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The Yankees came into Fenway Park with a one game lead in the division and with something to prove. They left Fenway down two games and without a single win against their biggest rivals in 2009.

Game 1 was all Red Sox. David Ortiz hit a bomb into straight away center field in the 3rd inning for his 3rd home run of the year. AJ Burnett, normally a dominating pitcher against the Red Sox, couldn’t get out of that inning. Josh Beckett gave up just one hit—an infield single that Pedroia almost prevented—over six innings en route to a 7-0 shutout.

Game 2 started similarly, with Chein-Ming Wang failing to get out of the 3rd, much like Burnett the night before. New York’s offense would get them back in the game, but Jonathan Papelbon shut the door in the 9th to secure a 6-5 victory.

The final game of the series marked the first start for CC Sabathia against the Red Sox in a Yankees uniform. He gave up an opposite field home run to Ortiz in the 3rd, but shut the Red Sox down for most of the game after that. The Yanks got three runs in the 8th to take the lead and were set up for the win, but Joe Girardi sent Sabathia back out for the 8th, who gave up four runs. Papelbon came in for the 9th and set down Jeter, Damon, and Teixeira for his 16th save of the season.

David Ortiz hit two home runs in the series, a very good sign to Red Sox fans. Jacoby Ellsbury did not play in any of the games after injuring his shoulder on Sunday against the Rangers. The Red Sox have won nine straight games against the Yankees dating back to last year, their longest streak since 1912 when they won 14 straight against New York.

In other news, the Sox loaded up on more prospects in the First-Year Player Draft. The draft has been the key to the Sox’ recent success, as they have stocked up their minor league teams on bright young prospects. Some notables include thier first round pick Reymond Fuentes, a left handed center fielder who is the cousin of Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran. Another one is Luke Bard, the brother of Daniel Bard, who topped 100 MPH in the 9th inning of the Sox-Yankees game on Tuesday. They also drafted Micheal Yastrzemski, the grandson of Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

Big Papi had not hit a home run since last September. He changed that with his first big fly of the season, an absolute shot to center field. He also added a wall-ball double to show the world he’s back.

The Red Sox also played Home Run Derby in the 5th inning, started off by Papi’s shot. Jason Bay, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek also homered in that inning, Tek’s also being his second home run of the game. Put that offense with 6.2 innings of pitching by Brad Penny and 12 outfield putouts by Jacoby Ellsbury, tying a Major League record, and you’ve got a 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Red Sox and Jon Lester will look to sweep the first place Blue Jays tonight at 7:05. A win would put them within a half game of the Jays.

I’m going to throw it out there:

Zack Greinke pitches a no hitter tonight (May 15th) against the Baltimore Orioles (at least another complete game shutout). Sorry in advance if it doesn’t happen.

Red Sox 4, Angels 5

A long, dreadful…….horrible day for David Ortiz. Ortiz finished the game going 0-7, while leaving 12 runners stranded on base. The biggest offensive contributers for the Los Angeles Angels were Jeff Mathis and Torii Hunter.

Mathis hit an RBI single in the 12th inning, Hunter had a two-run double and an RBI triple, and the Angels beat the Red Sox 5-4 on Thursday. Ortiz has gone 144 at-bats since his last home run on Sept. 22 against Cleveland’s Zach Jackson at Fenway Park. He is one at-bat from equaling his longest dry spell in the majors.

“A guy like that who’s big and strong, he’s going to knock out eight home runs in 12 days somehow and he’s going to catch up with everybody once he gets that swing down,” said Hunter, Ortiz’s teammate in Minnesota. “I’m almost 100 percent sure both those injuries have a lot to do with his homerless streak.

“When you have a wrist injury and a knee injury at the same time, it messes up your mechanics and you’re trying to figure out ways to hit while you’re hurting,” Hunter added. “So you’ve got to tweak your swing — and that’s not his swing. But he’s going to be fine. I just told him, `Just go out there and do what you do, and at the end of the season watch what you have.”

Ortiz struck out three times — once with the bases loaded in the fourth — and left the bases loaded again in the 12th against Jason Bulger (1-1) with a dribbler in front of the plate.

