I’m choosing to focus on the ninth inning, though, and Will Middlebrooks. Not his bases-clearing, go-ahead double, though that was obviously the critical hit of the game. But what allowed it to happen. Something Middlebrooks isn’t much known for allowing to happen.

A ball.

Tampa closer Fernando Rodney wasn’t sharp on Thursday, to say the least. Down 3-1, they loaded the bases against him with three walks, getting the tying run on base before a hitter took the bat off his shoulder. That brought Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey from the dugout for a chat. With one out and the bases loaded, Stephen Drew came up. The shortstop has the fourth-highest walk rate on the team among regulars — 12.0 percent, well above the 8.3 percent MLB average — but got no chance at a free pass. Rodney, perhaps clued into something by Hickey, threw him three straight changeups down and away; Drew took the first for a strike, and missed the last two.

That left Middlebrooks, his 3.9 percent walk rate among the bottom 15 in the majors, his 29.0 percent strikeout rate among the top 15 in the majors, against a pitcher who’s fanned 13.5 batters per nine innings this season. And Middlebrooks was quickly set up after taking a fastball for strike one and fouling off another in the zone for strike two. You could feel, given the way his season’s gone, what was coming.

Then came this:

(NESN Screenshots)

A 100-mph fastball, thrown after five straight pitches in the zone, thrown perhaps three inches high of the strike zone. Admittedly, that’s not usually where Middlebrooks goes chasing — he’s much more likely to go after stuff missing on the sides and down. But it still showed some admirable restraint, and allowed him to get the 1-2 changeup he rifled into left center to win the game.

(All the upcoming stats are via Inside Edge, FYI.)

How common is this from Middlebrooks? On 52 0-2 counts this season, Middlebrooks has taken 28 pitches — every one’s been a ball, but most of them weren’t even close to the strike zone. (Rodney’s pitch was probably among the four closest, showing the most restraint.) Of the 24 0-2 pitches Middlebrooks has hacked at, just seven are termed ‘chase’ swings, five of those seven wide of the outer edge. Right around the area, as you see above, where catcher Jose Molina was set up on the 0-2.

They had his tendencies down. Rodney just missed.

Also working in Middlebrooks’ favor? He was probably looking changeup. Jerry Remy suggested Rodney might go offspeed on the NESN broadcast, and the numbers back that up. Along with his fastball being ineffective for much of his appearance on Thursday, Rodney’d thrown changeup on 15 of the 23 0-2 counts he’d faced this season prior to the Middlebrooks at-bat. (Though 11 of those 15 were against left-handed hitters.)

If that’s what Middlebrooks was sitting on, and I suspect he was, he’d have had little chance to even consider swinging at a fastball. Especially a 100-mph one among the three fastest pitches Rodney’s thrown this year.

Conclusion? Middlebrooks caught a break, if not two. That shouldn’t take away, however, from what he did on the next pitch. Rodney threw his changeup down —  a good-not-great pitch, in the zone and perhaps an inch closer to the middle of the plate than he wanted, and Middlebrooks hammered it in the gap. His hit was just the fourth two-strike one against Rodney, and just the second with two strikes, runners in scoring position and two outs. The game was on his bat, and he did not miss.

Middlebrooks, who’d been just 4-for-33 with runners in scoring position: ”He hung me a changeup. Normally he buries that pitch, and he left it up. I didn’t know [if a changeup was coming], because I was so late on that fastball [earlier in the count]. I was thinking, ‘Shoot, he might come fastball in,’ but then I was like, ‘He’s going to go to his bread and butter, his changeup, he’s going to try to bury one probably, get me to swing over it trying to catch up to the heater,’ and he left it up.”

Rodney, who tied a career high with the three walks and blew his third save in 10 chances after blowing just 2-of-50 in 2012: “This game is difficult. Sometimes, when you think you’ve got it in your hands, it’s gone. That’s how I’m feeling. … One pitch. Maybe the only pitch I threw bad and they hit it.”

Three inches or one momentary decision to swing difference, and the narrative’s completely different. Another big strikeout in a disappointing year, another loss the Sox just couldn’t save. Baseball (and journalism, I suppose) is a funny thing, sometimes.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Tampa Bay Times

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

John Farrell on Victorino, who came out of the game in the ninth after slamming the wall on one of his eighth-inning catches: “When he caught the ball and banged off the wall, he started to tighten up — more broad across the low back. It’s not similar to the reason he missed the four or five games earlier. We’ll check him tomorrow. He’s a little banged up.” (WEEI.com)

(NESN Screenshots)

Betweem this during Wednesday’s third-inning outburst and Mike Napoli during the Houston series, the double thumb appears to be the 2013 Red Sox celebration du jour.

Not that, were it a couple years ago, you’d have ever seen J.D. Drew do it. SEE?! THEY’RE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GUYS!

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Tampa Bay Times

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

John Farrell, on staying consistent in the face of the team’s skid; the Boston offense broke out in an eight-run third inning, battering an injured David Price: ”The one thing I don’t want to create in (the clubhouse) is more uncertainty and I think at a time when you could understand if some frustration starts to filter in. I want there to be some stability and some continuity to the work we’re doing. That includes (the players) understanding that there’s a lot of belief and trust in them. We didn’t go 20-8 at one point with a completely different set of players. We’re not going to run from them.” (Globe)

That Dustin Pedroia sparked the rally should serve as no surprise, says Alex Speier.

The Red Sox finished 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position after going 5-for-40 the last four games. Funny how quickly “clutch hitting” can change things. In a similar vein, from the Herald: “When opponents put the ball in play against (Felix) Doubront, they’re batting .420, far higher than last season when they batted .312.” (Though Farrell stresses he doesn’t “want to just throw it up to luck.”

But that’s a story for Thursday. Though I’d click that link … Juan Nieves has a pretty good theory of what’s been sapping Doubront’s velocity and the sharpness of his breaking pitches.

Tampa’s Jamey Wright, who entered in relief of Price midway through the third and allowed four of the first five men he faced to reach, capped by Stephen Drew’s grand slam: ”No excuses, I just stunk tonight. I threw two sinkers right down the middle. One got hit for a double and one got hit up the middle. Then a cutter into Drew, I tried to go up and in and I threw it right down and in right into his swing path. He hit a home run. It was awful. I didn’t do my job out there today.”

Drew, who hit his second career grand slam; since an 0-for-3 on May 4 dropped his average to .177, Drew is 12-for-32 (.375) with three doubles and two homers: “Everybody is doing something. Having great ABs and sticking to their approach. It was bound to turn around. We knew the past couple of games haven’t been too good with runners in scoring position.”

Suffice to say, Rays Nation is a little concerned about what’s up with Price. The reigning AL Cy Young winner is 1-4 with a 5.24 ERA. Tampa’s won just two of his nine starts.

Farrell on Will Middlebrooks; the third baseman is still battling pain in his right side after colliding with David Ross last week, but hit a homer and double to get his average back above .200: ”Whether it coincides with the collision, and I mean that with all sincerity, he’s not pulling off the ball as much. He’s staying to the middle of the field, and that’s when his power really shows and the bat stays in the zone longer.”

Middlebrooks, on his struggles: “I’ve gone through this at almost every level. Just not quite this long, and the resources weren’t as good for (pitchers) to pick me apart. But it’s not other guys picking me apart. It’s beating myself, and that’s the thing that’s frustrating.”

Jon Lester, who allowed eight hits and a pair of runs in seven innings, but didn’t walk a batter for the second straight start: ”The biggest thing is that I feel really good with my offspeed – my changeup and my curveball. My curveball, it’s been a while since it’s felt as good as it did tonight. I feel like I can throw my changeup pretty much anytime, and that’s big for me.”

The statheads at ESPN also note how key Lester’s fastball has been to his 6-0 start to the season, noting among other things that “opponents last season hit over .300 against Lester’s fastball. This season they are hitting .160.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

Somewhat connected to the Sox struggles with runners on base, a neat little statistical look at stranded numbers. Contrary to what makes sense, teams that leave more guys on base tend to win more than those that don’t (in the sense that you have to be a better offense to get guys on base in the first place).

Pitching coach Juan Nieves on Daniel Bard, who continues spiraling downward at Double-A Portland’ on Wednesday in Manchester, N.H., Bard walked five batters, issued two wild pitches and threw just eight strikes in 30 pitches: “I’m concerned over, of course, how he’s doing mentally. You’re always concerned about a guy’s mental state when he’s engaged in an at-bat and doesn’t do well. It continues to be the same thing. … It was never going to be a quick fix with him, because of the residue of everything that has happened through a whole year of battle. It’s going to take some time. I think the strength is there, the arm strength is there, it’s a matter of him buying into it and creating some consistency. You know what it comes down to? Him not thinking about hitters or anything like that, just hit the glove, hit the glove, hit the glove. Let the stuff play. … We’ll have to look into the next step and we’ll have another plan for him. Staying the course, but we might add some things.” (Herald, WEEI.com)

Farrell on Franklin Morales, who is still yet to pitch in the majors this season; while he’s healthy enough to pitch in relief, the Sox continue to groom him to start: ”If we don’t change course with his role, we’d like to get him to a minimum of five [innings] before we look to do something back here. … We’re staying the course as of right now on him starting.”

In other injured pitcher news, from the Globe: “Farrell said the latest Andrew Bailey would be activated off the disabled list is Monday. Bailey is scheduled for a simulated game Thursday afternoon. The plan is for Bailey to go through a normal warm-up, then throw 12-15 pitches on the mound against hitters. The righthander has not pitched in a game since April 28 because of a biceps strain. Farrell said the Sox would decide Friday whether Bailey’s next step would be to pitch in a minor league game before being activated. It appears that will be the case.”

