Pedey & Beltre Power 8- 6 Boston Victory Over KC

It was Pedy power, not Papi power, that fueled a Boston Red Sox 8-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Pedy, as you probably know, is our second baseman, Dustin Pedroia. Of course, Papi is the Boston Red Sox DH (for now), David Ortiz, who is off to another horrible start. He struck out four times yesterday in Kansas City. The clamor for a DH platoon with Mikey Lowell or an overall change has risen in volume. I think it's too early. If Papi's batting average is still hovering somewhere in the one hundreds at the end of this month, yes, I'll seriously consider it. Now? No way.

As for the game itself, Clay Buchholz was just OK, going five innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits, walking two and whiffing just one. He didn't have an easy time of it as the Royal batters were persistantly swinging and NOT missing his pitches. Here he is...

“It was a battle,’’ Buchholz said. “Felt like I got into some really good counts, and threw some good pitches. They just kept fouling, fouling, fouling, worked the count deep. Made some good pitches, and they made some contact and found some holes."

Our man at third base, Adrian Beltre, contributed three hits but, going after a foul ball at the same time Jacoby was racing after it, collided with Ellsbury and that resulted in a rib contusion for Ells. It was a scary sight. We'll see how Jacoby feels today. Our shortstop, Dustin "Pedey" Pedroia, had four hits including his third home run. He likes how his team is doing so far...

“We’ve looked good,’’ Pedroia said. “We’ve hit the ball good. We’ve just got to keep that going. We’ve got a lot of really good offensive players. We’re going to be fine.’’

I agree with Pedey. The Boston Red Sox will be just fine but, in my opinion and I KNOW it's way too early to say this, they will win the AL Wild Card and the pinstripers will take the AL East title. I hope I'm wrong but that prediction would still result in post season play. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?

The only reason the game was so close was that Ramon Ramirez, who has been unbelievably inconsistent since the beginning of spring training, surrendered an eighth inning three run tater. That caused the Red Sox to turn to their top two in the 'pen, Bard and Papelbon. They did the job, though, but they should have had the day off. Oh well, we won. "Nuff said.

That's it from here now. Boston moves on to Minnesota, the land of Nadia. The Twinkies are a team they've seen many times so far this year. Jon Lester will make his second start, followed by Lackey and Wakes.

Click on this post's title for something Sox related, have a terrific Monday and as always, BE WELL. See ya!