As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 6-0

Season Record: 43-28 (T-2^nd in AL East)

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 @Colorado, 3 @San Francisco

Offense

Overall the Sox crushed the ball, combining for a .309/.367/.525 line with 10 HR’s.  Dustin Pedroia, who had been off to a very poor start by his standards has caught fire, and David Ortiz has bounced out of his latest slump.  Adrian Beltre continues to impress in his first year with the Sox, having one of his best years with the bat so far.  Victor Martinez cooled off after a few hot weeks and Marco Scutaro had an off week. Otherwise not much bad to say about the Sox offense.  The injury to JD Drew should be watched going forward.  The Sox hope to keep him off the DL, but that’s no sure thing yet.  The irony of the injury is that Drew hurt himself making a very nice running catch that most outfielder’s wouldn’t have made.  Of course Sox fans won’t appreciate the catch, and will instead increase their hate of Drew for being injury prone.

Pitching

The Sox pitching was strong against the weaker NL lineups, allowing just a .234/.296/.376 line.  Like the batting, there’s not much to nitpick over the past week.  Daniel Bard settled back into his setup role with Jonathan Papelbon back, and Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester continue to form a top duo.  The Sox aren’t missing Josh Beckett very much right now, though John Lackey continues to be underwhelming.

Overall: It was a big weekend as Manny Ramirez returned to Boston to a mix of cheers and boos.  I don’t know how Sox fans can boo him.  In the month he “quit” on the Sox he played in 22 of 24 games and hit .347/.473/.587.  He may have been a pain in the ass, but he helped bring two titles and is among the greatest hitters of all time.  The whole “cancer in the clubhouse” nonsense is another media narrative.  If he was so bad in the clubhouse, how come his teams make the playoffs just about every year?  While Manny once again found success in Fenway, the Sox swept the Dodgers. The Sox continue their utter domination of the National League (they have best record all time) and are right on the heels of the Yankees and Rays.  Truly, the best three teams in baseball are in the same division.

Facebook Comments of the week:

Don’t tell anyone, but the Red Sox are back within 3 games of first place. Back from the dead this quickly, who do they think they are the Celtics?

• I think the Red Sox offense is better than people expected.

Manny is back at Fenway. I suppose it’s kind of like seeing an ex-spouse for the first time. Some good times, couple kids (04, 07), but you knew it just couldn’t last. Given what the fans did for Nomar last year, I say they blow the roof off the park for him tonight. I know it ended badly, but in the end I think there

Sox fans are either going to be teed off from last night and will rip him to shreads, or be too exhausted to boo him and eventually cheer. I say they cheer him.

Well that was disappointing. Way to make up your mind, Fenway.

• (I wanted )for either the cheers or the boos to win out. It just turned into a big muddled mess. Manny could have acknowledged the crowd like Damon did in 06 but did nothing.

• They should have cheered his first at bat. The guy helped bring two championships to Boston. Are we cheering only the “uniforms”? Or the people in them?

• That’s why we should boo him. Cuz of the guy in them. He treated the Sox so poorly on his way out that I lost a lot of respect for him.

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 4-3

Season Record:  37-28 3^rd place in AL East, 4.0 Games back

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 vs. ARI, 3 vs. LAD

Offense

Studs of the week:

Duds of the week:

Great week for the left side of the infield as both Scutaro and Beltre hit the ball well.  Every Red Sox fan’s favorite whipping boy J.D. Drew crushed the ball this week to the tune of a 1.212 OPS.  Drew got off to a terrible start, but since May 1^st is hitting a robust .316/.397/.493.  Victor Martinez continues to be on fire. [...]

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 4-2

Season Record:  33-25, T3rd in AL East, 4.5 games back

Upcoming weekly schedule: 4 @ Cleveland, 3 vs. Philadelphia

Offense

Studs of the week:

Duds of the week: [...]

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 5-2

Season Record:  29-23 (4^th place in AL East, 5.5 games back)

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 vs. Oakland, 3 at Baltimore

Offense

Studs of the week:

Duds of the week: [...]

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.  This week the facebook comments got off to a great start with the tough loss to the Yankees, but tempered down throughout the week.

