Darnell McDonald lets it fly Friday night for the Red Sox in making his MLB pitching debut.

It was the most lighthearted moment from an otherwise dreary and dreadful night at Fenway for Red Sox fans and players alike.

Darnell McDonald coming in from right field to start and finish the ninth inning for the Red Sox, saving the bullpen an inning of work on a night where they were force to come in early and relieve an ineffective Tim Wakefield in a 15-5 loss to the A’s.

McDonald is not just any position player filling in for an inning. This was a player in high school in Colorado who impressed scouts with his ability to throw 95 off the mound as a pitcher. But that was also the last time he actually pitched in a game.

That is, before Terry Francona asked him coming off the field in the eighth inning if he could save the Red Sox pen an inning with the prospects of a split doubleheader just over 12 hours away.

“I just came in [from right field after the eighth] and Tito just asked me if I could throw an inning and I said I was more than happy to do it.”

His first pitch – from the stretch – to Scott Sizemore sailed all the way back to the screen.

“I haven’t pitched since high school. It’s been a few years and obviously, you can see the rust on me. Really, it was a lot tougher than it looks,” McDonald said. “Was trying to throw strikes. I was a little wild early on and couldn’t find my release point but a couple more bullpen sessions with [pitching coach] Curt [Young], I’ll be ready for the playoffs.” Read the rest of this entry »

A baseball source confirmed that the Astros have reached an agreement with free agent Bill Hall to be their regular second baseman. The news was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com (via twitter), who said that the deal is for $3 million deal and includes a mutual option for the 2011 season.

Hall, who turns 31 later this month, spent this year as a utility man for the Sox, hitting .247/.316/.456/.772 with 18 homers and 46 RBI in 119 games. With his performance, Hall hoped to prove that he was ready to return to everyday duty as a free agent.

“Obviously, I do want to be an everyday player again,” he said during the season. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of baseball left in me. I’m not on my last legs. I’m just 30.”

His performance in Boston as a versatile player who appeared at every position except for catcher and first base led the baseball world to reach the same conclusion, resulting in his agreement to terms with the Astros.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted on Thursday that the Rangers are putting up a last-ditch effort to try to sign free agent pitcher Cliff Lee by sending representatives to Little Rock, Ark., to meet with Lee and his agent, Darek Braunecker. NBC Sports’ Craig Calcaterra writes that there isn’t a whole lot of context to the reports about the Rangers meeting with Lee, and that it may just as well be an effort to play head games with the Yankees, who are the favorites in the Lee sweepstakes.

Calcaterra said that with the $300 million the Red Sox have spent in the past few days, it’s hard to imagine that the Yankees won’t counter with an expensive signee of their own. We’ll know more about the meeting between the Rangers, Lee and Braunecker later on Thursday.

Quick hits:

♦ The Astros have agreed to a one-year deal with former Rice pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith, the Houston Chronicle’s Zachary Levine reports. Rowland-Smith was taken with the No. 5 pick in the Rule 5 draft, and is pending a physical. The Australian lefty was non-tendered by the Mariners after going 1-10 with a 6.75 ERA in 2010. He played three seasons before 2010, including one and a half as a starter, with ERAs under 4.00 for the Mariners.

♦ The Orioles continue to make news this week, announcing that the team and free agent first baseman Adam LaRoche have mutual interest in each other, but have not yet had any formal talks, and no formal offer has been made, the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly tweeted on Thursday. LaRoche has garnered a lot of interest this offseason, with teams such as the Nationals, Rays and Orioles all showing significant interest.

♦ The Dodgers have shown interest in signing former Red Sox utility man Bill Hall as a left fielder, the L.A. Times reports. The Dodgers are reportedly among several teams that have shown interest in the former Red Sox, who hit 18 home runs in 2010, but struck out 104 times in 119 games played with Boston.

♦ MLB.com reports that Cleveland legend Bob Feller has been transferred from the Cleveland Clinic to hospice care for the terminally ill, according to Bob DiBiaso, the Indians’ vice president of public relations. The 92-year-old Feller is battling leukemia, and was recently admitted to the clinic after suffering from pneumonia. Feller was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in August, which is a form of cancer in which the white blood cells interfere with the production of normal blood cells.

♦ Rob Biertempfel, columnist for Trib Live Sports, tweeted on Thursday that the Pirates seem to be close to reaching a deal with the Braves for starting pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, but money is still an issue. The deal will continue to develop over the course of the day.

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein (AP)

In recent years, the GM Meetings have been described as nothing more than a prelude to the real work of the offseason. This year, work has started early.

