Kotsay Gets His Revenge

The Red Sox made some rather dubious moves over the past couple of months, but one that came back to bite them over the weekend was trading away Mark Kotsay late in July.

Kotsay (pictured being thrown out at home yesterday) drove in the two go-ahead runs on Sunday, as the White Sox took three of four from the Red Sox, 5-1. Kotsay hit two home runs and drove in six runs in the four-game series, and made the Sox pay for letting him go for Brian Anderson, an outfielder with no stick whatsoever.

Kotsay was odd man out when the Sox traded for Adam LaRoche, who was eventually traded nine days later for Casey Kotchman, who basically occupying a seat on the bench.

Josh Beckett (14-6) pitched a whole lot better than he has over the last month, allowing three runs over seven innings. But he was outpitched by Mark Buehrle, who allowed the Sox just one run over seven innings. It was still a 3-1 game in the 8th when Hideki Okajima came in and allowed a two-run home run to Carlos Quentin. Okajima continues his big time struggles, and may lose the eighth inning setup position with efforts like this.

The Red Sox lost a chance for a winning road trip with Sunday's loss, going 3-4 in Tampa and Chicago. Texas was rained out last night, so the Sox lead the Wild Card by 2 1/2. Texas plays a doubleheader in Cleveland tonight.

The Red Sox return home tonight to play a two-game series with Baltimore with Clay Buchholz pitching, and then three with Tampa bay beginning Friday night. Fortunately, the rest of the schedule is very favorable, as only 10 of the remaining 25 games are on the road, and seven of them are against the Orioles and Royals.