Weekly Record: 5-2

Season Record:  24-21 (4^th place in AL East, 8.5 back)

Upcoming weekly schedule:

Offense

Studs of the week:

As you can see Victor Martinez broke out of his slump in a big way (Boone Logan played a role in that) and David Ortiz continued his hot May.   Youk is Youk, and Adrian Beltre continues to put up a strong season for the Sox.

Duds of the week:

The return of Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron should help the offense, as Jeremy Hermida and Bill Hall were both terrible this weeks.  Dustin Pedroia had another tough week in what has been a very streaky season for him.

Pitching

Studs of the week:

Lost from the studs of the week was Dice-K and his near no-hitter.  He also had a terrible start against the Yankees that could (should?) have been much worse than it was.  Clay Buchholz is really coming into his own and continues to be the Sox most consistent pitcher.

Duds of the week:

Josh Beckett ended up on the DL after his tough start against the Yankees, and Jonathan Papelbon’s ego probably could use a trip after blowing a big save.  John Lackey continues on his very poor 1st season for the Sox.  Every 5 days, he’s making that contract look worse and worst.   His 4 BB, 3 K performance against the Phillies only worsened his career low K/9 ratio and career high BB/9 ratio.

Overall:   Things certainly got off to a shaky start with Jonathan Papelbon blowing the opener of the Yankees series by giving up 2 run HR’s to both A-Rod and Marcus Thames.  While Sox fans were in a tizzy, they team turned it around the rest of the week, despite their tough schedule.  With Josh Beckett on the DL, the Sox have to be thrilled with the performances from Dice-K (near no-no against the Phillies) and Beckett fill-in Tim Wakefield’s 8 shutout innings on Sunday.  With a 10 game stretch against playoff contenders the Sox would have been content going .500, and they’ve already accomplished that at 5-2 with the Rays upcoming.  Things are certainly turning around in Boston, and will soon have both Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron back in the lineup, and more importantly, in the field.  Things are so good in Boston, that even J.D. Drew played through an injury today.  As much as we wanted to forget, this is a good team.

Facebook Comments of the week:

I like when the Sox go Back to Back – the only thing better would be Papi going back-to-back-toback! Go Papi!

• Damm – at least they are now up 9-7

Nancy Drew!

Alex Rodriguez has just made me feel less happy about life.

It was nice of Papelbon to volunteer to throw Yankee batting practice before tonight’s game. Oh wait, that was DURING the game? CRAP.

i hate you Papelbon

Ahh crap – well at least we still have the C’s to root for….

Once again the Celtics are going to be asked to clean up the filth left by the rest of the Boston sports scene. Not sure they can do it 3 straight nights.

Finally a good night for Boston Sports – C’s up 2-0 and Sox with a turn of the tables in the Bronx…

The Celtics are up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and David Ortiz is hitting .457 in his last ten games. Who the hell would have thought either of that a month ago?

The Celtics are up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and David Ortiz is hitting .457 in his last ten games. Who the hell would have thought either of that a month ago?

Nice try Dice-K.

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 3-3

Season Record:  19-19

Upcoming weekly schedule: 2 @ NYY, 2 vs. MIN, 3 @ PHI

Offense

Studs of the week:

NAME	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Bill Hall	2	9	4	0.300	0.300	0.900	1.200
David Ortiz	2	16	8	0.409	0.409	0.727	1.136
D. Pedroia	1	12	4	0.273	0.429	0.545	0.974
K. Youkilis	0	6	2	0.267	0.571	0.400	0.971
J.D. Drew	0	9	5	0.368	0.435	0.474	0.908

Duds of the week:

NAME	HR	TB	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Marco Scutaro	0	4	0	0.174	0.367	0.174	0.541
Mike Lowell	0	1	0	0.200	0.333	0.200	0.533
J. Van Every	0	1	0	0.167	0.286	0.167	0.452
D. McDonald	0	5	1	0.182	0.182	0.227	0.409
V. Martinez	0	1	3	0.043	0.083	0.043	0.127

David Ortiz is showing signs of life recently, it could be a short term spurt where he’s guessing right by cheating on fastballs, or his supplier made a recent visit to Boston.  I highly doubt it’s a true resurgence.  On the flip side, Victor Martinez’ continues on his poor season with a terrible week and a .127 OPS that isn’t a typo.  Wow.