There was a flurry of actual activity on the first day of the general managers’ meetings in Orlando. Among the most notable developments:

–The Marlins closed in on a three-year, $18 million deal with John Buck (more on that here). Implications for the Red Sox: Buck represented the best catching alternative to Victor Martinez on the free agent market. That said, Rob Bradford reports that “the Sox’ interest in Buck was limited due to the cost the 30-year-old was going to command in the open market, along with the fact Buck had produced at a high level offensively (.281, 20 home runs) for just one year.”

Still, even if the Sox had only limited interest in Buck, they now lose the option of using him to bluff regarding their fallback plans for Martinez. Moreover, the fact that Buck received a three-year guarantee means that it will be hard to imagine a deal for Martinez of less than four or even five years.

–The Marlins traded Dan Uggla to the Braves in exchange for infielder Omar Infante and left-handed reliever Mike Dunn. (More on the deal here.) Implications for the Red Sox: Hypothetically, Uggla might have represented an alternative to Adrian Beltre in the third base market of Carl Crawford/Jayson Werth in the left field market had the Sox failed to sign any of them. That said, he is viewed as an imperfect fit for just about any position, so the significance of his move to the Braves is relatively low, except for the fact that it further strengthens the already considerable leverage of Beltre as the best third baseman available this offseason.

–The Cardinals re-signed free-agent Jake Westbrook to a two-year, $16.5 million deal. Implications for the Red Sox: Not many, although Westbrook’s signing does thin out an already weak class (behind Cliff Lee) of free agent starters. Conceivably, then, if the Sox decided to make a starter such as Daisuke Matsuzaka or Felix Doubront available, the fact that Westbrook and Ted Lilly are off the market could only help them.

That was the actual news at the GM Meetings. As for the rumors related to the Red Sox, broken down position-by-position: Read the rest of this entry »

Certainly everyone at Fenway Sunday would’ve loved to have seen Adrian Beltre in Sunday’s lineup as he pursues Butch Hobson‘s team record of 30 homers by a third baseman set in 1977.

But Red Sox manager Terry Francona admitted that they have to keep the long-term interests Beltre in mind, even if he is a free agent at the end of this season.

“We love when he’s in the lineup because he’s really good but we don’t want to do anything silly,” Francona said. “He obviously swings very aggressively. I thought I kind of saw him let go [of bat] a little bit but he still rapped a double. If you’re able to be productive, it’s one thing to play hurt and a lot of guys do, but when you can maintain your production.”

There was another Red Sox great of the past that also came to mind on Sunday in talking Beltre – Johnny Damon.

“He’s an impressive guy,” Francona said of Beltre, who entered Sunday with a .329 average, 28 homers and 98 RBIs. “He’s a pretty tough kid. He’s got a little bit of Damon in him.”

Beltre had his ‘Damon’ moment on Saturday night when he injured his left wrist diving for a John McDonald grounder in the fourth inning of Boston’s 4-3 loss, only to stay in the game and double, nearly leading the Red Sox to a come-from-behind win.

“When he laid there, for a second, [I thought] a lot of things, dirt in the eye, who knows? Then when he didn’t get up, I was like, Oh [shoot] and saw [Scutaro wave], and then we get out there, it took a little while,” Francona said. “Then as he shook the cobwebs out, he said, ‘I’ll be alright.’ He wasn’t coming up to hit for a while. He wasn’t coming up first. He had nine hitters to go so he came up and had a flouroscan.

“We sent him over to MGH to get some further testing this morning,” Francona said Sunday. “That’s why we [held] off on the lineup. He’s sore but not bad and his grip strength is down a little bit but not horrible. So we told him if you want to play go get checked and he obviously wants to play.”

Francona made Beltre make him a promise – tell the truth if you’re hurting.

“I said, ‘If you hit and something doesn’t feel good, you have to tell me.’ He said, ‘Okay, I will.” He’s a tough kid but he doesn’t want to do anything stupid.”

When the lineup did come out just about 45 minutes before Sunday’s game, it did not include Beltre or Marco Scutaro. Instead, Yamaico Navarro started at third with Bill Hall getting the start at second base.

Bill Hall had the pivotal at-bat of the Red Sox’ 3-1 loss to the White Sox. After Jed Lowrie walked on four pitches, Hall stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the second inning, at a time when his team trailed, 1-0.

Hall struck out on three pitches against Chicago starter John Danks. After the game, Hall made clear that he believed home plate umpire Wally Bell was in no small measure responsible.

