What Is Happening...

John Lackey is absolute garbage. Jon Lester just went down with a back injury following in the footsteps of Clay Buchholz a few weeks ago. Jonathan Papelbon may be the most overrated closer in recent memory. JD Drew seems like he forgot how to play baseball. Kevin Youkilis seems to have the most obscure injuries every 3rd game forcing him to miss a game or two in any given week.

Jon Lester had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning, but didn't take the mound. He left with a left lat strain, taking away any elbow room that was to be had on the disabled list.

In the ninth inning. Papelbon came in, gave up a moonshot to Jose Bautista, his 28th dinger of the season, and had to be bailed out by a Darnell McDonald cannon from left field to home plate to gun out Edwin Encarnacion for the final out. Very questionable call at the plate, as Varitek appeared to miss the tag high as Encarnacion swung his right leg around like a horseshoe around a stake.

Either way, Tim Wakefield and the Sox are taking on Ricky Romero and the Blue Jays, who the Sox have had success off of already this season, tonight at 7:10.

Go Sox.

Sox Pull the E-Brake -- Stop Skid vs Phillies

Terry Francona earned his 700th victory with the Boston Red Sox this afternoon in Citizen's Bank Park, as the Sox beat down the Phillies, 5-2.

Boston finished the month of June with a 16-9 record, after starting out 12-2 but now stumbling into July. Mike Cameron was designated for assignment before the game, with Yamaico Navarro getting the call to the Show. The infielder was called up to give the Sox some breathing room while Kevin Youkilis heals up from a foul ball off the foot the other night.

Jon Lester was lights out, going 7 innings with 2 hits, 2 walks, no runs allowed and 5 K's. His battery mate Jason Varitek led the offense with 2 solo home runs, batting 5th today in an always-confusing interleague lineup.

Sox are traveling to Houston to take on the Astros, last place in the NL Central with a 28-53 record. Given the way they've played against the Pirates and Padres, the Sox could be in for another struggle, but hopefully they can start out July like they did June and stay hot this summer.

Lester vs Price

Huge match-up tonight at The Trop. The tied-for-first-place Tampa Bay Rays will host the Sox for 3 game that could be huge for Boston. We trail by 5 and a half games in the AL East, and are in desperate need of a hot streak. Hell, if we don't start that streak here, we'll be in serious trouble.

Tonight's pitching match-up has the league's top 2 lefties in Jon Lester (13-8) and David Price (15-5) doing battle head-to-head. This could potentially be one of the most important games of the year.

In other news, Dustin Pedroia is walking around with a boot on that injured foot of his, and will know if he needs surgery in a week.

7:10 on NESN, Sox vs Rays.

Go Sox.

What A Day

What a day in the world of baseball. 3 walk-off hits, 3 home runs by the best hitter in baseball, 14 strikeouts by a Tiger, a hit streak extended to 54 games, and the best pitcher in baseball getting even better.

Ryan Zimmerman hit his 100th career home run, and it looked like the Washington Nationals were poised to take the series from the San Diego Padres (who were wearing the best looking jerseys in all of sports). In the 11th inning, Nats' second baseman Adam Kennedy fired a ball into the Padres' dugout, allowing Lance Zawadzki to advance to second base, opening the door for pinch-hitter, Nick Hundley. He smacked a 2-2 pitch into left, scoring Zawadzki for the game winner.

Coming just a day after the bizarre ankle injury during Kendry Morales' walk-off celebration, Howard Kendrick was able to provide some more fireworks out in Anaheim. Trailing 7-3 after 5 innings to the Seattle Mariners, the Los Angeles Angels mounted an impressive comeback, capped by Kendrick's 3-run walk-off blast to give them the victory, 9-7.

A real see-saw match out by the Bay between the San Fransisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks was ended by Andres Torres' RBI single in the 10th frame. Torres went 4-6 in the game, and helped give Arizona their seventh loss in a row.

He's back. After a rough power shortage, Albert Pujols has been re-charged. Hitting two home runs in 97 at-bats in all of May, three more on the last day was a good way to end it. He scored four runs in his fourth career three-homer game. The St. Louis Cardinals housed the Chicago Cubs yesterday afternoon, 9-1.

Max Scherzer, fresh off the plane from Triple-A Toledo pitched a career high 14 Ks for the Detroit Tigers against the Oakland Athletics. Even with the two perfect games, 14 strikeouts is where the bar is now set.

Another dominating performance came out of Boston this afternoon. The best pitcher in baseball, Jon Lester was in true from again for the Red Sox against the Kansas City Royals. Lester won his sixth start in a row, giving the home team 7 innings, and allowing 4 hits and a run while striking out 5. David Ortiz also homered for the 10th time this month in the 8-1 Sox victory.

If there were a College Baseball Fantasy League, whoever owned Garrett Wittels would be cleaning house. With another two hits today, Wittels increased his streak to 54 straight games. Wittels is only a sophomore at Florida International University.