Salty Cleans Up

I usually miss any Red Sox games scheduled at 7 PM on Saturday nights, as I play softball with friends in Manhattan. But I would have missed it anyway due to Fox and their inane rules (Fox Ruins Baseball, as we all know), as the Red Sox-Cubs was blacked out in New York due to the Mets-Reds game.

So it was the iPhone to the rescue. Jon Lester was superb for six innings, but ran out of gas in the 7th, as with a 4-0 lead he gave up a three-run home run to Luis Valbuena.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, batting cleanup for the first time, was the offensive hero, as he hit a two-run homer, and Will Middlebrooks and Scott Podsednik both had RBI singles.

The bullpen did excellent work after Lester left. Scott Atchison, Vicente Padilla and Alfredo Aceves faced the minimum of seven batters, with a round-the-horn double play giving the Red Sox a much needed 4-3 win.

The Red Sox put Josh Beckett on the DL last night due to the shoulder inflammation in right arm, but the feeling is is that it won't be a long DL stint. Franklin Morales gets the start in tonight's finale. Clayton Mortensen was brought up from Pawtucket to take Beckett's place on the roster. The Sox will also put Ryan Sweeney on the DL today with a foot injury, and will bring up Ryan Kalish to the big club from Pawtucket.