Manny Hits #498; Sox lose 3-7

Manny Ramirez got the day off on Monday and responded with home run #498 on Tuesday. Manny went 2-4 on the night and may be turning the page from the mini-slump he was in: 9 for 43 (.209) in May.

See the viedo of #498 - here.

Clay Buchholz got roughed up again, giving up 7 hits and 7 runs in just 4 1/2 innings. He just couldn't find the strike zone last night and when he did, the Twins hit the ball hard. Buchholz is now 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA at Fenway and 0-3 with an 8.64 ERA on the road.

Clay's bad start was bad in and of itself, but with Julian Tavarez being DFA'd that same day, the Sox did not have a mop up man to come to the rescue. Eventually, Francona called on Javier Lopez... and then Craig Hansen... and then Mike Timlin. They all did their job, while the Red Sox offense went to sleep, but the price could be costly if Josh Beckett can't produce 7 or more strong innings tonight in Baltimore... Since the Sox did not crawl back into the game, Tito was able to avoid using Okajima and Papelbon - a silver lining, I guess...

Hansen looked impressive, earning a 1-2-3 inning on just 13 pitches.

Bottom Line: After winning 6 of their first 8 games in May, the Sox stumbled through a four game set in Minnesota, losing three of four and giving up 25 runs in the series - not good.

The Rays are now just 0.5 games back... and have won 5 in a row.

BL Hero: Livan Hernandez improved to 6-1, despite his mediocre stuff. I'm not sure he ever hot 90 MPH on the gun, but he kept the Sox off the board for 6 innings and pitched well enough to win.