On Saturday, Michael Bowden became the second Boston Red Sox pitcher to start his year at AA in Portland, and make his Major League debut for the Sox. First-batter jitters gave way to 5 solid innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and one walk (his first batter faced) while striking out three.

“It’s filling pretty big footsteps, coming behind guys like [Jon] Lester, [Clay] Buchholz,” said Bowden. “Those are all great guys and they’ve made their mark in the big leagues and it’s an honor just to follow them.”

With Kevin Youkilis sideluned with an illness, second baseman Dustin Pedroia filled the cleanup spot. For the second day in a row, Pedroia went 4-for-4, and was intentionally walked when he came up to bat in the 8th inning.

“I never thought I would walk a jockey,” said Guillen, joking about Pedroia’s stature. “I must be the worst manager ever in the history of baseball right now, walking a guy that just came from being on the top of Big Brown to beat the White Sox. Right now, he’s on a roll. This guy right now is on fire.”

The Sox benefitted from 3 RBI’s from new Red Sox Mark Kotsay, and 2 each from Jason Bay and Jed Lowrie (plus one from Jeff Bailey). All 8 of the Sox runs were driven in by people who weren’t on the team as of 32 days ago.

After Bowden left, the Sox got 4 clean innings from the bullpen. Lopez, Delcarmen, Masterson, and Okajima combined for 4.0 innings, 2 hits, and 2 strikeouts to help 21-year-old Bowden win his first major league game.

Tampa Bay came from behind to edge out the Orioles 10-9, so the Sox remain 4.5 back in the American League East.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has not had the smoothest second season in the MLB. He has struggled a times, and spent a chunk of the year on the diabled list.  On Friday, however, Matsuzaka blanked the AL-Central leading Chicago White Sox for 8 innings. He struck out 7 and walked only two - and seemed much more in control of his pitches than previously this season. He improved to 16-2 on the year with a 2.82 ERA.

The Sox offense exploded for 15 hits, including a 4 for 4 performance from second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia made it on base all 5 times he went to the place, and scored 3 runs in the process. Combined with 3-RBI perfomances by Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis, the batters were firing on all cylinders.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he was more concerned with the 5-foot-9 2B than with anyone else on the team.

“I worry more about Pedroia than I worry about Big Papi” said Guillen. “Right now, I have to, because he’s swinging the bat good. … It’s amazing how this kid shows up to the ballpark every day and plays the way he plays. He brings a lot of energy to the field.”

The Sox also benefitted from a perfect ninth from Mike Timlin, who struck out Orlando Cabrera to start the inning. With Tampa Bay trouncing the Orioles 14-3, the Sox remain 4.5 games back in the American League East.

With some help from Jason Giambi, the New York Yankees avoided a three game sweep by beating the Boston Red Sox 3-2 yesterday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Giambi hit a pinch hit homerun in the seventh inning to tie the game at 2-2 and then delivered in the clutch once again in the ninth inning, knocking home the game winning run off of Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. The game was the last meeting between the two teams at Yankee Stadium before the park is set to close following the culmination of the 2008 season.

The Yankees who had dropped to 7 games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card race following Wednesday night’s defeat needed a win badly to keep the thought of the playoffs alive, and with Giambi’s heroics, they still have some life.

“We have a pulse,” Giambi said. “Hopefully, this will jump-start this ballclub.”

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning when they were able to piece together two hits and a hit batsmen off of Yankees starter Mike Mussina to go ahead. Jason Varitek collected an RBI single and Jacoby Ellsbury drove in the second run on a fielder’s choice.

Sox starter Jon Lester was brilliant through 7 2/3 innings allowing only five hits while striking out eight over the outing. He was removed after allowing a two-out double to Cody Ransom on his 119th pitch of the afternoon. Hideki Okajima came on in relief to face Jose Molina, but in an odd move, Yankees manger Joe Girardi called for the lefty Giambi to pinch hit against the left handed pitcher.

Turns out Girardi knew what he was doing. Giambi sent Okajima’s second pitch over the center field wall to even the score and energize the stagnant Yankees lineup.