Jonny Gomes, on his early season struggles; he’s hitting .188 after a 1-for-3 night that included an RBI single in the big third inning: ”Hey, I was with a(n Oakland) team that was 13.5 games out in mid-August last year. I was in first place for four innings, and we went to the playoffs. If people are looking for a panic button, I don’t have one. … It’s hard right now because people kind of panic — God, is he going to get going? — but it won’t take much.” (ESPN Boston)

Read that piece. Not only is it well written by Gordon Edes, Gomes makes some excellent points about the quality of pitchers he gets to face as a guy here to hit lefties. 

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Tampa Bay Times

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

Matt Joyce, on his fourth-inning pop-up to first base; Mike Napoli couldn’t make the catch, the ball remained fair and Tampa scored the winning two runs: ”Here at the Trop, everybody knows that anything can happen with that roof. It can be our best friend or our worst nightmare. We’ve seen both sides of it. (Tuesday) it went our way. … We’ve had some things go against us. A lot of other teams have had bloop hits and what not. It’s good karma. I think we’ve been playing good baseball. So I think we’ve earned it.”

Napoli on the pop: “That’s a long way for (Pedroia) to run. That’s a play I should’ve made and I didn’t. … My first read was to stay back, and then I started running in and overran it.” (ProJo)

Pedroia on the pop: ”I’ve played lot of games at this field. Maybe I ran to it, took my eye off it, and tried to find it again. I couldn’t find it. It’s probably an easier play for me than Nap because a left-handed hitter hit and I had a better angle. I just took my eye off it and I know better than to do that.”

Lackey on the pop; he ended up allowing nine hits and five earned runs, failing to finish the fifth: ”It’s frustrating, for sure. I made a pitch, and I needed an out. I couldn’t hear those guys calling for it. I don’t know what happened there. … I thought my stuff was pretty good. I felt good overall. I really thought I pitched better than what’s going to show.”

There is something to what Lackey’s saying there. He threw first-pitch strikes to 19-of-23 batters and got Tampa hitters to chase almost a third (14-of-45, per Inside Edge) of the pitches he threw outside the strike zone. (That includes 11-of-18 tw0-strike pitches thrown outside the zone, resulting in six outs.) He simply didn’t have swing-and-miss stuff, however, and the Rays made the most of their balls in play.

Pedroia did headily stop after the catch was missed and try to let the ball roll foul, but it held a couple inches inside the line. It was Tampa’s sixth hit of the inning.

The Herald’s John Tomase: ”It’s pretty clear that (John) Lackey has been a different pitcher with the bases empty vs. with runners on this season. … Pitching from the windup, Lackey retired the first seven batters. The eighth hitter, catcher Jose Molina, poked a single to right, Lackey shifted to the stretch and everything went to hell. In the time it took to record the next four outs, the Rays compiled seven hits, drew a walk and scored their five runs. In fairness, two of the hits were cheapies … still, the numbers aren’t pretty. With the bases empty, Lackey’s holding hitters to a .221 average with a .250 on-base percentage and .298 slugging percentage. But in 43 plate appearances with runners on, the slash line leaps to .372/.429/.581.”

WEEI.com’s Alex Speier: ”The right-hander appeared overpowering early, retiring the first seven batters he faced while exhibiting a 91-93 mph fastball and a sharp, biting slider that garnered swings and misses. But after Jose Molina rolled a grounder through the right side of the infield with one out in the third, things fell apart quickly. … The contact wasn’t hard, but Lackey’s velocity dipped during the (fourth), as he was working at 89-91 mph. These are the peaks and valleys that characterize pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery. At times this year, Lackey has featured his best stuff in a Red Sox uniform. Yet there will be moments like Tuesday night where he ultimately looks like he’s swimming upstream against an opposing lineup.”

Speier also has a piece on a positive night for Jacoby Ellsbury — who reached base three times via two walks and an HBP — and the hope it can be the start of a turnaround from his quiet start offensively. Some good quotes in there from David Ortiz, as well as Speier being Speier:

“If the Sox offense remains in a state of somnambulance, then questions of lineup alchemy will creep into the picture.”

These Harvard guys, man.

Tampa’s Joe Maddon on Matt Moore; down 3-0 four batters into the game following David Ortiz’s three-run homer, the 23-year-old only gave up a hit and two walks in the rest of his six innings, becoming baseball’s first seven-game winner: ”I saw him as being fine. He didn’t hurry up. He didn’t give you that bad body language, that bad facial expression. He hung in there. As a group of young starting pitchers, I would love for our guys to understand that once you give up a run, that’s all you’re going to get. That’s the kind of mentality a starting pitcher needs to have for a team to really be successful.” (T.B. Times)

The Sox offense was 1-for-26 with four walks after those first four batters, the only hit a Stephen Drew one-out double in the fifth. The 5-6-7 hitters — Napoli, Jonny Gomes and Will Middlebrooks — went 0-for-12 with eight strikeouts.

Ortiz, who said he’s been battling tightness in his oblique since the Texas series on May 3-5: “It’s been like that for a while. That’s why I’ve been pulling everything, it feels like. Hopefully it doesn’’t get any worse. … It wasn’t bothering me that much (yesterday), but it’s still a little bit (sore). It’s not at the point where you’ve pulled it, because if you pull it, you’re definitely not going to be able to play. I just come in early and treat it and try to move forward.”

Tremendous. A nice lingering injury. Ortiz is 7-for-40 since the start of the Texas series, and Tuesday’s home run broke a 1-for-20 skid.

The Globe’s Nick Cafardo, opening his column: ”It’s official: David Ortiz’s slump was not because of Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy asking Ortiz whether he was on steroids.”

Well, thank goodness we got that question answered. I can sleep again.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

Andrew Bailey, following a 20-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday; recovering from a minor biceps injury, he’ll throw a simulated game on Thursday: ”I mixed in curveballs, cutters, changeups, couple of everything. Moving in the right direction. I felt good the last few days, and the other day after I long-tossed and threw off flat ground, I knew we were kind of over the hump. Now it’s just getting back to baseball mode. … I think depending on how Thursday goes and how I feel, we’ll make that decision (about a minor league assignment).”

John Farrell on David Ross, who remained home to deal with concussion symptoms; he was hit with two foul tips on Saturday, and went on the seven-day concussion DL on Sunday: ”There’s no template on these when the symptoms start to regress. [Sunday] was a tougher day for him with some of those symptoms. We’ve got to work off of him on this.”

Ryan Lavarnway caught Lackey on Monday, throwing out James Loney trying to steal third base in the fifth.

Maddon on Loney; sent to Boston as part of the megatrade with the Dodgers, Tampa signed him this offseason and he leads the majors with a .381 batting average: ”The big thing with James, I think, is leave him alone. Let him play. This guy is very misconstrued. All I heard about was how passive and quiet he is, but I think it’s one of his biggest strengths. It’s an outstanding strength. You watch him play, this guy’s never in a panic, he’s always under control, he’s in the present tense, all the things you want a player to be. He’s been great. He’s been outstanding offensively and defensively.” (Herald, Globe)

Loney provides the jumping-off point for Gordon Edes to dig into the Dodgers trade again, noting Adrian Gonzalez‘s loss of power and the way the original trade with San Diego to acquire him cost the Sox first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who just signed a seven-year deal with the Cubs and might be as good as Boston had projected him to be.

Pawtucket pitching coach Rich Sauveur on Allen Webster; Webster allowed a run and three hits in a battling five-plus innings, making his first start since his ugly 1 2/3-inning game against Minnesota at Fenway Park: “John Lackey or Jon Lester, when they go out and don’t have their command, there’s ways to get around that. Don’t think those guys have command every time out. He’s going to have a nice career in the big leagues. We all know that. Everybody hits a speed bump. His was the other day. It’s not going to be the only one he has either. He just needs to put it in the past, put it behind him and move on. … I don’t worry with him. We’ve had a talk, and I’ve told him to forget about it and just start it over. He needs to go out there and have a positive attitude. All pitchers need that. When you bring the stuff he does to the table, it’s a little easier to believe that. He’s going to be fine.” (ProJo)

The Bruins offered quite the cleansing breath on Monday night, letting their massive fan base feel what we Boston University Terriers got to feel on an even bigger stage four years ago. Which was awful nice of them, but doesn’t change the fact the Red Sox begin their first three-city road trip of the season tonight in another recent house of horrors: Tropicana Field.

They’d lost 13 of 19 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington before getting swept there at the start of the month. After a 2-5 home stand, they trek to St. Petersburg, where they’re 19-30 (including postseason) since the start of the 2008 season. (To be fair, they did go 5-4 there a year ago.) They follow with visits to two AL Central surprises — “Wait, the Twins are better than .500,” then “Wait, the White Sox are the only ones in that division not better than .500?” — four at home with a Cleveland team they’re dead even with and that odd four-game home-and-home with Philadelphia before seeing the Yankees again to start June.

Twenty straight without an off day, 14 away from home. Not exactly what you’d be looking for when you’re not hitting and playing sloppy baseball — as Sean McAdam notes, the Sox have made 11 errors in their last seven games, almost half the team’s total for the year. And another lefty, Tampa’s unbeaten Matt Moore, awaits on Tuesday.

LET’S PUT THIS TO BED

The Globe’s Nick Cafardo: “There weren’t many people who thought the Red Sox obtaining both Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan was a bad thing. But the lesson learned is perhaps you’re better off just leaving things alone sometime. If you have a player who works for you in this market — say Jonathan Papelbon — why not bite the bullet and keep him? … For all of Papelbon’s blemishes, he was consistent. You knew what to expect, and except for the time he had a subluxation of his shoulder, he was healthy — and he remains healthy. The Sox invested a lot of time and resources in keeping Papelbon healthy, but they decided at the time they weren’t going to pay Papelbon’s free agent demands. As it turns out, they’re probably paying what they might have paid him anyway.”

