Mercifully getting a rainout Sunday after two crushing losses to division rival New York, the Sox traveled to Minnesota for a three game series with the Twins.
Cody Ross powered Monday's 6-5 win with two homers and the game got some much needed levity in the ninth from manager Bobby Valentine. After light hitting Trevor Plouffe hit a warning track fly ball that could have won the game for the Twins, Bobby walked out to the mound and asked Boston closer Alfredo Aceves if he was trying to kill him. "I thought we were tight, man." Valentine joked with Aceves.
Last night's game was a much more straight forward affair. Josh Beckett had six solid innings, allowing two runs while striking out five. And the guys swung the bats well en route to a 11-2 win. Beckett had some words with the home plate ump after one inning, complaining about being squeezed on the zone, something that may be a trend this year after Daniel Bard got similar treatment in his game against the Rays.
The Sox are a better team than their 6-10 record would suggest, with good production from the hitters and pretty solid starting pitching save Clay Buccholz who has struggled to find his groove. The killer has been the pen, which has been horrible. With no one immediately available to plug in, I don't know what Boston is going to do to fix this situation. My initial thoughts were to plug Bard into the closer roll and drop some coin to bring in Roy Oswalt for Bard's slot in the rotation. But Bard has already failed while being groomed to step in for Papelbon, so I don't know if he'd do better now. Plus he's already whining in the press about wanting to stay a starter.
Hopefully the guys can get a sweep against the Twins to get some good momentum on this road trip and shut the yaps of some of these writers and fans that have so quickly given up on the team.
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