Postgame, Red Sox 3-2: A couple of quick notes to pass on before we say goodbye for another night.
Pretty good showing by the bullpen in this one as Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, Dennys Reyes and Matt Fox combined for four scoreless, hitless innings, striking out eight and walking one.
Terry Francona on Reyes, whom he was seeing for the first time:
“Threw a couple of good breaking balls. When he’s down with his two-seamer it’s got good depth to it and he threw a couple of real good breaking balls to Chris Johnson, down around his back ankle, which is what he needs to do.”
Reyes got the win. Fox struck out the side in the ninth for the save.
Mike Cameron is dealing with a minor case of right knee tendinitis. Francona said he could’ve played Tuesday, but what’s the rush:
“Just didn’t think it made sense to play him today and then maybe limp for the next week. We’re not in a pennant race right now so we just want him to feel good.”
Francona replied by saying “Probably, about right” when asked if he thought Adrian Gonzalez might be able to play in a week.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Paul Hoover combined to go 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and a run scored. Francona was more pleased with Salty’s play behind the plate.
We are back at it Wednesday night, when I will be live blogging from the booth with Don and Jerry once again. Promise to shave.
Final, Red Sox 3-2: Matt Fox nails it shut and the Red Sox have won two in a row here at City of Palms. Back in a moment to wrap it up for you.
End 8th, Red Sox 3-2: Nate Spears has an RBI in each of his last two at-bats to put the Red Sox ahead.
The second baseman for Houston actually made a great diving stop of Spears’ hard grounder with two outs in the eighth. The throw pulled Koby Clemens off the bag and Spears was safe as a Red Sox runner scampered in from third.
Matt Fox is on to make his case for the closer’s role. He gave up a one-run lead in the ninth inning in Sarasota on Saturday.
Mid 8th, 2-2: Dennys Reyes’ second inning in a Red Sox uniform begins with a walk, but he gets the next three in order.
The full story will be up soon, but Josh Beckett talked at length about a slight alteration he made in his delivery today. He shortened his stride to the plate a tiny bit, and the immediate beneficiary was his curveball, which was excellent.
End 7th, 2-2: As the clouds roll into Fort Myers, nothing doing for the Red Sox in the seventh.
Dennys Reyes has jogged in and will make his second appearance of the spring for Boston. He looked solid in a perfect frame at Sarasota on Saturday.
Mid 7th, 2-2: Two strikeouts in a perfect seventh for Daniel Bard. Get up and stretch!
End 6th, 2-2: The middle of the Red Sox order has reached base six out of nine plate appearances (3-for-6, three walks).
Leading that charge has been Jarrod Saltalamacchia, now 2-for-2 with a walk after a single in the sixth put runners on the corners with one out.
A walk to Josh Reddick (always a good sign) gave Boston the bases loaded for the second time in three innings. This time, they actually scored, but just once on an RBI groundout by Nate Spears.
Daniel Bard is taking over, having allowed four runs on five hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings so far.
Mid 6th, Astros 2-1: Jonathan Papelbon has set down all nine men he has faced this spring.
He got the first out in the sixth on a classic up-and-in, down-and-away sequence against Chris Johnson.
Papelbon threw a fastball in tight that Johnson tried to get out of the way of, but the ball hit his bat. Johnson, son of Red Sox first base coach Ron Johnson, fall all the way back toward the Boston dugout and then shot a playful look in, likely at old pops.
Papelbon then went away with something soft and Johnson flailed at it.
End 5th, Astros 2-1: Ryan Kalish entered this one 2-for-16 but has three hits in as many at-bats.
Kalish’s single moved Jose Iglesias (hit by a pitch) to third. Iglesias scored Boston’s first run when Dustin Pedroia hit into a 5-4-3 double play for the second time this game.
Jonathan Papelbon is your new pitcher.
Mid 5th, Astros 2-0: When we left the Red Sox had the bases loaded an no outs in the fourth, but a strikeout and line-drive double play squashed that opportunity.
The Astros scored a run on three hits and a hit batter by Matt Albers.
2:24 p.m.: Josh Beckett will now be heard. Sox have bases loaded and no outs in the fourth as I leave you, Josh Reddick up.
