Orioles vs Red Sox (9/6-9/9)

Game 1: Clay Buchholz was able to pick up his 3rd win in his young career on Thursday night, but it wasn't as a starter. One appearance after he tossed a no-hitter, Buchholz came in as a relief pitcher and pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit. Buchholz did have to work out of a jam in his first inning of work, but he did his job by keeping the Orioles off the board.

The game was started by Tim Wakefield and he was lit up for 6 runs in his first start back since experiencing back pain last week.

The Red Sox rallied back from a deficit on numerous occasions and eventually came out on top thanks to an 9th inning RBI single by Jason Varitek. The RBI gave the Red Sox a 7-6 lead which allowed Jonathan Papelbon to come in and close out the game, which he did in impressive fashion. Papelbon struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced in his perfect inning.

The Red Sox received also offensive contributions from Coco Crisp (3/4, 3-run homer), David Ortiz (solo homer, 2 RBIs).

The Yankees were idle on Thursday night which allowed the Red Sox to increase their division lead to 6.5 and decrease their magic number to 16 with 21 games remaining.

Game 2: Jon Lester took on Daniel Cabrera in a rematch of Sunday, 9/3 on Friday night. Lester pitched 7 innings of shutout ball and only allowed 4 hits on the night. Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen relieved him to keep hold of the 4-0 lead that Boston jumped out to.

Boston's runs came courtesy of Kevin Youkilis, Jason Varitek, and Coco Crisp.

Daniel Cabrera, who started for the Orioles, was thrown out after nearly hitting Dustin Pedroia which resulted in a clearing of both benches and bullpens.

Game 3: Daisuke Matsuzaka was roughed up again on Saturday night, which is quickly becoming a cause for concern among Red Sox Nation. The Red Sox need Daisuke Matsuzaka to be a dominant number 2 or 3 starter for the playoffs or their chances of winning will take a severe hit. I am still confident that he can find what he has recently lost, but it is worrisome.

Matsuzaka gave up 8 runs in less than 3 innings and the Red Sox really never had a chance to win the ballgame. David Ortiz had a 2-run homer and Julio Lugo contributed 2 RBIs, but it wasn't enough for the Red Sox who did not display enough pitching to come away with a victory.

Game 4: Josh Beckett is in the Cy Young race to stay. The young righty won his 18th game on Sunday afternoon against the Orioles. Beckett pitched seven innings and allowed two runs while striking out 8 Orioles.

The Red Sox got some early scoring on a single by Mike Lowell, followed by an error which allowed 2 runs to score rather than 1. That hit gave the Red Sox the lead for a majority of the game, but the Orioles came back to score 2 later in the game. The tie lasted until the 8th inning when Coco Crisp came through for the Red Sox with an RBI single to score JD Drew.

Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon pitched scoreless innings to close it out and keep the Red Sox 5.5 games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East.

On Deck: The Red Sox begin a 3-game series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Monday night before a 3-game series with the New York Yankees beginning on Friday. Curt Schilling and Scott Kazmir will square off in the opener of the Boston-Tampa Bay series.