The amount the Sox have spent on closers since Papelbon has become an afternoon sports radio favorite, with the Globe’s Pete Abraham offering a nice overview of the balance sheet. (The ProJo adds in the Mark Melancon factor, his .174/.186/.246 line against in 19 innings for Pittsburgh not all that unlike the .143/.186/.143 run he put together in June and July after Boston recalled him in 2012.)

It’s some tremendous second guessing, though admittedly it comes from a logical place. The Red Sox blanched for years at the idea of paying big money for Papelbon, mostly out of durability concerns. Papelbon hasn’t shown a hint of injury in saving 45-of-49 for the Phillies the past season-plus, while the Red Sox … well, read above.

However, it tends to forget a pretty important piece of the discussion. It takes two to come to an agreement, and Papelbon said he had no intention of returning to the Red Sox after they dumped Terry Francona:

“I’d say it closed the door. Not 100 percent, but I wasn’t gonna go there and not know what manager I’d be playing for. … To go from having him for a manager from 2005-2011, it’s just, him being gone, that wouldn’t have been easy for me. … (The Red Sox) wanted to see if I could go out and test the market and maybe come back. I don’t know if they would (have countered), but I don’t go back. I go forward. I go full-steam ahead. I don’t look back. I’ve got a car that don’t have rearview mirrors in it. I just go.”

There are, of course, caveats, none greater than the dangers of trying to take Jonathan Papelbon at his word. (His vehicles may, in fact, have rear-view mirrors.) What if the Red Sox made him a significant offer before the 2011 season? What if they’d offered him more than $50 million? (Or anything, for that matter?)

Without question, the Red Sox have botched the transition from Papelbon, and the medical opinions that led them to cool on signing him long term haven’t amounted to anything. But it strikes me as a little too convenient to forget his departure was as much about Papelbon being hell bent on free agency as it was about anything the Red Sox were doing. The righty took a huge gamble going year-to-year in his pre-free agent period with the hopes of cashing in. It worked.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

Hitting coach Greg Colbrunn, on the current slump; the Sox went 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position in the last two Toronto losses, 3-for-36 in the series and 13-for-79 (.165) in their last 10: “The approach is there. As long as we continue to put ourselves into those type of situations, we’ll be fine. The approach is the same, but when you stop hitting, it gets magnified. You go through stretches where you hit the ball hard and have nothing to show for it. … We have to continue to stay confident and as long as the approach doesn’t change, then keep doing what you’re doing.” (Herald)

On WEEI.com, Alex Speier notes the culprits behind the offensive issues are mostly Mike Napoli, David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury. The first two obviously haven’t been lacking for production all season, but Ellsbury’s start has been quietly disappointing. He’s hitting .257/.311/.365, that last number leaping off the page. He didn’t slug lower than .444 in any months during his breakout 2011, but is basically matching his OBP and SLG numbers from his disastrous 2012.

It’s to the point, Rob Bradford suggests, Ellsbury might be better suited batting somewhere other than leadoff. Though the struggles so far apparently aren’t discouraging the Cubs, if this report out of Chicago is to be believed:

“With the Cubs not having many large, long-term contracts left on their books, and with Alfonso Soriano entering the final year of his eight-year, $136 million dollar deal in 2014, next winter might be the time for Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer to add more impact players in free agency as they enter Year Three of their regime. Several major league sources, including an American League front-office executive told me tonight that they fully expect the Cubs to be involved with some of the top free agents at the conclusion of this season, with … Ellsbury possibly at the top of their wish list.”

Colbrunn, on Boston’s high strikeout numbers offensively; Sox hitters are fourth in the majors with 317 strikeouts through 38 games, putting them on pace to break the franchise record for a season (1,197, set last year) by more than 150: “That’s part of the philosophy. When you see a lot of pitches, obviously you’re going to strike out a lot. That’s conducive to having more strikeouts. We have certain hitters that are a little bit more aggressive with two strikes, but those are the type of hitters we have.” (RedSox.com)

It’s certainly part of a larger trend in the game. Boston’s eight highest strikeout seasons are all since 2001, and you have to get to 14th (the 1967 team fanned 1,020 times) before reaching a season that happened before 1996. It’s not as though all those strikeouts made for bad teams in the standings.

Mike Napoli on Shane Victorino, who’s been cleared to play on Tuesday after he took a hard lick from the right-field wall in Sunday’s loss: “He’s a tough guy, so he’ll be able to grind through some stuff if he’s able to get out there. That’s how everyone plays around here. You’ve got to play hard no matter what the score is, what’s going on, how good it’s going or how bad it’s going. You’ve got to go out there and always go hard.” (Globe)

John Farrell, on the heavy usage of both Junichi Tazawa (who’s made 18 appearances, one off the AL lead) and Koji Uehara (who’s made 16): “With overall usage, you’re always looking to balance that out and try to monitor their workload, not only in the early going but throughout the course of the year. We’d like to think we’d keep any one of our relievers out of the top 10 in the league, but Junichi’s up there. We know that.” (Globe)

Tazawa, via translator, on if he can ever remember pitching as much as he has recently: “Back in Japan, when I was in the industrial league, there were some tournaments where I had to go out every day. But that was in the amateur level. Mentally, it was very different. You can’t really compare it. I don’t feel the physical effect of it. I just appreciate that the manager of the team has called upon me to come out of the bullpen this much.” (WEEI.com)

On the plus side, Tazawa’s only tied for 39th in the AL for pitches by a reliever. Only five of his 18 appearances have been for more than 20 pitches. (And one of them was for, well, one.)

Somewhat related, the ProJo notes the Sox are hardly unique in that they don’t use/carry long relievers anymore.

Jonny Gomes, a 2001 Tampa draft pick who remained in the organization through the 2008 trip to the World Series, on how the team was able to turn its fortunes so quickly: “We were hanging banners all the way through the minor leagues. We’d go to spring training and it would be like an hour-long celebration of championships and awards. Our A-ball team won. Our Double-A team won. This guy’s on the Futures Team, that guy’s the minor league player of the year, this guy’s pitcher of the year, Southern League this, Cal League that. We were frigging ready. These guys didn’t have that losing mentality (of the Devil Rays years). That’s why it happened so quickly. These guys were winners. They won all the way through the minor leagues. They didn’t want to go to the big leagues and just lay an egg.” (Herald)

Deleted tweet from Will Middlebrooks in the wee hours of Friday, saved by some Internet eagle eye.

Careers are not defined by a bad 33 games, or an ugly 131 plate appearances. For a healthy player, that could be just one-fifth of one season. But when we’re talking about a player who was elevated to a critical part of a club’s future after just 75 games, maybe we need to take a bit longer look than we might want to.

Understand these are the kinds of posts people write that usually come off looking terrible in the future. When things turn around, when the hits start falling, when the momentum surges, we look back at the “man, this guy just stinks out loud” copy and marvel. Dustin Pedroia leaps to mind. He had 132 plate appearances in his first 41 games across 2006-07 … he was a .198/.290/.284 hitter whom people were starting to clamor take a seat for Alex Cora.

You remember. And trust me, so does he.

That tweet above, even if it was deleted without a whole lot of fanfare, hints that Middlebrooks is making mental notes as well. Athletes are fueled by this stuff. It forms the reserve they go to when they’re working out harder than anything you could imagine, sacrificing so many of the everyday trappings just to be that much better on the big stage. I haven’t a moment’s doubt that as I sit here writing this, Will Middlebrooks is somewhere busting himself to make it seem like a folly.

But let’s take a minute to consider Middlebrooks’ night on Thursday, when the Sox lost a sixth of seven and fell out of first place for the first time this season.

It started well enough: Stand-up double in the second inning on a high slider, ending a run of 35 plate appearances without an extra-base hit. But offensively, that was it. He hit three successive choppers to the shortstop on outer-half pitches, the only variety coming in how they were handled. (Thrown out by a whisker, fielder’s choice, error as the shortstop rushed to start a double play.)

In the field himself, a potential pick-off clanged off his glove, Middlebrooks trying to make the tag before he’d caught the ball. That would have been an error had the ball not bounced right to shortstop Stephen Drew, but Middlebrooks still ended up with one in the ninth, double clutching before throwing high to Mike Napoli.

It was far from his worst night, but it was telling just how unremarkable it was. The throw across the diamond was a tough play that he needed to rush, but he didn’t make it. He chased maybe one changeup out of the strike zone at the plate, but he didn’t muster much in the way of solid contact. He was simply a No. 7 hitter who had a quiet night.

That’s not how this was supposed to work. When the season began, Middlebrooks was going to be one of the offensive power plants in a lineup needing all the help it could get. Instead, a 1-for-4 night raised his totals to .194/.229/.379.

He was just as critical in the field, given behind him at third base was a stopgap (Pedro Ciriaco) and little else. He’s never been a great fielder, but the throwing error was his fifth, one off Pedro Alvarez‘s league lead. Between he and Ciriaco, the Sox are tied for the league lead with eight errors and are a league-worst minus-7 in the sabermetric defensive runs saved.

It’s not as though there was anything that happened on Thursday that leapt off the page, forcing you to consider just how bad Middlebrooks has been. However, the team’s skid is forcing a tough look at just what these Red Sox are, and such a look reveals how bad Middlebrooks has been across the board.

Offense: The numbers are listed above, and come with the caveat that half his six homers came in one game against the Blue Jays. That on-base is particularly ugly … it’s tied for second-worst in the majors among hitters on pace to qualify for the batting title. When Pedroia struggled in those first 41 games, he had 14 walks against 10 strikeouts.