“We’ve been stale. We haven’t been able to get the big hit. We haven’t been able to make a big pitch,” Giambi said. “Hopefully, this turns it around.”

The Yankees bullpen was able to keep the Sox at bay in the eighth and ninth innings setting the stage for some fireworks in their bottom of the ninth. Justin Masterson was on the mound for the Sox and allowed a leadoff single to Xaiver Nady. After a line out by Robinson Cano and a stolen base by pinch runner B Gardner, the Sox chose to intentionally walk Hideki Matsui to set up a double play or force out at third. Sounds like a good plan but Masterson followed up by issuing another walk to Ivan Rodriguez to load the bases for Giambi with only one out.

Sox manager Terry Francona summoned his closer in Papelbon to try and get out of the jam but even he could not work his way out of this one. Giambi laced the game winning RBI single up the middle on an 0-2 96 mph Papelbon fastball.

“I don’t care about the first two games—this one hurt,” Francona said. “We played our hearts out. We lost a really tough game.”

The Sox head back to Boston after going 6-3 on their nine game road trip, winning all there of the series 2 games to 1.  Of their 29 remaining games, 20 of them will be played at Fenway Park where they’ve collectively gone 43-18 this season for a .705 winning percentage, the second best home percentage in the American League behind Tampa Bay.

Tonight, the Red Sox welcome the Chicago White Sox to town for a three game series. Pitching for Boston will be Dice-K Matsuzaka (15-2, 2.98 ERA) vs. Chicago’s Javier Vazquez (10-11, 4.37 ERA). Dice-K currently has as many wins this season as he posted in his MLB rookie campaign last year, and is looking to surpass that mark for the second start. This past Sunday, he did not factor into the decision of Boston’s 6-5 extra inning victory over Toronto.

Tickets are still available for this weekend’s games vs. Chicago as well as next week’s series vs. Baltimore. The Sox will break MLB’s consecutive sellout streak of Fenway Park this coming Wednesday afternoon and ACE has your seats to the game!

The Boston Red Sox are making sure to savor ever moment of their final visit to Yankee Stadium and after their 11-3 pounding of New York last night, the Yankees can not wait to see them leave. Dustin Pedroia belted a grand-slam, David Ortiz reached base four times for the second straight night and Jason Bay collected two hits and four RBI’s as the Sox routed New York, again, in front of a disappointed Bronx crowd. After the loss, the Yankees find themselves 7 games behind the Sox in the Wild Card race and 10.5 games behind the division leading Tampa Bay Rays.

“We just dug ourselves a bigger hole,” New York’s Johnny Damon said. “This is definitely a tough time for us.”

For Boston, Paul Byrd tossed six strong innings allowing two runs on five hits while recording five strike outs. The win improves his post All-Star game record to 6-1 and has helped stabilize the bottom half of the Sox rotation with more consistent starts then they’d been used to. His performance last night was reminiscent of when he finished off the Yankees in New York last season in the ALDS series with Cleveland to advance to the ALCS against Boston.

“When I walked into this clubhouse, I remembered getting champagne poured on me right over there, about 20 feet away, and I got a smile on my face because it just has a good memory to me,” Byrd said. “And I know this is the last year of the stadium, so you think about that.”

Boston exploded for seven runs in the eighth inning to put the hammer on the struggling Yankees. The big blow came with one out when Pedroia belted his first career grand slam off of relief pitcher Jose Veras, making the score 11-2 at the time. The win certainly keeps the teams spirits high but they know that it’s far to early to count the Yankees out of the race.

“I never write the Yankees off until the season’s over and the standings are set,” Pedroia said. “They’ve been around too long and been in the playoffs for such a long time that we’re definitely not counting them out.”

Pedroia finished the night 3-5 at the plate, scoring three runs and driving in four RBI’s all on the slam. Bay also collected four RBI’s by going 2-4 that included a triple in the first inning to get things going for the Sox. He now has six RBI’s in his two games against the clubs rivals.

“Two games doesn’t make a lifetime. It doesn’t make a career,” he said. “The whole month I’ve been here has kind of been a Red Sox-Yankee series for me.”

