Daniel Bard (right) meets with pitching coach Bob McClure and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia during the third inning of Sunday's game. (AP)

The Red Sox got to a pair of former Boston pitchers early and often as they beat the Indians, 12-1, Sunday at Fenway Park. The victory was Boston’s third in a row, and Daniel Bard‘s first win in the month of May.

The Red Sox had big innings in the first and seventh innings. They did their damage against Justin Masterson in the first, as they plated four runs on RBIs from Will Middlebrooks, Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Masterson eventually settled down but ended the day having allowed six earned runs over six innings thanks to a third-inning homer from Middlebrooks and another Saltalamacchia RBI single in the sixth.

It was once Masterson was out of the game that things really got out of hand. The Sox lit up former Sox reliever Dan Wheeler to the tune of five hits and six runs in the seventh inning, including a two-run homer from Saltalamacchia.

Bard went six innings, throwing 97 pitches and allowing one earned run. He walked four batters and struck out two. He had last won on April 27 before dropping his previous two starts.

Mauro Gomez made his major league debut as he came in to play first base in the eighth inning. The 27-year-old first baseman was recalled by the Sox prior to Sunday’s game with Darnell McDonald having been placed on the disabled list with an oblique injury.

The Sox will continue their six-game home Monday and Tuesday against the Mariners. Jon Lester will take the hill Monday against Jason Vargas.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

• It was up-and-down start for Bard, but he still kept the Indians to just one run on the day and picked up his first win in his last three starts. After a seven-pitch first inning and a relatively clean second inning (the lone exception being a walk to Travis Hafner), the wheels started to come off quickly for Bard. He walked in a run as one of three walks in the third inning, but he was fortunate to get a pair of double plays that helped get him back on track.

After walking in Jack Hannahan, Bard got Hafner to ground one to Dustin Pedroia to set up an inning-ending twin killing in the top of the third. The other double play ended the fifth inning. After Jason Kipnis singled to right with one out, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a line drive that was snagged by Mike Aviles. Kipnis dove back to first but couldn’t beat Aviles’ throw.

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Daniel Bard was charged with five runs in possibly the worst outing of his career. (AP)

It looked like Tim Wakefield would finally get his 200th career win Wednesday night in Toronto, as he left the game with a three-run lead, but a nightmarish performance from Daniel Bard and a career-high five earned runs from the reliever meant it would be yet an eighth straight appearance without a win for the knuckleballer. Though Boston made a late push with a two-run ninth, the Blue Jays defeated the Sox, 11-10 on a game that ended with Mike Aviles getting thrown out trying to take second.

Bard displayed major control issues, as he relieved Dan Wheeler and got the final out of the seventh, but as Wheeler also did, had difficulty when he went back out for the next inning. The hard-throwing reliever loaded the bases with nobody out by hitting Brett Lawrie, serving up a single to Adam Loewen (the first hit of the former pitcher’s career) and walking J.P. Arencibia. Though he came back to strike out Dwayne Wise and Escobar in succession, back to back walks to Eric Thames and Jose Bautista tied the game at eight, putting off Wakefield’s 200th win yet again. After Bard, who threw a career-high 36 pitches, was chased from the game, Edwin Encarnacion then doubled off Matt Albers to clear the bases, giving Toronto the win and Bard the loss.

As for Wakefield, the knuckle-baller tossed five innings for the Sox, allowing five runs (four earned) on three hits, while walking three, striking out three, and surrendering a two-run home run to Arencibia in the bottom of the second inning. Wednesday’s game was Wakefield’s eighth attempt at reaching the milestone since picking up career win No. 199 back on July 24 against the Mariners. Wakefield is 0-3 since that win.

With Wakefield not turning in an especially monumental performance, the Red Sox’ bats put him in a good position to get the the win by getting to Toronto starter Brandon Morrow. Home runs from Jacoby Ellsbury (who also had a double as part of a four-hit night) and David Ortiz and a pair of runs batted in from Marco Scutaro helped provide the 45-year-old with an 8-5 lead when he exited the game. Adrian Gonzalez hit his 24th homer of the season to lead off the top of the ninth, with Scutaro later driving in Ortiz to make it a one-run game in the ninth with his third RBI of the game.

