Postgame, Red Sox 6-5: Well, we have our first walk-off of the year, which is always nice to see, no matter what time of year.
Tony Pena Jr. gets the win despite giving up a run in the top of the ninth. The big story is John Lackey throwing four scoreless and looking extremely good in doing so, even if it was a sure travel squad for the Orioles.
We get back at it tomorrow with another day of split-squad affairs. While half the team goes to Jupiter to take on St. Louis, we will stay behind and follow the action when Houston comes to town.
Josh Beckett gets the start after missing one due to the concussion he suffered last week.
Final, Red Sox 6-5: Yamaico Navarro is the hero! He lines a game-winning single to left to score Oscar Tejeda with two outs in the ninth. Off to hear from Tito.
Mid 9th, 5-5: It’s been a real struggle for Tony Pena Jr. He adds two more walks and now has five in 2 2/3 innings this spring.
Fortunately for him, Daniel Nava made a nice throw on a hit to left, the second time he has done so this spring (one was cut off but it was still a nice relay, so work with me).
Pena battles back and strikes out Tyler Henson to end it.
We may have our second Boston-Baltimore tie in a span of three days.
End 8th, 5-5: It’s the eighth inning of a game on March 7 between one team that played three games over the weekend and another that is playing two today. You should expect some ugly play.
That’s what you got in the eighth. Two Baltimore errors give the Red Sox the tying run.
Che-Hsuan Lin reached and moved to second when pitcher Chorye Spoon threw away a pickoff attempt. Jose Iglesias then tapped one to shortstop, but it went right under the glove of whichever guy was playing the position for Baltimore. Lin scored without a throw.
Tony Pena Jr. is on for Boston. He struggled a tad against Baltimore two days ago.
Mid 8th, Orioles 5-4: Baltimore has scored in four straight innings to take the lead for the first time. A triple by Josh Bell that got past a diving Darnell McDonald in center set it up.
Bell scored rather easily on a sacrifice fly to right. Even though he had almost no chance, Red Sox right fielder Che-Hsuan Lin made a great throw to at least keep it interesting. Lin is the reigning defensive player of the year on the farm and showed off his arm right there.
End 7th, 4-4: Oscar Tejeda improves to 8-for-15 (.533) this spring with a one-out single in the seventh.
He has been one of the bright spots early on. Keep an eye on his progress this season, likely to start at Portland.
Mid 7th, 4-4: Kyle Weiland gives up a couple more hard hits. One, a double by Nolan Reimold, plates the tying run.
The last out is made on a drive to the warning track in center field that Darnell McDonald runs down.
These two teams had a 4-4 tie two days ago in Sarasota. What are the chances we see a sequel?
End 6th, Red Sox 4-3: The Red Sox strand a runner in the sixth. It was Jose Iglesias, who was running for Marco Scutaro.
Iglesias played 19 innings in less than 24 hours between Friday and Saturday, so he was given Sunday off and obviously will only have a few innings in this one.
Kyle Weiland is pitching the seventh.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 4-3: Kyle Weiland wiggled out of a bases-loaded situation by getting Joe Mahoney on a long fly to center.
One note to add to the previous stuff. David Ortiz is 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.
As for Jon Lester and John Lackey, not a ton to report. Both felt perfectly fine in their outings, Lester in a simulated game and Lackey in the real one.
Lackey threw 16 more pitches in the bullpen after leaving this one to get up to 55. He has yet to mix in his cutter, which will come in his next outing, but said he was pleased with his changeup.
2:45 p.m.: As I left the press box to hear from Jon Lester and John Lackey the Orioles were putting the finishing touches on a two-run rally in the fifth.
The Sox fought back with a Dustin Pedroia double and a Carl Crawford single to make it 4-2. Crawford later stole his second bag of the day.
Right now Kyle Weiland is on the mound and struggling, He gave up a single, double and a walk with one out and then walked in a run with two outs.
2:17 p.m.: Heading down to hear from Jon Lester. Back in a second.
End 4th, Red Sox 3-0: It’s very likely the Red Sox will have to use another reserve infielder other than Jed Lowrie sooner rather than later. It’s just hard to get by with one guy as a backup, even with such versatility.
Drew Sutton is a guy that doesn’t get discussed much, but he’s played pretty well this past week or so. He entered hitting .286 and just drew a two-out walk with a pretty good at-bat. Plus, he has done a nice job in the field while playing a few positions.
Dan Wheeler is on in place of John Lackey. Darnell McDonald takes over for Jacoby Ellsbury, who is likely part of the travel squad to Jupiter tomorrow. David Ortiz is also on that bus, according to Terry Francona.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 3-0: John Lackey is likely finished after retirned the final 12 guys he faces.
Still, he is having a pretty serious discussion with a pair of umpires as he makes his way off the field. It wasn’t heated, but they weren’t exchanging numbers either.
We should hear from Lackey in an inning or so and we can find out what he was asking them.
End 3rd, Red Sox 3-0: Chris Tillman has settled down rather nicely for the Orioles. He has set down six in a row, including strikeouts of Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz.
John Lackey is indeed out to work another inning. He is facing a second-rate lineup, so it’s hard to tell exactly how well he is throwing, but he looks pretty smooth.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 3-0: Dustin Pedroia caught a high pop for the first out. Dustin Pedroia ranged to his left to make a nice play for the second out. Dustin Pedroia made a routine play for the third out.