Since joining Boston at the trade deadline, Bay has done nothing but produce. He’s batting .347 with four homeruns and 24 RBI’s in 23 games.

The Sox will go for the sweep today and send Jon Lester to the mound to face Mike Mussina.  Lester is coming off of his worst outing of the season while the Yankees have won the last five of Mussina’s starts. If the Sox could come out on top, a sweep would be the first at Yankee Stadium for them since April 23-25, 2004, and only their second in the Bronx this decade.

Following today’s game the Sox head back to Fenway Park for a six-game home stand that will feature an afternoon game on Sept. 3rd when the Red Sox will break the MLB record for consecutive sellouts. Tickets are still available for all games during this homestand!

After spending the past two and a half weeks on the DL with stiffness in his lower back and tendinitis in his pitching shoulder, Tim Wakefield, the Red Sox 42-year old pitcher, looked like he hadn’t missed a beat Tuesday night hurling five innings and allowing only three runs on eight hits which was good enough to lead Boston past New York 7-3 in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd of over 55,000 fans.

Besides a pair of Johnny Damon solo homeruns, his 10th and 11th of the season, Wakefield shut down the potent Yankees lineup with knuckleball after knuckleball. He was able to keep himself out of trouble most of the night by working ahead in the count and not allowing leadoff men to reach base. The Boston bullpen was able to preserve Wake’s 8th win of the season by pitching four shutout innings in which they allowed only two hits.

“Phenomenal job,” Wakefield said of his teammates who were able to finish the game off.

The Yankees jumped in front when Johnny Damon led off the bottom of the first inning with his 10th homerun of the year off of Wakefield but the Sox quickly answered scoring a run in the top of the second inning on an RBI single by Jacoby Ellsbury, tying the score at 1-1. Jose Molina connected on a two out single in the bottom of the second inning to drive in Hideki Matsui, putting the Yankees back ahead 2-1, but again, the Sox would come right back with the answer scoring twice in the top of the third with three consecutive hits off of Yankees starting pitcher Andy Pettitte. DH David Ortiz led off the inning with a double and scored when Kevin Youkilis drove him home in the next at bat with a double of his home. Jason Bay got into the hitting action connecting on an RBI single to plate Youkilis to put Boston ahead for good 3-2.

The Red Sox chased Pettitte from the game in the fifth inning when they were able to score three more runs on four hits. Coco Crisp knocked an RBI single to right-center field to put Boston a head 4-2 and then the big blow came when Bay drove home two more runs on his second hit of the night to put Boston on top 6-2. Bay would later add another RBI on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to round out the Red Sox scoring.

New York did have some chances in the later innings to get back into this one, and they had the right guys up at the plate but just could not get the clutch hit they needed. Reigning AL MVP Alex Rodriguez went 0-5 on the night including grounding into two double plays, once with the bases loaded, and striking out twice, once to end the game. He was loudly booed by the Yankee Stadium crowd as the loss dropped New York 6 games behind the Sox for the Wild Card race and 9.5 games behind Tampa Bay for the division race.

“Tonight, you can put it on me,” Rodriguez said. “It was a lousy night. We pretty much screwed it up every way you can screw it up. There’s absolutely no excuse.”

Sox relief pitcher Justin Masterson was summoned to face Rodriguez with the bases loaded and only one out in the seventh inning. Masterson who is known as a groundball pitcher was able to force A-Rod to ground into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.

When manager Terry Francona was asked about whether or not he thought twice about making the move to the rookie he said, “Poise is not a problem for him. He gives us options. We feel comfortable using him late in the game and he deserves it.”

After the big out last night, A-Rod is now 1-10 on the season with the bases loaded and 0-7 with the bases loaded when there were less then two outs in the inning. He’s now grounded into nine double plays over the last 19 games.

“I want him in that situation,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I’ve seen him change a game with one swing.”

