BOSTON – Embattled Red Sox pitchers Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey denied a TV report Tuesday that said they drank beer in the dugout during games.

The allegation is the latest in a rough stretch for Boston, which missed the playoffs following a record collapse, going 7-20 in September and finishing at 90-72.

Manager Terry Francona was let go last month, general manager Theo Epstein appears to be on his way out and Lester, Beckett and Lackey have caught much of the blame for the team’s season-ending skid.

“Tonight our organization has heard directly from Jon, Josh, John, and former manager Terry Francona,” team president Larry Lucchino said Tuesday in a release.

“Each has assured us that the allegation that surfaced today about drinking in the dugout during games in 2011 is false, and we accept their statements as honest and factual.

“It is time to look forward and move forward, rather than allow a reckless, unsubstantiated accusation from ‘anonymous sources’ to mislead the public.”

WHDH-TV, citing two unidentified Red Sox employees, reported Tuesday that Beckett, Lester and Lackey would fill their cups with beer in the Fenway Park clubhouse, then return to the dugout and drink while watching the game.

One of the employees told WHDH-TV the three starters appeared “bored on nights they weren’t pitching and this is how they entertained themselves.”

“The accusation that we were drinking in the dugout during games is completely false,” Lester said in the release issued by the team. “Anonymous sources are continuing to provide exaggerated and, in this case, inaccurate information to the media.”

Said Beckett: “I cannot let this allegation go without response; enough is enough. I admit that I made mistakes along the way this season, but this has gone too far. To say that we drank in the dugout during the game is not true.”

The Boston Globe reported last Wednesday that Beckett, Lackey and Lester would eat fried chicken, drink beer and play video games in the clubhouse during games, instead of being in the dugout with their teammates. That story was based on “team sources.”

“There are things that went on this season that shouldn’t have happened, but this latest rumour is not true,” Lackey said in Tuesday’s release, “and I felt that it was important to try to stop this from going any further.”

Said Francona: “In 32 years of professional baseball, I have never seen someone drinking beer in the dugout.”

BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Red Sox had a home run derby of their own Thursday night at Fenway, sending six of their 13 hits against the Orioles out of the yard.

Or as Dustin Pedroia would put it; a laser show.

“We swung the bats great,” said the Red Sox second baseman, whose three-run homer in the third inning put Boston on top 3-2 at the time. “We just got to keep it going. There was a lot of good pitches to hit tonight and we didn’t miss them. That was the thing; we were patient. We got into hitters counts. We did a good job.”

Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Josh Reddick and Jarrod Saltalamacchia all hit a long ball Thursday night. Ortiz, Reddick and Saltalamacchia went back-to-back-to-back in the seventh, the first time the Sox have pulled off the feat since  August of 2010.

“Our guys did a great job. We scored and we added on,” said manager Terry Francona after the 10-4 win. “Pedey with a big hit early to get us back in it. They kept fighting and getting big hits the rest of the way.”

Dustin Pedroia After Boston’s 10-4 Win

“When Pedroia hits that home run, from there and when I came out of the game, the offense took off. You certainly appreciate that as a pitcher,” said starter Andrew Miller, who allowed three runs over five innings of work.

Read: Man Throws Out Fenway First Pitch With Feet

The six home runs were the most hit by the Red Sox since September of 2009, which also came against the Orioles.

The debate now rages on, which long ball was the best?

“I’ll take them all,” said Ellsbury, who blasted his 11^th of the season. “We had a variety; one monster ball, two to dead center, two to right. They were all good swings; you can’t go wrong with any one of them.”

“Pedey’s,” said Gonzalez, who hit his 17^th. “That one just because of the situation of putting us ahead. It put us ahead and we didn’t look back after that.”

After Baltimore starter Jake Arrieta walked the first two batters of the third, Pedroia took a high fastball and deposited over the monster seats into the parking garage on Landsdowne Street. The Sox went from trailing 2-0 to have a 3-2 lead.

Still, Pedroia would not say his blast was the best.

“I don’t know we put some good swings. You guys can figure that one out,” he said after the game.

BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Red Sox should just throw away those throwback uniforms. And they should toss the tape of the eighth inning along with them.

