Random notes from a very positive Red Sox weekend plus a nugget or two from around Major League Baseball:

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* – On Thursday against Tampa Bay, the Red Sox’ first batter reached base in three different innings. The Red Sox scored in all three of those innings, totaling four runs. In the six innings where their leadoff batter did not reach base, they managed just one run. For the season, the Red Sox are averaging 0.95 runs when their first batter reaches base (only Texas has a higher average at 0.97) and 0.27 runs when he doesn’t. The difference in those averages is 0.68, the highest in the majors (thru Thursday):

0.68 – Red Sox
0.62 – Rangers
0.62 – White Sox
0.59 – Three teams tied

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* – Cody Ross’ two-run single in the 8th inning Thursday night was his fourth multi-RBI hit in the 7th inning or after this season. He trails only Josh Hamilton (5).

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* – Daniel Bard walked three batters in the 1st inning on Friday night, the third time this season that he’s walked 3+ batters in a single inning. That’s tied with the Royals’ Jonathan Sanchez for the most such innings in the majors.

Note this: Following the two-run single he allowed, five of the last seven batters Bard has faced with the bases loaded have reached base dating back to last season (1-for-3 with four walks and six RBI plus another run that scored on a double play grounder).

Random note: Since the start of last season, only two pitchers have faced 3+ batters in 100 or more different innings and never walked more than one batter in any single inning: Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin (204 such innings) and Toronto’s Henderson Alvarez (119 such innings).

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* – Friday night was Mike Aviles first interleague game as a member of the Red Sox. Between Boston and Kansas City, it was his 9th straight interleague road loss.

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* – Entering Friday night, Nick Punto had batted .500 (3-for-6) in his career when batting as the tying or go ahead run with two outs in the 9th inning and his team trailing on the scoreboard. Jonathan Papelbon needed only three pitches to make him 3-for-7.

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* – On Saturday and Sunday, Aviles led off each game with a home run. The Red Sox have led off SEVEN of their last 53 road interleague games with a HR. Aviles became the first Red Sox player to lead off consecutive road games with a homer since Harry Hooper did it in 1913. The closest the Red Sox had come since then was when Tommy Harper did it on August 17 and 19, 1972.

Note this: Aviles becomes the 5th Red Sox shortstop in history to hit a home run in three straight games, joining Nomar Garciaparra, Rico Petrocelli, Ed Bressoud, and Joe Cronin. Garciaparra is the only one to homer in four consecutive games. Aviles and Garciaparra are the only ones to homer in three straight road games.

Note this too: In Sunday’s win, Aviles had RBI’s on two different plate appearances for the 6th time this season. He never did it last season after May 1.

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A few things I noticed over the last few days:

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* – Jon Lester didn’t walk anybody during his complete game win on Monday night, snapping a streak of 73 consecutive games in which the Red Sox had issued at least one walk. It was the longest active streak in the majors (now it’s Tampa Bay, currently at 56 games) and Boston’s longest such streak since they went 90 games back in 1996. The club record streak is 105 straight games during the 1931-1932 seasons.

Note this: The longest streak all-time is 231 consecutive games issuing at least one walk, set by the Indians from 1955-1957.

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* – Entering Monday night, the Red Sox had lost the last two times that their starter pitched a complete game: Tim Wakefield went the distance on August 14 in a 5-3 loss at Seattle and Jon Lester lost 3-1 at Toronto on April 11. How have other teams fared recently when their pitchers have gone the distance?

-The Marlins have won their last 21 complete games. They haven’t lost one since 2006;
-Arizona has won their last 16 and 34 of their last 35 since 2006. The only loss was a Randy Johnson CG in 2008;
-Since the start of last season, Oakland has six complete games (five by Brandon McCarthy) and they’ve won just one of them;

What about teams on the other side? When an opposing pitcher throws a complete game, the Nationals have lost 27-of-28 since 2006. The Red Sox have *WON* three of the last five opponent CG’s since last July, including their 1-0 win over Jake Peavy and the White Sox, the only time an opposing starter has gone all the way against Boston this season. In the three seasons prior to this recent stretch, they lost 10 such games in a row.

Note this: Going into Monday night, the Mariners had won 10-of-20 (.500) since the start of 2010 when the opposing starter went the distance, the second best such winning percentage in the majors in that span (Angels, 8-7; .533).

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* – Boston enters Thursday night having not allowed any home runs in six consecutive games for the first time since September, 2010. They haven’t had a seven game streak since 1993. The club record (since 1950) is 11 consecutive games, set from August 11-22, 1975.

