VA Sox Fan

Way to move Scutaro up Ells!

TEK TEK TEK TEK!!!!!!

HERMIDA!!!!!!!

Nice grab by Lowell.

Jesus this UMP SUCKS!

Nice play Mikey Lowell!

Crap. s***.

Seriously.

Whatever it takes Youk Way to get your first hit ever off of Greinke.

Too bad the NYY bats have been so cold today

Great game CC. That is a tough line up to no-hit. Good job Kelly Shoppach!

The boy can fly. Extremely speedy.

Lowell likely done playing after 2010 Posted by Amalie Benjamin April 10, 2010 05:02 PM KANSAS CITY -- Mike Lowell, who has been relegated to the bench by the Red Sox this season, said before today's game that this will most likely be the final season of his career. Lowell's three-year contract, signed after the 2007 season, expires this offseason. "This probably is my last year," Lowell said, in the clubhouse in Kansas City. "If this was the fourth year of my career, I would have choked everyone by now in the organization. Straight honest. I'm a much more mellow family man now." Asked when he came to that conclusion, Lowell said that it happened three years ago, when he resigned with the Sox, turning down an extra year with the Phillies. "I have no qualms about it," he said. "My agent wanted to kill me for not taking a four-year deal. I said I don't know if I want to play four years, but I know if I sign a four-year contract I'm going to play four years. "I try to look at the big picture. I see my family, I see where the age of my kids are at. They're both starting to go to school next year, all that good stuff. There's a lot of reasons for Dad to be there. Has this scenario maybe put baseball a little bit lower? I don't think so, but it grinds at you a little. That's where that mental challenge comes in." Lowell is in the lineup today for the first time this season. He didn't start on Opening Day for the first time in his career, and has yet to see any action at all. He has appeared extremely frustrated through spring training, as he worked to come back from offseason thumb surgery and to continue to improve from hip surgery in the 2008 offseason. Could anything change his mind? "From playing next year?" he said. "Well, I'm not 100 percent sure. I would say I'm well up there. But, no, actually I would love for the last year of my career to be the best year of my career, if that would be the case. I don't think there's any better way of going out than on top. Why not?" That seems unlikely to happen, unless the Sox find a trading partner for Lowell. There has been little interest in the third baseman through spring training. "If I hit 30 home runs this year or I hit three, I don't think that stance is going to change," Lowell said. "Now whether I want to or not, that's totally different. But I don't think my numbers will determine [that]. I'm pretty confident in what I've done, physically what I'm capable of doing. Yeah, you can look at, oh, this is a walk year, the next contract. Doesn't even enter my mind. "Because if it would [have happened], like I said in the fourth year of my career, I would have been the biggest jerk in spring training and tried to get my way out of here. Because why not put up numbers when you show basically for me at 60 or 75 percent I was capable of putting up respectable numbers. I've never proclaimed that I'm 100 percent right now, but I'm much better than last year. I've said that since Day One."

Dammit good play A-Rod.

Nice catch Gabe!

Uhhhhhhh...just realized........

I missed it. Did he hit a HR? I'm flipping between the game and The Masters.

A win tonight would be nice. Thank you.

Good days for Dice-K and Embree Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff April 10, 2010 03:07 PM Daisuke Matsuzaka had a strong outing for Pawtucket today against Rochester: 5 innings 2 hits 0 runs 1 walk 3 strikeouts 73 pitches / 43 strikes. Counting exhibition games, minor-league games and today's rehab start, Matsuzaka has thrown 15 innings. Based on what the Sox did with their other starters, he needs 10 more — or two starts. So he should be ready for the majors somewhere around April 25 or 26. Alan Embree followed Matsuzaka to the mound and threw a scoreless inning, striking out two and allowing a hit. Embree can opt out of his deal on April 15 if he is not in the majors, so the Sox can get a look at him at least two more times. Embree clearly plans to exercise that option if the Sox do not call him up. Here is what he told PawSox broadcaster Dan Hoard: "Hopefully, if things so well and I get enough appearances, that on the 15th that won't be the issue. The issue will be that I'm going to Boston, which is ultimately what the goal was. But, that being said, baseball is a business and if for whatever reason they didn't feel I was fit, I have to move on from there. It's one of those things I'll evaluate on that day." Asked whether he would extend the deadline, Embree said, "I'd have to explore the other options before I would consider that. That being said, I'm very grateful the Red Sox gave me the opportunity that they did. ... But usually around the 10th appearance, I'm usually ready. That's kind of what I'm gauging it on and the next few outings will tell."

RED SOX (1-3) Ellsbury CF Pedroia 2B Martinez DH Youkilis 1B Drew RF Lowell 3B Hermida LF Varitek C Scutaro SS Pitching: RHP Josh Beckett (0-0, 9.64). ROYALS (2-2) DeJesus RF Podsednik LF Callaspo 3B Butler 1B Ankiel CF Guillen DH Kendall C Betancourt SS Getz 2B Pitching: RHP Zack Greinke (0-0, 1.50).