Boston Red Sox Report

The Red Sox might have to look twice at the weather forecast for Wednesday, because it appears something isn't quite right: It is suppose to be sunny and pleasant all day.

This, of course, has been a rarity at Fenway Park recently. The Sox have waited out three consecutive rain delays and have not started on time in four of the five games this homestand.

During the series with the D-backs, the Sox have started an average 33 minutes behind schedule. That should change Wednesday for the rubber match between these two teams, as Boston looks to steal this series much like it did in Tuesday's 5-4 late-inning comeback victory.

The Sox allowed two runs or fewer in six of the team's nine games on the previous homestand against the Rays, Mariners and Orioles. That hasn't been the case this time around, as both the Cardinals and D-backs have scored three runs or more four times in five games.

With Tim Wakefield on the mound in the finale, the Red Sox hope to change that equation and salvage a .500 record during this home stint.

To do it, Wakefield will need to silence Conor Jackson. Arizona's cleanup hitter and first baseman has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, hitting .371 over that span.

Jackson walked in the third inning of Tuesday's game against the Sox, then trotted home on Chad Tracy's three-run homer that put the D-backs up, 4-1. Tracy's four RBIs in the contest matched his career high, which he's accomplished three times.

Wakefield will oppose Randy Johnson, although the Big Unit isn't particularly having a season that follows his normal protocol. Johnson is 4-5 with a 5.09 ERA.

Pitching matchup
BOS: RHP Tim Wakefield (4-5, 4.17 ERA)
Wakefield has given up three earned runs or fewer in each of his past five starts since allowing eight runs in five innings against Oakland on May 23. He's gone at least seven innings in all of those outings, but is just 1-2 in that span. His outing on Friday resulted in a 5-4 Red Sox loss to the Cardinals. Still, his ERA has continually dropped in each start from its highest point of the season on May 23, when it rose to 5.19 after that rough outing against the A's.

ARI: LHP Randy Johnson (4-5, 5.09 ERA)
Johnson has dropped his past four starts and over that span has a 7.77 ERA. In Friday's outing against the Twins, he allowed seven runs on 11 hits while tossing his first complete game since Aug. 24, 2006. Six of the seven runs came during the third inning. Johnson has allowed 10 or more hits in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career, and his outing against the Twins was the first time he had struck out one or fewer batters since Aug. 4, 2006.

Sox Stuff
The Sox's come-from-behind victory on Tuesday was the team's 19th this season and second in their past three games. ...The win was Boston's first against Arizona at Fenway Park. ...The Cubs are now the only Major League team that the Red Sox have not defeated in a regular-season contest at Fenway. ... Justin Masterson became the seventh Sox pitcher since 1956 to throw at least six innings in six of his first seven career outings.

The Red Sox's lineup looked a little bit sluggish after having no luck crossing the plate on Monday against Dan Haren. But that hangover disappeared quickly once the eighth inning began on Tuesday.
Jason Varitek singled to right field to drive in Mike Lowell from second base as the Red Sox climbed out of a three-run deficit with a four-run eighth to steal a 5-4 decision from the D-backs at Fenway Park.

Varitek's timely RBI single was just his second hit in the past eight games. He recorded his first hit since June 11 against Baltimore on Monday, and followed it up with his first RBI on Tuesday since that June 11 contest.

 
"I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit," Varitek said. "He left a slider up and I was able to get the good part of the bat on it."

In typical Varitek fashion, the Red Sox's captain quietly busted out of a personal hitting slump in perhaps the most important at-bat of the game. All the while, though, teammates lauded Varitek's ability to keep his focus handling the pitching staff while the bat wasn't producing quite like he'd like it to.

"Tek's been a bit unlucky," Lowell said. "He's lined out, had balls hit off pitchers and carom over. ... He's a grinder, he never lets something like that might not be going right at the plate affect how he's calling a game, so he's very important to us."

One of those "unlucky" at-bats came in the first inning for Varitek, who came to the plate after Boston pushed one run across on Dustin Pedroia's home run and was threatening to add more to the early lead.

With Lowell and Manny Ramirez on with two outs, Varitek lined an apparent single up the middle that hit starter Doug Davis. The ball bounced over to shortstop Stephen Drew, ensuring that the potential RBI single turned into an inning-ending third out.