Juan Rivera led off the 12th with a single against Manny Delcarmen (1-1). Pinch-runner Reggie Willits advanced on Erick Aybar’s sacrifice and scored when Mathis lined a 1-1 pitch to left-center.

Pedroia had four hits in his return to the lineup after missing two games because of a groin strain. One was a two-out RBI single against reliever Scot Shields that tied it 4-all in the eighth — increasing Shields’ ERA to 7.90 in 16 appearances.Ervin Santana, one of the mainstays of the Angels’ injury-ravaged rotation, made his season debut after missing the first 32 games because of elbow pain. The right-hander, who pitched in his first All-Star game last season, allowed three runs and seven hits over five innings.Brad Penny was charged with four runs and seven hits over 6 1-3 innings.

Source: ESPN

Inning 7:

*I don’t know any other team bloggers that write a blog prior to the game being over (inning 7) – knowing the game is already over. The Mets just don’t come back by 4 runs. Well they just got one. I actually debated hard between writing the Mets just can’t come back or the Mets just don’t come back, and the thing is – they can come back. They have the talent. They have the lineup. They have the heart. They have the passion. Maybe maybe maybe they don’t have the ‘mentality’– even more nauseating – how many games have the Phillies come back from in the 7^th inning-on this year already?

*Watching tonight’s game – even worse than the inability to come back was Jerry Manuel not taking Pedro Feliciano to match-up Brian Stokes against Matt Diaz. Here is a righty who hits lefties, but no – let’s pull a Willie Randolph and leave in the lefty. Come on Jerry. Willie was fired. Let’s not put faith in front of statistics – at least not when it comes to lefty-righty matchups. That’s baseball rule number 1, and if you think the statistics are straying from that trend, you know the Mets bullpen will regress to the means.

*The reason Bobby Cox and the Braves have been so successful past their aces is because he will literally yank a pitcher for the better match-up. I understood Casey Kotchman (lefty) was on deck, but you still take out Pedro Feliciano for Brian Stokes (righty) to face Matt Diaz (righty) with the bases loaded in that situation.

*Uh…fantastic hit-and-run. Hat-tip to Bobby Cox. COME ON METS!

Hopefully you read one of my last posts regarding Johan Santana as the NL MVP for 2009 (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/baseball-news/mets-rotation-johan-santanamvp-trade-needed/). Basically it gave Johan Santana’s stats up to that point and iterated the need for a starting pitcher via trade.

In Santana’s 1 loss, he had a line of 7 innings; 3 hits; 2 runs (BOTH UNEARNED); 1 walk; and 13 strikeouts. Unfortunately, he went up against Josh Johnson/FLA. Last night he went up against Chan Ho Park/PHL (horrendous). Nauseatingly, Park went 6 innings; 1 hit; 2 walks; 1 HBP; and 5 strikeouts. Santana 1-Up’ed him (not in hits) going 7 innings; 2 hits; 3 walks; and 10 strikeouts.

Johan Santana is now 4-1 with a .91 ERA and a .91 WHIP. He’s got 54 K’s in 39.2 IP. He’s 2nd in the NL in wins; 1st in strikeouts; 2nd in WHIP; and 1st in ERA.

Prior to last night’s game he was giving up 1.1 runs a game and was only getting 2.2 runs a game from his offense. Now he’s given up only .91 runs a game (not even a run a game!) and in last night’s win, he got less than half his 2.2 runs a game support. The Mets really need to start provding him with some runs. No matter how much I stress that statement, it will still be the understatement of the world.

Johan Santana is still undefeated against the Phillies, the Mets new and beyond obvious, nemesis. He is now 3-0 lifetime against the Phillies in 7 career starts with a 2.44 ERA – phenomenal.

Johan Santana now has 31% of the Mets wins on the season. With complete concerns and inconsistency from Mike Pelfrey, Livan Hernandez, Oliver Perez, and John Maine (pitched solid other than bb’s in his past 2 starts), Johan Santana is infinitely important. I understand that the CY Young is the award to receive for a pitcher, and it epitomizes how great of a season a starter had, however, the MVP is how fantastic a player is and helps his team. There’s no doubt in my mind that Johan Santana at this point is the NL MVP and should be by season’s end. Of course the obvious competition is Albert Pujols/1b-STL. He is absolutely amazing: .364avg-28r-11hr-31rbi-4sb-.467obp-.747slg-1.215ops. According to ESPN, he’s on pace for 167r-66hr-185rbi-24sb. These stats are sensational. He’s the best hitter in the MLB. And if those stolen bases keep up he’ll be by far the best fantasy player (even with out them he will be). If you’re willing to trade him for needed roster slots, you better get a top notch player at each position you need: I’m talking Youkilis/1b; Hamels/sp; McCann/c. And then you can provide an extraneous SP & C back (just a wee-bit of fantasy talk).

