It was a big night for a number of position prospects in the Red Sox system, with noteworthy contributions from Will Middlebrooks, Xander Bogaerts and Sean Coyle. That said, the most important performance of the day might have been a single scoreless inning, that turned in by right-hander Mark Melancon in his Triple-A debut.

None of the reliever’s four appearances in the big leagues this year occurred without at least one run being scored. In Pawtucket, he has a chance to hit the reset button, particularly now that he is working with a 0.00 ERA rather than a 49.50 mark.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 15-10 WIN VS. DURHAM (RAYS)

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– Another day, another terrific line for Will Middlebrooks, who is amidst the best stretch of his career. He went 2-for-4 with a homer (his third straight game with a longball), a walk, three runs and four more runs knocked in. In his last 10 games, he is hitting .395/.435/.837/1.272 with six homers and 19 RBI.

Overall, he is tied for fourth in all of the minor leagues in both homers (6) and RBI (20).

Middlebrooks only has one other streak of homers in three straight games, that coming last June 26-28 when he went deep in three consecutive contests while on a rehab assignment with the Lowell Spinners.

One interesting note on Middlebrooks’ power this year — in contrast to a year ago, when most of his power was from center to right-center, Middlebrooks is pulling more homers this year, including his three-run bomb to left in Pawtucket on Saturday night. That was his fourth homer to left this season.

– Mark Melancon made his first appearance in Triple-A, striking out two and allowing a single in a scoreless inning of work. He needed just 11 pitches (eight strikes) to blitz through his inning of work.

– Alex Hassan clubbed his first homer in Triple-A, a grand slam, to cap a 2-for-4 night.

– First baseman Mauro Gomez went 4-for-4 with a pair of homers and a walk. He’s now hitting .356/.397/.661/1.058 for the season, though most of his damage has come at home. He’s hit all four of his homers at McCoy Stadium, .500/.542/1.091/1.633 in 24 plate appearances.

DOUBLE-A PORTLAND SEA DOGS: 7-5 LOSS AT BINGHAMTON (METS) Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time in his career, Clay Buchholz has allowed at least five earned runs in three straight starts. (AP)

The absence of Clay Buchholz from the Red Sox rotation had a destabilizing effect on the 2011 team that contributed to the team’s collapse in September. This year, however, even though Buchholz is back, he has done little to restore order to the starting staff.

Quite the contrary. Friday, in a 6-2 Red Sox loss to the Yankees, Buchholz continued an early-season string of rough line scores. The Yankees clubbed five homers (all of the solo variety) against the 27-year-old, who took the loss while allowing nine hits and walking two in six innings. He struck out two.

Considering that he gave up five homers, Buchholz actually did a solid job of minimizing the damage and preventing the game from getting out of hand. Aside from the five bad pitches that the Yankees blasted over the sundry Fenway Park fences, the right-hander was relatively precise. Still, it was difficult to look at the outing as a positive one after the Sox suffered their fourth straight defeat to drop to 2-9.

“Against a lot of the hitters, he was very competitive and then those home runs, out of the windup, no one on, they were perplexing,” said Sox manager Bobby Valentine. “He had a good curveball. His fastball was located down nicely a lot of the times but at least four of the times, passed ball wasn’t located properly. He’s still building. This is a guy, he didn’t pitch all of last year and he’s still getting his feet underneath him.”

Buchholz (1-2, 9.00 ERA) disputed the “still building” theory. He suggested that he feels like, physically, he’s in position to succeed, and that he simply needs to locate better.

That certainly seemed the case with some of the homers he allowed on Friday, since in most of those at-bats, Buchholz had counts that should have put the Yankees on the defensive. The Sox’ starter left a 2-2 fastball over the plate to Nick Swisher, elevated an 0-2 changeup to Eric Chavez and later left a 90 mph cutter to Chavez on a 3-2 pitch. All of those were tattooed for homers, as was a first-pitch cutter to Alex Rodriguez and a 1-0 fastball to Russell Martin.

“It’s really simple. I made five mistakes today, and they hit them,” Buchholz frowned. “I feel 100 percent healthy. I don’t think last year has anything to do with it. Today was just a matter of missing up in the zone. When you get a team like that can hit mistakes, you can’t miss up in the zone or on the plate. That was the case today.”

