In an emotional night during which Nick Adenhart was honored, Boston dropped to the lowest you will see them all season—last place—after a 6-3 loss to the Angels.

Tim Wakefield was solid through six, giving up three runs on six hits, but Jered Weaver was better giving the Sox only one run—unearned—through 6.2 innings. After a rare poor performance by Justin Masterson in the 7th, a two run 8th could not pull the Red Sox out of the hole.

Reigning MVP Dustin Pedroia had a hit in three at-bats, a sign he might be coming out of his slump. Kevin Youkilis was 2 for 4 as he continues to tear the cover off the ball. It seems like him and Pedroia are evening each other out. For every line drive in the gap that Youkilis hits, Pedroia hits a line drive right at someone, like his scorcher into the glove of a leaping Chone Figgins.

I didn’t tune into this game until about the 4th inning since I wasn’t very pumped up for baseball after a 5-4 OT Bruins win over the Canadiens on Thursday which was Boston-Montreal at its best and ugliest. After the disappointing game on Friday, I’m still not very pumped up for baseball. I’ll still probably watch the game on FOX though, unless I go to the Boston Blazers fan fest at TD BanknorthGarden. Post-opening week April is always a dull time for me, especially when both the Celtics and Bruins are doing so well. Come the Yankees series on the 24th I’ll be back into it.

Red Sox Notes

Brad Penny makes his Sox debut today.

Jed Lowrie is just 1 for 11 so far on the season.

After three poor games against Tampa, Jacoby Ellsbury was 2 for 4 in Friday’s game.

Sox color commentator Jerry Remy fell ill before the game, leading NESN to bring in some guests to the booth, my personal favorite being the always entertaining color commentator for the Angels, Rex Hudler.

I know this is old news, but Josh Bard was cut by the Red Sox. This sets George Kottaras up with the job of catching Tim Wakefield. Bard was seen as the replacement to Kevin Cash—who signed with the Yankees—as the Sox’ backup backstop, though Terry Francona said there would be a competition. Kottaras now is the winner of the competition and is going to embark on his rookie season.

Kottaras, who was traded to the Red Sox to complete the waiver deal that sent David Wells to San Diego in 2006, is out of minor league options and would have to clear waivers if he were to be sent down. Additionally, Kottaras must either be on the Major League roster or traded by the end of Spring Training, which may be one of the primary reasons he was given the edge to Bard, who is now with the Nationals.

Kottaras isn’t the first young catcher to try his hand at Wakefield, but unlike Bard he hasn’t been completely thrown into this role. In 2006 former Yankees backup John Flaherty was signed to be Wake’s personal catcher, but he chickened out near the beginning of Spring Training (typical Yankee, cowering out when things get tough). After this veteran Ken Huckaby was going to take his place but lost his battle to Bard after injuring his knee. Then Doug Mirabelli was brought in to backup Wakefield once again.

If Kottaras doesn’t work out, the Red Sox do have options that would work, though based on their philosophy I doubt they will make any of the following moves:

Bring back Mirabelli: Doug was cut in 2008 because his offense wasn’t very good, but in all honesty, neither was Bard’s or Cash’s. This time though, the Sox wouldn’t need to trade for him, he could just be signed as he is still a free agent.

Bring back Huckaby: Ken Huckaby never put up good offensive numbers so he was never in a stable job. But he is great defensively and he has a cannon arm. He is a free agent and could be signed cheap. The Sox could also keep Kottaras around if they wanted offense, and Huckaby could also catch in the postseason if Francona needed to put Wakefield in as a reliever and Kottaras was already out of the game, something he didn’t do in 2008 because Cash was already out of the game, and Paul Byrd wound up losing the game to the Rays.

Call up Dusty Brown: Dusty got a small taste of Big League life as a September call-up and also the emergency catcher in the postseason. He may not be completely ready, but he is an alternative.

Bring in Javy Lopez: No, I take that back. Lopez was just terrible in his short stint with the Sox in ‘06, offensively and defensively. He would be a complete burden on the Sox.

Put Wakefield in the ‘pen: He’s done it before, and it would free up the 5th rotation spot for when John Smoltz starts his season in May, and it would minimize the chances of wild pitches that plagued the Sox when they had Bard. This is not very likely since Francona doesn’t want Varitek catching Wakefield, but there is no harm in this type of move and it would regulate Varitek’s playing schedule.