Lester Signing To Be Announced Sunday...Sox Beat Yankees But Wakefield Ineffective. Penny Feeling Better, Lugo Is Not.

I have a full plate for you on this too early Saturday morning. 4:22am EDT...what am I doing up? Who knows. Yesterday, the Red Sox put a whoopin' on the New York Yankees and beat the bums 8-4. Every Boston pitcher was effective except, of course, Tim Wakefield. Believe me, if the Sox keep him in their five man rotation after Smoltz is activated, they have no chance for postseason play. NO CHANCE AT ALL. Here's the pitching summary...

Boston IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Tim Wakefield 2.1 5 4 4 3 3 7.71 **
Jose Vaquedano 0.2 1 0 0 1 2 0.00
Jonathan Papelbon 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
Takashi Saito 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 1.80
Daniel Bard 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
Junichi Tazawa 2.0 1 0 0 1 2 1.13
Billy Traber 1.0 1 0 0 2 1 12.00

**=gave up run(s)

You see, the bullpen was nearly flawless but Wakefield plain old sucked. Unbelievable. In related news, soon-to-be in the rotation Brad Penny threw to live batters in a minor league intrasquad game. He said this...

“It felt good,” Penny said. “Command wasn’t as good as it was in (batting practice), but it was the first time facing hitters, so I was kind of just concentrating on putting more effort behind the ball. I felt like it was coming out good. Splitty was good, curveball was good at times.”

Pitching coach John Farrell said Penny's fastball touched the low 90s. It can only get better with the thrilling cheers of the Fenway crowd echoing in his ears. Here's a bit of what Farrell had to say..

“Very encouraging, again,” Farrell said. “Physically no restrictions. The arm speed was, I thought, improved over the last couple of side sessions.”

From good news to bad news. Too-often injured shortstop Julio Lugo is hurting again. Surprise, surprise, knock me over with a spoon, a plastic one. It's his right knee this time and he was pulled from yesterday's game after a couple of innings. Expect to see Jed Lowrie as our starting shortstop for a long time to come. Lugo will sit back and collect his huge paycheck. Big Papi hit a home run in the game and Mike Lowell looks like he's doing great...good news for us all. He had a tater and a single. And Manny no-name was a no-show for yesterday's Dodgers exhibition game. The reason? A sore hammy. Maybe that's a sign of things to come for Dodger blue...I hope Ramirez remembers which leg to favor. What an idiot.

That's it for now. The Jon Lester press conference is scheduled for Sunday (thanks, Ian). I'll be back when I learn exactly when. Click on the title of this post for more Sox stuff and as always, BE WELL. See ya. Soon. Your comments are welcome and always answered. L'chaim. Cheers. Health and happiness forever.