Red Sox Bats Come Alive But Big Papi Remains In His Funk...Boston 12 NY Mets 5

The Boston Red Sox and their bats came alive Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park and the result was a satisfying 12-5 rout of the NY Mets. Tim Wakefield garnered the victory, his sixth, and Manny Delcarmen and Takashi Saito put up goose eggs in the final three innings to nail that win down. JD Drew collected four hits, Mike Lowell three and George Kottaras added three more in the sixteen hit Boston attack. But all eyes are still on Big Papi David Ortiz and his continuing struggles at the plate. He said this after his zero for five afternoon.

“Things happen, you know?” a relatively upbeat Ortiz said. “They happen for a reason. What you can never do is just give up. You’ve got to keep fighting, man. Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep on fighting. That’s all I’ve got in my mind right now - keep fighting. I like what I am right now,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you. I’m hitting some screamers, hitting some balls. There’s not too much I can do about it. Things get to the point where they can eat you up. But I’m not that type of guy."

Keep fighting, Papi, but I must admit that right now you look lost at the plate. I'm baffled as to why. Boston manager Terry Francona must decide soon whether to move Papi down in the order. He had a few words about his designated hitter...

“David’s important to us,” Francona said. “There’s no way around that. We’d rather spend our time getting him back on track than figuring out where to hide him. But big picture, we’ve got to get him going."

Boston begins a ten game road trip with four games with the Minnesota Twins. They'll play at the Metrodome (I call it the Ugly Dome. I've been there...don't go) today with the first pitch at 2:10pm EDT. Here are the pitching matchups...

Penny vs. Liriano...today
Lester vs. Blackburn...Tuesday
Matsuzaka vs. Slowey...Wednesday
Beckett vs. Swarzak...Thursday

I hope your Memorial Day Monday will be a great one. I'm sure you'll have the time to remember all the men and women who have or are serving their country with courage and bravery. They are who this day honors. Click on the title of this post for more on the latest Sox news and as always, BE WELL.