Honestly, it’s up in the air, and Albert Pujols (#1 overall on ESPN Player Rater) is so utterly valuabe to the Cardinals. They have other hitters performing right now though – Ryan Ludwick/of; Chris Duncan/of; and Yadier Molina/c. They also have 3 starting pitchers performing well: Joel Pineiro; Kyle Lohse; and of course Mets’ horror Adam Wainwright. I’ve explained before in my last post. The Mets have solid offense: Reyes-Murphy-Beltran-Delgado-Wright, but they only have one great starter: Johan Santana (#5 overall on ESPN Player Rater) – http://games.espn.go.com/flb/playerrater?

The NL East is shaping up to be a very uncertain affair with the exception of
the doormat Nationals team. Four games are within five games of first. All of them
have good chances to be competitive.

That’s why the win over the Mets in the “rubber” game of the three game series
was big. The Marlins fought back from a deficit for the second straight night and overcome
another strong start by their ace Johan Santana. We can be grateful that they chose to
take him out so soon.

The fish have maintained their lead in the division despite suffering a seven game
losing streak. They now go to Chicago to take on a team with the best record in the
National League last year. Good performances will be needed to get wins up there.

Last night’s game should be forgotten just as soon as possible. Hanley Ramirez
was taken out by an inside pitch on his hand and a grand slam capped a six run
New york first inning off Anibal Sanchez. The Marlins only mustered two hits off
Mets pitchers all night.
 
 Despite the seven game losing streak, the clouds should have a silver lining.
X-rays of Hanley’s hand showed that nothing is broken, so he might be out shorter
than first expected. They actually still lead their close division. Sanchez pitched a solid
five innings after that terrible start. There is not a need to start panicking now.

 Tonight’s game will feature two struggling pitchers from each side. Nolasco and Hernandez
have both been hit quite hard in their latter starts. Let’s hope that the former of them
can rebound nicely.

Fresh off a three game sweep of the Bronx Bombers, the Red Sox took to Progressive Field to extend their winning streak. Jason Bay hit a 9th inning 3-run home run to finally crack the scoreboard. The Indians got a run back off closer Jonathan Papelbon, but Cinco Ocho held on for the save.

Tim Wakefield pitched a jem for the Sox, lasting seven innings giving up just one hit. Cliff Lee almost matched him by going eight innings giving up five hits. The bullpens ultimately picked up the decisions, with Manny Delcarmen picking up the win and Kerry Wood taking the loss.

Julio Lugo returned to the team after his stint on the disabled list but did not play. The two teams are back in action tomorrow night at 7:05. Brad Penny will pitch for the Red Sox and Anthony Reyes will take the ball for the Tribe.

The phrase has been used all around Boston for a few days, mostly as a tribute to the Bruins sweeping the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. Now, it can also be linked to the three game series that was recently played between the Red Sox and Yankees.

After two straight games lasting at least four hours each, it’s nice to see them actually play a game closer to three hours in length. The game was all Red Sox for most of the game. New York struck for a run in the 3rd, after which the Sox immediately answered. In the 5th, the Red Soxgot RBIs from David Ortiz and JD Drew, with one more run coming off a steal of home by Jacoby Ellsbury.

Justin Masterson pitched well, in 5.1 innings, surrendering just the one New York run. Michael Bowdin, who was called up for the game, pitched two scoreless innings, paving the way for Takashi Saito, who picked up the save in the absence of Jonathan Papelbon.

Tim Wakefield gets the ball in tonight’s game as he opposes the defending Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee and the Indians. Micahel Bowdin, who pitched well against the Yankees, will head back to Triple-A Pawtucket to free up roster space for shortstop Julio Lugo, who is returning from an injury.