Middlebrooks has five walks and 39 strikeouts. He has 18 walks total nearly 400 at-bats into his major-league career, something which he seems a little too at peace with if quotes can be trusted.

“I’m not there to walk. I’m not there to take pitches. If it’s close, I’m going to try to hit into the lights. That’s my job. I’ve never been a guy to walk. I’ve always been a guy with strikeouts, and that comes along with hitting for power I think. It’s not for everyone, of course, but for the most part, guys who hit for power, they’re not trying to poke the ball through a hole. Obviously, certain situations will dictate when I should do that, but for the most part, I’m trying to hit doubles and homers. I’m not going to sugarcoat that for you.”
– April 23, Boston Herald 

That’s all well and good, so long as you’re hitting those doubles and homers. And it’s not terribly hard to see why Middlebrooks isn’t. According to Fangraphs data, he’s swinging at nearly a third of the pitches he sees outside the strike zone (32.4 percent, with Inside Edge crediting him for *two* hits and 25 outs on such pitches all season). Additionally, he’s swinging at nearly half the pitches he sees overall (48.8 percent), making contact on just 72.6 percent of those swings, among the bottom 30 in the majors. Digging into pitch selection via Texas Leaguers, Middlebrooks is seeing a higher percentage of straight fastballs to date — 43.9 percent in 2013, versus 31.3 in 2012. However, he’s swung and missed at 11.3 percent of those fastballs, compared to 4.7 percent a year ago.

And he’s shown little ability to hit a changeup at any point. (Inside Edge calculates him as a .190 hitters against them, well off the .245 league average.) He missed 21.1 percent of the ones he got a year ago, and has missed 23.3 percent this year. And that’s with pitchers throwing him fewer by rate so far: 8.5 percent of the pitches he’s seen versus 12.1 percent last season.

Defense: Earlier this season, I praised Middlebrooks for what he’d shown coming in on balls at third base. A look at the deeper fielding data, however, showed his vulnerabilities on stuff to his right, i.e. down the line into doubles territory.

It’s gotten worse. In the cumulative Jamesian Plus/Minus stat, Middlebrooks is already a minus-6 this season. On balls to his right, he’s a minus-4. In fact, a look at a spray chart of the 52 doubles given up by Red Sox pitching to date shows pretty clearly where most of them are going.

Dot denotes where ball was picked up/struck wall.

Ick, to put it bluntly.

He’s not fast. He’s not fielding. He’s not hitting. This is a pretty profound slump we’re dealing with, and yet, the solace might come by remembering we’re not just trying to judge a hitter based on a good half-season. As WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford noted earlier this season, Middlebrooks has always been streaky.

“This was the same player who, a month into his first pro season (in Lowell) was hitting .133 with a .395 OPS. This was a player who hit .133 with a .395 for Single-A Greenville heading through May. And he was a player who, in his first foray in Triple-A, went 9-for-56 (.161) with 18 strikeouts and three walks with Pawtucket.”

When Pedroia struggled, he’d tell anyone who’d ask him that he hit at every level, and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t hit in Boston. And, well, he started and hasn’t much stopped.

Middlebrooks, though, has stopped. His 15 homers and 29 extra-base hits in 286 plate apps. a year ago are, well, just a half-season wonder. Billy Conigliaro had 44, including 18 homers, in 400-odd PAs in 1970, then followed it with another 37 in 1971. Sam Horn pretty famously hit 17 homers in fewer than 200 PAs in 1987. Phil Plantier was one of the great next big things of my youth, especially after he hit 11 in a similar amount of time in 1991.

None of them became what we presumed Middlebrooks could be last season, when he basically usurped Kevin Youkilis and captured the imagination the way good young players do. Time and again, we forget there’s an adjustment period. That no matter how highly regarded a prospect is, it doesn’t mean a thing when the competition is just that good.

I’d be remiss without noting Middlebrooks is battling some soreness due to his collision with the wall (and David Ross) the other night, to say nothing of coming off having his wrist broken last August. But he’s not using those things as excuses, so far be it for me to.

Boston’s early season success was predicated on positive surprises. Just how good Shane Victorino‘s been, the resurgence of the starting pitching and the strength in the bullpen, Napoli’s return to the terror he was two years ago, Daniel Nava, Mike Carp, et cetera. To keep it going, they’ll need to keep surprising, keep finding the big hits.

Middlebrooks is a hell of a place to start.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Mpls Star Tribune / Pioneer Press

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

ONE QUOTE

John Farrell, after offseason acquisition Joel Hanrahan was transferred to the 60-day disabled list and, it was announced, is headed for a Friday meeting with orthopedist Dr. James Andrews: “When he was injured, we had mentioned it was likely to be an extended shutdown. For his own information gathering, that’s where the second opinion is, with Dr. Andrews. … We can’t rule (elbow surgery) out, but I don’t know that there’s information in hand to date that says it’s definite ligament issues. [Friday's] exam will be valuable in that area.”

The move shelves Hanrahan until at least the second week of July. Of course, that’d seem an early return if Tommy John surgery is on the table.

End of my hitting streak tonight the season stil going and l hope Dan shaugnessy is a happy man now… Not more 426 enjoy it✌

— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) May 9, 2013

Oh boy.

I’ll say this about Shaughnessy’s “Is Ortiz on steroids?” piece, which is behind the Globe paywall but was reprinted thanks to wire services. If David Ortiz really believes that Dan Shaughnessy is the only person who thinks there might be something funny about a 37-year-old doing what he has done, especially when Ortiz has this in his past, he’s deluding himself.

I give Shaughnessy a ton of credit for actually asking Ortiz the questions face to face, just as I give Ortiz credit for answering them. The column’s written largely in Ortiz’s own words: These are what was asked, and here’s what was said. Beats the hell out of, let’s say, a certain afternoon radio team who spent a chunk of Wednesday’s show throwing around accusations of drug use from the safety of their studio. And they’re far from alone.

Professional athletes cheat. Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose and Sammy Sosa corked bats, at least in the later portions in their careers. The New York Giants had a sign-sealing system in place at the Polo Grounds. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, in his Wednesday piece saying the stuff on Clay Buchholz’s arm in Toronto was sunscreen, quotes a source proclaiming “about 90 percent of major league pitchers use some form” of the stuff to improve their grip.

PEDs are a rather unseemly part of that, but per usual, I’m struggling to summon the seemingly required outrage about it.

Honestly, Shaughnessy did Ortiz a favor. That column’s going to draw more people to his side than will jump to the “he’s juicing” camp. Without question.

Now if Ortiz is just peeved because he had a ghastly 0-for-5, two-strikeout, no-balls-out-of-the-infield-and-six-left-on-base night? That’s understandable, too.

ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes wrote a defense-of-Ortiz piece before Wednesday’s game that’s worth reading.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Mpls Star Tribune / Pioneer Press

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

GM Ben Cherington, on WEEI; the Sox have lost five of six and dropped into a first-place tie with Baltimore with Wednesday’s loss: ”We feel good about our team and where it is. We just hit a bit of a rough patch. We had to use a lot of our bullpen over the weekend in Texas and then certainly Monday [vs.] Minnesota. It was a bit of a scramble to get through the last two days. Hopefully as we move forward over the next few days we’ll get a chance to reset the bullpen, kind of get the pitching staff back on track from a workload standpoint and get going. So, it just goes back to pitching. But the same guys are there, and we’ve just got to get back to executing.”

Pitching coach Juan Nieves on Allen Webster, who allowed eight earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings; the Twins, who entered Wednesday last in the AL in slugging percentage, hammered him for two homers and five extra-base hits: ”Rome was not built in one day. Go back to square one and keep on working on whatever you have to do. Cy Young Award winners are working on their craft every day. It’s no different.”

Webster, who gave up four runs in the first, got five from his offense keyed by a Jonny Gomes grand slam, then laid the groundwork for Minnesota’s seven-run second: ”I just fell behind and didn’t make my pitches. I didn’t have my command I had in the first game and they made me pay.”

ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes: ”Gary Hughes, who at 71 is serving as a consultant to the Red Sox near the end of what has been a legendary scouting career, came up and introduced himself to 23-year-old Sox rookie Allen Webster in the Sox clubhouse Wednesday night. … ‘Take it from an old scout,’ Hughes said to Webster. ‘You’re going to have a helluva career. You just had a horses—t start tonight.’ Webster smiled in gratitude.”

The eagle eyes at the ProJo noticed Webster’s not throwing his sinking fastball very much, odd given it usually comes up in the discussion as one of his best pitches.

John Farrell on Felix Doubront, who allowed 12 hits and six more runs in relief of Webster; throwing 105 pitches across 5 1/3 innings, Doubront only cracked 92 mph four times and allowed five two-strike hits: “The one thing that’s a little concerning with Felix is that, while he’ll get ahead of certain hitters, he lacks the ability to put guys away. And we’ve seen that the last two outings from him.”

On whether the plan remains for Doubront to remain in the starting rotation: “We haven’t come off that initial plan, which is Felix starting the next time through. Physically everything checks out.”

It should be noted that was said immediately after the game, before even Webster was told he was being returned to Triple-A Pawtucket. (Reliever Jose De La Torre is replacing him on the roster, per Ben Cherington on WEEI.) Also, the Sox have an off-day on Monday, meaning they could avoid using the No. 5 starter spot at all next week.

The Herald’s Michael Silverman: ”Since May 2, the rotation’s ERA has been inflating like Harry Potter’s Aunt Marge. Webster’s start was the seventh start since then, a stretch in which the team has gone 2-5 and the ERA has swollen to 6.68. So, you want to take away Webster’s start, think that skews the numbers too much? Fine, here you go: 5.08 ERA over the six games leading to last night, when things only got worse. … When hot teams cool down, it is usually because their pitching starts to fail them. The Red Sox still have three highly functioning starters in Buchholz, Jon Lester and Ryan Dempster, plus a still incomplete John Lackey, but the scorching Aprils of the first three were probably not going to last all season, and sure enough, May is a wake-up call.”