"You just can't control it," Varitek said. "I hit a ball off the guy's leg in the first inning and I get out. If it doesn't hit him, that's up the middle easy. I've had some feeble at-bats over the last few weeks, and I've had some really good ones.

"Sometimes you need a little favor once in a while."
 
"[Jason Varitek's] been a bit unlucky. He's lined out, had balls hit off pitchers and carom over. ... He's a grinder, he never lets something like that might not be going right at the plate affect how he's calling a game, so he's very important to us." 
-- Mike Lowell 

The four-run eighth was exactly what Boston needed after having no answer for Doug Davis through the first seven innings. After escaping the first with just the lone run on the board, Davis allowed just two hits over the next six frames.

He threw strikes and got ahead of hitters along the way, ensuring Red Sox batters needed to protect the plate instead of having the luxury of free-swinging aggressiveness.

Though his fastball topped out in the mid-80s, Davis' pitch selection kept Sox batters guessing while he pounded the strike zone.

"He can cut his fastball, throw a slow curveball; he uses the whole plate," manager Terry Francona said. "It was a lot of different type pitching than [Haren on Monday] night, but he was carving us up pretty good."

Meanwhile, Sox starter Justin Masterson ran into trouble in the third. With the game tied at 1, Masterson allowed a single to Orlando Hudson and a walk to Conor Jackson. Up stepped Chad Tracy to the plate, knocking a 0-1 pitch out of the park for a 4-1 D-backs lead.

Masterson salvaged the remainder of his six innings without any further damage, but he'd leave the contest in position to take the loss.

Recent Triple-A Pawtucket callup Chris Smith stepped in from there, pitching the seventh and eighth and not allowing a hit. He maintained the three-run deficit, earning praise from his manager for keeping the team in the game in just his second big league appearance.

"We're down and if [they] get more, we're in trouble," Francona said. "He gives us two solid innings and gives us a chance where if we get some offense we actually have a chance to win."

In the end, that's exactly how the game played out. Smith earned his first Major League victory, one that didn't exactly sink in right away after the contest.

"It's an exciting step," Smith said. "I can't even tell you how happy I am or excited. Middle-relief guys or guys in the bullpen don't come across too many wins, so when you get them, you put them in your back pocket and collect them."

Closer Jonathan Papelbon closed out the ninth for his 22nd save, which also made Smith a bit less nervous sitting in the dugout.

"It was easier watching him than telling me I might have to go out there," Smith joked. "So when they called on him, I was like, 'Cool, he can take the reins.'"

Boston's win drew the team even with Arizona in the three-game series, setting up a rubber match on Wednesday. It also brought the Sox to 2-3 on the homestand, allowing them to potentially salvage a .500 stint at home after being two innings away from becoming 1-4 at home in their past five games.

Varitek and his teammates' timely hitting took care of that.

"We had a lot of good at-bats," Lowell said. "We just came through, kept grinding together."

 

There were cheers from the Boston Red Sox' dugout just before the first pitch Monday. The Yankees' leadoff man, Johnny Damon, had returned to Fenway Park, and some of his former teammates clapped for him, acknowledging the good times.

Derek Jeter argued with the umpire Mike Everitt after he was called out at second. A steady wind blew all night, knocking down deep drives by Jeter, Mirabelli and others. More Photos >
Things are different now, and not just with Damon, who went hitless in four at-bats. It is a new season for Aaron Small, the pitcher who won all 10 decisions last summer to help the Yankees nip the Red Sox for the division title.

In his first appearance of this season, Small was the losing pitcher in a 7-3 Red Sox victory.

Working his third inning in relief of a shaky Chien-Ming Wang, Small, who missed a month with a hamstring injury, allowed a walk and a hit batter with one out in the eighth. Mark Loretta then broke a 3-3 tie with a single between the legs of Tanyon Sturtze.

"I tipped it right off my glove," Sturtze said. "If I get that, I think it's a double-play ball and we're out of the inning so none of that stuff ever happens."

