Bye Bye Beard

The famous beards on the faces of the Red Sox players are gone. Recently, two key members of the Red Sox team and the bullpen cop shaved their beards. Ever since the American League Divisional series, bullpen cop Steve Horgan has become an icon in Boston.  Mr. Horgan shaved his beard along with Shane Victorino and David Ortiz. Gillette offered to shave the players and the cops beard to raise money to help raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer and men's health issues. Currently, the trimmings of David Ortiz's beard can be bought for $11,000.

The Duck Boat

Recently the Red Sox conducted their ticker tape parade through the city of Boston to celebrate their World Series win. One thing that separates a Boston parade from any other city; the duck boat. The players are dispersed throughout roughly 20 duck boats to cruise through the city. When the parade reaches the Charles River, the boat enters the water to finish the parade. After the parade was over, Jake Peavy wanted to duck boat legacy to live on. He purchased the duck boat he was on for $75,000. The name of the boat Peavy was on was the "Charlie River". He is currently shipping his boat back to his home is Southwest Alabama.

Jake Peavy in front of his newly purchased "Charlie River" duck boat.

Qualifying Offers

Heading into the offseason the Red Sox had several free agents from this years roster but they decided to only extend qualifying offers to three players. The three players who received offers from the Red Sox were Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury. A qualifying offer means the player has the ability to sign a a one year contract worth $14.1 million. All three of the players who received offers from the Red Sox declined the offer and opted to become free agents. The player that is most likely to sign a long term deal with the Red Sox is Mike Napoli. He has already expressed interest in returning. Remember, last season Napoli signed a three year deal but it was changed to a one year deal due to health concerns. In regard to Stephen Drew, there is a 50/50 chance he returns to the Red Sox. He has stated that he would like to remain in Boston, but there are a lot of other teams who are vying for his services. Jacoby Ellsbury is the least likely to return next season for two main reasons. The first reason being that the Red Sox are reluctant to commit to a long term contract of six years or more. This is because of the disaster that the contract of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez caused the organization. The other reason is the Seattle Mariners are willing to pay that much money. The Mariners are an attractive team for Ellsbury because of the money and because he is from the Pacific Northwest.

World Series Champions

On Wednesday, the Red Sox defeated the Cardinals in game six and became World Series Champs! Shane Victorino, who sat out the last two games with back soreness returned to the lineup and got the scoring started for the Red Sox. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, Shane Victorino smacked a line drive into the left center gap. Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz and Jonny Gomes all came around to score to give the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead. The rest of the scoring came in the fourth inning. Surprisingly, Stephan Drew homered into the Red Sox bullpen. Stephan Drew was easily the Red Sox worst player this postseason as he was hitting .080 entering last nights game. After Drew's homer, Mike Napoli had a bloop hit into center field to score Jacoby Ellsbury. Then Shane Victorino singled to left which allowed David Ortiz to score. Aside from the offense, John Lackey pitch great. Lackey only allowed one run over seven innings pitched. After Junichi Tazawa and Brandon Workman pitched in relief, Koji Uehara did what he always does. Uehara struck out Matt Carpenter to clinch the third World Series title for the Red Sox in the last decade. 

Manager John Farrell with the World Series trophy.

Offensive Explosion

The Red Sox bats came to play Wednesday night in game 1 of the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals ace, Adam Wainwright, was on the mound. But that did not matter to the Red Sox. The scoring began in the first inning after St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma dropped a double play ball allowing the Red Sox to have the base loaded with one out for the red hot Mike Napoli. Napoli crushed a ball into the left center gap, allowing all three runs to score. In the bottom of the second inning, David Ortiz crush a grand slam over the right field fence to only have it hauled in by Carlos Beltran. Beltran reached over the fence to rob Ortiz of his second grand slam of the postseason. Ortiz would later make up for it by hitting his 16th career postseason homerun. He has now hit the most postseason homeruns in MLB history. Aside from the 8 runs the Red Sox scored, Jon Lester was dominant on the mound. Lester allowed no runs over 7.2 innings pitched. Lester looked like a true ace in game 1.