The Globe’s Nick Cafardo makes the connection that that May 2 is the day after the Toronto accusations about Buchholz. I don’t really think it’s relevant, but that is a fact.

More relevant, I think, is the way the Sox are using their bullpen. Junichi Tazawa pitched the ninth on Wednesday, Farrell said, because he had the most rest of all the arms out there. (Andrew Miller struck out the side in the eighth in relief of Doubront.) It was Tazawa’s 17th appearance in the season’s first 34 games, keeping him one off the AL lead. (Among relievers, it should be noted, he’s 64th in pitches thrown.) Koji Uehara, whom the team hadn’t wanted to use on back-to-back days when the year began, has made 15 appearances and gone back-to-back three times.

There’s nothing wrong with that at the moment, but it hardly seems sustainable. Therein lies one of the real dangers of an underachieving starting staff.

Minnesota’s Justin Morneau, just because: ”Hearing ‘Sweet Caroline’ in the eighth inning is one of my favorite things in baseball.”

Another reason he might love Fenway, also from the Pioneer Press: ”Among active players with at least 100 at-bats at Fenway, only Howie Kendrick of the Angels has a higher career batting average (.380) than Morneau.”

Speaking of the Twins, quite the series so far for Ryan Doumit. On Monday, he misplays Stephen Drew‘s extra-inning shot to the wall and helps make it a game-winning double. On Tuesday, he doubles and homers off Ryan Dempster, powering that win. On Wednesday, he goes 4-for-5, scoring three and hitting a missile of a home run off Webster into the Sox bullpen.

INJURY UPDATES

Joel Hanrahan, on the news the Sox are seeking the opinion of orthpedic surgeons — including Dr. James Andrews — on the closer’s sore forearm: ”That’s one of the things they’re looking at, to see how that (elbow) ligament looks. I think you could probably go through this clubhouse and look at everybody’s ligament and it’s not going to be like a 12-year-old’s ligament. So that’s one thing they’ll look at, to see if that ligament has been compromised. … There’s not a lot we can do. Just sit, wait and do treatment. It’s been sore pretty much all throughout that area since Monday. It’s still sore.” (WEEI.com)

Hanrahan, per ESPN Boston, will meet with Andrews on Friday.

Andrew Bailey, meanwhile, “is expected to start throwing Thursday. He is eligible to be activated May 14. The Sox have not decided whether Bailey will need a minor league rehabilitation assignment.”

David Ross, who expressed marked improvement in his bruised quad the day after Tuesday’s collision with Will Middlebrooks: ”I was really sore and limping (Tuesday) night. Woke up and could bend it. Squatting still felt a little tight. I think there’s some swelling in there, but I think the training staff did a good job. We hopped on it to get treatment a lot (Tuesday) night, and I took a machine home to ice with. If it had been worse (yesterday), I probably would have been concerned.”

Middlebrooks had an MRI on Wednesday following some light hitting at the park, and said MRI showed no structural damage to his sore ribs. He didn’t play, but Farrell said afterward the expectation is the third baseman will be in Thursday’s lineup.

Franklin Morales, who threw two scoreless innings and fanned three at Double-A Portland: “I feel very good with my command. I used all my pitches (including a slider). … I guess I need to pitch maybe two more times” before returning to the Red Sox. I don’t know where. I’ll throw a bullpen in two more days and pitch again Monday.” (Portland Press Herald)

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

I don’t say this dismissively, but Chris Gasper’s column in the Globe is totally what I wrote on this very blog after Monday’s game.

“The pregame rain faded away, but the Sox’ first real adversity of the season did not. Now, we’re going to see what these remade Red Sox are really made of.

“It’s easy to have great chemistry and a congenial clubhouse when you’re rolling, racking up wins and exceeding expectations. But now the Sox are mired in a skid of five losses in six games. Both their closers reside on the disabled list, the back end of their rotation looks murkier than the Mystic River, their best starting pitcher is fending off allegations that he’s slathering SPF-50 on the ball for his benefit, and their best hitter saw his 27-game hit streak come to an end, a day after explaining why he’s not on steroids.”

And he didn’t even include any screenshots from NESN.

Buchholz, on the report he’s among scads of pitchers using sunscreen to get a better grip on the baseball: ”It’s getting old and I’m not going to talk about it anymore. I’m sick of talking about it. I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m doing things within the rules of the game. … I haven’t used that [sunscreen] all year. I’ve used in the past when I need to use sunscreen on a sunny day on the mound. Is there anything wrong with that?” (Globe)

Yahoo’s Passan on WEEI: “What I don’t understand about this whole this is the indignance that’s coming from [Buchholz] about it. … Hitters know that pitchers do it. And nobody seems to have a problem with it. … I think Dirk Hayhurst, frankly, gave us all a much better insight into the game. Jack Morris said something stupid. This isn’t a spitball. It’s just not. The hitters and the pitchers will agree that you do not get any weird movement based on using BullFrog plus rosin.”

Ross: ”I don’t really know what to say to that. I know in ‘Major League’ guys were accused of putting jalapeno on their nose and rubbing snot on the ball. I don’t know where they’re getting the sunscreen from, but if (Yahoo) has any tips for our guys, we’d love to hear what works better … We’re just trying to win ballgames here, not worry about how bright the sun is or what SPF we need.” (Herald)

Farrell, on whether Mike Napoli would ever be a catching option for the Sox: ”We’d probably do everything we could to stay away from him. Which would include Jonny Gomes in a very rare situation.”

Farrell, on the three-game benching of Jose Iglesias at Triple-A Pawtucket; the shortstop was back in the lineup on Wednesday, going 1-for-5 to drop his average to .233 in 20 games: “He handled the initial option back to Pawtucket as a pro, and he continued to get his work in. But I think as time as gone on, he’s kind of feeling like he should be in a big-league uniform. Yet, that time isn’t now.” (WEEI.com)

Honestly, it ended up looking far better than it could have. Ross’ shot to Middlebrooks is more of a glancing blow, and he left the game with right side pain, which isn’t where Ross hit him. And yet, we know how damaging such collisions can be.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Mpls Star Tribune / Pioneer Press

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

John Farrell on Minnesota starter Scott Diamond, who allowed only three singles in seven innings; the Sox didn’t get a runner past second base until the ninth when Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered, and were retired 18 straight from the third to the eighth: “Lived on the edge, stayed out of the middle of the plate. Even when he got into a couple of fastball counts, he located well.”

David Ross, who left the game with a swollen kneecap and quad contusion after the collision with Will Middlebrooks, expressing concern for his teammate: “Ribs, it’s like the knee as a catcher, it’s nothing you want to mess around with. Ribs, in this game, you throw, you use your obliques for everything. I just hope it’s the same thing, just some kind of bruise. We’re a little banged up right now, weathering the storm as far as the team goes. Just doing our best to get out there.”

Ross on his own injury; he left the game the pitch after the collision, whereas Middlebrooks played another inning and batted before being replaced in the seventh: “I squatted down and I felt it as I got down in my stance. I was tight. I felt the swelling coming down in there and then when I got to get up in my ready stance — as far as a man on third if I’ve got to block a ball or something — I couldn’t even get up. Any time I engaged my quad, it was pretty sharp pain.” (WEEI.com)

Pedro Ciriaco, who came in for Middlebrooks at third base, on the two errors he made to start the eighth; he’s made four errors in his first 73 defensive innings this season: ”I come every day with the mentality to play and practice and be ready and I just missed the ball. I work every day, and I’m a good player. I’ve just got to be more ready and next time make the plays.”

Farrell: “That was uncharacteristic of Pedro tonight. He’s shown to be a very capable defender. Two miscues are unlike him. Long term we don’t think Will’s situation is more than day-to-day at this point. We’ll certainly get a better read when test results come back.”

The ProJo gets into what a mess there is for third-base depth behind Middlebrooks, noting that Drew Sutton — who’d be one of the better choices from Triple-A — is on the disabled list with an oblique issue of his own. And for that matter, they’ve got another piece on what a mess there is for depth in the bullpen, given the injuries. (WEEI.com has one as well.)

Ryan Dempster, who pitched into the eighth allowing single runs in the fifth (on a Ryan Doumit double, balk and single) and seventh (on a Doumit homer to the shelf on the Monster that was upheld by review) while fanning eight: “It’s your job as a starting pitcher to go out and try and (go seven innings deep). I was happy with that. I just wish I could have pitched a little better to give us a chance to win the ballgame. … I made a couple mistakes and (Ryan Doumit) took advantage of it. … Sometimes you get away with mistakes. I didn’t get away with mistakes today.” (Herald)

There’s really not a whole lot that Dempster did wrong on Tuesday. He worked ahead, which helped get as deep into the game as he did, and got a great deal of help from Minnesota. According to Inside Edge, they chased 27 of the 66 pitches (41 percent) he threw out of the strike zone, with 12 of Dempster’s 14 swings and misses coming on his slider and splitter. Alas, he needed to be perfect, and wasn’t.

Dempster’s allowed six home runs in his seven appearances, though all six have been solo shots.

Farrell, assessing Joel Hanrahan’s forearm injury following an MRI; Hanrahan returned to the disabled list, with Thursday’s starter Allen Webster taking his roster spot: ”Everything shows that the structure of the ligament is not involved in this situation. Want to be careful not to put a time frame out there and then he’s quicker than it or longer than it. Then it becomes a story in and of itself. At this point, he’s in a shutdown period.”

