The prizes?  TWO copies of the  The Red Sox Coloring and Activity Book pictured here.

All you have to do is answer the 3 questions below, and you will be in the running for a brand spanking new copy of your very own. If more than two people get all of the answers correct, the winner will be chosen in a random drawing.

Deadline for all entries is Monday, July 6th, with the winner being announced July 8th.

Here are the questions:

• Which former Red Sox second baseman has become one of the premier color commentators in baseball?
• Which lightening quick outfielder led the A.L. in steals for the 08 season with 50?
• What is the nickname of the only Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game?

Good Luck!

But what if you could WIN that catching gear? AND have it autographed and personally presented to you by Jason Varitek at a Red Sox game in August?

Well, it could happen!

Jason Varitek and Celebrities for Charity have teamed up to make this once in a lifetime opportunity a reality.

Valued at nearly $3,000.00 (although you really can’t put a price tag on something like this) This is one what one lucky fan will win:

• Jason Varitek’s game used and autographed Mask, Chest Protector, and Shin Pads from the 4th of July Contest will be presented, personally by Jason Varitek at a Red Sox Game
• 4 tickets to a Red Sox Game (where the equipment will be presented)
• An on field tour of Fenway Park before the game
• A cash prize in the amount of 716.85 to mitigate the Winner’s tax liability that results from winning the raffle. This prize is withheld and paid, on behalf of the Winner, directly to the IRS ($716.85) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ($150.53).

Tickets are $2.00 each (you must buy a minimum of 5) and you must be 18 or older, to purchase a ticket, as well as win. You can purchase tickets until 11:00pm on Monday, August 3, 2009, with the drawing being held later that day. All proceeds benefit Saints Medical Center, in Lowell, MA

For more information, you can go here…

On behalf of all of us at Boston Red Thoughts, have a great and safe 4th of July…

Happy Independence Day!

But then when I looked at about 4:30, I saw that they had tied it, and the game was going into extra innings, THEN I thought: “Oh Crap, just what a roached bullpen needs–extra innings!”

And despite the fact that the Sox are 4-2 in extra inning games, being the away team is never the favorable position, I was full expecting the Sox to lose this one–but then I get home to see that they had WON–and at the hand, of all people, JULIO LUGO. And then I think “Oh Crap, this is surely a sign of the apocalypse” And for the record, I still don’t want Julio Lugo anywhere near the Boston Red Sox–because the miscues far outweigh these kinds of moments…But for today–Thank you, Julio…

And its a good thing they won this game, the Skanks won their SEVENTH in the row, so the lead in the AL East for the Sox remains at 2.5 games…

Speaking of shortstops, the guy who is supposed to be our main one is still coming up lame from being hit on the knee with a pitch in a rehab game at Pawtucket–its still so bad, that he is coming to Boston to have the training staff look at it. From Tito: “He is being looked at (Wednesday). The knee [is being checked], it’s the contusion. He got smoked in the knee, and I think he’s got some swelling up where it kind of collects.” The Sox are hoping he can resume his rehab assignment this weekend…How lucky are the Sox to have Nick Green, because if they had had to deal with Lugo on a full time basis, they’d really be screwed….

And if Josh Beckett hadn’t stayed in a game where he obviously did not have his best stuff for 7 innings, it would have not been a good thing. Throwing 107 pitches (69 for strikes) Josh gave up all the runs the Oreo’s scored in yesterday’s contest, It was 5 runs on 6 hits (including the 2 killer homers) while walking 2 (one intentionally) and striking out 5…

Daniel Bard also did very well yesterday throwing 2 perfect innings, with 4 strikeouts…

Ramón Ramirez got the win, and Jonathan Papelbon got the save, both of them throwing perfect innings of work as well…and with the save, Papelbon moved ahead to sole possession of the most saves in Red Sox history with 133…From Paps: “Obviously, it feels good. When I set out to do this — to be the closer for the Boston Red Sox — there was definitely a lot of goals in sight, and this was one of them. So to get there and to kind of finally get it and to kind of get it out of my head and stop thinking about it is definitely good for me.”