Here is a link to a video of Carlos Beltran robbing David Ortiz of a grand slam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llvL6b09LsM

The Sox Are Going To The World Series

For the first time since 2007, the Red Sox are back in the World Series! They were able to reach the World Series with the help of a grand slam off the bat of Shane Victorino in the bottom of the 7th inning of game 6 of the ALCS. Victorino's grand slam proved to be game winning. Victorino crushed an 0-2 curveball from Jose Veras. There was no looking back after that. Craig Breslow pitched the 8th inning, allowing no runs or hits. Then ALCS MVP, Koji Uehara came in to pitch the 9th inning. Just like every other night, Uehara was dominant. Koji Uehara got the save and sent the Boston Red Sox to the World Series. Just like 2004, the Red Sox will be facing the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2004, the Red Sox were able to sweep the Cardinals to capture the title. Hopefully the Red Sox will be able to pull through again. Even Las Vegas is setting the Red Sox as the favorites to win the World Series.

Video of Shane Victorino's grand slam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhb0V09wbVo

Mike Napoli's Superstition

Mike Napoli was off to a terrible start at the beginning of the ALCS. Napoli was benched for game 2 because of his failure to produce. He was finally reinserted back into the lineup for game 3 of the ALCS in Detroit on Tuesday night. Throughout the series, Napoli has rolled his pants up high, letting his bright red sox show. He continued with this trend to start game 3. After Napoli struck out his first two at-bats of game 3, he decided to change it up and pull his pants down. In his first at-bat with his pants rolled down, Napoli launched a solo homerun over the left field fence. This one run proved to be the difference in the game and captured the win for the Red Sox. Baseball players are known for their superstitions, and that was on display in game 3 with Mike Napoli. Now, the Red Sox are up 2-1 against Detroit. Jake Peavy will toe the rubber Wednesday night again Doug Fister. If Peavy can seal the victory for the Red Sox, they will have a commanding 3-1 heading back to Boston.

After starting the series 0-6, Mike Napoli decided to pull his pants down. In his first at-bat with his pants down, he hit a clutch homerun.

A Game For The Ages

Wow. That's the only word I can think of to describe game 2 of the ALCS last night. Just like game 1, the Red Sox couldn't buy a hit. Max Scherzer pitch a brilliant game for the Tigers, allowing just 1 run through 7 innings. The Tigers bats also showed up to play. They were able to put up 5 runs through the first 6 innings of the game. At that point, it looked like the Red Sox were done and we're going to heading to Detroit down 2-0. But that all changed in the bottom of the 8th inning when Joaquin Benoit toed the rubber and David Ortiz stepped to the plate. Ortiz crushed the first pitch he saw over the right field fence for a grand slam to tie the game up at 5 a pice. Then Jonny Gomes lead of the 9th inning with an infield single. Former Red Sox Jose Ingleis then the ball away which allowed Gomes to advance to second base. Then Rick Porcello uncorked a wild pitch which then allowed Gomes to advance to third base. Then Jarrod Saltamacchia single between shortstop and third base and Gomes was able to walk in to score the winning run. Now, the Red Sox will be heading to Detroit tied at 1-1.

Torii Hunter flipping over the right field fence attempting to catch David Ortiz's game tying grand slam. 

Defeated By A Cheater

The bats didn't show up during game 1 of the ALCS Saturday night. Anibal Sanchez and the Tigers bullpen were able to hold the Red Sox to just one hit. For the Red Sox, Jon Lester allowed only one run. Usually this is more than enough for the Red Sox to win, but the Tigers pitching proved to be too dominant. The one and only run that the Tigers scored came in the top of the 6th inning on a bloop single off the bat of Jhonny Peralta. The fact that Jhonny Peralta won a playoff game for the Tigers makes me sick to my stomach. I believe in working to earn everything you have and I don't like cheaters. And that is what Jhonny Peralta is, a cheater. Peralta was named in the Biogenesis report during the season and was suspended 50 games for his steroid use. It makes me mad that he cheated and was allowed to play again. Not only was he able to play, but he won a game for and beat my favorite team, the Red Sox. I don't think that he should have been allowed to play for the rest of this season.

