Scott Atchison News

Good morning. Here is a preview of the game: RED SOX Aviles SS Pedroia 2B Ortiz DH Youkilis 1B Gonzalez RF Saltalamacchia C Middlebrooks 3B Nava LF Podsednik CF Pitching: RHP Clay Buchholz RAYS TBA Pitching: RHP Jeremy Hellickson Game time: 1:35 p.m. TV/Radio: NESN, TBS / WEEI Rays vs.

Scott Atchison was the first one in, and he contributed three scoreless, two-hit innings beginning in the fifth.

"We have three guys at the end of the game who were starters in spring training," manager Bobby Valentine said.

Mark Melancon was supposed to be striking out hitters in friendly Fenway, not in Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium.

Even though it's only May 23, the Red Sox have already managed to lose a comical number of players due to injury.

The Red Sox were a few days away from starting the season when they learned their closer, Andrew Bailey, had torn a ligament in his thumb.

Off the bat, Ryan Sweeney had no chance. Carlos Ruiz' drive heat-seeked the gap in right-center. Two runs would score, and suddenly it'd be 7-6 with the tying run on second base.

Yesterday, I looked at how the Boston Red Sox bullpen has gone from being the worst in the game to being the best over the past two weeks.

It seems hard to believe, but Bobby Valentine is finally managing the bullpen the way we all thought he would be capable of.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Over the course of 162 games, every manager in baseball has to balance the desire to win that night against the necessity of protecting his pitchers for the weeks and months to come.

At a certain point you just want the shelling of the starter to happen now because if it doesn't you know it'll happen eventually and really, it would be nice to do something with your evening besides wait for the Red Sox blow it.

A source of scorn from Red Sox fans at the onset of the Bobby Valentine era, last night's 8-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians in the opener of a four-game series at Fenway Park [ map ] was this month's latest example of their stabilization.

The Herald's Michael Silverman on Will Middlebrooks, who slugged two home runs and had five RBI on Monday, one day after making his first career home run a grand slam:A "He has at least one extra-base hit in each of his first four career games.

I contemplated not writing this because who the hell wants to focus on losing that 17 inning nightmare on Sunday.

Josh Beckett , who missed his start Saturday because of a sore lat muscle, is set to pitch Thursday when the Red Sox return home to face Cleveland.

After a 15-9 loss to the New York Yankees on April 21, it didn't seem like anyone in the Red Sox bullpen was capable of performing their job.

The extra innings kept piling up as the Red Sox played the Orioles Sunday at Fenway Park, and, after a while, Darnell McDonald could just sense that he'd end up on the mound doing last-resort duty.

Baltimore's Mark Reynolds can't reach a foul ball that went into the stands in the fifth inning.

A starting pitcher departing in the third inning following a 13-inning game could have spelled doom for the Red Sox bullpen.

Aaron Cook's Red Sox debut was derailed in the second inning by a nasty collision at home plate on a run-scoring passed ball which left his knee mangled by Chris Davis ' spikes, and everything was downhill from there.