Jonathan Papelbon celebrates his 12th save of the season. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA — Daniel Bard couldn’t keep the starting pitching good times rolling Friday night.

The Sox starter struggled with his command from the get-go in his eighth start of the season, with the end result being a 6-4 win for the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Bard (who threw 94 pitches) finished his five-inning stint allowing just three hits, but he still gave up five runs to raise his ERA to 4.85.

It marked the first time since May 10 a Red Sox starter has surrendered more than four runs.

Philadelphia starter Cole Hamels got the win, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out nine over seven innings. Jonathan Papelbon (and his alter ego, Cinco Ocho) came on to pitch a scoreless ninth for his 12th save of the season.

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine was ejected for the 38th time in his career, arguing a play at first in the ninth inning in which Marlon Byrd was thrown out for the inning’s second out.

Here is what went wrong (and right) in the Red Sox’ 21st loss of the season:

WHAT WENT WRONG

• Bard struggled to find the strike zone all night long. By the unofficial count of Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal, the Red Sox starter hit the zone with just 36 of his 94 pitches. The Sox starter would finish with five walks, marking the fourth time in eight starts Bard has walked four or more batters.

• Bard came out of the gate walking three of his first four batters. The first-inning free passes were followed by a Carlos Ruiz single, Ty Wigginton sacrifice fly and John Mayberry double, giving the Phillies a four-run frame.

• Jarrod Saltalamacchia was forced to leave the game early. Saltalamacchia exited after being hit in the left side of the head with a Bard pitch that deflected off Ruiz’ forearm. The team later identified the injury as a left ear laceration. Saltalamacchia was replaced by Kelly Shoppach, who made his presence felt in the seventh inning by throwing out Shane Victorino trying to steal.

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Josh Beckett explained some of what was perception, and reality, regarding the last few days when talking to WEEI.com Friday afternoon. (AP)

Prior to the Red Sox’ game with the Indians Friday night, Josh Beckett talked with WEEI.com regarding his health and the controversy surrounding the pitcher over the past few days. Following is a transcript of the conversation.

Did you feel the lat at all last night?

Didn’t feel it at all

Was that — the lat injury —  made too much of?

I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m tired of guessing.

Did you want to pitch that Saturday?

I certainly didn’t tell him I wasn’t pitching. I respected whenever he came in and told me I wasn’t pitching because we definitely had some issues we had to deal with.

With the lat?

With my arm, yeah. Like I said, I’m tired of guessing. I’ll let everybody else make the decisions.

Since you wanted to pitch, does it make all this other stuff — regarding the golf outing — frustrating?

I can’t really control it. It is what it is. I really don’t know what to say.

Could you have pitched in that extra-inning game Sunday?

Nobody asked me to. I think it was a precautionary deal. I think when they tell you you’re going to miss a start. … If they would have asked me, I could have went out there and pitched. I think we’re trying to make sure the rest of the season right now and not necessarily right now. You miss one start now or you might miss three or four weeks.

People perceive things the way they want to perceive them.

Does that frustrate you?

I can’t let it affect my next start. I didn’t pitch well yesterday. That’s the bottom line. Distracted? Yeah. When you here stuff like that the day before you start it’s mind-boggling. I’m loading a plane in Kansas City when I hear about it.

Not what you’re anticipating heading into a start?

No. I don’t want to be part of a reality show. If I wanted to be part of a reality show I would move to LA. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to win baseball games and we’re not doing a good job of that. Am I part of the solution or am I part of the problem? I want to part of the solution, not part of the problem.

It seems like everybody wants to just create problems for us because we have a really good group of guys and we all get along but that’s not how it’s perceived. This team is as tight a group as I’ve ever been a part of. We had some tight groups when I was in Florida and we’ve had some tight groups here. As far as a whole team, in terms of hanging out, chilling, and everybody jokes with one another, this is a good a group as I’ve been around.

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Josh Beckett has a career 4.06 ERA with the Red Sox. (AP)

Josh Beckett is scheduled to start for the Red Sox on Thursday night. If Bobby Valentine, Ben Cherington, Larry Lucchino and John Henry are half as serious as about changing the culture of the clubhouse as they told us they were all offseason, they won’t let Beckett get past the security guards at the player entrance at Fenway Park.

Beckett – according to several reports, and confirmed by several others –played golf with Clay Buchholz last Thursday. By itself who cares, right? Guys play golf on their off days, even if they have been the worst pitcher in baseball over the first month of the season (which Buchholz has absolutely been). We get it. But here’s where it gets juicy: This quick 18 holes was played exactly one day after Beckett was scratched from a scheduled start with a pulled lat.

It’s almost breathtaking arrogance, isn’t it? Either that or incomprehensible stupidity. Probably it’s both. But that’s Beckett all the way, a guy who wants to be seen as an ace, has been treated as an ace (by media and the organization) but hasn’t acted or pitched like an ace for five years. As entitled as it gets, fat and happy from years of enabling from an organization that needs to, but will not, respond to another middle finger from a guy making $17 million this year (and the next two). He was the face (or chins, I suppose) of the historic collapse last season, and evidently learned nothing from the experience and fallout.

Because this is worse than beer and chicken. Why? Well, it happened after it – which again suggests that he didn’t think he did anything wrong last September – and it makes a very strong case that Beckett cares more about golfing than he does about pitching and winning. We already knew baseball wasn’t his top priority — he told Rob Bradford that last in spring training — but who knew what he cared about most was those shiny new hybrids. And maybe the only reason Beckett’s put on 40 pounds over the last 12 months was to justify the couple of hundred bucks he spent on that sweet belly putter.

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Bobby Valentine second-guessed himself early on with the Red Sox. (AP)

No one would blame Bobby Valentine for what happened to the Red Sox in the first two weeks of the season when he lost his projected closer Andrew Bailey to UCL surgery after injuring his thumb.