Three Boston errors were the low points of an eight-run Chicago eighth inning as the Red Sox fell 9-3 to the Cubs on Saturday
night.

“It got a little bit ugly,” Boston manager Terry Francona said after his team’s 3-1 lead was wiped away.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030?s Jonny Miller spoke to Francona after the game:

On one play during the inning, the Red Sox, wearing their 1918 throwbacks, threw the ball around it seemed like 19 or 18 times.

After the Cubs had taken a 6-3 lead in the eighth, Boston had Alfonso Soriano caught in a run down between third and home after a
fly ball to right. Catcher Jason Varitek caught the ball from right fielder J. D. Drew and threw to third, but it trickled into left
off Kevin Youkilis’ glove.

Soriano raced home and Jeff Baker, who had doubled on the play, came home when Carl Crawford’s wild throw rolled under the glove of reliever Franklin Morales, covering the plate, and past first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who was backing up, to make it 8-3.

Youkilis and Crawford were charged with errors on the play.

Earlier in the inning, shortstop Jed Lowrie dropped a short pop up, allowing a run to score.

Reed Johnson’s go-ahead, two-run double keyed the big inning against Matt Albers (0-2), who didn’t retire a batter, giving up
six runs and walking a pair in the eighth.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030?s Jonny Miller spoke to Albers after the game:

So much for the new — or, old — look. The loss snapped Boston’s season-high, seven-game winning streak.

“You give up a lead and it’s always frustrating,” Lowrie said. “We just had a bad inning got to forget.”

The Cubs’ last visit to 99-year-old Fenway Park before Friday night’s 15-5 loss was in the World Series 93 years ago. Chicago won the fifth game then, but Boston took the championship by winning Game 6.

The Red Sox had victory in sight again on Saturday before the eighth.

Johnson had entered the game as a pinch runner in the top of the second after Marlon Byrd was beaned. Byrd walked off under his own power.

The Red Sox spent about four hours in first place in the AL East when Tampa Bay lost to Florida 5-3. Their first stay at the top this season marked a stunning turnaround for a team that began the season at 2-10.

Then came the wild turn of events in the eighth that ended Boston’s winning streak.

Before then, Aramis Ramirez had given Chicago a 1-0 lead in the third with an RBI double. Boston went ahead on David Ortiz’s
two-run homer, his ninth of the year, after Youkilis led off the fourth with a single. Jacoby Ellsbury’s run-scoring single made it 3-1 in the sixth against Carlos Zambrano before Sean Marshall (2-0) came in to end the inning.

In came Albers, out went the lead.

Darwin Barney and Starlin Castro singled and Ramirez walked, loading the bases. Carlos Pena then walked in a run before Johnson doubled to left, putting the Cubs ahead to stay. Soriano followed with a popup to short left field where shortstop Lowrie let it bounce off his glove for an error as Pena scored.

Morales, obtained Thursday from Colorado, relieved Albers and his first pitch went for an RBI double by pinch-hitter Baker. Koyie
Hill struck out and Barney flew to right, where Drew’s catch was only the beginning of the bizarre play that made it 8-3.

Castro followed with an RBI double, making it 9-3.

The Red Sox throwback uniforms were an off-white color with no team name on the front. The Cubs wore grey uniforms with blue
pinstripes and the word “Cubs” on the left breast.

NOTES: RHP Matt Garza was scratched from his scheduled start in Sunday’s series finale with stiffness in his pitching elbow. Cubs manager Mike Quade indicated that lefty reliever James Russell was the leading candidate to start against Tim Wakefield. … Youkilis was hit by a pitch for the 72nd time, breaking a tie with Mo Vaughn for the Red Sox record. … Ortiz’s homer made him the fifth player to hit at least 300 with the Red Sox. The others are Ted Williams (521), Carl Yastrzemski (452), Jim Rice (382) and Dwight Evans (379). … Red Sox reliever Bobby Jenks is expected to throw his first bullpen session on Monday since going on the disabled list May 5 with a strained right biceps.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

click image to enlarge

Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez, left, and Kevin Youkilis celebrate after they scored on Youkilis’ two-run home run in the fourth inning of the Red Sox’ 15-5 win overthe Chicago Cubs on Friday at Fenway Park in Boston.