Mid 4th, Astros 1-0: Matt Albers gets the Red Sox out of the fourth, stranding a runner at first.
Josh Beckett threw 55 pitches, 30 for strikes.
2:10 p.m.: Josh Beckett gets two outs and gives up a hit in the fourth and that will be it. He has to feel great about this outing. Really only one hard-hit ball off of him, one walk and four strikeouts.
Matt Albers takes Beckett’s place.
Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight” is playing as Albers warms. I don’t think that’s his choice.
End 3rd, Astros 1-0: Josh Beckett just sprinted onto the mound for his fourth inning of work. It took another 10 seconds or so before anyone other than Jarrod Saltalamacchia emerged from the Red Sox dugout.
Safe to say Beckett is feeling pretty good about himself.
Ryan Kalish is 2-for-2 after a base hit to start the third. He was erased on a 5-4-3 double play and Carl Crawford bounced to second for the final out.
Mid 3rd, Astros 1-0: The Astros have two hits off of Josh Beckett but both could’ve been outs.
The flare to right off the bat of Drew Locke that went for a double in the first was either a wind or sun issue for Josh Reddick.
Nate Spears knocked down a ball at third in the third and was late getting it over to first. It goes in the books as a hit but it was a makeable play.
Beckett has four strikeouts, three on nice curves to end each inning and one on Bill Hall in the third with a hard heater. The righty looks very good after some early command issues.
End 2nd, Astros 1-0: The Sox have three doubles — each of them ropes — and a walk in two innings but nothing to show for it.
Jose Iglesias just had a pretty good battle before flying to right with two on to end the second.
Mid 2nd, Astros 1-0: With his famous father apparently watching from a private suite, Koby Clemens grounds out to start the second.
Can’t see good old Roger from this angle, but word has circulated that he is indeed in the house. Roger is in George’s box!
Anyway, Josh Beckett has a nice 1-2-3 inning. For the second frame in a row he finishes off a hitter to end it on a vicious breaking ball.
End 1st, Astros 1-0: A great at-bat by Ryan Kalish to start the bottom of the first inning (worked a 3-2 count, fouled off a handful of pitches) results in a leadoff double.
However, he is thrown out at third trying to advance on a Dustin Pedroia grounder to short. If Kalish had a flaw in his first season with the Red Sox it was an occassional tendency to be too aggressive on the bases. Probably a case of that there.
Speaking of aggressiveness on the bases, Pedroia tried to steal second two pitches into the next at-bat but was thrown out.
The Sox could’ve had a pair of runners on when Carl Crawford went the other way for a double. Instead, they get nothing when J.D. Drew looks at a called third strike.
Still, good signs all around. Kalish and Crawford both go the other way with power and Pedroia running hard.
Mid 1st, Astros 1-0: One might expect Josh Beckett to have a little rust early in this one, and he did.
Beckett walked leadoff man T.J. Steele, who promptly stole second base, and had a 3-0 count on Bill Hall before getting him to ground to third.
An unassisted putout for Jed Lowrie at first is the second out and then that nasty wind made its presence felt.
I mentioned it in the prior post that it would cause some problems and it does when a lazy fly off the bat of Drew Locke falls in front of Josh Reddick in right for an RBI double. Reddick was coming in slowly before he realized too late that the ball was completely knocked down. A last-second dive came up short and Locke, a BC product, raced into second.
A quality curveball by Beckett strikes out Chris Johnson for the final out.
12:53 p.m.: The Red Sox are wearing their home whites for this one. They will only do that three more times after Tuesday.
Looks good on a sunny day.
Speaking of weather conditions, we have our usual strong wind coming in from right. It has caused issues with a handful of flies this past week and always makes for a few adventures.
Aside from seeing Josh Beckett in a game for the first time in nine days, there are a few other items to look for. One is Jed Lowrie playing his second game at first base. Also, we may get Jose Iglesias for a solid seven innings or so. He is hitting .400 this spring.
Time for the national anthem.
12:01 p.m.: A few news items to pass along to you as the Astros take batting practice.
Adrian Gonzalez took about 70 swings during BP and looked very strong once again. Look for more on his morning on the site in just a matter of moments.