Coming up: An off day today (Thursday off-days suck worse than Monday off-days…) Then All Star Pitcher (Well, he SHOULD be-if Joe Maddon has any brains at all) Tim Wakefield takes the mound tomorrow night at Fenway to kick off the final homestand before the All-Star break, with a record of his own: 383 starts for the Boston Red Sox, 1 more than the previous leader, Fatboy Roger Clemens–Good. He is opposed by Felix Hernandez for Seattle. 1st pitch: 7:05pm

And don’t forget to submit your entries for the Red Sox Coloring and Activity Book Giveaway. I now have TWO copies, and some lucky folks will be winning them. You can enter as often as you like, answering the 3 trivia questions by sending an e-mail. If more than one person gets all of the answers correct, the winners will be chosen in a random drawing…

Here are the questions:

• Which former Red Sox second baseman has become one of the premier color commentators in baseball?
• Which lightening quick outfielder led the A.L. in steals for the 08 season with 50?
• What is the nickname of the only Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game?

Deadline for all entries is July 6th, with the winner being announced July 8th. Good Luck!

Not so fast…

Then the rains came–71 minutes worth, which was far too long to bring back Smoltz, so his night was done–1 inning short of being eligible for the win.

So, when the game resumes, Tito calls on a pitcher who has had great success as both a starter and a reliever–Justin Masterson. No reason to believe that he couldn’t give them 2-3 strong innings of work….Right?

Oh, he gave then 2 innings of perfect work, striking out 4 and walking none–but then he came back out in the 7th, and before he could get an out, it was the FIVE RUNS on five hits (including a homer)…Then Manny Delcarmen comes in and pitches for 2/3 of inning, managing to allow his inherited runner to score, but the score was hanging at 10-6…the Sox are still OK…not as great, but still OK…

Okajima comes in and get the Sox out of the 7th inning…good deal. Then, Okajima comes back out in the 8th inning, and promptly gives up ANOTHER 4 runs on 5 hits. So the Sox bring in Saito, who promptly allows 2 out of 3 of HIS inherited runners to score.

OK, the Sox are still ahead 10-9, with 2 outs in the 8th inning–they are hanging on for dear life, but they are stil in the lead, and Mr “I’ll go wherever the money takes me” Jonathan Papelbon comes in, and (most of) Red Sox Nation breathes a sigh of relief–this is the CLOSER, the one who is tied with Bob Stanley for the most saves in Red Sox history–and it took him less than 1/2 the time to do it…He’s never has a blown save against the Oreo’s in 21 opportunities…He’ll save the day….Right?

Not so fast…

Not only did he blow the save, he allowed HIS 2 runners he inherited from Saito to score, promptly handing Saito the loss

And the Sox lose 10-11..To the cookies…whom they had previously beaten the last 8 times they have faced them…Freaking beautiful…

Yeah, go ahead and read all that again, it takes a couple times for it to sink in…

So, if you are an Oreo’s fan, it was a wonderful game–if not, it was CRAP…And now the Sox are only 2.5 games ahead of the Skanks who have won their last 6 games in the row….and the best they can expect from this 9 game road trip is a 6-3 record–which is good–but 7-2 would have been better…

Overall, the best part of yesterday was John Smoltz–certainly more indicative of what the Sox paid $5.5 million for in the off-season. I am looking forward to his 3rd start (probably Sunday against Seattle) to see where he goes from here…

And ya know, I thought when Julio Lugo got the start last night, and the Sox were ahead 10-1 that perhaps they COULD win when he starts–Obviously not…although he did not have an error last night, and went 2-6 and scored twice, so I guess we should be grateful for small favors…