Good guy for John Lackey to rely on. Lackey should get another inning of work due to who quickly he has moved through the last two. We’ll see. The bullpen is hidden from view here so it is just a guess.
End 2nd, Red Sox 3-0: Orioles starter Chris Tillman stiffened Dustin Pedroia with a heater up and in with two strikes, then blew one by him on the outside part of the plate. Pretty good piece of pitching with a runner on second.
Trailing John Lackey today will be Dan Wheeler, Randy Williams, Kyle Weiland and Tony Pena Jr.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 3-0: John Lackey breezed through the second inning on about six pitches or so (might’ve missed one).
Lackey will get three innings, but could get a fourth if his pitch count is low enough.
End 1st, Red Sox 3-0: It was noted earlier in our lineup piece that Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford and Kevin Youkilis entered this one a combined 6-for-40 (.150) this spring, and all the hits were singles.
They still have nothing but singles, but you can add three more to the left column and a stolen base for Crawford, his first as a member of the Red Sox.
Ellsbury and Pedroia singled to start the inning. Crawford hit into a force that erased Pedroia, but Youkilis followed with a base hit to center to start the scoring.
Crawford and Youkilis executed a double steal and J.D. Drew knocked a line drive into right field to score them both.
Mid 1st, 0-0: A single, stolen base and a sacrifice bunt gave the Orioles a prime scoring opportunity.
With one out, John Lackey got Nolan Reimold to bounce one deep to third base. Backing up, Kevin Youkilis played the ball, looked the runner back to third and made the long throw across the diamond. Nice play.
An easy fly to center got Lackey out of it. Now we get to look at most of the regulars for the Red Sox. Once Adrian Gonzalez returns is 5-7 days (an educated guess), we will see the likely Opening Day order put together for the first time.
1:00 p.m.: Some hiccups during the national anthem as our singer had a few issues, but the ever-supportive crowd at City of Palms Park piped in and carried her to the finish line. Nice moment out of what could’ve been a rough one.
Anyway, we are a few minutes away. Willie Randolph is delivering the lineup card for the Orioles, looking more fit than 90 percent of the players out there.
12:32 p.m.: Jon Lester threw 43 pitches in three innings just a moment ago. He finished with three more off the mound before calling it quits. 43+3=46.
Looked strong, kept the ball down for the most part, and used everything.
There were a pair of hard-hit balls, one by Oscar Tejeda (naturally) and another to the gap in right-center field by Che-Hsuan Lin. Ryan Lavarnway, Hector Luna and Nate Spears also stepped in against the lefty.
It appears to be all systems go for Lester. He got over his illness rather quickly and it was probably a blessing in disguise. He never had to make the 7-hour round trip to Port St. Lucie.
10:44 a.m.: Just heard from Terry Francona, who said that Jon Lester will just stay on his regular schedule and start Friday.
That’s the good thing about having setbacks this early on. Guys can have a side session and get almost as much out of it than they would throwing three innings in a game. In some ways it can be even better since they can work with their pitches with a little more freedom.
Sox are taking BP. Baltimore has a split-squad day, so it sent a second-rate crew. Here is the Orioles lineup:
Matt Angle, RF
Randy Winn, CF
Nolan Reimold, LF
Jake Fox, C
Josh Bell, 3B
Brendan Harris, DH
Robert Andino, 2B
Joe Mahoney, 1B
Cesar Izturis, SS
9:12 a.m.: Another quick note. Jon Lester is scheduled to throw on the back field later this morning. He was in the clubhouse and in good spirits. Seems to be just fine and hopefully won’t be set back in any way by the flu bug.
8:44 a.m.: It is Labor Day here in camp, as the organization gets its annual visit from the MLB Players Association, including executive director Michael Weiner.
We will hear from Weiner later on and pass along everything he has to say on umpiring, postseason expansion and any other issue that involves input from the players.
Speaking of players, here are nine of them, the Red Sox starting lineup for today’s matchup with Baltimore:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
J.D. Drew, RF
Marco Scutaro, SS
Jason Varitek, C
Drew Sutton, 1B
John Lackey is on the mound.
8 a.m.: John Lackey makes his second start of the spring when the Red Sox host the Baltimore Orioles on Monday afternoon at City of Palms Park.
The Sox will be settling down after a wild three days that saw them play four games, three of them on the road and two on a split-squad Saturday. Bus trips of more than two hours to Tampa on Friday and more than three hours to Port St. Lucie on Sunday were among the four games. They went 1-2-1 on the stretch, dropping a 6-5 decision to the New York Mets on Sunday, despite home runs from Juan Carlos Linares, Tim Federowicz and Josh Reddick.
Jon Lester was scratched from the trip to Port St. Lucie due to the flu.
Lackey allowed a solo homer to former Boston shortstop Alex Gonzalez in two innings of work against Atlanta last week in his spring training debut. He is scheduled to be followed by Dan Wheeler, lefty Randy Williams and Kyle Weiland.
Baltimore will start right-hander Chris Tillman. The Orioles were the one tie on the Sox’ slate over the weekend, forging a 4-4 deadlock against a Boston split squad up in Sarasota on Saturday.