Pitching

Studs of the week:

NAME	W	L	IP	SO	WHIP	ERA
J. Papelbon	0	0	3.1	3	0.30	0.00
Daniel Bard	0	0	2.2	2	1.13	0.00
D. Matsuzaka	1	0	7	9	0.43	1.29
Clay Buchholz	1	0	6.1	3	1.26	1.42

Duds of the week:

NAME	W	L	IP	SO	WHIP	ERA
Jon Lester	0	0	7	10	1.14	5.14
John Lackey	1	1	13	10	1.85	7.62

John Lackey is not looking good.  If not for his 4-2 record, the Boston media would likely be all over him.  He currently has both the lowest strikeout rate and highest walk rate of his career.  That’s a deadly combo, and it’s showing in the results.  It’s still early, but this is certainly not what the Sox expected when they handed Lackey this biggest pitching contract of the offseason.  The Sox have to be thrilled with the outing they got from Dice-K, but he faces a big test this week with the Yankees on tap.  Luckily for him the Yankees are beat up and regularly throwing 2 or 3 bench players in their everyday lineup. Clay Buchholz recovered from to poor starts to survive 5 walks against the Tigers and only give up 1 run, but the walks could be an issue going forward.

Overall:  Another tough week for the Sox.  After a good start winning 3 of 4, they lost on Saturday and Sunday to the Tigers to fall back to .500 for the week and the season.  Their upcoming schedule will be no help, with their next 10 games against playoff caliber teams with just 2 coming at home where the Sox prosper.  After this week, they may be looking up at .500 again.

Facebook Comments of the week:  It was a pretty light week on the Facebook comments due to Sox fans being more into the Celtics and Bruins’ playoff series.

Lost in the shuffle tonight…a fantastic game by Dice-K over Toronto. And we get a day game tomorrow. Life is good for a Boston fan tonight. Sweep the Jays, get rid of the Flyers, and all is well.

Thanks to the Celtics for helping to take the stench of what could have been a horrific Boston sports weekend.

Laser show, relax.

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 4-3

Season Record:  8-11

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 at Toronto, 3 at Baltimore

Offense:  The offense was led this week in a major surprise by Darnell McDonald.  He started off with a bang, with a game tying HR and game winning RBI in his first appearance for the Sox.  For the week he crushed to the tune of a .400/.538/1.000 line with 2 HR’s.  The other backup OF getting plenty of time, Jeremy Hermida, was the second best hitter for the Sox this week, posting a .357/.438/.786 line.  Other than those two, no Sox hitter stood out for the week, Victor Martinez was solid with a .316/435 AVG/OBP line, but all 6 of his hits were singles, leading to a paltry .316 SLG.  Surprisingly enough, the worst hitter (by far) for the Sox this week was Dustin Pedroia, who had been off to a great start.  Pedroia hit just .107/.133/.179 for the week, that’s as bad as it gets.  He’ll be fine in time, but he’s just an average hitter away from Fenway, so don’t expect a big bounceback this week on the road.  Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew continued to struggle but their bats are starting to liven up a little and they will be hitting in no time.

Pitching:  Overall the Sox team ERA for the week was a dreadful 5.45, with a 1.55 WHIP. Lester (5.40), Beckett (9.00) and Lackey (9.58) all struggled.  Lester and Lackey both had two starts, including Lester’s best performance of the year against the Orioles, going 5.2 innings with 4 hits, 4 walks, 0 runs and 7 k’s.  He may or may not be fully back on track, but it won’t be long.  Clay Buchholz lost his one start, but pitched well, going 6.2 innings with 3 ER and a great 10 to 1 K/BB ratio.

Overall: It was a better week for the Sox as they try to creep back towards .500.  While there next 6 games are on the road where they usually struggle, they should be able to beat up on the Blue Jays and Orioles.  Dice-K Matsuzaka will make his return to the majors and will take an unhappy Tim Wakefield’s spot in the rotation.  Dice-K pitching as a solid #4 can go a long way to getting the Sox right back in the thick of things, especially as they await the returns of Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron, and Big Papi’s steroid supplier.