The Detroit Tigers Await

It's official, the Boston Red Sox will be playing the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Based on the season stats, this should be a very close series. The Tigers won four out of the seven games that they played against the Red Sox this year. Three of the four wins came in Detroit for the Tigers. This is good news for the Red Sox considering that the Red Sox have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Both teams have deep lineups and a plethora of pitching which should result in a very interesting series.

ALCS Bound

The Red Sox are moving on in the playoffs. Last night the Red Sox finished off the Rays with a 3-1 win in Tampa. Pitching and defense is what wins game and that was on display last night when Jake Peavey toed the runner for game 4. Peavy went a strong 5.2 innings while only allowing one run which came on a single by David DeJesus. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, the Red Sox finally gained momentum. Jacob Ellsbury was stealing second base when Jake McGee unleashed a wild pitch. This wild pitched allowed Xander Bogaerts to score and Ellsbury to advance to third base. Next, Shane Victorino hit an infield single which allowed Ellsbury to score and give the Red Sox the lead. Then in the 9th inning, Dustin Pedroia hit a sac fly to drive in Ellsbury giving the Red Sox a 3-1 lead. After beating the Rays, the Red Sox will now wait to play the winner of the A's vs. Tigers series.

Playoff Baseball Is Back

Playoff baseball returned to Boston for the first time since the 2009 season and it got off to a great start. The Red Sox were able to score 12 runs while every starter in the lineup collected at least one hit. The turning point of the game came in the 5th inning when Will Myers missed a fly ball right in front of the Red Sox bullpen. Myers mistake lead to a 5 run inning for the Red Sox. These 5 runs would prove to be enough but the Red Sox kept hitting and scored 7 more runs. But everyone knows pitching and defense wins games. Jon Lester went 7.2 innings and allowed 3 hits. History says that the Red Sox are in good position to win this series and possiblely  more. The last time the Red Sox had the best record in the majors and last time the won the American League East, they went on to win the World Series. Everything is looking good for the Red Sox right now.

It's the End of the Regular Season

The end of the Boston Red Sox 2013 season has come to an end. But the end of this year is different from the end of last season. Most of the players from last season would be golfing in Florida by now. This season, Red Sox players are gearing up for playoff baseball and the chance to win the World Series, something they have not done since 2007. It would have been nice to see the Red Sox reach the 100 win mark which is a difficult to reach. Instead, the Red Sox fell just short with 97 wins. They probably could have reached the 100 win mark if they did not rest their players at the end of the season.

The season comes to an end

Todays game in Baltimore which was the final game of the regular season. Boston scored early but let the Orioles come back to edge them 6-5 in the season finale. The Red Sox got off to an early start when they scored five runs in the first four innings. But after the fourth inning, the Red Sox bats went quiet and the Orioles bats came alive. Ruby De La Rosa came in relief and surrendered a few runs which led to the Orioles offensive explosion. While it would have been nice for the Red Sox to win their last game of the season, losing this game is not the end of the world or the end of the season. Unlike last year, the Red Sox will be playing playoff baseball for the first time since 2009.

Sox huge win over the O's

On Friday night, the Red Sox bats came to life at Camden Yards. The Red Sox collected a whopping 16 hits. Using the 16 hits that the team collected, they were able to produce 12 runs. Daniel Nava, David Ortiz and rookie Jackie Bradley Jr. helped contribute to the scoring by all hitting three homeruns. These three players combined to drive in 7 of the Red Sox 12 runs Friday nights. But everyone knows that pitching and defense is what wins games. Clay Bucholtz turned in another stellar performance on the mound. Bucholtz has been pitched great since returned from the DL and tonight he was able to earn his 12th victory of the season.