fenway was fading. Drastic times call for drastic measures - the release of a Red Sox icon.

Thankfully that did not happen. David Ortiz is still property of the Boston Red Sox. After last year's summer reemergence of Big Papi and witnessing his progress at the plate, the Red Sox stood by Ortiz.

5/14 Online Seats Game Thread: On the Road Again

The Boston Red Sox will begin a lengthy road trip tonight against the bounding Tigers, as Clay Buchholz looks to tame the struggling Max Scherzer.

POLL: How is the best way to handle the Designated Hitter situation?

On the heels of Joe Veno's article on the prospective DH options we ask you what you think about what the Red Sox should do about the DH spot. Stick with David Ortiz 'till the wheels fall off: Simple here, with everything he has given us in the last few years, is he deserving of an chance to right his ship and give us a second half like he did last season?

The offense impresses even with fill ins

I still have trouble listening when people talk about how adding a bat would make a huge difference on this team. Perhaps they are referring to the failed attempt to keep Jason Bay or perhaps they would like a trade for an all star hitter like Adrian Gonzalez. Well besides all the troubles in dealing with a team leading the NL West right now. Beyond all that you have to ask how much difference would any of these players have made so far?

So far the offense has scored 178 runs before Wednesday's game. That total puts them in fourth only four runs behind the Yankees and seven behind the leading Rays. For a team apparently struggling to put up runs they sure have totaled an impressive amount missing quite a few games from their lead off hitter and center fielder.

Boof Bonser twirls four innings of scoreless ball in rehab stint

When Boof Bonser last pitched during his first rehabilitation assignment with the Pawtucket Red Sox on April 13, he lasted only two innings and allowed nine earned runs in a 12-0 loss to Lehigh Valley.

He subsequently was placed on the disabled list by Boston because of pain in his right shoulder, but Bonser didn’t exhibit evidence of that problem Wednesday night in the first game of his second rehab assignment.

Fireside Chats #78: Where we’re cautiously optimistic

While I certainly hope the Red Sox can stop losing series to their two biggest divisional rivals, especially at Fenway Park, this homestand gave Red Sox fans something to be optimistic about. Over the last twenty games, there hasn't been a better offense in baseball. The Red Sox team batting average in May is over .300 and the team OPS is .900+ leading the way to 6.8 runs per game. It's the pitching that's keeping the Red Sox down. How much of that blame should fall on the shoulders of John Farrell? Of course we close with our weekly David Ortiz conversation. Is it the wrong time for him to be showing us just a little? All that and more on this episode of Fireside Chats.