The Red Sox opened their ten game road trip account with a thumping 6-1 win over the Houston Astros last Friday night. The Red Sox fans were excited to see their ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzuka come back to form after serving in the disabled list and also lauded the three run homer by slugger J.D. Drew. Matsuzuka was happy with his display last Friday and is hoping to do further damage to his opponent teams during this road trip. Daisuke Matsuzuka walked three, struck out four and allowed two hits in his five shutout innings. The Red Sox fans will be all geared up to buy tickets for the forthcoming road games.

The Fenway Park fans were pretty impressed with the 9-2 showing of the Red Sox team on Thursday night against the Baltimore Orioles. The priced batters and ace pitchers all contributed to this rollicking win for the Red Sox at home and the important Sox players who made a difference to the game are J D Drew, Mike Lowell, Youkilis and Jon Lester. There is no doubt that the Red Sox fans will be buying tickets for the forthcoming games in this series. The grand slam by Lowell was the highlight of the game and what all this means is that the series between these tow arch rivals is in for more spills and thrills. 

Overconfidence is sometimes harmful as was in the case of the Red Sox. The unbeatable Red Sox were thoroughly beaten by the Mariners, 8-0, under the skilful hand of Felix Hernandez. Coach Terry Francona was visibly shaken seeing the poor performance of his boys, not to mention their fans who were also disappointed. Their main drawback was that they had to play without their key players David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury and Manny Ramirez. With this loss the Red Sox’s 13 game winning streak came to an end. As if it was not enough that they were fighting their toughest opponent, they were also fighting within the team which worsened the situation all the more.

Talk about a living legacy and you’ll think of Herbert H. Hash, the oldest ex-pitcher for the Red Sox. He died last week aged 97 due to a stroke in his Culpeper hometown. He was surrounded by friends and family according to sports officials at the University of Richmond. Hash contributed the two best major league seasons with Boston. Beside baseball, Hash also found time to indulge in basketball and running the track. He was finally accorded the University of Richmond’s Hall of Fame in the year 1985 - 1986.

Justin Masterson with his perfect throws took the Boston Red Sox to another victory over the Royals on Tuesday. The 2-1 victory was least expected by the rookie himself after Lester’s no- hitter performance in the earlier match. Masterson later said he was thrilled by Lester’s performance and wanted to try for a no-hitter but David De Jesus toppled his wish in the first inning by making a double with two-outs. This is the fifth straight game won by Red Sox and for Kansas City Royals this is the third loss in the last nine games. The manger of Royals felt that his runners in scoring position were out of sync on Tuesday.

The Red Sox made a great comeback after their losing streak by winning against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first game at Fenway Park on Saturday. Brewers were playing their first match in 11 years at Fenway and lost the match for 5-3.  With this win Daisuke Matsuzaka, the starter of Boston Red Sox, became the seventh player to reach seven wins without any loss so far in the season. He improved his position to 7-0 with an ERA 2.15. He played 6 2/3 innings and gave up two unearned runs in seven hits. Though Dice –K was not at his best on Saturday, he was able to satisfy the Red Sox fans.     

 Jonathan Papelbon the closer of Red Sox was very effective in winning matches when ever he made the pitches. But the Red Sox fans were disappointed when he missed a save in the match against the Tigers at the Comerica Park. The Red Sox were four runs down and twice made attempts to come back to the game. They made lead in the eighth inning but couldn’t finish it.

In the later half of ninth inning Papelbon missed two unearned runs and Tigers won the game 10-9. Papelbon had his last blown save at the Yankee Stadium on September 14^th 2007. Papelbon was dejected by his own performance and said that it is difficult o defend some of the hits in baseball. After the fifth inning the score was 8-4 and Mike Lowell made three run in the seventh inning to tie the game. But their efforts were failed as Julio Lugo made the winning run for the tigers.

Kudos to Mike Lowell, the Red Sox’s third baseman who saved the day and propelled the Red Sox to victory with a 6-3 win over the defeated Detroit Tigers earlier on the week. He hit his first home run with a notable two-shot run in the second inning. His teammate Kevin Youkilis was also commended for his home run, and their collective efforts somehow managed to make up for Daisuke Matsuzaka’s underperformance in the game. Matsuka, the Sox’s righthander, was not feeling too well due to a bout of influenza. Manager Terry Francona said that this was due to the fact that the Sox have been busy touring to Japan and fielding off opponents’ threats non-stop for 20 days straight.

The Red Sox fans will not be able to see designated hitter David Ortiz for sometime as he bruised his right knee diving into the first base last Friday night and he was sidelined for the next two games that his team played. The Red Sox manager Terry Francona said that Ortiz is recovering well and feels good in spite of his knee being a bit sore. Francona, who also had similar bruises in his playing days, said that the bruised knee often is painful when a person tries to move.

Terry said that the Red Sox team is ready to wait for David to return and have assigned Ramirez the responsibility of taking up the designated hitter job. The Red Sox team is at present suffering from plenty of injuries and sickness to its key players and fans will be seeing their key player Ramirez playing from the left field.

It was not a very productive weekend for the Red Sox. Au contraire, the Boston Red Sox had their pride severely wounded after losing to Tampa Bay throughout the tumultuous weekend. Tampa Bay was never a threat to them but apparently they were a force to be reckoned with during last weekend. And that’s not all, things are not looking too sunny for most of the team members in terms of their wellbeing.

First, it was David Ortiz who was benched and barred from the last two battles against Tampa Bay. Ortiz was considered one of the greatest sluggers but that changed after he bruised his knee from sliding into first base last Friday. Misfortune continued to dog the Red Sox when during the same game, Sean Casey was afflicted with a right hip flexor strain as he was running the bases. He too, skipped the game the following day and was put to rest. Mike Lowell, third baseman for the Red Sox, has been put to the disabled list due to a sprained digit. Infielder Alex Cora was also missing in action due to a bad elbow. Will the Red Sox ever break the injury streak soon?