Rodriguez and the Yankees will get a chance to even the series tonight when they face RHP Paul Byrd. Byrd is 1-1 since being traded to Boston from the Cleveland Indians and is probably thrilled to face another team besides the Toronto Blue Jays, whom he has faced in his last three starts going 2-1 with a 3.29 ERA. Since the All-Star break, Byrd is 5-1 and sporting a 2.55 ERA over that span. Byrd is excited to pitch against the Yankees with his new team, especially with All-Star catcher Jason Varitek calling his pitches.

“I knew he was a good catcher, but he’s a great receiver,” Byrd said. “He’s really good. He blocks the ball better than I thought he did. What he brings behind the plate, a wealth of knowledge against the hitters is great. I’ve enjoyed throwing to him. I think we’ve jelled pretty quickly.”

The Yankees will counter with RHP Sidney Ponson who is 7-4 on the year with a 4.67 ERA. He’s lost his last two decisions and is coming off his shortest outing of the season when he lasted only 2+ innings against Toronto allowing eight hits and seven earned runs in the Blue Jays 14-3 win over New York last Thursday.

Tonight’s first pitch is at 7:05pm EST.

The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will live on after the 2008 season, however, Yankee Stadium will not. Over the next month, the ‘House that Ruth Built’ will be seeing its final stretch of games before the doors close for good, highlighted by the three game series with the Red Sox which begins tonight. Over the history of the ballpark, the Red Sox and Yankees have met 770 times in New York during the regular season with the Yankees owning an impressive 483-283 advantage with four ties mixed in over the years.

“Because of the media and the fans, there’s more energy or electricity in the ballpark, but you can’t bring in a pitcher an inning earlier. They don’t give you two wins when you beat the Yankees, so you can’t do it differently,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said ahead of the three-game series.

Heading into tonight’s matchup, the Sox hold a five game lead over the Yankees in the wild-card race but with a total of six remaining meetings between the two teams, it is far too early to count the Bronx Bombers out of the race. Last year, it appeared the Yankees streak of 12 consecutive seasons of qualifying for the playoffs was in jeopardy but they played amazing baseball over the final six weeks to squeak in with the wild card berth. If the Yanks can not win this series against Boston, their streak of 13 consecutive playoff bids will certainly be at risk once again.

“If we put on a run here, there’s no question we can make it,” Hank Steinbrenner, a Yankees’ co-chairman, said Monday night at the team’s spring training complex in Tampa, Fla. “There’s no question with the number of games we have left, it’s possible.”

One Sox player who is really excited about the series is newcomer Jason Bay. The recently acquired left-fielder has never experienced a rivalry with such magnitude as he’s about to, but he’s ready for it.

“I’m looking forward to it. That’s what you play baseball for is that type of atmosphere, those type of games,” said Bay, acquired by Boston from Pittsburgh last month in the Manny Ramirez trade.

Tonight, the Yankees will send veteran southpaw Andy Pettitte (13-9, 4.17 ERA) to the mound to face the Sox veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (7-8, 3.67 ERA). The start will be Wakefield’s first since returning from the DL with stiffness in his lower back and right shoulder tenderness, causing him to miss two weeks of action.

Tomorrow’s matchup features two pitchers who have also been around the league for quite some time. The Yankees will let Sidney Ponson (7-4, 4.67 ERA) take the ball while Boston will hand it to Paul Byrd (8-11, 4.61 ERA). Ponson’s career began in 1998 while Byrd first pitched in the big leagues in 1995. The two have both logged over 1600 career innings pitched.

In the series finale, Mike Mussina (16-7, 3.45 ERA), will toss against Jon Lester (12-5, 3.49 ERA) in the last regular season game at Yankee Stadium between the two storied franchises. Lester is 2-0 in his young career against New York while Mussina boasts a lifetime record of 20-17 against Boston in 55 starts.

The series could make or break the last month for the Yankees but as far as the history of the stadium goes, Terry Francona just wants to focus on these three games and try to ignore the hype about everything else.

“I guess I felt more of that during the All-Star game because it was an All-Star game and you had time to maybe think about things,” he said. “When we’re playing the team, we’re just trying to beat them. That’s really what I care about. I don’t get too caught up in the other stuff.”