The heavy output from the offense made it the second straight night in which they scored double-digit runs against the Jays in as many nights (they enjoyed a 14-0 victory Tuesday in Toronto) after being shutout for 11 innings on Monday.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

- Make that three straight appearances with at least one earned run for Wheeler dating back to Saturday’s three-run outing. The 33-year-old came on in relief of Franklin Morales and was able to get two outs to end the sixth inning, but his seventh inning was rocky. The reliever served up a double to Yunel Escobar, who would later score on an RBI single from Encarnacion. Wheeler left the game after allowing two hits, the one earned run and striking out one in 1 1/3 innings of work.

Before Saturday’s game against the Rangers, Wheeler had allowed just one earned run over his last 15 appearances.

- The Sox fell victim to a double-steal in the bottom of the third that was made worse by an errant throw from Scutaro, and right in the middle of it was Lawrie — the very man who doomed them in Monday’s walkoff Blue Jays win.

When Jarrod Saltalamacchia went to throw Lawrie out as the rookie took off for second, Bautista broke for home. The throw back to the plate from Scutaro was well to the left of of the catcher, and as the ball flew past the plate, Lawrie took third. He wouldn’t score on the play, as Adam Loewen struck out to end the inning on the next pitch.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

- Ellsbury reached the 25-homer milestone for the first time in his career, belting a first-pitch fastball from Morrow to right field for his 14th homer since the All-Star break. The homer also made him the 71st player since 1901 to have 25 homers and 25 stolen bases (he’s swiped 36 this year) in a single season, as was pointed out by WEEI.com’s Alex Speier on twitter. Ellsbury was stopped short of picking up his 37th steal of the season, as he was gunned down by Arencibia to end the top of the sixth inning.

It was Ellsbury’s third four-hit performance of the season. With it, he brought his average up to .316, which is the highest it’s been since Aug. 9.

- While Ellsbury reached 25 homers, David Ortiz got himself closer to 30. Ortiz launched a fastball from morrow deep into the right field stands, good for his 29th homer of the season. If he is to homer once more this season, it will be Ortiz’ second consecutive 30-homer season and seventh in nine seasons since coming to the Red Sox in 2003.

- The Red Sox continued to make things very difficult for Morrow. After the right-hander allowed eight earned runs over 5 1/3 innings on Wednesday, the former fifth overall pick has now allowed 21 earned runs to Boston in three starts (13 2/3 IP), and it isn’t the first season in which Morrow’s had major struggles against Boston. He totaled 5 2/3 innings in two starts with 10 earned runs against Boston in 2010.

In Erik Bedard‘s first five starts since coming to Boston, the Red Sox didn’t exactly overwhelm him with run support. In fact, they gave him barely any of it. The Sox had three runs or less in three of those starts (including one shutout), with the other two starts seeing the Sox score four runs in each. As such, it was hardly surprising that he had an 0-2 record as a member of the Red Sox entering the weekend. On Saturday, that luck finally changed.

The Red Sox scored nearly as many runs Saturday as they did in Erik Bedard's first five starts combined. (AP)

After Bedard, who is still feeling occasional soreness in his left knee, struggled with command in the earlygoing Saturday against the Rangers, the Sox exploded for eight runs in the fourth inning, including a two-run homer from Jarrod Saltalamacchia and a grand slam from left fielder Carl Crawford. With the runs (the 12 they put up fell just one short of the 13 they had totaled over Bedard’s first five starts in a Boston uniform) finally came Bedard’s first win as a member of the Sox.

“It was great,” Bedard said after the game. “When you put 12 runs on the board, it makes it easier on a pitcher. We got some key hits, a grand slam, another home run by Salty, and we just played good tonight.”