Hanrahan: “I was kind of nervous where some of the swelling was at [Monday] night. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t nervous about it. They said the ligament was good, so that’s a positive. I don’t think they said anything about needing needles, so that’s always a positive. So we’ll do some things, take some time. Hopefully with a couple days off or a week or two or three, or however long it takes. And hopefully that’ll get it all out of there and come back strong and finish strong.” (Globe)

Felix Doubront was moved to the bullpen prior to Wednesday’s game, given the depleted relief corps, but wasn’t used. Webster will start in his place against Minnesota, but the announced plan is for Doubront to return to the rotation next week in Tampa.

The Herald’s John Tomase: If Webster gets lit up, then yes, maybe (Felix) Doubront will reclaim his spot in the rotation in time for this weekend against the Blue Jays. But if Webster goes out and does what he’s been doing at Triple-A — throwing a 100-mph fastball with a Derek Lowe sinker — and dominates the Twins, it’s hard to envision him not sticking around to stare down Jose Bautista and company this weekend.”

Junichi Tazawa, via translator, on being named the closer while Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey are on the DL: “It’s nothing that I’m really feeling different about. Just that it’s my role, and any way that I can help the team win games, that’s what my mindset is.”

Farrell got into his mindset on tabbing Tazawa as closer on SiriuxXM Radio: ”The one thing I like about Koji (Uehara) is, typically, if you’re going to get those pinch hit left-handers in the eighth inning, he’s so effective against lefties. … Both (Tazawa and Uehara) are very good strike throwers. They have very good command of their fastball, they’ve got a good secondary pitch, they control the running game, both of them, very effectively. Tazawa has a little bit more fastball which, whether I’m siding to the traditional approach with a little bit more power late in the game, that’s there.”

There is at least one positive on the injury front. Via the Herald: “Two weeks after being shut down with a strained pectoral muscle, Franklin Morales is set to resume his rehab assignment by pitching two innings tonight for Double-A Portland.”

CSN’s Sean McAdam: ”Regardless of who’s closing, the Red Sox can’t regularly be going to their bullpen in the sixth inning if they’re going to remain in contention. As injuries deplete the pen in the short-term, longer outings from the starters aren’t a luxury — they’re an absolute necessity. Soon enough, Bailey will be healthy again, allowing Tazawa to go back to the seventh inning and Koji Uehara to handle the eighth, with Craig Breslow now available as a lefty alternative. But it’s what the rest of the staff does before the final two innings or so that will determine the Red Sox’ success long-term.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

On account of his continued offensive dominance, the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy reprints a conversation he had with David Ortiz on Tuesday about steroid use. (If you don’t have a subscription, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reprinted it.) All things considered, Ortiz handled it pretty well. No real boffo quote, but here’s one: ”It is not easy, bro. My good day, I go 0 for 4. It’s not easy. It just happens. We work consistently to get better. … I don’t got nothing to hide, bro. Testing is not my problem. Being tested — I ask to go in to get it done. I got no problem with that. I’m not going to screw everything that I have done in my career because I test positive for steroids. That’s not going to happen. If I can’t get it done anymore because I can’t get it done? I go home.”

Farrell, on Jose Iglesias being benched for three straight games at Triple-A Pawtucket; the shortstop’s hit .235/.278/.397 in 19 games since his demotion: ”Just in the reports from the Triple-A staff is that they felt it was best that he needed some days to regroup. Kind of get back to what it is that’s allowed him to be a very good player, experience success. He’s dealing with some things.” (WEEI.com)

The ProJo’s Brian MacPherson: ”Wednesday marks the 20th day (Jackie Bradley Jr.) will have spent in the minor leagues. If he’s not called up to the major leagues by Wednesday — which he won’t be, given that he’s on the disabled list — his much-discussed eligibility for free agency has been pushed back through the 2019 season.”

Ace Ticket CEO Jim Holzman, as part of a story that Shop & Shop will soon be selling half-price Sox tickets: “There’s some great values to be had on a regular basis on these early season games. … I think people who buy seats now are going to be a lot happier than a month from now because prices can only rise.” (Herald)

The past four days may not have been the first such milepost for the 2013 Red Sox, but they definitely were a milepost. “Passed with flying colors” is an overstatement, but “passed” isn’t.

The apparent feel-good team of the summer is showing just how swift a turnaround can be. And it starts by winning the types of games they’d have every excuse to lose.

Stephen Drew's in there, trust me. (NESN)

As you’re probably aware, the Red Sox built the best record in the majors — and the franchise’s best start since 2002 — from their first 28 games. They were 20-8, but 11 of those 20 wins came against teams that were below .500. It’s not as though 9-6 against those .500 or better is some gruesome number, but their weekend series at Texas figured an early indicator of just what this team was all about. (Even if it came with some less-than-optimal pitching matchups.)

We posted about Friday’s loss. It really didn’t get much better. Seven hits, one run. Then, five hits and 16 strikeouts. What happened was no long-term outlier: In Boston’s last 22 trips to Rangers Ballpark, dating to the start of the ’09 season, they have six wins and have topped three runs scored just seven times. (This at one of the most offensive-friendly parks in the majors.)

It was an outlier for this team, though. Their first time being swept, their first three-game losing streak. And it set up an interesting scenario for Monday, facing the also-ran Twins with reigning Cy Young favorite Clay Buchholz. Yet it was a Buchholz making his first start since being loudly accused of doctoring the baseball, accusations which apparently brought increased scrutiny from the league for Monday’s game.

Some honest-to-goodness adversity. And that was before Buchholz needed 36 pitches to get through his half of the first only down 2-0.

Judging pitchers can be a funny thing, with results getting in the way. A guy can miss his spot badly, but the batter swings and misses, all is forgiven. Buchholz, however, got just about what he deserved in the first. Of his 36 pitches, he hit the mitt on about a third of them. The two-seam fastball he’s painted the corners with this season was tattooed twice for doubles, albeit one of the Fenway variety. He walked two guys. Justin Morneau did line a single off Buchholz’s glove, but the breaks go both ways, and Oswaldo Arcia chased a couple pitches with the bases loaded, including a well-high fastball with the count full.

“For the most part, I felt good. I felt good with the pitches,” Buchholz said afterward. “I had some long at-bats there, a lot of foul balls. First inning, obviously, drew the pitch count up to where you don’t want it to be.”

That doesn’t mean what happened to him in Toronto didn’t mess with his head a bit. However, going on to pitch five more innings, going 1-2-3 thrice and ultimately fanning nine without any gripes from the umpire would make that at worst a momentary blip.

And yet, it was all enough to have the Twins with four runs through five. That’s been Minnesota’s break-even point in 2013: They 2-9 when they score three or fewer, 3-1 when they score exactly four and 8-5 when they better it. That hardly makes them unique: When the Red Sox allow three runs or fewer, they’re 15-1. (You can do the math from there.)

So, it’s fair to say last night bucked the trend. How’d it do it? Quite simply, the Red Sox didn’t allow it not to.

Monday night was May 6. Exactly a year earlier was one of those bottom-of-the-barrel games that so defined 2012: Orioles 9, Red Sox 6 in 17 innings. Chris Davis, the Oriole DH who went 0-for-8 with five strikeouts, won the game by pitching two scoreless. How did the Red Sox not score on him? But more than that, how many chances did they have to win before it got close to that dire? Starting with the bottom of the ninth, they sent 29 hitters to the plate with the score tied before Baltimore cracked Darnell McDonald in the 17th. Twenty-nine hitters, who saw 116 pitches, every one a chance to end the game.

None did. Heck, only seven of them reached base, and one of those was an error. Some nights, that’ll happen. That’s baseball. (And to be fair, Boston came from 5-0 down in that game.)

But it didn’t happen on Monday.

In the fourth, Shane Victorino tucked a full-count curveball inside Pesky’s Pole in right.

In the fifth, Daniel Nava pushed the ninth pitch he saw off the Monster and Stephen Drew blooped him home with two out. (Drew should have scored himself later, on account of Joe Mauer never tagging him, but ah well. Third-base coach Brian Butterfield erred on the aggressive side, and a good throw buries Drew by a Bogar-like amount.)

In the sixth, it was a Mike Napoli RBI single the other way after David Ortiz‘s double play killed the shot at a big inning.

In the seventh, it was Drew depositing a mistake fastball in the middle into the first row in right.

And in the eighth, after six foul balls and on the seventh two-strike pitch of his at-bat, Dustin Pedroia clanged the go-ahead home run off the left field light tower. (Fun Stat Which May Not Mean Anything: Pedroia has 24 regular-season plate appearances of at least 10 pitches. He’s reached base in half of them.)

Had that been it, that would have been a resoundingly resilient victory. Of course, Joel Hanrahan, his parade-o-fastballs and his strained forearm saw fit that it wasn’t. (That being hours after Andrew Bailey shocked everyone by returning to the disabled list, the pair again reminding how nice it was to have Jonathan Papelbon just silence the closer dilemma for seven seasons.)

Yet even that worked out. Forty-three Clayton Mortensen pitches made it 18 up, 13 down for relievers not formerly of Pittsburgh and Drew … well, it wouldn’t be right to give opening credit for the game-winning hit to Minnesota left fielder Ryan Doumit. Sure, Drew had to power a ball on the outside corner to the wall in left-center, but Doumit …

Good job, Ryan. Good effort. (NESN)

“It was just a good night,” Drew said after his 13th career four-hit game, a long way from that 5-for-42 start. “Everybody battled.”

Saltalamacchia praised Mortensen, who “went out there and he was gassed, but he still made his pitches as best he could.” Saltalamacchia, himself having had an easy night — 218 Red Sox pitches behind the plate in a four-hour, 44-minute game, capped by racing home from second with the winning run.