Tonight’s first pitch is at 7:05pm EST.

Tom Brady has yet to play in a pre-season game for the New England Patriots this year. The result says it all. At 0-3 in the pre-season the Patriots don’t want to miss Brady for one down of regular season play. That might be why Patriots coach Bill Belichick has kept Brady out of the action so far, even though Brady says he’s ready to play. Brady has been recovering from an undisclosed injury to his right foot but has been practicing with the team. 

The Patriots have one more pre-season game before their home opener on 9/7 against the Kansas City Chiefs. They’ll play the Giants in a Super Bowl rematch on 8/28. It’s possible that Brady could see some snaps in this game. We’ll have to wait and see.

Patriots tickets are available for all 2008 games.

In a game that featured four lead changes and two tied scores, it was the Boston Red Sox who eventually came out on top over the Toronto Blues Jays 6-5 in 11 innings thanks to the help of rookie Jed Lowrie’s solo homerun which proved to be the difference in Sunday afternoons game at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada. Lowrie’s second career big league homer came with one out in the 11th off of Toronto reliever Brandon League (0-2), who had not allowed a run in his previous 12 appearances. The win propels the Sox into a three game series with the New York Yankees in New York, possibly their last three game series ever at Yankee Stadium.

“Any series we have with New York is going to be a big series, but when we come off of a win like this, I feel like everyone will show up and just have a little more energy and be able to feed off this game,” Lowrie said.

Sox starting pitcher Dice-K Matsuzaka allowed five earned runs on eight hits through six innings of work while striking out eight in the outing. He did not factor into the decision, nor did Toronto starter A.J. Burnett who’s numbers were similar to Matsuzaka’s, going seven innings and allowing five earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven.  The Blue Jays struck first, scoring twice in the bottom of the first inning on a Vernon Wells two run homer, his 13th on the year. Boston would take advantage of back to back walks by Burnett in the fourth inning when Dustin Pedroia belted a three-run bomb, his 14th of the season, to put Boston ahead 3-2. David Ortiz followed it up with a double and Kevin Youkilis drove him in with an RBI single to give Boston the 4-2 lead.

Lyle Overbay took Matsuzaka deep in the fourth inning, a solo shot and his 11th on the year to cut the Boston lead to 4-3. It was the first time that Matsuzaka allowed multiple homeruns in a game on the road all season.  The Jays would put two more runs on the board in the sixth inning to take a 5-4 lead but the Sox were able to gun Matt Stairs out at the plate to keep the deficit at one run which proved to be a big play in the games end result. Rob Barajas belted the go ahead RBI double to left scoring Alex Rios but a good throw by Jason Bay to Lowrie at third, followed by a perfect relay to Jason Varitek resulted in Stairs being tagged out at home to end the inning.  Coco Crisp would then lead off the top of the seventh by belting his seventh homer of the season over the left-center field fence to pull the score even once again at 5-5. After that, the Boston bullpen was able to hold the Jays offense at bay, pitching a total of five scoreless innings, allowing only one hit. Justin Masterson worked 1 1/3 innings, Hideki Okajima worked 2/3 innings, Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless 9th and 10th innings to pick up the win and Manny Delcarmen closed it out pitching the 11th to earn only his second career save.

Left fielder Jason Bay, who made a leaping catch at the wall in extra innings, called it a “huge win” for Boston, which leads the AL wild-card race. “A few of us were talking that it’s probably a lot bigger than just a regular win, given the way (the Blue Jays) are playing and that they’re trying to catch up to us,” Bay said.

Boston sits atop the race for the AL Wildcard by 1 game over the Minnesota Twins who lost yesterday to the LA Angels 5-3. Next in the race are the New York Yankees who trail Boston by 5 games in the standings heading into this weeks three game series in the Bronx. The starting pitching match ups for the three games will be Tim Wakefield vs. Andy Pettitte on Tuesday night. The start will be the first for Wakefield since coming off the DL with stiffness in his lower back. Wednesday night Paul Byrd will hurl against Sidney Ponson followed by a Thursday afternoon match up of Jon Lester vs. Mike Mussina.