Once runs started popping up on the board, Bedard was able to settle down. His strongest two innings of the day were his last two, and both followed the Sox’ high-scoring fourth. Given the 9-3 lead, Bedard struck out four batters over the fifth and sixth innings, and left the game after the sixth with six strikeouts over 101 pitches. His innings and strikeout total tied personal bests in a Red Sox uniform.

“It starts out where [the Rangers] are scoring, and they seems like they’re tacking on,” manager Terry Francona said, “and he’s able to stop it… and we have the big inning, and the game completely just turned around.”

For Bedard, it turned aroudn in a big way. An uneasy start to his outing changed as the game progressed and the Sox built their lead.

“I was just missing a lot with my fastball early in the game, and then gradually, when the game went on, I got it better and better.”

Offense wasn’t the only way in which the supporting cast helped Bedard. Though he allowed three runs over the second and third innings, things could have been much worse were it not for a pair of inning-ending unassisted double-plays from first baseman Adrian Gonzalez with runners on the corners.

Gonzalez snagged a line drive off the bat of Michael Young in the first and jogged back first to double up Josh Hamilton to bail Bedard out of a dicey situation. He one-upped himself in the fourth inning when sprinted in to catch a Craig Gentry bunt on a botched squeeze play and tag Yorvit Torrealba out around the plate as the Rangers’ catcher tried to make his way back to third.

“It probably got Bedard an extra inning,” Francona said of Gonzalez’ defense. “We’re looking at first and third and one out, and all of a sudden we’re coming off the field one pitch later. That’s huge.”

Though the start had to be considered enocouraging at the end of the day, both the pitcher and the manager know that the left-hander still isn’t in tip-top shape. When asked why Bedard struggled with his command early on (three walks over the second and third innings), Francona was quick to answer.

“I would say a lot of it’s with his knee,” Francona said. “I think there’s still some soreness and somem instability. He ends up throwing with his arm more than his body. As much as you want pitchers to keep their legs under them, I think at times it’s more hard for him.”

Bedard said his knee felt better as the game went on. By the time the game was over, he could finally feel something he hadn’t felt since June 15: the feeling of being a winning pitcher. His record on the season now stands at 5-9.

“It’s nice,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s for the team. If we win the game at the end of the day and I pitch good and we play good, that’s all that counts.”

Though the Red Sox beat up on the Rangers with an eight-run fourth inning in a 12-7, they found themselves a bit beat up by day’s end. Shortstop Jed Lowrie left in the fourth inning with left shoulder tightness, while outfielder Josh Reddick finished a 4-for-4 performance by leaving in the eighth inning after being hit by a pitch.

Manager Terry Francona gave updates on both players, and based on what he had to say, it doesn’t seem they expect either situation to be a major issue. Francona noted that though Lowrie had to come out of Saturday’s game, the shoulder issue is not serious, and that the team was just being careful with the infielder. Even so, the manager doesn’t expect to have Lowrie in Sunday’s lineup.

“Jed [was] just stiff, I think probably from a little bit of fatigue,” Francona said. “He’s played a lot. … I don’t think he’ll play tomorrow, [but] he’ll certainly be available. So we’re OK there. That might be me overreacting a little bit. I just don’t want to lose guys.”

Reddick had X-rays taken after leaving the game, but they came back negative. It’s uncertain whether he will play Sunday, but Francona did say that the plunking left a mark.

“[Reddick] got hit pretty good,” Francona said. “He was x-rayed, negative. He’s going to be a little sore tomorrow.”

As suspense builds regarding the release Dr. Tom Gill will write up regarding the status of Clay Buchholz‘ back, the Red Sox are still in the process of getting other answers regarding their rotation. Though Erik Bedard was the big (and oft-injured) name acquired at the trade deadline he is far from the only former AL West pitcher the Sox will count on a little more if the news regarding Buchholz is bad.

When healthy and at their best, the trio of Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Buchholz is just about the scariest thing opposing hitters can imagine this side of Philadelphia. But with reports suggesting the issue with Buchholz’ back is a stress fracture that could cost him the rest of the season, it seems the three-headed monster might not be able to attack teams down the stretch to the best of its abilities.