That stuff was a booming three-run homer by the next batter, David Ortiz, who ripped a full-count fastball through a stiff wind and into the Red Sox bullpen to put the game away. Ortiz hit it off the left-handed specialist Mike Myers, who was signed last winter with Ortiz in mind.

"That ball was smashed," said Tim Wakefield, the Boston starter whose knuckleball danced effectively, despite the conditions. "The way the wind was blowing, that shows how strong the guy really is."

It was no surprise to Myers, who spent the last year and a half enjoying Ortiz's heroics as a Red Sox teammate. Myers, who allowed no runs in April, wanted his pitch to move low and away. Instead, he left it in the strike zone. A melon ball, Myers called it, and it became Ortiz's 15th homer in 54 regular-season games for Boston against the Yankees.

"I just threw a pitch right down the middle of the plate, and he put a hurting on it," said Myers, who had retired Ortiz twice in their only previous matchups. "I made a mistake, and he made me pay for it."

The Yankees scored all their runs in the fourth inning off Wakefield, and went quietly in the ninth off the Red Sox' rookie closer, Jonathan Papelbon. The Yankees' best chance might have come in the eighth, but Derek Jeter, of all players, ran them out of the inning.

Mike Timlin had relieved Wakefield in the eighth, and the matchups favored him. The first three Yankees in the lineup had just four career hits in 41 combined at-bats against Timlin, but he walked Jeter with one out and faced Jason Giambi.

Giambi smacked a grounder to the right side and second baseman Mark Loretta threw him out at first. Knowing that third baseman Mike Lowell had shifted far to his left to defend Giambi, Jeter rounded second, thinking he could beat Lowell to the bag.

But shortstop Álex Cora gave Jeter up, pointing at Lowell to cover. Jeter tried to scramble back to second, and first baseman Kevin Youkilis threw him out. "I should have just kept going," Jeter said.

Jeter ended the inning when he was already in scoring position with Alex Rodriguez due to hit, and the missed opportunity stung, especially when Small walked Cora, the No. 9 hitter, with one out in the bottom of the inning. Small then hit Youkilis, setting up Loretta's decisive at-bat against Sturtze.

"I can't give free passes away," Small said. "Walking guys and hitting a guy, that's uncalled for. I can't do that. That just plays out of my game; I'm a control guy, getting quick outs. When I give out free passes, it makes it tough for me. It's inexcusable."

It was the first meeting of the season between the Yankees and the Red Sox, who have faced each other 72 times, including the playoffs, since the start of the 2003 season. The Red Sox now have 37 victories, the Yankees 35, and the presence of Damon gives the rivalry a new twist.

It was no coincidence that Kevin Hallinan, baseball's senior vice president for security, met with the teams before the game. Hallinan said there were no extra security personnel at Fenway, but he thought he should be here.

"This is going to be a fun night," Hallinan said. "I just want to make sure the game is the focus."

The fans focused on Damon, who got a mixed reception before his first at-bat and took a moment to soak it in, raising his helmet, waving and pointing to various corners of the stands.

But the focus of the teams was on Wakefield, the veteran knuckleballer. Both teams made special preparations for him.

The Yankees invited back Joe Ausanio, a former pitcher who threw knucklers in batting practice last October before the Yankees beat Wakefield to clinch the division title.

The Red Sox arranged for a police escort to rush Doug Mirabelli, Wakefield's former catcher, from Logan Airport to Fenway. Mirabelli, acquired from San Diego in a trade Monday, dressed in the car and arrived 13 minutes before game time.

Damon flied out to right to lead off the game, and Giambi ended that inning when his fly ball to center died at the wall. The wind would knock down deep drives by Jeter, Mirabelli and others. But no wind — and no left-handed specialist — could stop Ortiz from sealing the victory.

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One reason John Henry sold the Marlins was the lack of government money for a new ball park. Florida's failure to get a stadium deal is helping Henry, now the owner of the Boston Red Sox, obtain one of baseball's best young pitchers.

Only physicals stand in the way of a trade that would bring 2003 World Series MVP Josh Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell to Boston for three prospects: shortstop Hanley Ramirez and right-handed pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Jesus Delgado.

The preliminary agreement was confirmed Monday by a baseball official who did not want to be identified because the physicals had not been completed. Beckett, Florida's ace right-hander, had a stiff shoulder late last season and has been plagued by blisters on his right middle finger.