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* – The Red Sox got only seven hits on Wednesday, snapping their streak of 13 straight games with eight hits or more.  It was their longest such streak since 2008 and the longest such streak in the majors so far in 2012 (no other team has reached 10 consecutive games). But fell well shy of the club record (23 in 1999), the “since 1950″ major league record (25 by the Indians in 2001), or the all-time record (33 by Washington in 1933 and St. Louis in 1922).

Note this: Boston has collected 8+ hits only three times in their last 11 games in Tampa, averaging just 6.7 hits in that span.

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* – Boston headed to Tampa coming off a shut out of the Mariners. Following their 2-1 loss on Wednesday, the Red Sox had allowed 10+ runs in three of the last seven games following a shut out, allowing an average of 7.0 runs per game in that span. The Sox are now 3-4 in those games.

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A couple of quick Red Sox nuggets from last night’s win over the Royals:

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* – Will Middlebrooks became the first Red Sox player to have a multiple HR game within the first four games of his career since Dave Stapleton hit two in a 19-8 loss to Milwaukee back in 1980 (in his second career game). Here are the Red Sox that have done it:

Will Middlebrooks – May 7, 2012
Billy Conigliaro – April 16, 1969
Mike Ryan – May 2, 1965

Note this: It was just the 31st time in MLB history that it’s happened.

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* – Middlebrooks is just the third player in major league history to drive in four or more runs TWICE within the first four games of his career:

Will Middlebrooks, Red Sox – May 6-7, 2012
Dave Kingman, Giants – July 31-August 1, 1971
Joe Cunningham, Cardinals – June 30-July 1, 1954

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* – The Red Sox pounded out eight extra-base hits last night, the third time this season they’ve had eight or more, which is the most in the majors so far. They didn’t have their first such game last year until May 20. The Cardinals, Rockies, and Braves each have two games with 8+ extra-base hits.

Note this: The Red Sox now lead the AL in scoring (average runs per game):

5.54 – Red Sox
5.52 – Rangers
5.04 – Yankees
4.76 – Blue Jays

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* – After averaging over five runs per game on road trip openers in 2008, 2009, and 2010, the Red Sox managed only 3.3 last season in losing 9-of-12. This year (including opening day in Detroit), the Red Sox are 2-1 and are averaging 6.3 runs in road trip openers.

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* – The Red Sox bullpen, which sported a collective ERA over 8.00 just two weeks ago, is now just third worst in the AL:

4.75 – Angels
4.45 – Rays
4.41 – Red Sox

Note this: The Red Sox (100.0) and the Royals (110.1) are the only two AL teams which have required 100+ relief innings already this season. The Angels’ bullpen has thrown just 60.2 innings.

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The Red Sox owe the Orioles after what happened last September. Can they exact their pound of flesh this weekend? Here are a few things to chew on as game time approaches:

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* – Through Boston’s first 24 games (11-13), they’ve been outscored 133-132 and outhit 233-232.

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* – Mike Aviles has batted with 55 runners on base so far this season and he’s knocked in 14 of them (19 RBI minus his five home runs, where he’s driven in himself). That’s cashing in 25.5% of his RBI opportunities, which leads the Red Sox this season:

25.5% – Mike Aviles (14-55)
23.4% – David Ortiz (15-64)
19.4% – Cody Ross (13-67)
18.8% – Adrian Gonzalez (13-69)
16.3% – Ryan Sweeney (8-49)
13.2% – Kevin Youkilis (7-53)
12.5% – Jarrod Saltalamacchia (5-40)
9.6% – Dustin Pedroia (5-52)

Some other notables: The Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez leads the majors at 30.8% (16-52)… Compare Aviles’ production to that of Marco Scutaro, who has driven in just 1-of-46 runners on base this season (2.2%)… Yankees’ all-star Robinson Cano is off to a terrible start, having knocked in just 3-of-80 (3.8%) runners so far. With two outs, Cano has failed to drive in ANY of the 33 runners on base when he’s come to bat.

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* – Remember when the Red Sox had allowed 26 home runs in their first 14 games and had allowed multiple homers six times in that span? Well, they have not allowed multiple home runs in any of their last 10 games, allowing just five total in that stretch. Four AL teams have now allowed more home runs than the Red Sox in 2012:

38 – Twins
37 – Blue Jays
32 – Mariners
32 – Yankees
31 – Red Sox

Note this: The Nationals have yet to allow multiple home runs in a game this season (25 games). Dating back to last year, their streak is currently at 35 games. The all-time longest streak (since 1950) without allowing two or more homers in a game is 67 games, set by the Blue Jays in 1988-1989.

Note this too: The longest such streak by a Red Sox staff is 43 games (1991-1992).

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Here are a few items that I noticed following Jon Lester’s gem last night:

* – With their 1-0 win last night, the Red Sox have now won at least one game by that score in each of the last nine seasons, tied with the Giants for the longest current streak in the majors.