AP

Josh Beckett was talking in the media interview room at Fenway Park late last night when a question came from the extreme right side of the room. “All these empty seats you gotta sit over there, huh?” Beckett joked.

Except that this wasn’t really a joke. Just 83 pitches into his start against Justin Verlander and the Tigers Thursday, after only six innings, Beckett was suddenly pulled from what might have been an electric win. Turns out he was battling a stiff neck all night, and perhaps he was lucky to get that far.

“Yeah, it was tough to get loose,” Beckett said. “I battled through the first few innings. I actually went down in the third and the fifth and was throwing in between innings because I was just trying to get loose. It never would loosen up. I think it was just a little muscle spasm in there. I don’t think it’s anything serious at all but we needed to be cautious, especially in the situation we’re in right now with starters.”

The Sox are down two starters with Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey on the DL, but they’re doing a whole lot to prop themselves up these days. Beckett left with a 3-1 lead thanks to a J.D. Drew sac fly and solo home run, plus a David Ortiz home run, and when Daniel Bard gave up back-to-back, game-tying home runs to Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera in the eighth, the Sox simply pulled themselves up and won it, 4-3, with Carl Crawford’s bases-loaded single to center in the ninth.

It was Crawford’s third walkoff hit of the season and the Sox’s third in four Fenway Park games, but it capped what promised to be a great duel by a couple of great pitchers. If nothing else, it certainly lifted Beckett’s spirits, because this was his fifth no-decision in nine starts this season. But even though his scoreless innings streak ended at 191/3 after he gave up a walk and three singles in the second, he now gone eight straight starts without a loss and is 3-0, 1.38 since his season-opening loss at Cleveland.

What’s amazing is that Beckett pitched as well as he did with the stiff neck, and while receiving just two runs of support, the sixth time that’s happened to him.

The funny thing about this one was that catcher Jason Varitek didn’t even know Beckett was ailing. “He was OK. It was a battle for him today but he was strong, he was probably as strong as he’s been on the mound in quite a while,” Varitek said. “It was just a fight for him getting the ball east and west. And he just battled with one run in six innings is pretty good.”

“I got great defense is what I had,” Beckett said. “J.D. (Drew) – it was a track meet out there for him. I know that’s tough with the turf the way it is.” Drew played one line drive very lazily, and Cabrera legged it from first to third base and then scored the first Detroit run. Soon after, Drew was on his horse, at one point making two putouts in three straight innings.

Beckett was forced to buckle down. “They’re a good lineup. You take outs however you can get them. I felt like they were extra aggressive and I felt like sometimes that played into my deal. Maybe it was just the hitters that came up in the situations but I got some ground balls when I needed to get some ground balls. J.D. was really busy out there.”

Verlander, meanwhile, was no slouch, getting burned on a couple of mistake pitches. He threw 114 pitches through eight innings. There wasn’t much difference between this start and his Aug. 13, 2009 start against the Sox, when he finished an eight-inning stint with a 101-mph fastball that caught Jason Bay swinging. He struck out 10 and walked one that day.

He struck out nine Sox and walked nobody in this one, but ended his night with a curve ball that got Adrian Gonzalez on a ground out.

“It’s always a big deal when you beat a pitcher like him,” said Crawford. “He’s always a bona fide ace and had good stuff tonight and we just battled with him all night.”

Beckett barely noticed. “I try not to put too much emphasis, especially in the American League (where) I don’t have to hit against him. If I had to hit against him, it wouldn’t be fun at all. It would be fun for him but it wouldn’t be fun for me.

“But I thought our guys, they did a good job. I thought they actually got his pitch count up there but with him being who he is, he gets to go back out there for the seventh and eighth inning.”

Beckett says he’s not concerned with the neck. He’ll take some muscle relaxants, hoping it calms down. “It’s pretty stiff. It’s a muscle spasm. Kind of something we’ve been battling this whole day. I don’t know what causes it. it doesn’t happen very often.”

