The Red Sox finally broke through against Kansas City at Fenway Park in a 1-0 pitcher’s duel. Clay Buchholz improved to 7-3 and allowed just four hits and struck out four while Mike Lowell drove in the game’s only run with a ground out to second in the second inning. The Sox improved their record to 28-23. (For a look at the box score, click here.)

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

–Clay Buchholz continues to show he can pitch, and that he is more than just a thrower. He showed the poise and guile of a veteran pitcher, using his full array of pitches, particularly his curve and change-up, to get a couple of key double plays in the first and fourth innings.

–The infield defense looks like it’s finding it’s rhythm – especially on the left side. Adrian Beltre handled a hot smash off the bat of Billy Butler with runners on first and second and none out in the fourth and turned a double play with the help of an outstanding turn at second by Dustin Pedroia. That was followed up by a nice job of fielding at first by Mike Lowell on a sharp grounder by Jose Guillen. Lowell was filling in at first for Kevin Youkilis, who was getting the night off since Lowell was 4-for-7 entering the game against Kansas City starter Zack Greinke.

–Maybe it’s simply out of necessity, but the Red Sox showed they can manufacture a run in the bottom of the second. Adrian Beltre opened the inning by continue to tear up right-handed pitching. He lined an outside fastball to right field for a clean single to raise his average to .370 against righties this season. Pretty remarkable considering he was brought to Boston for his glove. J.D. Drew followed with a double to left to put runners on second and third with none out. Lowell followed with a good job of driving a Greinke pitch up the middle, field by Aviles at second for the out, to score Beltre.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

–The Red Sox continue to struggle to break games open. In the second inning, when they had runners at second and third and none out, they could manage only one run, and it came on a groundout.

–Dustin Pedroia, despite a great game in the field and a game-saving play in the eighth inning, continues to struggle at the plate. He was 0-for-3 and is 0-for-Kansas City this weekend to fall to 5-for-40 (.125) in his last 10 games. Pedroia is now hitting .255 on the season.

–The Red Sox could only manage five hits and continue to be a team offensive funk against the Royals.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona says the team is slowing Josh Beckett down in his rehab from lower back strain.

Francona said pitching coach John Farrell noticed inconsistencies in Beckett’s side session on Friday and the inability to repeat his delivery, which caused the team to be concerned about him injuring himself by over-compensating in an effort to rush back to the rotation.

“We’re going to slow him down a little bit,” Francona said before Saturday’s game. “He’s not able to repeat his delivery consistently enough, and that worries us.”

Beckett landed on the disabled list on May 19 with lower back strain after slipping on the Yankee Stadium mound while throwing a splitter to Alex Rodriguez in the rain on May 18. Before Saturday, Francona said the team was hopeful that Beckett would miss just one start and be able to return to the rotation. That possibility seemed to be ruled out by the Red Sox manager on Saturday.

[Click here to hear Francona explain the team's decision to slow Beckett down.]

“[If] he starts changing arm angles, you could run into problems that we don’t need to run into so until we’re a little bit more comfortable and he’s more comfortable, we’re just going to slow it down a little bit. How much that is, I really don’t know. That’s kind of where we are right now. There’s just a little bit there that concerns us.”

Farrell was key to the team’s decision to back off after closely monitoring Beckett on Friday.

“Johnny saw some inconsistencies in his delivery and he talked to Beckett and he would say he same thing and when you talk it through it just seemed to make sense,” Francona said.

Also prominent in the decision is the fact the team just invested $68 million in the pitcher over a four-year extension in April.

“We have this guy for a long time and we know him so well, when he’s trying to compete and there’s a little bit of uncertainty, it’s just not going to work as well as it should,” Francona said. “We sat down and talked to him at length about it and we’re trying to use good judgement.

“We know him so well that when he tries to pitch and he doesn’t feel like he has his legs under him, that’s going to lead to other problems. We don’t need that. We don’t want this to turn into something it shouldn’t.”

John Farrell

Friday afternoon, Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell called into Dale & Holley to talk about the pitching staff’s recent surge, Josh Beckett’s rehab schedule, and Daisuke Matsuzaka’s struggles against the Royals Thursday night.

“To go into the eighth inning with the game in hand that he had [against Philadelphia],” Farrell said, ”we were anticipating something similar — certainly not a no-hitter — but to be a little more controlling the count than last night unfolded.”

A partial transcript of the interview follows. To hear the full interview, visit the Dale & Holley audio on demand page.

Lately the pitching staff hasn’t been giving you a lot of problems, but after last night you must not have slept so well.

Yeah, seemingly right from the first inning, Daisuke was having a difficult time commanding within the zone. He worked himself into a couple of jams. He did a great job to get out of the fourth [inning], with the no out, bases loaded jam and no runs on the board. And really when you think about the total number of base runners he allowed, to keep the damage to three runs even though it was into the fifth inning, which is far short of what he’s been doing as of late, we were still in line late in the ballgame to win the game.

What do you think about Daisuke’s control issues over the course of the game?

Yeah, he battled himself, there’s no doubt about it. The stuff was equal to what he’s been pitching with. You look back five days ago in Philadelphia, against a very good fastball hitting team, and he threw the ball over the plate and he had some balls hit right at some people. To go into the eighth inning with the game in hand that he had, we were anticipating something similar — certainly not a no-hitter — but to be a little more controlling the count than last night unfolded.

Is Daisuke’s physical status better known, or is it something he’ll have to wait on until he gets to the park?

Probably going to have to wait until he gets to the park. You might be referring to something in his lower half. That’s probably the first we heard about it, so I don’t have any news in any way to give you on that. Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury was placed back on the disabled list before Friday’s game with the Royals and said he and the team were on the same page about coming back last weekend but doing so worsened his sore ribs.

