Lesters taken Tavarez's spot.

Tampa Bay sucks.

It's great to hear that Lester is starting tomorrow against the Indians. That should be fun to watch.

Great pitching performance last night by Lester. He worked out of jams, and went six solid innings for the victory. If he can somewhat like that again and like he did last year, he'll be the perfect number five guy going down the stretch. And with the sudden emergence of Kason Gabbard, the bullpen (Once Schilling gets back) will be in some pretty damn good shape. It looks like the Red Sox just need another bat, and of course another arm (Despite having six spots in the rotation, it wouldn't hurt to get another starter) and they should be in good shape for the stretch run.

I expect the Yankees to continue their run though. Just look at that schedule and tell me how many losses are there really going to be? Lucky after Cleveland and Kansas City, the Sox have to go to Tampa while the Yanks travel to Baltimore. The Orioles have given the Yankees problems this year so hopefully they'll continue to do so. Hopefully the Sox can take a couple of more games in Cleveland, and the Royals who played the Sox at Fenway can show up, over the next three games.

If wake keeps doing so-so, hell be in the bullpen and we have a very solid rotation of schilling, becket, dice k, lester n gabbard.

Yeah, I actually think that starting five would be their best option right now. And if Gabbard or Lester struggle, they always have Wake to come in. And he's in the bullpen before, so that won't be foreign territory for him.

I love that some Yankee fans are really milking this "winning streak" I mean, its TB and KC, the two worst teams in baseball right now.

Yay for Lester, now that he's back the bullpen is going to be very good again. Even Timlin did good last night.

Tonight might have been the best game for Matsuzaka thus far. He got out of a first inning jam and was pretty much perfect the rest of the game. And it's always good when your team only needs one run to win. Still a 7.5 game lead though as it seems the Yankees are facing the Royals of old and not the Royals who were in Boston a week ago. As I said before though, at least we've got Tampa coming up.

Hopefully Beckett can pitch a good game tomorrow unlike last year in Cleveland, and the Sox can take a third game in Cleveland. And hopefully, Mussina will continue to suck like he has all year, and the Royals can get at least one win in the series, with their best pitcher going tomorrow in Gil Meche.

dice - k could be like, 15-5, looking some of his losses n no decisions; though hes also won games where he gave up 5 runs +.

i say his best outing was first at kc.

Sox lose 1-0. If the Yanks hold on to their 2-0 lead, the lead in the East goes down to 6.5. Both Carmona and Beckett were fantastic, especially Carmona who threw a no-hitter into the 6th. But christ the Red Sox were awful when they did get men on base. On three seperate occasions in three seperate innings, the Red Sox ran themselves out of the inning. The most embarassing play was at home plate with Crisp trying to score. Granted, there was no one there (Batter on deck or Manny in this case) to signal to Crisp whether he should slide or not, but what the fuck is Crisp doing slowing down halfway to home plate? That hit and run mishap with Varitek also looked bad too, but nothing beats the play by Crisp.

Edit: 2-1 now as the Royals just scored.
Double edit: 3-1 Yankees

It's clear now the Sox have to make a move at the deadline. I was looking up the latest rumors and here are some names that are floating around. Adam Dunn, Mark Teixeira, Reggie Sanders, Jermaine Dye, Bobby Kielty, Eric Byrnes, Todd Helton, Mike Piazza, and Salomon Torres (P).

What surprises me most is that there aren't more pitchers on that list. I know the Sox need another bat (And despite the recent five game stretch - badly) but Torres is the only pitcher floating around?

I'll tell you what though. The one name on that list that intrigues me is Adam Dunn. The Sox are perfectly fine at 1B and 3B right now, so as much as I would Teixeira or Helton, they don't exactly fit. That is unless they part with Lowell, which I would fine baffling since he is their offensive leader in home runs and RBI's. The problem though is that he's a left fielder. Do you keep him left and move Manny? I don't think so? Do you put him in center and part with Crisp? You might have to considering that Dunn in right could be disastrous, since as far as I know, he's never played right field. And the right field in Fenway is the hardest to play in baseball. Then again......