Such a claim might have seemed more heartening to the pitcher if Friday’s loss to the Yankees had come after a string of strong performances. But that hasn’t been the case. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Millar and Pedro Martinez served as toastmasters for the 100th birthday celebration of Fenway Park. (AP)

Pedro Martinez once again brought a jolt of electricity to Fenway Park with his presence, as his entry onto the field through the tunnel in center field drew one of the most emotional reactions of the day from the crowd, with the three-time Cy Young winner returning the affection by pointing to several parts of the park to express his affection for the place of his most lasting baseball memories.

Few players have ever had the affair with Fenway Park that Martinez did. Indeed, as Martinez noted, he is one of the few Red Sox stars who left town as a free agent yet continued to be a beloved figure in the city and region.

“I don’t want to curse this — and I don’t think I can anymore, because I’m not going to be playing anymore, and my love for Boston is always going to be in my heart,” Martinez prefaced. “I might be the only player that has gone away from Boston and still had the same support from the fans. Gone and being here, has the same support I got. I’m very privileged to the be that player that was never booed and never left a sour grape in Boston.”

That being the case, the pitcher’s affinity for Boston and for Fenway Park remains undampened, as fresh now as it was during the seven seasons he spent with the Sox from 1998-2004. The Sox recognized that in selecting Martinez (along with Kevin Millar, another member of the iconic 2004 team that claimed the first Red Sox World Series in 86 years) to deliver the pre-game toast to Fenway Park. After the toast, Martinez described the magic that he feels inside of the ballpark that celebrated its 100th birthday on Friday.

“My feeling is unique toward Fenway, unique toward the city, unique in every aspect. Fenway has a way that you can’t find it anywhere else,” said Martinez. “You might find [it in] Chicago, with a little bit of tradition. But when it comes to Fenway, there’s nothing you can compare it to. I have been in many other fields and I have been all around the leagues, played in the National League, too. Even the old Yankee Stadium, there’s nothing that can be compared to Fenway. It must be the closeness that the stadium gives you. If you messed it up, you’re going to hear it. They’re going to let you know. And you can hear it. The same way when you do something good for Boston, you’re going to hear it and they’re going to embrace you. You’re going to feel, sometimes, people breathing close to you. That’s how close they are to you at Fenway. Fenway’s the only stadium that can give you that. Fenway becomes a unique place, and it should remain that way.” Read the rest of this entry »

For all the latest from the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first major league baseball game played in Fenway Park, as well as updates, analysis and all the latest from the matchup of the 7-6 Yankees and 4-8 Red Sox — the two franchises that christened Fenway 100 years  ago — join the live blog, below.

Ryan Sweeney. (AP)

Bobby Valentine had all of spring training to concoct the Red Sox lineup. But never did he conjure anything along the lines of the batting order that he printed out on Friday for the contest against the Yankees.

Valentine inserted Ryan Sweeney in the second spot in the lineup, between leadoff man Mike Aviles and second baseman Dustin Pedroia. That approach reflects the fact that Sweeney is off to a spectacular start (he’s hitting .424, second in the American League) and the fact that he represents a good counterpart for Aviles.

Aviles (hitting .268 with a .318 OBP and .463 slugging mark this year) is typically an aggressive hitter, averaging 3.48 pitches per plate appearance in his career (below the major league average of 3.81 during that span) and 3.67 this year. The Sox want him to continue to approach his craft thusly while batting.

Sweeney (.424/.476/.624), meanwhile, embraces the virtues of patience by nature. He is averaging 4.11 pitches per plate appearance this year, a slight tick up from his above-average 3.95 for his career. Given the likelihood that Sweeney will work deep into the count (he has put a first pitch in play just 104 times in his career; he has never put a 3-0 pitch in play; and he rarely swings at 1-0 or 2-0 pitches), Valentine liked putting him next to Aviles in the lineup.

Doing so, the manager believes, will also benefit Pedroia. Pedroia (.271/.340/.521) is averaging 4.09 pitches per plate appearance, but while unquestionably become a more selective hitter, he still benefits from having the freedom to attack a first pitch in his wheelhouse. And so, in a way, the insertion of Sweeney into the second spot could allow both Aviles and Pedroia to feel comfortable with their natural approaches.

“Obviously Ryan’s been hitting the ball and being on base as much as anyone,” said Valentine. “The pitches it seems have been working for him, he might be in a more favorable position to get them. Mike’s an aggressive hitter. At times, he’s had very good at-bats where he’s extended the at-bat. I don’t want to take the aggressiveness away from him. Sweeney is a very patient guy so there’s not a problem with Mike having a quick at-bat with Sweeney coming up and taking a pitch and not having Dustin sitting there thinking he might be the guy to do that so that kind of grouping works a little, I hope.”