Following the three games in New York, Boston will return to Fenway Park for a six game homestand featuring a three game series against the Chicago White Sox who are battling the Twins in the AL Central for the division lead, and the runner up battling the Sox for the Wild Card. Baltimore will come into town after Chicago for the first three games on the schedule for September. The Sox will break the all time consecutive sell out streak at Fenway during this series on Sept. 3rd. Tickets are still available for this historic event!

Over the final month of the season, Boston will play 17 of their final 26 games at home where they have the 2nd best home record in the American League. Tickets are still available for all remaining home games!

Not many people thought they would see Carl Pavano back on the mound for the Yankees, but this past Saturday the “American Idle” made his first start since April of 2007. The result was actually rather good. Pavano pitched five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with five strike-outs. It was only Pavano’s 20th start since signing a large multi-year deal with the Yankees in 2005.

The Yankees got Pavano his first win since 2007 with help from Jason Giambi’s 25th homer and 3 RBI. Hideki Matsui also contributed with a solo shot of his own.  The Yankees will need more of the same from Pavano if they still want a shot at post-season play. Without Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain the Yankees are thin on starting pitching.  The Yankees currently trail the Red Sox by 5 games in the AL Wild Card race.

The Yankees will open up a three game set against the Red Sox this Tuesday. Yankees tickets are still available for the game.

Three weeks into the 2008 NFL Pre-Season, the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots find themselves with a 0-3 record after falling to the Philadelphia Eagles 27-17 Friday night at Gillette Stadium. In a game that appeared closer then it was, the Patriots were never able to get it going offensively while they also struggled with their special teams defensive unit, allowing two returns for touchdowns in under a two minute span to end the first half.

The Eagles jumped out first scoring a field goal in their first possession, a David Ackers kick from 24-yards, put them ahead 3-0 with 8:17 remaining in the first quarter of play. The Patriots were only able to pick up one first down in the first quarter which came on a 22-yard scramble by back up QB Matt Cassel. Besides this run, Cassel had an awful night, again failing to lead his team to a TD scoring drive for the third straight game.

Cassel did “some good things, some could have been done better,” Head Coach Bill Belichick said. “Protection at times was a problem.”

On the other side of the field, veteran QB Donovan McNabb looked sharp completing 13 of 17 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown, all coming in the first half.

“My confidence comes from how the team feels and I think the team is really on a high right now,” McNabb said.

The Eagles ended the half with a bang by scoring two touch downs on kick returns, one of a 101 kickoff return by Quintin Demps and the other on a 76 yard punt return by DeSean Jackson to pull away 24-3.

In the second half, the Patriots looked a little better on the offensive end behind the lead of third string QB Matt Gutierrez. He completed 14 of 20 passes and threw two touchdown passes to make the score a respectable 27-17, but this was all against the Eagles second team defensive unit.

“Matt did a good job of leading the team,” Belichick said of Gutierrez. “He hung in there well.”

With the loss, Patriots fans are growing a little nervous because they have yet to see their superstar QB, Tom Brady, in action during any of the pre-season. The reigning NFL MVP has been nursing a foot injury and has only recently begun to practice again with the team. He insists he will be ready to go for the Week 1 of the NFL regular season when the Patriots play the Kansas City Chiefs at home.

“I’ve only been here two games and things haven’t been good,” said Patriots safety John Lynch, who signed after being released by Denver. “I don’t think you put too much stock on results, but we’ve still got to regroup.”

The Patriots will have one more opportunity to try and figure things out before the regular season kicks off in two weeks this coming Thursday when they face the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants in a rematch of last years Super Bowl at Giant Stadium.

Whenever an NFL team goes an entire pre-season without posting a win, it’s natural for their fans to panic but in reality, the games do not count and the real purpose of these games is to find what lineups work well together on the field. There’s no need to bail on the 2008-2009 Patriots team just yet, they’ve got a lot of football ahead of them and line backer Heath Evans put it best when he said, “I know one thing, we’re a Bill Belichick-coached football team and we’re going to find a way to get better.”