“We had the bases loaded. I came up. He’d just thrown four straight balls, so obviously it’s a situation where I’m on the take. Umpire gave him a pitch that wasn’t really even close,” said Hall. “When you get behind in the count against a guy like that, give him a chance to make pitches on a guy that can make pitches, it’s going to be tough. Next batter came up, [Darnell McDonald, who grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice], same thing.

“When you give a guy a chance to make pitches and you’re worried about swinging at pitches you don’t normally swing at, it puts you in a bind as a hitter. you start to expand your zone and swing at pitches because you don’t know if he’s going to call it a strike or call it a ball. We squandered an opportunity right there. Obviously, one pitch shouldn’t define an at-bat, but it definitely can put you in a hole. He made pitches after those.”

–Jason Varitek will start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket on Sunday, catching four or five innings. He might also DH on Monday in the PawSox’ season finale.

–Mike Lowell discussed further the non-displaced rib fracture that he suffered on Aug. 20.

It has been an amazing run, of course, for the ribs of Red Sox players. Jacoby Ellsbury has missed almost the entire year after his collision with Adrian Beltre in April. Jeremy Hermida missed several weeks after he met Beltre’s knee.

Now, Lowell becomes the third member of the club to suffer a fracture that is rarely seen among baseball players.

“Beltre didn’t even hit me,” marveled Lowell, of an injury he incurred from a run-in with Blue Jays infielder John McDonald. “I just think it’s a freak thing.”

That said, Lowell feels that his game is not impaired by the injury, which was diagnosed as a fracture following an MRI and CT scan on Friday.

“It bothers me to sleep or if I get fooled swinging, so don’t get fooled,” Lowell offered. “They told me as long as I can deal with it, I can play. Hurting my hip last year, this is a much lesser inconvenience. Obviously I feel it sometimes. And when I finish all my cage routine, that’s when I feel it. I don’t think it changes my swing so I’m cool with that.”

–J.D. Drew and David Ortiz were a combined 0-for-8 with four strikeouts, with all but one of those outs coming against White Sox lefty Danks. Ortiz is hitting .205/.259/.315/.574 against lefties, and Drew is hitting .183/.278/.290/.568 against them.

Where would the Red Sox be without Bill Hall?

David Ortiz was asked that question following Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Blue Jays. It was certainly a fair question to ask after Hall’s 18th homer of the season landed on Lansdowne Street, a two-run shot giving the Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox a 3-0 cushion in the fifth inning.

Whether he’s played left, right, shortstop or second base, the Red Sox have been able to lean on Hall all season to fill in for the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron and Dustin Pedroia.

“He’s that kind of guy,” Ortiz said. “This team has been blessed with players like that because we have so many injuries and this guy has stepped in and has been doing his thing like he has been doing all year ‘round. You can’t get no better than that.”

While his average is just .240, his 18 homers now rank third on the team behind Big Papi and Kevin Youkilis. And with Youkilis out for the rest of the regular season, Hall has five weeks left to pass the Red Sox first baseman for second on the list.

One reason for his power surge has been his ability to adjust at the plate. On Aug. 11, just 11 days earlier, he faced Shaun Marcum at Rogers Center in Toronto. He hit a pair of home runs on cutters and drove in four on cut fastballs. He was pretty sure Marcum remembered that, too.

He also knew that the Blue Jays had been working him early in the series with sinkers, trying to get him to chase low in the zone.

“I’ve been looking for that pitch because they’ve been beating me with that pitch early part of the series,” Hall said. “I knew last time I faced him, I his best pitch out, I hit his cutter out twice so I figured he wasn’t going to go to that much today so I knew he was going to try and maybe get me out with a sinker. I got into a situation in the count where I figured I could take a chance and if he left one out of the plate, I was definitely going to try and drive it and he left one out and I was able to get good contact.”

Hall is hoping his domination of Marcum and the Blue Jays carries over to two other AL East rivals. He looks out to the Green Monster and sees the Red Sox in third, behind the Yankees and Rays but still holds out hope, despite being six games back of the Rays in the loss column for the wild card spot and seven behind New York.

“We’re not losing any ground and that’s important,” Hall said. “Obviously, definitely we’d like to be winning when they’re losing but at the same time, we’re still maintaining, still hanging in there. We get to play these guys six more times apiece. If we hang around at 5 1/2 games until we play these guys, hopefully maybe cut off a game or two before that. We get to play Tampa Bay on the next road trip and that’s definitely a chance to cut into the lead as well.”