Lackey’s performance in Monday’s 9-6 loss to the Indians featured good and bad, and a couple hours after an impressed Fenway crowd was cheering on his third strikeout in two innings, it was booing the second of back-to-back homers Lackey allowed in the sixth inning. When all was said and done, the line for Lackey wasn’t pretty — 6 2/3 innings pitched, eight hits, five earned, five strikeouts and a pair of dingers — but if Red Sox fans can start calling that line the “bad” for Lackey, they’ll be in a far better place than they were around a month ago, when Lackey failed to reach the fifth inning in two of three starts.

Lackey came out Monday and showed Red Sox fans something they hadn’t seen this year: a 1-2-3 inning from the $82.5 million man. He followed that up with another 1-2-3 inning. Just when Red Sox fans were dreaming up the previously unfathomable sight of ESPN cutting to Fenway for the eighth inning of a John Lackey perfect game, the 32-year-old allowed back-to-back hits with two down in the third to give the Indians a run and tie the game at one. It was one of two leads he would blow in the game, and when he left with two out in the seventh, he unsurprisingly looked like a man who felt he could have finished off the frame.

“I felt really strong. I started off well. My arm felt good, and I was locating well, really established in pretty well on some left-handers,” Lackey said after the game. “I made a couple of mistakes early on that kind of cost me. I felt like I had better stuff and felt better than to give up that many runs, for sure.”

For the majority of his start, he did look better than five runs. Manager Terry Francona praised Lackey’s fastball, calling it “crisp” after the game, but Travis Hafner belted a sixth-inning heater from Lackey out for a solo shot in the sixth inning. As has been the norm since he came to Boston, it was another case of taking the good with the bad.

So here’s the good: The stinkers from Lackey have subsided, and though his earned run average is still astronomical given his salary (something Sox fans should be over by now), Monday was the first time it has gone up since June 29. Though the hits have been plentiful to say the least (eight or more in each of his last four starts), that’s pretty much been the only way guys have gotten on vs. Lackey of late. He has walked just one batter over his last 23 2/3 innings, and since his two-and-one-third innings catastrophe against the Blue Jays, he hasn’t put the Sox in a position in which they’ve had to ask too much of their bullpen.

Does that scream “Buchholz” to you? It shouldn’t, but then again it isn’t supposed to. Nobody expects Lackey to be dominant, and allowing five runs in any amount of innings isn’t providing the best chance to win. If the Sox are going to get bad news on Buchholz, they may have to do what they can with so-so news from Lackey every fifth day.

“We didn’t win the game,” Lackey said after the game. “That’s the main thing that’s frustrating. The bottom line is win the game.”

If Buchholz’ situation is as bad as some think it is, more of this Lackey — the one who has pitched into the seventh inning in three of his last five starts and hasn’t been bad bad since the Fourth of July — might be something Red Sox fans will have to hope for. It might not necessarily be a sure-fire chance to win, but if the innings and not the runs are what get delivered in bulk, it might be something Sox fans will have to work with.

Daniel Bard

The Red Sox learned about good things coming to an end the hard way Monday night, as an Asdrubal Cabrera home run in the top of the eighth inning both snapped Daniel Bard‘s 26 1/3 scoreless streak and helped the Indians to an 9-6 win at Fenway Park Monday.

The homer, Cabrera’s second of the night, was helped by a video review that showed that the ball, which bounced back to right fielder Josh Reddick, had cleared the fence before coming back. It went as a two-run homer, breaking a 5-5 tie and giving the Indians a lead they would not relinquish. The Sox would come up with a run in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a ground-rule double from Jacoby Ellsbury that scored Mike Avilles, but Dustin Pedroia grounded out following the play to end the game.

Bard would not make it out of the inning, and after entering with a clean frame ended up allowing two hits, three earned runs and the game’s only walk in one-third of an inning. Interestingly enough, the Indians had been the last team to score off of Bard, as he allowed his last run prior to the streak on May 23 against Cleveland.