* – Boston managed only four hits on Saturday, snapping their seven game streak getting 10 or more hits and their nine game streak with a home run.

Note this: The seven game streak with 10+ hits was the longest in the majors so far this season. The last time the Red Sox had a longer such streak was 2008 (11).

Note this too: Nine games with a home run tied the longest streak in the majors this season. The Rangers and Indians also had nine game streaks.

* – The Red Sox have won their last three road games that were decided by one run (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday). It’s the first time they’ve won three one-run road games within a week of each other without a loss since 2006, when they won at Baltimore by identical 6-5 scores on September 12 and 14, then downed the Yankees, 5-4, on the 17th.

Note this: Do you remember when the Red Sox lost 16 straight road games that were decided by one run in 2008? That streak spanned from April 25 through August 10.

* – The White Sox have lost six of their last seven home games immediately following being shut out.

* – The Red Sox, however, are 22-7 following their last 29 pitching shut outs. 14 of those 29 came on the road and Boston went 10-4 in those games.

* – Opponents have just two stolen bases against Lester in his last 18 road starts (since last May 10). In his 10 road starts prior to this stretch (8/14/10 through 4/28/11), he allowed 10 stolen bases.

Lots of stuff going on with the suddenly hot Red Sox, who have won four straight. Here are a few things I noticed that you might not have:

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* – David Ortiz is has nine hits in his last 10 at bats (with two walks) during the first three innings of games since April 17. For the season, he is a scorching 16-for-22 (.727) during innings one through three, easily the league leader (min. 15 such AB):

.727 – David Ortiz, BOS
.556 – Derek Jeter, NYY
.529 – Nate Schierholz, SF

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* – The Red Sox have hit 23 home runs this season (in 18 games), one more than they hit during all of April last season (in 26 games). With four April games remaining, there is an outside chance that they could hit 30 for the first time since 2003. The April club record of 38 was set in 1997 (25 games).

Note this: The major league record for April home runs is, get this, 55, set by the 2000 Cardinals. They homered in 23 of their 25 April games that season and hit three or more dingers in nine of those. Just for good measure, they hit four more bombs in their first May game, giving them 59 homers in their first 26 games.

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* – Boston’s bullpen has now allowed 41 earned runs in 54.1 innings so far this season, good for an AL worst 6.79 ERA. Here are the bullpen ERA’s broken down by starting pitcher:

Daniel Bard – 3.37 (2 ER/5.1 IP)
Clay Buchholz – 4.11 (7 ER/15.1 IP)
Josh Beckett – 5.79 (6 ER/9.1 IP)
Felix Doubront – 8.36 (13 ER/14 IP)
Jon Lester – 11.32 (13 ER/10.1 IP)

Note this: The 11.32 ERA put up by Red Sox relievers in Lester’s starts is the worst in the majors behind any starter this season (min. 10 relief innings), with Tampa Bay’s David Price (10.64) and the Angels’ Dan Haren (9.26) also not getting much help.

Note this too: Three MLB pitchers have had “perfect” bullpen work behind them this season (min. 10+ innings of relief in their starts): Colorado’s Juan Nicasio (12.1 IP), Baltimore’s Tommy Hunter (10.1 IP), and Cincinnati’s Mike Leake (10 IP).

One last thing: In 2011, Red Sox relievers tossed 93.2 innings in relief of Beckett to the tune of a 1.72 ERA, the lowest behind any starter in the majors (min. 60 relief IP):

1.72 – Josh Beckett, BOS
1.89 – Chad Billingsley, LAD
1.98 – Tommy Hanson, ATL
2.11 – Jair Jurrjens, ATL

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Observations from Tuesday’s win in Minny:

* – Since the start of the 2010 season, the Twins have drawn six bases loaded walks in the first inning of home games. No other team has drawn more than three such walks in that span.

* – Josh Beckett has walked in a run in every season since 2006, except for 2011. In his career, he has issued 11 bases loaded walks. Of those 11, four have come in the first inning.

* – The Red Sox jumped on the Twins by rapping out five hits in the first inning. It was the first time this season that they’ve collected five or more hits in an opening frame. They had five such games over the 486-game span from 2008-2010, then did it SIX times last season alone.

* – In recent years the Yankees have shown no problems bouncing back after being shut out, as they’ve won 12 of their last 15 road games immediately following the whitewash.

* – Mike Aviles had two doubles, a single, and a home run last night, giving him nine total bases. He became just the sixth Red Sox shortstop to collect 9+ total bases in a road game:

6 – Nomar Garciaparra
3 – Vern Stephens
3 – Joe Cronin
1 – John Valentin
1 – Dave Stapleton
1 – Mike Aviles

The last time: Garciaparra had a double, triple, and home run at Baltimore on April 6, 2003.