The Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona is over the moon whenever he talks about hitter Kevin Youkilis as the power horse hitter has not compromised on his stylish bat swing to accommodate more power. The manager is appreciative of the fact that Youkilis has hit the ball out of the ballpark and is covering the plate with his power shots. The Red Sox power packed performer has made five homers in the last five games. The solid power play from the bat off Kevin Youkilis has made the Boston team to believe in their own capabilities and one can expect fireworks from the Red Sox players in the games to come.

Manny Ramirez one the most prolific hitters in the Red Sox camp proved it once again as he claimed career high 496^th homer last Saturday night in his team 5-3 win over the Rangers at the Fenway Park. The amazing power of Ramirez was there to see for everyone fan at Fenway Park as his magnificent two run homer may have crossed the Cask n Flagon on Lansdowne Street if it had not hit the light tower.

Ramirez later said that he wants to keep playing like this in the future as well and with every match that he is playing he seems to be building more and more confidence in himself and his hitting powers. Manny Ramirez has now mustered 9 go ahead RBIs and also has a record of six game winning RBIs. Ramirez is pretty confident of keeping this rich vein of form going for a longer period of time.

All eyes were on Terry Francona as he checked his mobile phone. He hesitates, then re-checks the message again: “David Ortiz wanted in” he declared.

Although he suffered a bad start in his current career, Ortiz is now back in the starting Red Sox lineup Monday night against the Cleveland Indians. Previously he sat out a game against the New York Yankees to clear his head and regain his excellent batting stroke.

Ortiz, or more fondly known as Big Papi and Senor Papi, previously played for the Minnesota Twins team. He has also been known to play in a grand total of four All Star games. Most notably, he was the major driving force behind the Red Sox’s victory in the 2007 season, helping them obtain their seventh World Series title. He managed to do so even when he is suffering from a torn meniscus in his right knee on top of existing injuries to his shoulder and quadriceps.

A construction worker, who was also a Red Sox fan, decided to use his vast superstitious know-how to jinx the Yanks when he was found burying a Red Sox shirt deep in the recesses of the concrete foundation of the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium. The news was revealed when two construction workers at the new visitors’ clubhouse told the public regarding the stint on the condition that they were to remain anonymous.

In his exact words, one of the construction workers said: “In August, a Red Sox shirt was poured in a slab in the visitors’ clubhouse. It’s the curse of the Yankee. Nobody knows about it. It’s in the floors, it’s buried.”

The second worker revealed his fear that the Yankees would be jinxed and that he did not want to be held responsible for causing the downfall of the franchise. However, the Red Sox team declined to confirm the allegations and instead told the public that this was just a mere April Fool’s joke!

Craig Shipley, the Red Sox Vice president for international scouting and Jon Deeble the Pacific Rim coordinator together announced that the team has signed Terumasa Matsuo, a free agent from Shikoku Island league in Japan. Matsuo is aright handed pitcher and was the most valuable player of Shikoku Island league in 2007. He made 15 wins and 159 strike outs in the league. He has earned a run average of 1.72 and has permitted only 85 hits from 152.0 innings with 30 starts.

In Shikoku Islands Best Nine team he was selected as the pitcher. The Red Sox fans can expect that their team is getting a good pitcher and it will strengthen the team. Matsuo is anticipated by the team officials at the Fort Meyers spring training camp by early this week. He has made a good record with 11-2 in 2006. He made 134 strike outs and 98 hits from 138.0 innings.

Josh Beckett the ace of Red Sox who was kept in the disabled list from March 19th due to tightness of lower back is all set to come back to the team. He started his work outs at the Minor League Complex of Red Sox from last weekend. His work out was monitored by the Minor league pitching coordinator of Red Sox, Ralph Truel and he is happy with the way Josh is progressing.

Beckett will pitch for an intrasquad game which will have most of the class A players. He played a match in a Minor League and had a scoreless innings. In that match he made 47 pitches, 33 strikes, six strike outs and allowed one hit with no walks. Treuel and the Red Sox fans are expecting more pitches from him in the coming matches. Beckett said that he is now completely out of pain that he was experiencing since March 8th.

Hideki Okajima became the first Japanese player to win the Major League game held in Japan. The Red Sox team in which Okajima is a player defeated the Athletics 6-5 in Japan. The Tokyo dome was actually home to Okajima as he was a part of the Yomiuri Giants for 11 seasons and the Red Sox fans cheered him and supported him throughout the game. Okajima appreciated the encouragement he got from the Japanese audience and dedicated his win to the fans.

Dalsuke Matsuzaka, another Red Sox player from Japan, was expected to shine in the match but unfortunately it was not his day. He couldn’t pitch his balls as expected and was called back after the fifth innings. Later, Dalsuke admitted that he was a bit nervous and excited about playing before the home crowd. But, he is happy that the Red Sox team won the match even though he was not happy with his own performance.

The Red Sox players and families took a ride in the Black Hawk helicopter to Zama, an U.S army base as part of their field trip. The members in the group included Tim Wakefield along with his wife, Mike Timlin with his son Jake, Curt Schilling and Bryan Corey. They were provided with two 12- seat choppers and they flew over Tokyo at an altitude of 1,000 feet. They were able to get a clear vision of the sky scrapers of Tokyo and other sights like the golf courses, baseball fields, mountains etc.

It was Timlin’s second ride in a helicopter and he had a video camera with him. The players attended a public event at a gymnasium in the Camp Zama. They were taken to the venue in a small bus from the helipad. The soldiers were very happy and thrilled to see the Red Sox players. All the players were gifted with coins which are given for the excellence, by the soldiers. The players gave autographed jersey to the army officials.

Bryan Corey entered into the roster spots of Red Sox with patience and perseverance. Corey was able to put his hard luck into past with his determination to be the part of the team. The special ability of Corey is that he can send the left-handed batsmen out easily. This might help his entry into the team roster this year. The 34 year right- hander was struggling to get his play right, from his entry to baseball in 1993. The first two pro seasons were not very rewarding for him, but in 1995 he was able to make a difference as he was asked by Detroit to pitch the ball.

In 1997 expansion draft, he was taken by the Arizona Team and he did his Major League debut in the year 1998. He has played for Tigers, Padres, Cubs, Marlins, Dodgers and Rangers but has made only four entries to the Major League games till 2006. It was in July 30th 2006 that Corey was acquired by Red Sox in exchange of Luis Mendoza. He appeared in nine games in the regular season with Red Sox last year but couldn’t make it to the roster. Corey is optimistic that the opportunity to go out and show his pitching abilities will come to him this season.

The Red Sox Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka will start his second season for his team in his homeland and will be getting the honor of pitching on the Opening day on March 25th against Oakland Athletics at Tokyo Dome. The manager of the Red Sox team had announced that Matsuzaka, the hot favorite Japanese player, will take the field against the A’s in the opening match and the left handed pitcher Lester will have the honors of opening the second game against Oakland.

Dice K said that he was pretty thrilled to pitch on the Opening day and will be stepping into the shoes of the injured Josh Beckett as the ace pitcher for the Red Sox and feels honored to do so. Matsuzaka who became the father to a son last Saturday came back to the practice session and threw 58 pitches. The pitching coach Farrell said that the workout that Dice K had was to reacclimatize him to playing conditions after spending a couple of days with his family. Matsuzaka is to pitch in the Red Sox’s Grapefruit League final slated today against the Blue Jays and will be his final match tune up before the Opening day game. Dice K says that he loves to pitch at the Japan Dome and is waiting to showcase his pitching skills to help his team achieve their goals.