Boston Red Sox

Through all the hoopla about David Ortiz finally hitting his first homer of the season (319 players have hit at least one home run before him), there was Brad Penny tossing one of his best games of the season.

He had 6.2 innings pitched, two earned runs, and nine hits allowed. He only struck out two but only walked one. 

The Boston Red Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 8-3 in Boston Wednesday night. It was a great night for the Sox in many ways, and possibly their best game of the season to date.

Toronto's Brett Cecil and first-year Red Sox Brad Penny were the starters of tonight's game.

Cecil came into the game 2-0 with an ERA of 1.80, one of the young pitchers stepping up for Toronto's injury-filled rotation. Penny entered the night with an ERA of 6.69, despite a winning 3-1 record.

Dennis Eckersley said it on NESN: every last fan in Fenway was blowing on that ball, willing it past the wall and into the camera well. 

When it landed, Red Sox Nation exploded: a late October slam could hardly draw a louder roar, and the feeling couldn’t really be better.

Perhaps it was that the AL East leading Blue Jays were in town. Perhaps it was that a rather tough West Coast trip had just ended and it was nice to have the guys back in the friendly confines. Or maybe it had something to do with the need to keep warm with a first pitch temperature around 60 degrees.

Whatever it was, the fans at Fenway park were in a good mood on Tuesday evening.  They were active, animated, and involved in a game that was, for the most part, a real yawner. But nowhere was their mood more evident than in their services performed on behalf of David Ortiz.

The carousel of Red Sox shortstops have not stopped since 2004. 

When whining Nomar Garciaparra was shipped out to Chicago, in the most daring, yet greatest trade in the Theo Epstein era, the Sox have never solidified the position. 

The Sox got in return Orlando Cabrera, who revitalized the Sox and sent them their first World Championship in 86 years.  Cabrera's defense, range, and overall great clubhouse demeanor was pivotal to the Sox.  But, he was a free agent and the Sox let him go.

Since then, the Sox have seen the likes of:

All the rage lately has been about David Ortiz and his season-long slump. As of May 17, this is one of the longest homerless streaks in Ortiz' career.

Because of this prolonged slump Big Papi is experiencing, it is causing Yankee zealots and Red Sox haters alike to jump the gun, claiming that Ortiz was just one of a slew of Red Sox to take performance enhancing drugs.

Everyone is well-aware of the season-long struggles of Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, whose numbers (.208-0-15), would be cause for grumblings even for a player such as Jason Varitek, who struggled heavily last season.

While I stayed up late last night and watched Jon Lester collapse again with a 4-0 lead against the Mariners, I was incredibly frustrated.  Between Lester, Josh Beckett and David Ortiz, the core of the Red Sox, neither are performing well. 

So, I needed to find my 'Happy Place'.  Who can help save the Red Sox?  I thought, let's go farming and take a look at the Red Sox top prospects.  What does Theo Epstein have in his system?

Clay Buchholz