Kuzul

David Ortiz has authored some of the greatest hits in Red Sox history and holds the team's single-season home run record of 54.Still, Big Papi has never performed at a level closer to that of former Boston slugger Ted Williams than he is doing right now.Including his home run in Friday night's 7-3 win over the Astros—his second straight game with a homer—Ortiz is batting .500 (11-for-22) with an OPS of nearly 1.500 since returning from a heel injury that sidelined him most of spring training and the first 16 games of this season.While most hitters return from major injuries looking rusty at the plate, Papi looks hotter than ever.It is a trick that the Hall of Famer Williams, acknowledged by many to be baseball's greatest all-time hitter, performed often during his career.Injuries, military service, and a few self-imposed "retirements" often kept Ted away from spring training and/or early-season action, ...

A week after ending the longest sellout streak in baseball, the Red Sox helped fill their fans' hearts with pride after one of Boston's darkest days. Then they continued their own shocking revival. Nobody could have predicted the horrific events that struck the city on Marathon Monday and few could have anticipated the start that has quickly reestablished the Sox—at least for now—as a viable force in the American League. Timely hitting, near-historic starting pitching and a new attitude infused by new manager John Farrell has resulted in the AL's best record (13-6, tied with Texas) out of the gate. Even more surprising than the speed with which Farrell seems to have turned around the clubhouse mojo is how quickly the Red Sox have regained the respect of fans disillusioned by the woeful 2012 season and the calamitous reign of Bobby Valentine. It is still too early to compare this ...

It’s been 20 years since Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd pitched in the big leagues, but he can still bring some heat when it comes to conversation. I met up with Boyd for a book signing at New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, Mass., last weekend, and then stayed after for a few hours to talk with one of my all-time favorite Red Sox pitchers. His book, They Call Me Oil Can (written with Mike Shalin) is a no-holds-barred, colorful look at his career and life, and he's just as open—and outspoken—in person as in print. From our chat, here are the Can’s reflections on… How he got his nickname: “Everybody says it's because I drank a lot of beer and they called beer “oil” down in Mississippi, but that's not true. It was rot-gut whiskey. Everybody in Meridian, where I grew up, drank it. You got it from a ...

 As the crazy saga of Bobby Valentine’s managerial meltdown in Boston continues, I thought I'd add another tale to the mix, courtesy of my friend and sometimes Fenway Park seatmate Nancy. During the All-Star break, when Red Sox fans were in the midst of panicking over a surprisingly weak starting rotation, Nancy went for a jog on a blistering hot morning. About one mile from Fenway, along Huntington Avenue, she literally ran into a man in front of the swanky Colonnade Hotel. After a quick “sorry” she turned and started to jog away—but then froze in her tracks. She was pretty sure the man in the khaki shorts and plaid shirt who she had hit was Bobby Valentine. Unlike many fans, Nancy had not yet soured on Bobby V. A season ticket holder, she had been very happy with the managerial change in Boston. “I went to a game last ...

After watching him help the Angels sweep the Red Sox earlier this week, and based on his entire body of work this season, it's clear that Mike Trout is one of the most exciting young players in the majors. He may even be the American League MVP when all is said and done, but there is one thing I don't think the 21-year-old phenom should be: Rookie of the Year. Technically, Trout is a rookie. As the MLB rules state, “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list). Trout makes the cut...barely. He played ...

Although Jon Lester did not emerge as the winning pitcher in the Boston Red Sox's 8-6 victory over the Yankees Saturday night, he did reach a milestone that serves as a reminder to just how good he's been in the past—and could be again. Lester's final strikeout of the game, a whiff of dangerous Robinson Cano in the bottom of the sixth inning, gave the struggling hurler 1,000 strikeouts in his career. Just six Red Sox pitchers have reached this mark, and Lester is only the second left-hander after Bruce Hurst. Another 44 and he'll be No. 1 among all Boston lefties. It's easy to forget just how impressive Lester's career numbers were before last September's meltdown, which has extended through all of this season, but here are a few samples: Lester needed just 1,084 innings to reach 1,000 strikeouts. His average of nearly a strikeout an inning is second in ...

There were a lot of late-arriving fans at Fenway Park Friday night, and they had the right idea: This year, with Josh Beckett pitching, the worst parts of the game for the Red Sox almost always come early.Beckett had another dismal start to his start, and the Red Sox were down 4-0 to the Blue Jays after just two innings. A few hours before the game, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington had told Tony Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub that Beckett has “been very consistent if you look at the entire year.”That seems like a stretch, unless you consider the early parts of games—when the Texas Chicken King has been consistently bad.Beckett allowed two runs in the first inning Friday, raising his first-inning ERA to 10.69 for the season. He allowed two more in the second, and is now averaging 6.65 runs allowed over the first three innings of his ...

If the Red Sox expect to be in the running for a playoff spot in the second half of the season, they need to improve in one crucial area: their record in low-scoring games.Including their 6-1 setback in Oakland Monday, the Sox are just 4-28 in games in which they have scored three or fewer runs. This translates out to a .125 winning percentage, placing them 26th out of 30 MLB teams in this category. It also points to a key deficiency on the year's team—top-notch starting pitching.Unlike past years—when the Red Sox always had at least one clear ace who could match up against top opposing starters—the inconsistency on this year's Boston staff has made for many frustrating nights.Adding to the angst is that the Sox still have one of baseball's best offensive clubs overall, ranking third in the AL in average (.268), slugging (.444) and OPS (.772). They ...

“You be Jason Varitek, and I’ll be Tim Wakefield,” my daughter yells, grabbing her mitt and heading to the backyard for some post-dinner pitching.At seven years old, Rachel is already on her second hand-me-down glove from big brother Jason, but she’s never asked me for a new one. Looking at the ancient model I put on my own left hand, she knows better. My glove is older than Rachel, older than 11-year-old Jason, older in fact than my marriage to their mother—which is moving into its 14th summer.The Wilson A2000 I've used to teach both of them the game has been with me through more than two decades of life-changing events. It’s worn, scuffed, and recently popped its first leak in the form of a broken string, but it’s never disappointed me.That’s tough to find in a human or horsehide. It was once one of a pair—his-and-her mitts bought in 1991 with ...

I hope that starting pitcher Josh Beckett and everybody else on the Red Sox roster was watching closely during the "Thank you, Wake" ceremonies before today's ballgame against the Mariners at Fenway Park. In addition to being a classy sendoff for the knuckleballer, the event showed just where Tim Wakefield's priorities were during his 17-year career with Boston. Rather than showing a bunch of highlights of Wakefield's 200 career victories, the Jumbotron featured photos of him posing with kids from Dana-Farber's Jimmy Fund Clinic and Franciscan Hospital for Children. Rather than trot out a bunch of celebrities to sing his praises, the Red Sox had representatives from the different charities Wakefield has supported during the years join him on the field.And in a moment that moved the man of honor to tears, dozens of former "Wakefield Warriors" emerged from the same center field door that past Red Sox players had used ...