AVG .267 -- 27HR -- 67RBI -- OBP .370

So defense for offense? Those Crisp defensive plays, while extremely impressive come a dime a dozen, and he has done absolutely nothing at the plate. Same with Drew, just not so much the defense. So Crisp or Drew would have to go in that deal, along with Willy "No one wants me" Mo Pena, and young pitcher. Could work. Then again, I don't see any big names coming to Boston, as much as I would like that to happen. Then again, I don't want them to make a trade for the sake of making a trade. Then again, Theo didn't do anything at the 2006 deadline, and that team just dropped off the face of the planet.

umm, have you SEEN Dunn?

He's a huge lumbering guy, he would be an absolute disaster in center field.

I'm just throwing out ideas based off rumors. I really don't think it's going to happen because of that, and the price is too high. Teixeira and Helton are more likely and that's not going to happen either.

coco better not go. Hes up to 280 and is gonna win a gold glove. The idea weas for him to develop in Boston and thats what their doing; I dont see him going.

drew and lugo are our two big flaws.

None of those names are any good...I dont think the sox need to make a move unless it is improving the club froma starting position...and the only people who, right now, can be improved on, are lugo and drew...and none of the names mentioned help that cause.,

The Sox are fine....they need to stay healthy, and theyll get hot again...its just a matter of time. Schillings coming back soon, and the rotation would be

1. Schilling- if he can be top form...thats own! hje looked great in his triple A start

2. Becket - 13-4, lost a 1 run start. Ace of the future

3. Dice K - good for the most part...semi inconcistent at times

4. Gabbard- has pitched great lately

5. Lester- look good the first nigjhht; if he stumbles we have wake to back him up

The sox have a 6.5 game lead and theyve been playing like crap while the yankees are surging. They can only really get better and the yankees can only get worse.

As long as the Sox stay healthy- Varitek in particular-its a matter of time before they bust out.

You can take the Helton rumor and throw it out the window. That's not happening according to the Rockies GM. And I'm glad it's not. He's pretty much a glorified Kevin Youkilis, with the same amount of home runs and only seven more runs batted in. I'd rather have Youkilis since he's on the upside of his career while Helton is on the downside.

Really there isn't much they can do, most power is coming from 1st or third, where they're getting the best production from. all the power from the outfield seems to be coming with the downside of them being crap defensively.

And what the fuck happened tonight?

If this team continues pounding the ball into Tampa Bay, it wouldn't surprise me if the Sox just turn their attention to pitching and a backup outfielderm even though I think that's been the plan all along despite how it's struggled as a whole over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully after that the offense can stay consistent.

And Ramirez's numbers are beginning to look respectable now.

Ataboy Willy Mo. He shoulda had Drew's spot this season. he it over 300 when he played consistently last season. What means the most to me though is Tito loves him; thats why I think he could be great.

No. I'd rather have Drew in there simply for defense. Willy Mo in right field has been a disaster so far.

As for the Yankees, does anyone know when they complete that game against the Orioles that got suspended? Is that tonight before the first game?

White Sox traded Iguchi for a single A ballplayer. Shame, he wasn't going to be too expensive to re-sign... I liked him.

Another member of the World Series team gone. Im a bit sad whenever one of them leaves.

welcome back, Kenny Lofton!

I am not sure. They probably won't do it this weekend since they had a double header yesterday.

It was last night. It was probably the most bizzared inning and a half I've seen and the Orioles almost pulled it out. Why Torre wanted Rivera for two full innings is beyond me and it almost burned him. At least the Yankees lost the next game and the Red Sox ended up gaining half a game when all was said and done.

Ah okay I noticed it was a close score just didn't realize that was the two inning game.

Three trades today.

- Mark Teixera is now a member of the Atlanta Braves. The Braves got him for Jarrod Saltalamacchia and three prospects.

- The Mets also picked up Luis Castillo for a couple of minor league prospects from the Twins.

- And the Phillies pick up Kyle Lohse from the Reds for left-handed minor leaguer Matt Maloney.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day at the deadline.

GAGNE MAY GO TO THE RED SOX!!!