“You find (energy) somewhere, man,” said Mortensen, out of options and the 25th man on the roster out of camp, but still here. “You get in the moment and you just find it somewhere, just start mentally talking yourself up and try and fit it somewhere. You’ve got to.”

Every starter had a hit, even the laboring Will Middlebrooks, who set the table for Drew with a solid shot to left-center in the 11th. Six pitchers were used — every arm John Farrell felt comfortable going to, with Koji Uehara set to pitch a third straight day if the game went to the 12th and Tuesday’s starter Ryan Dempster on tap after that.

Dempster’s been a pleasant surprise in pretty much every way this year, and I’m not simply talking about him suddenly striking out more hitters than he ever has in 16 MLB seasons. After the kerfuffle surrounding Buchholz in Toronto, Dempster showed up the next day at Rogers Centre with some props. Quoting the Herald:

The topic remained a hot one this afternoon. … The Red Sox clearly decided to mess around with it, too, with right-hander Ryan Dempster proudly displaying Vaseline, cocoa butter, and baby oil in his locker.

‘Just having some fun,’ Dempster said, on the day he turned 36.

Because Dempster has a good sense of humor, we threw a suggestions of substances he could add to his collection: whiteout (to hide the seams so the hitter can’t read rotation), rubbing alcohol (it evaporates on the way to the plate … it’s the perfect crime), and in a nod to his Canadian heritage, maple syrup (‘I’d actually go with Vermont maple syrup,’ Dempster clarified. ‘Definitely not the fake stuff.’)

He then went out and held the Jays to four hits in six innings.

Harmonious clubhouses can lose 100 games the same as rooms seething with white-knuckle personality clashes. Talented teams can sometimes overcome not having the intangibles, certainly a lot easier than lovey-dovey groups can overcome being relatively bad at baseball, but things work best when all the elements are in place.

Yes, the Sox went down to Texas and failed one of their biggest tests to date. But they also came back from it, and came back from a night with an awful lot of opportunities to lose, and didn’t.

It was far from a masterpiece. It was just a win. In early May, that’s more than enough.

The American League West dominated the AL East on Friday night, not allowing a run in the four divisional matchups.

It’s only the third time since divisional play began in 1969 that one division has blanked another division four times in one night according to STATS. The NL West did it to the NL East on May 12, 1981 and the AL East did it to the AL West on June 7, 1969.

Felix Hernandez and Seattle got the night started beating Toronto 4-0. A.J. Griffin and the Oakland Athletics got past CC Sabathia and the Yankees 2-0. Derek Holland pitched eight innings to help Texas defeat Boston 7-0. Jason Vargas closed out the impressive pitching night by the AL West by throwing a three-hitter in the Angels’ 4-0 win over Baltimore.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

Felix Doubront, who allowed 12 hits and lasted only 3 2/3 innings; his fastball, which averaged 93.6 mph last season and 93 mph in his first start of 2013, topped out at 92 on Friday: ”There’s sometimes you want to throw with a little more velocity, and it’s not there. Sometimes that affects because I don’t have that power for a swing and a miss. We’re going to try something different to get outs. … It’s weird, man. It’s nothing that’s bothering me (injury-wise). It’s so weird. I can’t explain it.”

Not that it isn’t a story, but usually there’s a little variety in the post-game coverage. Every outlet has a different analysis of the drop in Doubront’s velocity. Some have graphs. Some has proprietary stats. I’ll spare you … I think the above hits things rather succinctly.

John Farrell, rather succinctly explain Doubront’s problem against the Rangers: ”Overall, it was just a little bit of a lacking of a finishing pitch. He had nine guys with two strikes and eight of those guys got on base. A number of their hits came with two outs in an inning so it wasn’t just a matter of finishing off an individual guy. … You really tell it on his curveball. The curveball gets kind of big and loopy and lacks the consistent shape to it as well as the finish to his fastball. We continue to search.”

Doubront, for whom pitch efficiency was a problem last season, is throwing 18.8 pitches/inning through five starts this season. Even my basic math skills know that puts him at 94 pitches through five, which isn’t terribly conducive to deep appearances.

It was actually rather incredible things stayed close for as long as they did. Texas had eight hits and only one run through three before scoring five times in the fourth. The returning Shane Victorino and Pedro Ciriaco did their part on this diving putout in the first — as did Elvis Andrus mucking up on the bases — and the Sox turned a pair of double plays. (Nice to see Victorino contribute out of the blocks, given his return benches the Second Coming himself, Mike Carp.)

The Herald’s John Tomase sees a pretty simple solution: Replace Doubront in the rotation with rookie Allen Webster, whom he declares the “inevitable replacement.” The same Webster that, quoting WEEI.com, “had a season-high nine strikeouts while giving up just one run on two hits and no walks in six innings” on Friday night. Among his 94 pitches were 16 swings and misses, whereas Doubront got three in 97 (against better competition, of course).

Adrian Beltre, who went 4-for-5 with a double and 3 RBI, his first four-hit game since August: “It feels nice. I haven’t seen four hits in a long time. It feels nice to get in a groove a little bit and hopefully that’ll be the start of a better streak.” (Globe)

Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the Sox offense, which was limited to six singles and a walk by Derek Holland: ”(Holland) did a great job pounding the zone. He was throwing his offspeed pitches for strikes and his fastball in. A guy that throws that hard and commands the zone, you just have to battle.”

Old pal Derek Lowe tossed a perfect ninth on 10 pitches, never once cracking 90 mph. Now that’s veteran guile.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

A leftover from Friday’s papers, the Globe talked to Celtics play-by-play man Sean Grande, who’ll be doing fill-in work on Red Sox broadcasts along with Lou Merloni on dates when Dave O’Brien isn’t available. Grande is a BU guy, so of course any criticism of him going forward is completely unfounded. Especially since basketball remains my distant No. 4 sport, as it apparently was Grande’s until he started doing Celtics games.

Also, here’s Sox chairman Tom Werner, who was pilloried in Terry Francona‘s book this winter, declaring “winning is the best revenge.” Which is true, I suppose, but then again most of us weren’t running around trying to avenge ourselves. Nor were we looking at the product on the field and saying, “Ha! This proves how off base Tito was about Tom Werner!”

Dan Brooks, the brains behind the indispensable Brooks Baseball, on whether he thinks Clay Buchholz is doctoring the baseball: “The answer is no. We’ve heard broadcasters say (Buchholz’s pitches) are dipping and diving and moving in weird ways — well, we can look at what the pitches are doing, we can look at the data. And the data say that they’re not doing anything special.”

Farrell on how Buchholz has reponded to the allegations: ”His response to the accusations spoke volumes. We’ve had conversations. I can tell you through our interactions and how he’s responded to what we’ve talked about, he’s very much at ease with himself … He’s handled that very well because he’s got nothing to hide.”

Team comic Ryan Dempster was certainly taken out of his element by the story, “inspired enough by the flap to have a bottle of baby oil, a bottle of body lotion and a tub of Vaseline atop his locker,” per the Herald.

That’s just good, greasy fun right there.

And, for what it’s worth, ESPN’s Orel Hershiser doesn’t think Buchholz is cheating. I’m certainly not going to discount the idea that Buchholz could be cheating — heck knows pros of every generation cheat, have cheated and will continue to cheat. I just don’t know enough about pitching to declare one way or the other.

Farrell on the availability of Andrew Bailey, who didn’t close Thursday’s victory because of biceps soreness: “He came out early (Friday), went through his stretching, went through a long toss, and did some flatground. He’s much improved over (Thursday) and the last couple of days. He would be available in kind of an emergency situation. Ideally, we can give him another day to stay away from him. Good news, nonetheless.”

Bailey: ”Each and every day it’s feeling better. It’s a positive sign we have it going in the right direction. We’re doing the right thing by being smart and not trying to push it so early on. That way, take a day or two. Better than taking a long time later on.”

David Ortiz, recalling his near foray into full free agency this winter, when there were rumors the Rangers were prepared to offer him a two-year deal; he returned to Boston before a formal offer could be made: “I knew I was going to come back here. [The Red Sox] used an approach that was different than years before. I understood why. They had options before so you can take your time. But this time they knew I was going to be a free agent. They were approaching me (during the ’12 season), even with me being injured. I knew that, so that’s why I wasn’t paying attention to too many things.” (WEEI.com)

The ProJo’s Brian MacPherson, with a little history on teams opening 20-8: ”Since the start of the wildcard era in 1995, the Red Sox are the 20th team to begin the season with 20 wins in the first 28 games. … Of the previous 19 squads to start this well, 12 have gone on to make the postseason. Two have won the World Series: the 2000 Yankees and 2005 White Sox. Two have finished below .500: the 1995 Phillies and the 2011 Indians. … The 2006 White Sox missed out on the playoffs after a 20-8 start, but they would have seized the second wildcard had it existed at the time. Likewise, the 2002 Red Sox would have tied for the last playoff spot with their 93 wins.”

So, let’s attempt to piece this together quickly.

Jack Morris, Blue Jays broadcaster, accusing Clay Buchholz of throwing a spitball: ”I found out because the guys on the video camera showed it to me right after the game. I didn’t see it during the game. They showed it to me and said, ‘What do you think of this?’ and I said, ‘Well, he’s throwing a spitter. Cause that’s what it is. … Look at the pitches. Fastball at 94 that goes like that. On a fastball? … I went up to (Jarrod Saltalamacchia) and I told him. He said, ‘It’s dry in Boston, and I’ve seen him put water all over his pants.’ I said, ‘Salty this isn’t my first [expletive] rodeo.’ He didn’t know what to say to that, so we ended the conversation right there.” (ESPN Boston)

Morris and Jays play-by-play man Buck Martinez continued the discussion during Thursday’s game, bringing Junichi Tazawa into it as well.