And, to add icing to this wonderful day: Mike Lowell was placed on the disabled list yesterday, retroactive to Sunday the 28th, despite the fact that it appeared that the draining of the fluid from him hip, and the shot of Synvisc helped a lot. Apparently, the Sox want to err on the side of caution, especially with the 4 days off for the All-Star break coming in less than 2 weeks. (11 games). He will more than likely be activated when the Sox resume play in Toronto on July 17th. From Tito: “He showed up (Tuesday) and felt great - great to the point where he was thinking he could play in a few days, which we were excited about. At the same time, if he plays a couple of days and isn’t feeling as good as he wants, we’ve kind of ruined a really good opportunity to get him back after the All-Star break, playing the majority of the time and feeling pretty good.” I reallyREALLY hope this is the case, and that there is really nothing wrong that they aren’t mentioning…Jeff Bailey was called up from Pawtucket to take Lowell’s place on the roster

All Star Update: Kevin Youkilis has overtaken Mark Toxemia in the 1st base All-Star balloting again, by a little over 47,000 votes, and Dustin Pedroia is still trailing Ian Kinsler (why, I have no idea–did you even ever heard of Ian Kinsler before the balloting began? Me either…), but the gap has closed to less than 7,000 votes. I think both of these contests will come down to the wire. Jason Bay, who would need to quit baseball and join a monastery in Tibet to not get the start in the outfield, still leads the pack in that balloting. Jacoby Ellsbury is 6th, and last year’s All-Star MVP, JD Drew, is 10th…

And unless there is a big surge, it looks like Eva(n) Longoria will actually beat out A-Fraud for the starting 3rd base position–HA HA…

You still have a little more than a day to grab a bunch of your e-mail addresses (you can vote up to 25 times per e-mail) and go to All-Star Game Sprint Online Ballot. Deadline is 11:59 p.m. EST, Thursday night, July 2nd. Starters will be announced Sunday afternoon at 1:00 on TBS…

And finally, from out friends at eTrueSports, in honor or Manny coming back from his 50-game suspension on Friday, the hot new reality show, coming soon on Fox: Being Manny. From the producers of COPS, Being Manny will chronicle the life and times of Manny Ramirez, reality television’s next great star. Sometimes violent, always dumb. Utterly self-absorbed. And deeply amusing. For the rest of the story…

Coming up: Josh Beckett takes the mound in this 3rd and final game of this series and the 9th and final game of this interminable road trip–hopefully Beckett can go deep into this game, ’cause the bullpen is ROACHED…He is opposed by Brad Bergesen for the Oreo’s. 1st pitch: 1:35pm.

And Jon Lester put in another brilliant performance last night for his 7th win, pitching 7 innings of shut-out, 5-hit (all singles) ball while walking none and striking out 8…He threw 108 pitches, 71 for strikes. With last night’s win, he is 8-0 with a 2.18 ERA in 10 career starts against the Oreos…

In stark contrast, Baltimore’s starter, Jason Berken has a very tough time of it: 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 8 hits (including a homer run by JD Drew), while hitting 2, having a balk, striking out 3 and walking 2…

And Jonathan Papelbon is now tied with Bob Stanley for the Boston Red Sox record for saves with 132. It took Stanley 13 seasons to compile that number–5 for Papelbon… But he has his sights on a higher number: 500, which is the number of saves Mariano Rivera hit on Sunday night. Rivera is only the 2nd closer to hit 500–Trevor Hoffman of Milwaukee currently leads the pack with 571. From Cinco Ocho, when asked if he thinks he can beat that record: “It’s realistic because you train yourself to think you’re good enough to do it. But at the same time, to stay healthy for that many years and not only to stay healthy, but to be able to play through pain, when you’re aching day in and day out. It’s pretty amazing…”(Rivera is) the godfather of our role, he’s done so much for it. To chase him is definitely an honor and definitely a challenge, and I’m always up for challenges.”

So Mike Lowell got is shot of Synvisc yesterday, and it takes about 24 hours to feel the effects, if there are any, so we should know today if it did the trick, or a DL stint is in the cards for him. In addition to the shot, they drained about 15 cc’s of fluid from his hip–and have kept him in Boston for some rehab on the area…So even if it does everything the Sox are hoping it will do, I dont expect to see him until probably Friday’s game at Fenway…

So, someone stole my black marker from my desk, which I use, in conjunction with the red marker (red for win, black for lose) to mark my Red Sox season schedule. So that means the Sox cannot lose anymore games…Clear?