Josh Beckett will have no limitations in his first start in nine days. He’ll go three or four, depending on his efficiency.
Carl Crawford will have a chance to see his old mates when he gets onto the travel roster for Thursday’s game at Tampa Bay.
Terry Francona talked about how Daniel Bard was a tad frustrated with his last outing. Bard has given up four runs on five hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings this spring. Bard told the skipper he wanted to get right back out there.
“Rather than throw a bullpen he wanted to have game action,” Francona said. “I think he felt like he’s got the bullpen down, he needs to face hitters. He needs it, we’ll give it to him.”
Bard is slated to be the second man out of the bullpen this afternoon.
Felix Doubront is progressing well throwing on flat ground. He was shut down about two weeks ago due to some elbow issues, but could be throwing off a mound soon. Francona said he should even get in a game not too far down the road.
“He’s doing well, and that was the whole idea behind it,” Francona said. “Maybe we could’ve rushed it a little more. I think we use good judgment. This kid’s too important for what we’re doing long term to gamble on a week in spring training.”
One slight change for Houston’s order, in case any Astros or Boston College or Boston College High fans are following along. Drew Locke, an alum of both institutions, is playing left field and batting cleanup in place of Jason Michaels, who was scratched.
Locke hit .338 at Double-A in 2009 and batted .279 with 17 homers at Triple-A Round Rock last season.
10:04 a.m.: Indeed, Bill Hall is in the lineup, as is Koby Clemens and Chris Johnson.
Here is the Houston batting order:
T.J. Steele, CF
Bill Hall, 2B
Brian Bogusevic, RF
Jason Michaels, LF
Chris Johnson, 3B
Koby Clemens, 1B
Tommy Manzella, SS
Humberto Quintero, C
Jose Carlos Thompson, DH
Terry Francona talked a bit about Hall:
“He’s a great guy. Think he kinda had a little resurgence for his career. Took a role that probably wouldn’t be his first choice and kinda ran with it. Because of that, now he’s gonna get to play every day. Good for him.
“He played center field, right field, second base, shortstop. He played everywhere and had the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark. He was very valuable.”
Asked if Francona talked to Brad Mills when the Astros manager was welcoming Hall to the fold, Francona said he had.
“He came highly recommended,” Francona said.
Hugs all around for Bill Hall as he is walking around saying hello to his former mates. During Francona’s quick session with reporters, Dustin Pedroia was heard screaming at security to kick a fan out who had been roaming the stands. That fan? Brad Mills.
Going to head down to take a closer look at Adrian Gonzalez taking some hacks. Back up in a moment.
9:11 a.m.: We will be on the lookout for Roger Clemens this afternoon. His son, Koby, is in the lineup for Houston, as is Chris Johnson, the son of Red Sox first base coach Ron Johnson.
Throw in a visit from old pal Brad Mills, the one-time bench coach for Terry Francona, and perhaps a Bill Hall sighting and we get quite the family affair at City of Palms Park.
I am going to give you two lineups. The first is for the game here at home vs. Houston. The second is for the contest in Jupiter vs. St. Louis:
Ryan Kalish, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
J.D. Drew, DH
Jed Lowrie, 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Josh Reddick, RF
Nate Spears, 3B
Jose Iglesias, SS
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Darnell McDonald, LF
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
Oscar Tejeda, 2B
Lars Anderson, 1B
Yamaico Navarro, SS
Juan Carlos Linares, RF
Mark Wagner, C
Adrian Gonzalez is slated to do live BP at 10:20 on the field. Will be watching.
8 a.m.: Josh Beckett gets back into a game for the first time in nine days when he makes a start against the Houston Astros at City of Palms Park on Tuesday.
After throwing two innings against Minnesota on Feb. 27, Beckett was scratched from his next outing after taking a ball to the left side of his head in batting practice the very next day. He threw three simulated innings Friday and got through the workout just fine.
Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard are among those slated to follow Beckett on the mound.
Half of the team will be taking the long trip to Jupiter for a meeting with St. Louis, making this the second split-squad day since Saturday.
Aneury Rodriguez makes the start for the Astros.