Fellow Jays broadcaster and Toronto radio host Dirk Hayhurst, who wrote a highly regarded book about his minor-league career, leveled similar accusations at Buchholz. He doubled down on the accusations in a piece for Sportsnet on Friday morning, but also made clear that ”all pitchers have something on their hands. All of them. From a crappy career minor league like me to budding superstar Buchholz.”

“I had sources telling me that Buchholz was putting sunscreen on his arms — even though the roof at the Rogers Centre was shut — and mixing it with rosin. … Pitchers break the law, folks. Some do it in the accepted ‘it’s only five miles over the limit, officer,’ way. Some have big enough names that they can get away with it even when it’s plain for all to see – Cliff Lee‘s hat, anyone? ... Barring performance enhancing drugs, I’m actually a firm believer in trying to get an edge. I respect a little tack and slime here and there. It actually takes an amazing amount of skill to use it effectively. … But, don’t put me or any other former player/broadcasters in a situation to call you out on it because we will. Jack Morris saw the same things I did and he doesn’t feel a damn bit sorry for saying something either.”

Buchholz, who earlier in the day was named AL Pitcher of the Month: “Before every start, I come out here, pack rosin on my arm. In between innings, they were saying something’s in my hair. It’s a bottle of water I pour on my head each inning. The water is basically, they don’t want you licking your fingers on the mound, so that’s just the way to have moisture on your hands. I wipe it off after every time I touch my hair, wipe my hand off. … I definitely don’t think if I’d given up nine runs in 2 1/3 innings it would have been an issue.” (Globe)

John Farrell: ”If accusations are going to be made because someone pitches well, we’ll take it as a compliment. … It bothers me immensely when someone is going to make an accusation, and in this case cheating, because they’ve seen something on TV. [Buchholz has] got rosin on his arm. I think rosin was designed to get a grip. But the fact is, he’s got it on his arm. I’ve seen some people who have brought photographs to me. They’re false. The fact is the guy’s 6-0. He’s pitched his tail off. If people are going to point to him cheating? Unfounded.”

Ryan Dempster: “They should play catch with Clay. I do. He manipulates the baseball as well as anyone I’ve ever been around.” (ESPN Boston)

Jays manager John Gibbons, on the Tazawa accusations: “No, and if he was, that’s not why we lost the game. That’s been going on in baseball since, Christ, since the game started. If you get caught, you get caught. That’s when they get you. If you don’t, I don’t think it’s anything unusual, but it didn’t have any effect on tonight’s game, if he was doing anything.” (ProJo)

NESN’s Jerry Remy, before Thursday’s game: “I have faced guys that have thrown spitballs before and you know it right away. It’s mostly on a fastball that’s going to dip and do all kind of crazy things, strange rotation on the baseball, and what’s the first thing you do? You ask the umpire to check the baseball. There was none of that going on here [Wednesday].”

Dennis Eckersley, after Thursday’s Sox victory: “To me, that’s clueless on (Jack Morris’) part. If he knew anything about Buchholz, he knows how nasty he is and his ball doesn’t dance all over the place. The guy paints. The guy has got nasty stuff. He should know that. He’s gotten carried away. It becomes about Jack Morris, almost. It’s like, ‘where’s Jack Morris been all these years anyway? He finally gets a job, up there in Toronto, and he has to make statements like that and take away what this kid has done?’ I think it’s wrong. He’s pitched long enough to know. You talk about Stickum and whatever that is, pine tar, pitchers go to it, he knows that you go to something if you’re sweaty, just to get a grip. It’s all about a grip. … The hitters didn’t complain, but Jack Morris is. I think Jack Morris should zip it.” (NESN.com)

The NESN links cuts off at that point, but the Globe continued the quote: ”I feel sorry for Buchholz to even have to deal with this. I’m styling here, and you’re taking away from me, a guy that can’t even make it to the Hall of Fame yet, and he’s chirping over there — zip it.”

Emphasis mine. Eck was fired up. And, as Alex Speier noted on WEEI.com, this isn’t the first time Eck and Morris have gotten into it.

That Cafardo story also quotes an anonymous Jays staffer: “The Jays were well aware that Buchholz touches the back of his wet hair, but ‘there’s nothing wrong with that as long as he wipes it off, which he does. The only thing an umpire or a team can bring to the attention of the umpire is if he’s going to his mouth or if we see something suspicious. Every team looks at the other guys for that stuff, but there’s nothing suspicious with Buchholz. He wipes his hands after he touches his hair.’”

Mild-mannered Michael Silverman, throwing down: ”While their announcers are conducting forensic tests from their TV booths to determine if Red Sox pitchers are a domesticated breed of greased pig, the Blue Jays team on the field is performing like a barnyard epithet. Is that all you got, Jays? Lordy, what a letdown the latest, greatest Best Team Ever is.”

The Canadian Press, fair to say, is not pleased.

Box Score / Condensed Game

Gamers: Globe / Herald / ProJo / RedSox.com

Opposition Coverage: Toronto Star / Globe & Mail

Also: WEEI.com’s Closing Time / ESPN Boston’s Rapid Reaction

Notebooks: Globe / Herald / ProJo

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

Ryan Dempster, who allowed a leadoff homer to Brett Lawrie but little else, allowing four hits and three walks in six innings to win: ”I felt like maybe I was picking a little bit and trying to be too fine instead of getting back on the aggressive and taking advantage of their aggressiveness early on. They were coming after me, and maybe kind of got away from the strike zone a little bit more than I wanted to. I was able to hone it back in.”

Joel Hanrahan, who earned his 100th career save when Andrew Bailey was unavailable due to biceps tightness: “It’s nice to finally feel like a part of it again. … I didn’t really like the situation that called for that, (because) we’re a better team when Bailey and I are both healthy. Hopefully he’ll only be down for a day or two. … My slider is still not really where it needs to be.”

Bailey: ”Just kind of felt a little something last time I pitched and we’re just being very precautious with it. We got a lot of guys down there that can do a lot of different jobs. They want to be smart about it and take the extra time. Shouldn’t be more than a couple days.” (WEEI.com)

Hanrahan allowed a full-count single and a 2-0 count to the next hitter before David Ross refocused him. He needed only four more pitches to close out the game.

Farrell on Boston’s early-season plate discipline; the Sox drew 10 walks on Thursday, their 4.02 pitches seen per plate appearance is third-best in the majors: “When you look at the number of times we’ve gotten into the bullpen in the middle innings, the fourth, fifth inning, it has a carry-over effect not only to the next day but inside a given series. That’s a testament that [general manager] Ben [Cherington] has brought in here — guys that have had track records of high on-base, drawing walks [and a] relentless approach at the plate.”

Just 12 of the 28 starters (43 percent) they’ve faced this season have completed six innings. Leaguewide in 2013 thusfar, the starter finishes at least six innings in 60 percent of starts.

Stephen Drew, who delivered a bases-loaded sac fly in the second to put the Sox ahead for good; he went 0-for-2, but is batting .292/.379/.583 in his past seven games: ”I’m just working on things. A lot of it is timing. Like I said before, I’m getting there. I’m having great at-bats. I’m swinging at the pitches that I want to swing at and hitting the ball hard. I’ve put good ABs on and worked the counts really well. I think the timing is starting to get there.”

Mike Carp tied the game earlier in the inning with an RBI single, and Jacoby Ellsbury capped the scoring in the sixth with a single of his own. The Sox only scored the three runs, but stranded 12 and hit into two double plays; they were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

From the Globe: “Right fielder Shane Victorino was out of the lineup for the seventh straight game. But he reported for optional early batting practice on the field and hit again before the game. He expects to start at Texas on Friday.”

Dustin Pedroia, who remains without a home run through 28 games, but who’s on pace to set a career high in walks: “You play so many games, sometimes you walk more in a couple-week stretch, and some weeks you hit home runs. At the end, everything is where it normally is. I think it’s just the times I’ve gotten an opportunity to go (steal), I’ve gone. It’s not like I’m trying to do more or less of anything. … Just take my walk and pass it on to the next guy, and hopefully they come at him differently than they came at me.”

Dating to last season, much of which he played hurt, Pedroia hasn’t homered in 45 games and 199 plate appearances. His longest single-season streaks are 47 games in the 2009 season and 40 during May and June of last season.

Daniel Bard’s latest adventure for Double-A Portland: “On Thursday, however, he endured one of his biggest struggles of any point over the last two seasons. He threw strikes with just four of his 15 pitches (27 percent) … while walking two and uncorking a pair of wild pitches. He did strike out a batter (on a full count), though on that pitch, his fastball velocity was just 90 mph. … Two days earlier, he’d allowed two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out a batter and throwing exactly half (9 of 18) of his pitches for strikes.” (WEEI.com)

Meanwhile in Pawtucket, Alfredo Aceves threw six shutout innings, albeit with four walks and a hit batter.

Mike Napoli, on returning to Texas this weekend: “They were probably the two best years of my career, it was awesome, I loved every single minute of it. I had a great time there, made a lot of great friends on and off the field, the city’s great, it was a good time. … Being in Texas, it brought my personality out, the person I am, to be able to be myself and play. … Playing for (Ron Washington), it was easy. You can go out there and be yourself and do what you do on the field and have fun but play hard. That’s the type of player I am, so it worked out well.” (Herald)

On WEEI.com, Speier talks to Napoli’s agent and the player, trying to calculate what we can expect this offseason given last season’s walk year with Texas. In short, Napoli’s not averse to negotiating a new deal during the season, and the Sox might be interested in giving him a one-year qualifying offer (at around $14 million) to ensure they’d at least get a draft pick if he left via free agency. Early for such discussions, but a nice overview piece.