Boston had not contacted Lowell about scheduling a physical. The Red Sox had no comment yesterday on when physicals might take place, but the Marlins did set a date -- for when they might move out of Miami.

They said they plan to slash payroll and received permission from the commissioner's office to explore a move after the 2007 season. A plan to build a 38,000-seat stadium next to the Orange Bowl crumbled last April when the state Senate refused to go along with House approval of $60 million US in state funding.

Owner Jeffrey Loria, who bought the team when Henry took over the Red Sox in February 2002, prefers to stay in South Florida but is now willing to investigate relocation, Marlins president David Samson said.

"The fiscal insanity that Jeffrey was willing to be a part of for all these years is over," Samson said. "We've been asked time and time again, when does it end? And today is that day."

In December 2000, while Henry was owner, a plan to build a $385-million stadium in downtown Miami received tentative agreement from government officials.

Now, the Marlins want to cut the $60-million payroll they started last season with. That could lead to the departure of first baseman Carlos Delgado, who joined the team as a free agent last season. He's due $13.5 million next season, $14.05 million in 2007 and $16 million in 2008.

Ortiz sees Ramirez leaving

David Ortiz thinks Manny Ramirez won't be in left field for the Red Sox come opening day.

"Manny is not returning to Boston," Ortiz said Monday at the Office of the Sports Secretary of the Dominican Republic.

Ramirez, who hit 45 homers and had 144 RBIs last season, has asked the Sox to explore a trade because he's uncomfortable living in Boston.

"Manny lives a difficult situation that only he and his family know about, and he does not want to play there," Ortiz said.

The Los Angeles Angels, who want a power hitter, are viewed as a possibility.

David Ortiz hit a pair of home runs and had four RBI as the Boston Red Sox held on to first place in the American League East with a 15-2 thumping of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in American League play Tuesday in St. Petersburg.

Manny Ramirez also homered twice and had three RBI for the Red Sox, who still lead the New York Yankees by a half-game after the Yanks edged the Baltimore Orioles 12-9.

Ortiz now leads the AL with 46 home runs as the Red Sox try to fend off the charging Yankees. The teams meet in a three-game series to end the regular season September 30-October 2.

Boston smacked 21 hits against the Devil Rays and tied an AL record with four players (Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Ortiz and Ramirez) getting four hits apiece.

"They have their backs against the wall right now," Tampa Bay second baseman Julio Lugo said of the Red Sox. "Tonight they made a statement."

Nixon, Ramirez and Ortiz each scored four times for Boston, while Nixon drove in three runs.

Ortiz continued his torrid hitting, which drew appreciation from Boston manager Terry Francona.

"(John) Olerud had the best line, 'They need to put out a public address and tell the children to be careful."' Francona said.

Curt Schilling (7-8) pitched seven effective innings, allowing two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts, before leaving with a 13-run lead.

Boston had three runs in the first, four in the third, three in the fourth and three more in the fifth en route to the easy win.

Seth McClung (6-11) allowed seven runs on seven hits in two innings and took the loss. Three relievers didn't fare much better against Boston's relentless offence.

"I couldn't believe they kept hitting those balls out," McClung said.

Jorge Cantu hit a solo home run in the first and had a sacrifice fly in the third to account for the Tampa Bay runs.

SHEFFIELD STARS

In New York, Gary Sheffield belted a grand slam and drove in six runs as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-9, keeping pace with the Red Sox.

The Boston Celtics announced today that the club has signed second round draft selection Ryan Gomes. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Gomes, a 6-7, 250lb forward played his college basketball at Providence College, where he averaged 18.4 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in 116 career games. As a senior, Gomes averaged 21.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, while leading the Big East in scoring with 23.2 points per game in conference play.

Gomes, the 50th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, finished his stellar college career as Providence’s all-time leading scorer with 2,138 career points. As a junior, he averaged 18.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game on his way to earning First Team All-America honors. Gomes competed on the Celtics 2005 summer league entry in the Vegas Reebok Summer League, averaging 12.2 points, on 59.6 percent shooting from the field, to go with 6.2 rebounds per game in 6 appearances.