No one would come down hard on the Red Sox skipper for losing his starting center fielder and leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury when Reid Brignac fell on his right shoulder on April 13, partially dislocating it.

But Valentine came down hard on himself Monday for not being prepared to deal with the Ellsbury and Bailey injuries and the struggles of set-up man Mark Melancon.

“I’m reading reports every day,” Valentine said when asked a simple question about the bullpen roles coming together. “I have the to ‘D’ ABCD plans, the what-ifs. You try to have what-ifs. To tell you the truth, I didn’t have what-ifs at the beginning of the season and I’m kicking myself for it.

“The outfield and the bullpen. I didn’t have a major plan for not having Ellsbury. My fault. I should’ve. And two-deep in the bullpen, the two guys we traded during in the wintertime, I figured one of them would be pitching in the ninth inning come April 13th.”

The bullpen is coming off a seven-game stretch in Minnesota and Chicago where the ERA was 1.06, allowing just two earned runs in 17 innings, striking out 13 in the process.

After the disaster of April 21, the 15-9 debacle against the Yankees, Valentine said he’s finally adjusted to adjusting on the fly.

“Absolutely, that’s what we’re doing, that’s what I’m doing,” Valentine said. “And you have to have plans. I’m kicking myself a little. I didn’t have a great plan. But it’s coming into fruition now. On the fly, the plan seems to be working.”

The last time the Red Sox were in the confines of Fenway Park was a moment that manager Bobby Valentine aptly described as “rock bottom.” The team had just lost its fifth consecutive game, its second straight loss at the hands of the hated Yankees that dropped the Red Sox’ record to 4-10. To pile on to the misery, the Red Sox had lost in excruciating fashion, surrendering a 9-0 lead heading into the sixth inning to ultimately lose 15-9.

Clay Buchholz

Now as the Red Sox return to Yawkey Way, the mood and fortune of the team is decidedly different, as it has used a seven-game Midwest road trip to turn things around. The team has won six of its past seven games to buoy its record to 10-11 and it hopes this recent wave of success can continue as it prepares to take on the A’s in a three-game home series beginning Monday. The first game of the series pits Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox against Tommy Milone of the A’s.

Coming off back-to-back seasons in which he had ERAs lower than 3.50, Buchholz has had a rough go of things in the 2012 season. Through four starts, the 27-year-old right-hander is 2-1 but has an 8.87 ERA and has struggled with his command, as evidenced by his 10 walks to just 11 strikeouts. He has given up at least five earned runs in each of his four starts.

Last season Buchholz made two starts against Oakland, posting a 1-0 record and a 5.40 ERA. One of those starts came in Boston, a June 3 game in which Buchholz went 4 2/3 innings and gave up five earned runs. That start proved to be something of an outlier, though, as Buchholz was consistently strong when pitching at Fenway Park, posting a 2-1 record with a 3.94 ERA. Two of Buchholz’s 2012 starts have come at Fenway. Buchholz is 1-1 in those games with a 6.92 ERA. Perhaps more alarmingly, Buchholz has allowed six home runs in those starts.

Against current members of the A’s, Buchholz is relatively inexperienced, having only faced six players in the A’s lineup for a combined 44 plate appearances. Two of the three A’s players with double-digit plate appearances against Buchholz — first baseman Daric Barton and catcher Kurt Suzuki — have batted .500 against Buchholz in those plate appearances. The six A’s players who have faced Buchholz collectively have a .316 batting average against him.

Entering just his second MLB season, and first with the A’s, Milone has been a pleasant surprise for Oakland. Through four starts, Milone is 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA with 13 strikeouts and six walks. Among Oakland starters, Milone has the best ERA and is tied for the most wins.

The 25-year-old left-hander, due to his limited time in the professional ranks, has never pitched at Fenway Park nor faced the Red Sox. In 2011, Milone was significantly worse on the road than at home, as he had a 6.30 ERA in two road starts compared to his 2.25 ERA in three home starts. Heading into the 2012 season, Milone had just five career starts (all with the Nationals). Milone has never faced a member of the Red Sox lineup.

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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 »

Bobby Valentine has been presented with some new challenges in his short time as Red Sox manager. (AP)

Few want to understand the reality of Bobby Valentine’s situation. When you have a team that is 4-8, and immersed in a bout of early-season chaos, hearing that the manager’s grasp of his world is a work in progress is tough for some to digest.

But that is undeniably the case.

It’s easy to see what is Valentine’s biggest challenge when it comes to getting grip on the on-field conundrums. The bullpen — figuring out whom to use, and not use, when and where — remains an unsettled proposition. Deciphering what’s right and wrong in that respect, however, is something a baseball man like Valentine has managed before and will manage again.

No, there is another challenge that Valentine has been encountered which might be the most difficult to maneuver around.

“The thing I think surprised me, I haven’t managed here in the States in 10 years and I think there’s a difference in the deliverance of information,” Valentine said.

According to the manager, this revelation was brought to the surface just a few days ago, thanks to the media torrent that ensued after Valentine’s comments regarding Kevin Youkilis. The sound bite was surfaced Sunday night, and by 9 a.m. the next morning he was clarifying not only the initial statement, but a flurry of reaction that had washed over the 24-hour news cycle in the hours leading up to the morning press conference.

“I probably realized it the whole time, but it jumped on me that this is the world we’re living in,” Valentine said. “It’s cool.”

But is it really?

“Sure,” he explained. “It’s another step. When we talk about the good players, they’re the ones who adjust. Adjust during an at-bat. Adjust during a season. To be good at life you have to keep adjusting. When you start going into the grave is when you stop adjusting. So I’ll have to adjust.”

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