Facebook Comments of the week: 

Think of it this way…just a few years ago getting swept at home by the Devil Rays would be grounds for removal from the league. Now, it just means you’re 4-9. See, it’s not that bad.

Anyone want to go halvsies on investing in CocoWouldHaveMadeThatPlay.com?

4-8, down 6-0 on Patriots Day. This run prevention strategy’s looking better and better every day.

• seems to be we are preventing our own runs very well…
• Theo and company forgot that they won World Series titles because they had lethal lineups that could hit good pitching. This team cannot.
• I was at game Saturday — leaving bases loaded with none out at conclusion of Fri game felt like they were lying down…no urgency…not even a sacrifice fly…

The Bruins scored exactly as much as the Red Sox today. Good thing Tuukka is better at goalieing than Lackey is at pitching.

How much more pathetic can the Sox get?

So Texas has stolen 9 bases against Wake and Victor tonight. That seems a tad high.

• Wait – did Vladimir Guerrero just give my fantasy team a steal???

• Two.

And…Ortiz is done. Pinch-hit for with the “frightening” Darren Oliver on the mound. Thanks for 7 great years Papi.

Jason Varitek might be the best catcher in the history of baseball at blocking home plate. Nice to know the old man still has it!

• Another statistic that can’t be proven true or false, like the mythical “game calling”!
• Look back over the years, he’s always been fantastic. There’s no statistic to prove it, it’s an eye-ball test. Tek still has NO arm, but he’s great at protecting the plate. Sorry Steve, Posada doesn’t make that play.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK! Sweet Jesus, what a night!

Wow, what a monsterous grand slam for JD Drew. That thing went all of 306 feet. I love Fenway Park.

Darnell McDonald. I like this.

Best 5-9 team in baseball!

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 1-5

Season Record:  4-8 4^th place, 5 GB

Upcoming weekly schedule: 1 vs. Tampa Bay, 3 vs. Texas, 3 vs. Baltimore

Needless to say, it was a tough week for the Red Sox.  They helped the Twins open up new Target Field by losing 2 of 3, and then lost 3 straight to the Rays.  Jon Lester’s early season struggles have continued as he lost both of his starts with a 7.20 ERA, but don’t worry, he’ll be fine in the long run.  John Lackey is off to a good start with the Sox and picked up his first win for the team, pitching 6.2 solid innings against the Twins.

The offensive struggles of David Ortiz and J.D. Drew, in particular have continued for the Sox.  As a team, they managed just 15 runs in their 6 games on the week.  The good news is that Drew will snap out of it, Papi, I’m not so sure about.  Every day gets a little closer to announcing him done for good.  Hell, if he keeps it up, he might not see September with this club.  Jason Varitek, while a terrible starting catcher, has been very solid in the backup role he is now suited for.  Dustin Pedroia had a monster week with a .500./.500/.962 line and 3 HR’s, but as you can see it didn’t help them win many games.  An injury to Jacoby Ellsbury has led to 6 games from Jeremy Hermida, and the once top prospect hasn’t delivered, hitting just .182/.217/.318 for the week.

To dip a little further into the feeling around here, below are some comments, from Sox fans, gathered on Facebook:

·        Wow, the Red Sox just might be awful this year.

·        I’m beginning to think I was a little kind when I said in spring training that the Red Sox would win 92 games and the Wild Card. This offense is terrible.

• Dude, Im hoping for 82 over here.

• Um after watching the first 11 games and the problem they have created with the Lowell-Papi mess if they beat the Orioles for third that would be asking a lot. No power and defense does not look good this year.

·        How much more pathetic can the Sox get?

• it might be a very long season.

• No pitching, no defense, no offense – I’m pretty sure you need a couple of those things to be successful

• If they work real hard, maybe they can get swept by Baltimore too.

·        REDSOX SUCK!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!

• I am highly disappointed and starting to become irritated!! WTF is right!

As you can see, all is not well in The Nation.  Unfortunately it’s due to change as the Sox do have a very good team (and have gotten beat by very good teams).  Us Yankee fans should enjoy it while it lasts, but not get too excited, as the Sox will undoubtedly bounce back, especially when the schedule gets a little easier, as it will do in the next week.