Jed Lowrie had had ANOTHER setback, after being removed from Sunday’s Pawtucket game with a tight left quad, did not play in last night’s contest. The theory is that it’s an over compensation injury, brought about by having been hit by a pitch on his left knee last week…

Pawtucket Outfielder Jonathan Van Every, who also spent some time in the bigs this season, is done for the year, following surgery on his left knee this week…

Finally, don’t forget to enter the latest Boston Red Thoughts contest–we are giving away a copy of The Red Sox Coloring and Activity Book. Just got a copy over the weekend and they are VERY cool…All you have to do is answer the 3 questions below, and the winner will receive a brand spanking new copy for their very own. If more than one person gets all of the answers correct, the winner will be chosen in a random drawing–Deadline for all entries is Monday, July 6th, with the winner being announced July 8th. Good Luck!

Here are the questions:

Which former Red Sox second baseman has become one of the premier color commentators in baseball?

Which lightening quick outfielder led the A.L. in steals for the 08 season with 50?

What is the nickname of the only Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game?

Coming up: Start #2 for John Smoltz, and hopefully the 2nd verse will not be the same as the 1st–I have a feeling we will see a different, more familiar John Smoltz–I am just thrilled I will be able to watch him live, rather than TiVo’ ed, after I know he did ucky… He is opposed by Rich Hill for the Cookies. 1st pitch: 7:05pm

Bad Penny! certainly pitched well enough to win, throwing 6 innings of 2 run, 6 hits (including the 2 solos homers that was all the scoring for Atlanta) baseball. He threw 106 pitches, 73 for strikes striking out 2, hitting 1, and walking none…

But, unfortunately, he has assumed the role of “no run support guy” which is normally played by Tim Wakefield. While I wish it would not happen to any pitcher, it happened to Wake so often, I am glad he is getting a break…

And I think I can speak for alot of us, Big Papi included, when we say how reliever we all are that he will not be playing 1st base anytime soon again–I am sorry, but that was SO painful to watch…

So, the Sox end up 11-7 in Interleague play for 2009, and still 3 games ahead of the pack in the AL East, and hold the 2nd best record in baseball (The Dodgers, sans Manny, have the best record…) and interleague play is OVER for the 2009 campaign–although, lets hope the Sox get to face another NL team–at the World Series…

Mike Lowell, who sat out the entire Atlanta series this weekend, will be getting a Synvisc shot today, with the hopes that it will coat his hip joint and help him to be able to play. From Tito: “It’s kind of like a gel-type thing. For some people, it’s like a miracle. For other people, it’s not. I’ve had it done, it didn’t do a thing for me. [Bench coach Brad Mills] had the same shot, and two hours later, he felt like he was brand new…(Mike will) probably need a day after that before we can evaluate, but then we’ll see. If he’s good, that’s good. If not, then we have to talk about the next step.” Let’s hope it does not come to that, as the next step is probably the DL so that he can rest. My understanding of the situation is that he is not HURT in any way, he is just HURTING….

SO glad Nick Green was not charged with an error in yesterday’s game. While his throw was a bit low, if Youk had been at 1st base, he would have made the play. Big Papi just could not dig it out…and speaking of dead skunks, Nick Green has not had an error since June 3rd–nearly a month–can Julio Lugo EVER say he had a month of no errors? Probably not…

And Jed Lowrie is coming along, having served at DH in Pawtucket’s game yesterday, where he went 1-2….Could we possibly see him this week? Possibly when the Sox return to Fenway this weekend?

Coming up: Finally! An AL Team! Jon Lester takes the mound tonight to kick off the 1st of 3 games at Camden Yards against the Oreos–and the last 3 games of this very long (9 game) road trip. Surprisingly, the Sox have only played Baltimore 4 times this year–back in April at Fenway (and won ‘em all…)–which seems very different from previous years, where it seemed like they played them every other day… Jason Berken gets the start for the Cookies. 1st pitch 7:05pm…