BOS 6, ATL 5: Green, Sox walk-off with win

Nick Green is making the most of this opportunity.

BOS 8, FLA 2: Six runs in fourth pace Sox

While all eyes were stuck on Hanley Ramirez, Tim Wakefield and David Ortiz stole the show.

BOS 4, NYY 3: 8-0

Still want to trade Brad Penny?

Steroids, blogging, and baseball

For those of you who haven't heard, there's been a buzz around baseball media circles over the past week after Jerod Morris of Midwestsportsfans.com wrote the following article regarding the hot start of Raul Ibanez in Philadelphia.

"In fact, the 37-year old Ibanez has been so good that it has led to the inevitable speculation that his improvement may be attributable to factors other than his new lineup, playing in a better ballpark for hitters, or additional maturation as a hitter. In this day and age of suspicion at any significant jump in numbers, even over small sample sizes, it is what it is - and such speculation is to be expected."

And when such speculation was posed to Morris via his fantasy baseball league's message board, he set out to disprove with whatever statistical evidence he could muster that Raul Ibanez' hot start was artificial by nature.

BOS 7, NYY 0: Beckett, Ortiz lead charge past Yankees

Josh Beckett pitched six scoreless innings and David Ortiz extended his hitting streak to seven games to stay undefeated against the New York Yankees this season.

BOS 8, TEX 1: Nearly perfect

This is the Jon Lester every Red Sox fan expected this season.

Big Papi getting eyes checked out

David Ortiz will get his eyes checked out Monday, says WEEI. Ortiz mentioned recently that he is experiencing a few problems with his eyesight. Considering that Ortiz has 20-20 vision, it's doubtful it's made a significant impact. However, he says his eyes have been drying out a bit lately which causes him to lose focus on the pitcher. The problem has been bothering him for "a few weeks," so it's certainly not the cause of his slump. Still, the Red Sox and Big Papi have to be crossing their fingers.

BOS 10, DET 5: Almost

Josh Beckett didn't need the early run support. He didn't allow a hit until the seventh inning.

Ortiz, Penny on the outs in June?

As Oakland GM Billy Beane once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "the first two months are finding out what you have, the next two getting what you need, the last two trying to make the playoffs."

Well, we've just passed the two month mark, and we're already confident there will be changes ahead. Brad Penny has been the most inefficient starting pitcher on the team and with John Smoltz aiming to return June 16 and Clay Buchholz/Michael Bowden in the wings, Penny's not long for Boston. That is, barring a surprise -- and we know how baseball is chock full of them.

Penny won't fetch an impact player on his own, but if you pair him with Buccholz or Bowden, we could be looking at our new designated hitter.

Yeah, I just said we could have a new DH.

Simmons on David Ortiz

I love Bill Simmons. He's one of my favorite writers on the planet. Unfortunately, he rarely talks about the Red Sox. He's a Celtics/basketball guy who writes football on the side.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to an article about David Ortiz. My favorite part of the article is after the jump.