John Lackey started off in a way previously unseen this season, as he had his first 1-2-3 first inning of 2011, struck out three of the first six batters he faced, and retired the first eight Cleveland batters of the night. Once he did allow a hit, the Indians were able to get to him, as they scored five runs over Lackey’s 6 2/3 innings of work.

While the high point of Lackey’s performance was how began the night, he had trouble in the sixth inning, allowing two home runs and a double. He was brought back out for the seventh inning before leaving with two down following an Ezequiel Carrera single.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

• Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a great night both at the plate and behind it. His ground-rule double in the second inning extended his hit streak to nine games, which tied a career-high for the 26-year-old catcher. His last nine-game hit-streak came as a member of the Rangers, with the streak running from May 23-June 2 of 2009.

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Red Sox manager Terry Francona did not offer an update on pitcher Clay Buchholz Monday prior to the team’s tilt with the Indians. Buchholz saw specialist Robert Watkins Monday for a lower back strain, but Francona said the findings of the appointment are not currently known.

“Clay was seen by Dr. Watkins. The appointment’s already been done,” Francona said. “Now, we need to let Dr. Watkins, Tom Gill, Mike Reinold, all the medical people talk to Theo [Epstein], have a chance to sit and meet and talk, and kind of sift through things. Maybe we’ll have something later tonight. At the latest, I would assume we’ll have something tomorrow.”

Buchholz has not pitched since June 16. Francona added that he expects Gill to prepare a statement on the status of the pitcher, at which point the team will have more information to share.

In 14 starts this season, Buchholz is 6-3 with a 3.48 earned run average. He has 60 strikeouts in 82 2/3 innings.

- No update on reliever Bobby Jenks, who has been on the disabled list since July 16 with back tightness. Jenks, who has been on the DL three times this season, did not talk to the media prior to the game.

- Francona said the “knee is not an issue” with newcomer Erik Bedard, who made his return from a knee injury by allowing five runs over 1 1/3 innings Friday against the Rays.

The manager expressed excitement to see what Bedard can do as a member of the Red Sox, as Francona praised the 32-year-old Canadian pitcher for his breaking ball and ability to handle the rigors of the AL East. The best season of Bedard’s career came as a member of the Orioles in 2007, as he posted a 3.16 ERA and racked up 221 strikeouts in 182 innings of work.

- Bedard will pitch on Thursday, which allows scheduled starter Jon Lester to move back a day. Francona said the plan is to remain with six starters. Due to the fact that he is still being brought along from his injury, Andrew Miller will be available in the bullpen on the day of Bedard’s debut.

“Bedard there 57 pitches I think in an inning and [one-third],” Francona said. “He hadn’t pitched in a month. The way we interpreted it from the Seattle guys was that if he had pitched on Wednesday, they were going to hold him to like 75 or 80 [pitches], so we probably need to stay somewhat close to that also.”

Depending on whether he comes on in relief of Bedard on Thursday, Miller’s next start will be either Monday or Tuesday against the Twins. If he does not pitch out of the bullpen on Thursday, the plan is for him to take his scheduled turn on Monday, though he would be pushed back a day if he pitches Thursday.

- The Red Sox don’t have an off-day until Aug. 11, the day before their three-game series with the Mariners in Seattle. As a result, the Sox will continue with their six-man rotation until then.

- One player happy to see Bedard on his team is Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The 26-year-old is just 1-for-9 against the lefty in his career with five strikeouts.

“Huge,” Saltalamacchia said when asked how big Bedard could be for the Sox down the stretch. “A left-handed arm to go with what we’ve got is going to be a good addition. He’s been in the AL East before, so he knows what to expect, so we’re looking for good things.”

As for the uncertainty regarding Buchholz, the catcher just hopes that it eventually ends with Buchholz healthy and back to form.

“I’m sure it’s frustrating. He’s a big part of this team,” Saltalamacchia said. “We want him to be here, we want him to be a part of the rotation, but the main thing is for him to be healthy. We can’t have this lag on for another year or two, so he’s just got to figure out what it is, get healthy, and when he’s ready to pitch he’s going to be good.”