While the arrangement makes sense to Valentine, he admitted that it reflects the need to adapt on the fly to the realities now confronting the Red Sox, chiefly the fact that Jacoby Ellsbury is out.

“It wasn’t one of the ones I was planning in spring training, believe me,” said Valentine. “I had 33 games in spring training and this wasn’t one of the groupings I had thought about.”

Fenway Park in 1946 (AP)

It is an extraordinary day in the life of a ballpark, as Fenway Park prepares to become the first American sports venue to observe its 100th birthday. It is a day when an address and a building will relegate to parentheses the two big league teams with the largest payrolls (the Yankees and Red Sox).

“It’s the baseball land of Oz,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said of the ballpark that he now calls home. “People dream about this place.”

Valentine recalled how, when he visited Fenway as the manager of the Rangers (in the ’80s and early ’90s) and again with the Mets (who came to Fenway for interleague games between 1997-2002, when Valentine was their skipper) that Fenway Park felt “old.” No longer, he suggested. The park has undergone renewal and feels vital, no more so than on Thursday, when over 54,000 fans came to the open house to wander through the park and connect with its many nooks and crannies.

“I would say that this ballpark has created as many memories for people in this area and around the world as any venue in the world,” said Valentine. “Today, there’ll be a memory created for me and everybody else who’s here today.”

As for the nuts and bolts of the Red Sox roster…

– The Red Sox gave some thought to having Jon Lester start on Sunday, which would have been the scheduled day for Daniel Bard to start. However, the Sox are going to stick with Bard as the scheduled starter for Sunday night (a day with heavy rain in the forecast) with Lester slated for Monday. A couple factors weigh into that. Part of the equation is the desire to keep Bard on a regular starter’s routine as he adjusts to his new role. More significant, however, was the fact that Lester required 80 pitches for just two-plus innings in his most recent start on Tuesday, and the Sox wanted him to have an extra day of rest.

“Throwing 80 pitches in two innings, that’s like throwing 150 pitches in eight, or more. It might even be more strenuous,” said Valentine. “To have him throw a bullpen yesterday, I don’t think that was the proper thing to do. I think that extra day of rest is exactly what he needs at this time. It’s a combination. I think if it was a rainout, it would be a much bigger, easier situation.”

– Left-hander Andrew Miller, coming off an outing on Thursday in which he threw just 20 of 50 pitches for strikes, will remain in Triple-A Pawtucket. He will no longer work on scheduled days, but instead be used whenever PawSox manager Arnie Beyeler sees fit. Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Miller had mixed results in his most recent outing for the PawSox. (AP)

The good news for Andrew Miller was that he tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings while striking out three. He came into a game in the middle of an inning (the fifth, to be exact), and after walking the first batter he faced, he settled to strike out the next hitter. He then got through a scoreless sixth before returning to the mound for the seventh, when he gave up a leadoff double, with the runner stranded by reliever Will Inman.

But … Miller walked four and allowed that double, and he required 50 pitches to record his four outs. Just 20 of those pitches were strikes. To put that in context, since 2000, there have been just 10 instances of a major league pitcher throwing 50 or more pitches while throwing strikes at a rate of 40 percent or less.

Miller has made four rehab appearances in Pawtucket (4 1/3 innings, four runs, nine strikeouts, nine walks) and two more in Greenville (two shutout innings, three strikeouts, no walks). Sox manager Bobby Valentine said on Wednesday that the team wanted to see Miller have “at least one other good performance in Triple-A,” hoping that he would build on an appearance on Monday in which he struck out the side, before getting activated from the disabled list. Whether Thursday qualified is in the eye of the beholder, though with a Yankees lineup that features Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson, the Sox could certainly benefit from having a wealth of left-handed options.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 11-7 WIN AT SYRACUSE (NATIONALS)

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– Alex Wilson was roughed up for six runs on eight hits and two walks in just 3 2/3 innings while allowing his first homer of the season. He struck out six.

In three starts, Wilson now has 16 strikeouts and four walks in 13 2/3 innings. Interestingly, he has an 11/0 strikeout/walk ratio against righties as compared to a 5/4 rate against lefties, with righties hitting .226 against him and lefties at .480.

– Will Middlebrooks continued his torrid stretch, going 2-for-5 with a homer and four RBI. In his last six games, he is now hitting .423 with four homers and 13 RBI. Read the rest of this entry »