The pain, though, was easy to take with the walkoff win. “Sometimes it’s nice to have a laugher,” he said, “but sometimes a team needs something like that. Three of the last four (walkoff) wins? That’s pretty exciting.”

 

Posted: April 7
Updated: Today at 8:53 PM

BY JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer

BOSTON — Fenway Park is all dressed up and ready for its 100th birthday party.

The Boston Red Sox wrapped up 10 years and $285 million in improvements for the ballpark this offseason, unveiling HD video boards and a home plate concourse Wednesday that have the oldest ballpark in the major leagues looking like new in time for its 100th opening day Friday.

By completing the renovations this winter, the Red Sox leave themselves next offseason to prepare for a 100th anniversary celebration next summer. Fenway opened April 20, 2012; no major league stadium has ever survived to be 100, leaving team president Larry Lucchino to look elsewhere for comparisons.

“Rome had one for the 100th year of the Coliseum,” he said.

But the Coliseum didn’t have three HD video boards in center field or concession stands selling sushi. Among the other new features unveiled Wednesday was a new concourse behind home plate with — for the first time in decades — a smooth, cement floor and plenty of space for the crowds filing in and out of the ballpark.

“When you consider the pictures we’ve seen of the ballpark in the 20th century, it really is more vibrant than it ever was,” owner John Henry said. “Since the moment we arrived, the restoration of Fenway Park has been a real labor of love. It’s been nine years that we’ve been at this. The end result is better than anything we could have imagined.”

The decade-long renovation began shortly after Henry’s group bought the team and decided not to replace the crumbling facility with one of the old-time replicas that were in fashion. Instead, they have spent the winters working on the ballpark in sections, adding talked-about features such as new seats above the Green Monster and less-visible ones like making the bathrooms accessible to the disabled.

This year’s changes will be most obvious to fans who enter behind home plate into a brightly lit, spacious concourse absent the cracked tiling and crumbling brick that showed Fenway’s age. Now, a new gate leads into an area with concessions offering seafood shack fare and New England favorites like a turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

“We were careful not to do too much and overwhelm the intimacy of Fenway Park,” Lucchino said. “We’re proud that we were able to improve the ballpark and increase the capacity without changing the overall ambiance.”

Capacity this year will be 37,493 for night games and 37,065 for day games — an increase of 91 over 2010′s totals.

The Year 10 renovations also included repairing the concrete and waterproofing in the right field grandstand that was originally built in 1933-34. The entire lower bowl of seats has now been waterproofed, and every seat in Fenway has been either replaced or refurbished; field box seats are now padded, and box seats have cup holders.

The plumbing running beneath the home plate concourse has been brought up to code.

“That will make Fenway viable for 30 or 40 more years,” Lucchino said.

The Red Sox return home from a season-opening road trip Friday to face the New York Yankees. Picked by the majority of baseball experts to win the World Series, Boston was swept by the Texas Rangers and fell to 0-4 on Tuesday night with a loss in the series opener against the Cleveland Indians.

“We still have a lot of games to go, and we’ll be there, folks,” Mayor Tom Menino said at Fenway on Wednesday morning. “I’m not panicking.”

 

BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Red Sox and New Balance announced a comprehensive, multi-year partnership on Monday that recognizes New Balance as the official footwear and apparel sponsor of the team.

Read: Pedroia On Sweep: “We’re All Frustrated”

Also at the announcement an illuminated sign was unveiled featuring New Balance’s signature red logo atop one of the new HD video boards in Fenway Park’s right field.

The New Balance sign will feature 1,959 energy-efficient LED lights that will illuminate the “New Balance” logo. The sign was designed with the ability to display a looped and flashing “we won” message to highlight Red Sox victories around the Fenway area.

Read: Mike Lowell Talks Retirement, 2011 Red Sox

In 2010, New Balance joined the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital as presenting sponsor of the inaugural Run to Home Base and will do so again on May 22, 2011 at Fenway Park. They will also become presenting sponsor of the Red Sox Baseball Academy, the official summer camp of the Boston Red Sox. The 2011 camp for baseball and softball players ages 5-13 will be held from June to August in Boston, with New Balance providing 20 need-based scholarships to the Academy annually.