Monday Night: Red Sox Blank O's 4-0

The Red Sox continued their dominance at Camden Fields in Baltimore tonight as they won their eight straight against the Orioles, dating back to last season. The Orioles have looked completely overmatched against the Red Sox for the past few years and tonight was no different as Jon Lester threw 7 shutout innings to improve to 8-0, 2.18 against Baltimore in his career. J.D. Drew was a double short of the cycle, as he hit from the leadoff spot tonight. Jonathan Papelbon faced one batter for his 132nd career save, tying Bob Stanley for the most saves in Red Sox history. Also of note is that Mike Lowell will be out until at least Friday after having an injection and having fluid drained from his right hip. He may end up on the DL, but it is too early to tell. For now, Kevin Youkilis will man the hot corner and Mark Kotsay will play first.

Next Game: Tuesday, 7:05, @Baltimore Orioles

Braves Top Sox 2-1; Braves' Rookie Hanson Shuts Down Sox' Bats

It was another low scoring affair at Turner Field in Atlanta for the season's final interleague game, but this time the Red Sox drew the short straw. Brad Penny pitched well again for the Red Sox, allowing just 2 runs in 6 innings. Usually that would be good enough to earn a win, but today Penny and the Sox were upstaged by the Braves' young phenom Tommy Hanson. Hanson, who beat the Yankees his last time out, silenced the Red Sox' bats for 6 innings to improve to 4-0 and lower his ERA to an impressive 2.48. Entering this year Hanson was touted as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. The Braves had so much faith in the youngster that they released long-time Atlanta icon Tom Glavine to ensure that Hanson had a spot in their rotation. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, he has lived up to the hype so far.
So far the Sox are 4-2 on their road trip. They'll aim to improve on that record as they play the final three games of the road trip in Baltimore starting Monday night.

Next Game: Monday, 7:05, @ Baltimore Orioles

Red Sox 1, Braves 0; Wakefield An All-Star?

The Red Sox beat the Atlanta Braves Saturday afternoon in a close 1-0 pitchers' duel. For the Braves, Javier Vazquez allowed just one run and struck out 8 in 7 2/3 innings, but took the loss as Tim Wakefield pitched 6 shutout innings to gain his 10th win of the season. That ties him Toronto's Roy Halladay and Minnesota's Kevin Slowey for the major league lead in wins. That raises the possibility that the 42 year old Wakefield could make the All-Star team for the first time in his career. He has certainly pitched well enough to gain that honor, but whether there will be an available spot for him on the AL roster remains to be seen.

Next Game: Sunday 1:35, @ Atlanta Braves

Friday Night: Red Sox 4, Braves 1

The Red Sox continued their superb interleague play Friday night by beating the Atlanta Braves 4-1. Josh Beckett pitched another gem against the Braves, this time throwing 7 shutout innings. Big Papi reminded Red Sox Nation again tonight that he's back to his old self, hitting his eighth homer of the season.

Next Game: Saturday, June 27th, 4:10 PM

Penny Likely Here For A While

Don't expect the Red Sox to trade Brad Penny anytime soon. Why? How about this:

• Penny has pitched very well his last few starts, making him one of the best back-of-the-rotation starters in the game right now.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the DL, and by all accounts he will be out for quite some time, freeing a spot in the rotation that is Penny's to lose at this point.
• The Red Sox currently have 2 pitchers who are 40+ years old in their rotation (Tim Wakefield, John Smoltz). One of them (Smoltz) just came back from an injury. The chances of one of them getting hurt at some point are unfortunately high. The Red Sox would hate to see that happen right after they trade Brad Penny, as that would create two wholes in the rotation instead of one (or none if they hang onto Penny).
• The Sox see no immediate need to get Clay Buchholz to the big leagues. True, Buchholz is utterly dominating the International League (AAA), but he has not proven that he can pitch well consistently at the major league level. Brad Penny is doing that right now, so the Red Sox are not about to hand his spot in the rotation to Buchholz.
• There does not seem to be much interest in him from other teams right now. This could change as the trading deadline gets closer and teams get more desperate, but for now the Red Sox will sit tight until that happens and his value on the trade market goes up.
• The Red Sox have no immediate need to address. Both their bullpen and their starting rotation are among the best in baseball. Offensively Ortiz has started to pound the ball again, eliminating the need to import another bat. Nick Green has been more than adequate at shortstop, plus Jed Lowrie is getting closer to returning. So with no major wholes to fill, the Red Sox are under no pressure to swap Penny.
• Brad Penny is a gritty, hardworking dirtdog who doesn't take crap from anyone. (Just ask Joe Girardi.) That is exactly the type of player the Red Sox love.

Yeah, Penny isn't going anywhere for a while.

What Should the Sox Do With Dice-K?

1-5, 8.23 ERA, 2.20 WHIP. The numbers speak for themselves, but I'll say it anyway: Dice-K is pitching miserably at the moment. Under normal circumstances I'd say that there's nothing the Red Sox can do except keep trotting him out there every fifth day and allow him to work through his struggles. But these are not normal circumstances. Aside from Dice-K, the Red Sox have as many as 8 other pitchers capable of starting in a major league rotation. Four are already in the rotation. Of the others, Clay Buchholz and John Smoltz are both making strong cases for a spot in the rotation. Buchholz is dominating the International League (that's AAA for those of you who didn't know) and would be in the rotation already if he was in any other organization. Smoltz is set to come back on Thursday. Keeping him out any longer is unfeasible for many reasons, but I won't get into that here. So with Smoltz pounding on the door, looking for a rotation spot (with Buchholz right behind him), the Red Sox need to find him one. A few weeks ago the best way to do that seemed to be to trade Brad Penny. Since then, Penny has drawn only tepid interest on the trade market and in spite of that is pitching well, leaving Dice-K as the clear weak link in the rotation. The Red Sox would love to hand his spot to Smoltz but then they would need to figure out what to do with Dice-K. Throwing him in the bullpen is not an option because: a) the Red Sox already have a very good long reliever in Justin Masterson, b) Daniel Bard would have to be sent back to AAA, something the Red Sox would prefer not to do, and c) Dice-K takes at least 45 minutes to warm up, an unfeasible amount of time for a reliever. They could invent an injury for him and place him on the DL, but that wouldn't help Dice-K unless he simply needs to rest his arm (unlikely). They could go with a 6-man rotation, but that would ultimately lead to fewer games started by Josh Beckett and Jon Lester (that probably means fewer wins) and unreasonable rest periods for everyone in between starts. That problem only gets worse if you keep Beckett and Lester on normal rest and rotate the other four pitchers. The rest period for those four could jump to over a week in the right circumstances. Many fans undoubtedly want the Red Sox to trade Dice-K. That is completely out of the question for a number of reasons. (I'll explain in a later post). Ideally, Dice-K agrees to accept an assignment to AAA to work out is problems so that he can come back strong later in the year. That option appears less and less likely as time goes by. Smoltz was ready a while ago. If Dice-K was headed to AAA Pawtucket he would probably already be down there. If that move is not made by the 25th to clear a roster spot for Smoltz, then it won't happen at all.

So you tell me: what should the Red Sox do with Dice-K?