Lester & Ortiz Win AL Pitcher & Player Of The Month. Papi & Daisuke Propel Sox To Victory

Before I get to the 6-4 Boston Red Sox victory over the Oakland A's, I want to salute Big Papi David Ortiz for earning the American League Player of the month award and Jon Lester for taking the American League Pitcher of the Year honors. It was the first time that the two A.L. monthly awards were captured by teammates in the same month since June 2006, when Minnesota’s Joe Mauer and Johan Santana won the honors. Here's the release from MLB dot com...

"Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz and starting pitcher Jon Lester have been voted the American League Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively, for May. It marks the first time that the two A.L. monthly awards were captured by teammates in the same month since June 2006,
Lester, who posted a perfect 5-0 record in six outings during May, allowed just 24 hits through 44.0 innings of work while leading the Majors with 45 strikeouts. The 26-year-old also posted a 1.84 ERA, the lowest of any A.L. pitcher with more than 27 innings pitched."

Congratulations go out to both of them. Wow! And now, on to last night's Fenway Park game. Behind the pitching of Daisuke Matsuzaka, who gave up 3 first inning runs but settled down from there and Big Papi's 2 run fifth inning home run that put the Sox up for good, Boston was a 6-4 winner. Papi said this after the game...

“I was looking for my pitch. I tried not to waste it when I got it. That’s what I’ve been doing lately, getting deep in the count. The way we’re going, good things are happening.’’

I'm happy to agree with him. Bard and Papelbon finished up the game after Daisuke's 6 2/3 innings. Boston is playing great baseball at the right time because it seems that the Yankees and the Rays refuse to lose, too. We remain 5 games behind the Rays and for now, that's OK with me. What's not OK is the news about Josh Beckett. He's still hurting and the Red Sox medical staff have advised him not to pick up a baseball for another 10 days. That means he will not be back for at least 30 days. Timmy, can you hear me? We need you. We always did. We always will.

Have a great Thursday. I want to thank the few of my Constant Readers who still stop here regularly. I appreciate every one of you and always have. Click on this post's title for more on baseball (click on the story of a perfect game taken away from Armando Galarraga by a ridiculous call by blind umpire Jim Joyce, who had a clear view of the ball in the mitt and Galarraga's foot on the bag, easily beating the base runner) and as always, BE WELL. I'll see you soon.