“Basically, I tried to played with a level of discomfort, knowing I wasn’t 100 percent and doing so worsened my condition,” said Ellsbury, who said he saw a thoracic specialist on Friday who told him that he will need to be at a further level of healing when he returns to action.

[Click here to listen to Ellsbury explain his condition that landed him back on the disabled list Friday.]

“I guess way it looks now I came back too soon. With the way I felt and the way medical staff felt, we felt it was time to go. But we knew I wasn’t fully healed.” Ellsbury said.

The following is the full transcript of Ellsbury’s pre-game meeting with the media:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Wakefield

After losing the opener of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals Thursday night and seeing their five-game winning streak disappear in the process, the Boston Red Sox look to get back on a roll against Kyle Davies tonight at Fenway.

Tim Wakefield, who is 1-2 with a 4.44 ERA on the season, will go for the Sox. Wakefield pitched tremendously in his last outing against the National League champion Phillies, going eight strong innings to earn his first victory since last July. Although he has been unhappy with his back-and-forth roll as a middle reliever and starter, he has continued to show how invaluable he is to this organization. With Daisuke Matsuzaka struggling again last night and Josh Beckett on the disabled list, the Sox have been in need of good, solid starting pitching. The 43-year-old knuckleballer has 190 career victories, which is good for third among active pitchers.

The Red Sox, who have won or split the season series against Kansas City in eight of the past nine years, hope to keep the Royals’ league-leading offensive attack grounded.

The Royals counter with Davies, who will try and stop a Red Sox offense that has been fairly dangerous all year. Davies has allowed two earned runs or fewer in three straight outings, and is currently 3-3 with a 4.53 ERA. The 26-year-old righty will look to follow up an impressive outing from Brian Bannister, and take control of an important four game series. Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox have seen this before from Daisuke Matsuzaka.

One outing, he shows the brilliance that attracted scouts from all over the baseball world to Japan five years ago to watch him pitch.

The next outing, those closest to him can’t understand why he can’t throw a strike.

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the latter Matsuzaka was the one that showed up Thursday night at Fenway Park against Kansas City and it came with another red flag – another potential ailment to watch.

After walking eight batters and hitting another over 4 2/3 innings against Kansas City on Thursday night, Matsuzaka said he experienced ‘lower body soreness’ since allowing just one hit over eight shutout innings last Saturday in Philadelphia.

“It’s tough to say how much effect there was because it’s really a matter of my personal feel,” Matsuzaka (3-2, 5.77) said through interpreter Masa Hoshino. “So I don’t think I can describe. I think, looking back on it, yes, there was an effect.”

[Click here to listen to pitching coach John Farrell break down Matsuzaka's outing.]

[Click here to hear from his catcher Jason Varitek.]

The eight walks by Matsuzaka matched a career high with the Red Sox, equaling eight free passes on May 5, 2008.

“I don’t think that’s the most important issue,” Matsuzaka said of his lower body issue. “It might have looked like I got out of those innings OK but in my mind, I still felt there were still adjustments I needed to make. It’s been a long time since my body didn’t cooperate like this. I had to rely a lot on my upper body. My velocity was there but there was no movement or bite to my pitches, not to mention any command.”

Red Sox manager Terry Francona updated the Jacoby Ellsbury situation prior to Thursday’s series opener with the Kansas City Royals.

Francona acknowledged that Ellsbury is still have soreness issues with his side.

“He’s been examined,” Francona said. “We’ve looked at the pictures. All the medical people have looked at everything. He’s really tender. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”

The team is trying to get to the bottom of an issue that is becoming more complicated every day after Ellsbury told ESPN.com on Wednesday that he was activated after his ribs weren’t completely stable.

“[The pain] is along the same ribs that cracked,” Ellsbury told ESPN.com after Wednesday’s game. “All the ribs are moving, so it can affect the back ribs as well, where it hits the front of the spine. So you not only feel the impact at the direct place where you were hit, but the back side, too, along the band. I felt that originally, but I hadn’t felt it again until now.

“I think they downplay it because they misdiagnosed it,” Ellsbury continued. “They said you treat it all the same way. Remember that comment? How do you treat a bruise the same as a break?”

Francona said Thursday that the team is looking at all possibilities concerning the outfielder, who played just three games before sitting out Tuesday’s game at Tampa Bay. He hasn’t played since.

“We don’t want to rush into putting him on the DL,” Francona said. “At the same time, he’s not ready to play because of the way he feels so we’re just trying to get to the bottom of it. We’ll get to the bottom of it. We’re just not there yet. Whether we have to get more opinions, we’ll do whatever we feel is necessary.”

Elsewhere, Francona said the team believes they’ll have Victor Martinez behind the plate to catch Tim Wakefield on Friday.

“I think the hope is he’ll run around in the outfield a little bit. We’d like to catch him [Friday]. We’d really like to catch him [Friday] because of Wake. If he’s not ready, we won’t do it. I think he’ll be ready to catch.”

As for Thursday’s scheduled home plate umpire and the report that Joe West is facing sanctions from MLB after his quick hook of Mark Buerhle on Wednesday in Cleveland, Francona did a nice side-step, deferring to the White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who didn’t hold back in his criticism of the controversial umpire.

“Our goal is to win today and make it through nine innings,” Francona said. “I’d rather not get suspended so check with Ozzie.”

West was the same umpire who publicly criticized the Red Sox and Yankees for their lengthy games following their opening series of the season in April.

Josh Beckett, on the disabled list with a strained lower back, hopes to take another step in his return to the rotation with a scheduled side session on Friday at Fenway.

“I hope so,” Francona said. “If he throws his side [Friday] everything is going very well. If we need to back it up another day, we will.”