Red Sox win thanks to Pedroia's glove.

It was one of those plays that will be replayed on NESN for the rest of the season. Dustin Pedroia ranged about five steps to his right and swallowed up a ball hit by Vernon Wells. The ball was hit so hard, it almost took Jonathan Papelbon's head off. Without that play by Pedroia, the Red Sox worst losing streak in 5 years may have continued. A single would've scored the runner from second and given the Jay's 1-0 advantage going into the bottom of the ninth. Instead the game remained scoreless, and the Sox got a walk by Papi and consecutive singles by Manny and Youkilis to win the game.

You have to feel good for Jon Lester. Out dueling one of the best in the AL in Roy Halladay must be a real confidence booster and something Lester can build from. Speaking of Halladay, he's now the possessor of an amazing stat; four straight complete games with the last three being loses.

On a personal note, due to my life being in flux with moving and so on, I've been listening to a lot of games on the radio. It's kind of nice. Baseball, unlike most other sports, lends itself quite well to radio broadcasts. It's almost poetic. In the hierarchy of sports on the radio, I would place baseball #1, football #2. Basketball and hockey are just a mess if you try to listen to a game.

Hughes roughed up again

It may seem like I'm still making excuses for Phil Hughes, but he is not as bad as his numbers indicate. Just like no one is going to give up on C.C. Sabathia after a bad month, I am not willing to throw away the top pitching prospect in baseball from a year ago after a rough April.

Now if you got to watch any of Hughes's starts this season then you may have noticed that his stuff is right where it should be. The fastball is in the 92-95 range where it belongs, the curve ball has that nasty bite, and the command hasn't been terrible. But the one thing you might notice about all of his starts is the catcher. Phil hasn't had the benefit of the same catcher in back to back starts. If you watched tonight's game then you say him make his debut with new back up Chris Stewart and his 23 big league games of experience.

The night was consistently marred by crossed up signals that took their toll on Phil Franchise. Stewart is the fourth catcher for Hughes in his seven starts this year. It isn't the whole reason that he struggled, but it must make it more difficult. His leash is getting short, and I can't imagine that if he has another outing that ends in the fourth inning that the Yankees wont send him back to Scranton to re-tune and get right.

Nobody was helped by the fact that the Yanks loaded the bases on walks twice and only scored one run. That's just weak.

Back home to Yankee Stadium

Part of the MLB season is about survival. You can't always be on a hot streak, and when you're down and the situation looks grim, sometimes the best course of action is to try and break even. That's just what the Yanks did during this long, long road trip. They still have to wait until May 5 for their second off day of the season, but playing 18 of their last 20 games on the road the Yanks have to be satisfied with going 9-9, especially since they did it against some difficult teams like Cleveland, Boston and a tough young Rays club.

Now the bats are still pretty dormant. That big rally for four runs in the sixth was the softest four run inning I have ever seen. The loss of Posada is going to hurt, but they are still in good shape. Mussina is doing enough to stick around, and that's all they need from him this year is to keep them in most games and eat about 180 innings. The bullpen, aside from some rough outings from Hawkins and the perennial disappointment that is Kyle Farnsworth, has been solid behind the dynamic duo that is Chamberlain and Rivera. The only hope is to find someone who can do a comparable job as a set up guy when they decide to slide Joba into the rotation. And they should put him there.

Hughes will try to build off of his two inning performance in Chicago against the Tigers who have been hot and cold offensively. I think Hughes has found some of what he was missing in his first few starts and is poised to turn it around. His outing in Baltimore was better than his line indicated and against the White Sox he carried over those improvements. We'll see if the rain disrupted that momentum or not.

Beckett's 13 K's an unlucky number.

The Sox just can't lose games like this. When your team is on a skid, you have to be able to turn to your ace to put a stop to it. Beckett delivered. The bats did not. I know folks will like to point out the throwing error by Beckett, but in the balance, the Red Sox must win a game when he goes seven innings, strikes out thirteen, and gives up two runs.

But like the man he is, Beckett took the blame. ''I basically lost the game for us. Throw away, and the home run to Longoria,'' he said. Pitchers often feel this way when they lose, even if they pitch well, but what else could he have done? They didn't score any runs. Do I need to take back what I said a week ago about that line up?

Good news, bad news for Yankees

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Chien-Ming Wang is on his way to being an ace. This month has been ridiculous. He has allowed two runs or fewer in four of his six starts, and has hit the seventh inning in three of those six. He only got rocked the one time against the Red Sox when he saw them in back to back starts and they rocked him the second time around. He has 27 Ks in 39 innings giving him a healthy 6.23 K/9. I could keep reading you all of these impressive numbers , but all you really need to know is that the Yankees are 6-0 when CMW is on the mound and he has five of their 13 wins this season. He blew their shot in the playoffs last year, but like Arod a year ago, would the Yankees even be there if not for the consistent contributions of a stud like Wang? Oh yea, the Sox lost too. That's always good news.

Now for the bad news. Jorge was scratched from the game today. The reason? A muscle tear in his shoulder. Hard to believe since he gunned down speedster Grady Sizemore yesterday, but I guess he only made things worse. This is a big blow to the Yanks, but far from a knock out. Unlike Jason Varitek or Brad Ausmus who are known as good signal callers, Posada was always an offense first guy. I don't think he hurt the Yankees behind the plate, especially in recent years, but I think that if Jose Molina keeps producing solid at bats and Chad Moeller makes it though waivers the Yankees will survive long enough for Jorge to heal up.

My thought of the day: Can the Melkman deliver or what? I always liked Melky but thought he would never hit enough to be an everyday center fielder or even a corner guy. Melky is starting to become that everyday guy and though he doesn't have that prototypical home run swing, he will hit the ball hard and I think he will continue to develop into a hitter like Bernie who will perennially put up 20 homers and threaten 30 every once in a while. Put that with a great arm and solid defense and the Yanks have themselves a pretty good player.

IPK showing some signs of life

It was nice to see Kennedy settle down after that rough second inning. It was really the only time in the game that he deviated from his attacking of the hitters. This should help him in his case to stay in the rotation, giving him another start to show he belongs here. My biggest concern is still the Yanks batting average with runners in scoring position. They still look like they are only comfortable with nobody on base which of course as a fan makes me incredibly frustrated to watch them leave all those runs on base.

They can't lose games to the likes of Jeremy Sowers. He may be a good young pitcher, but he doesn't have overwhelming stuff and it seems like every time the Yanks see a pitcher they haven't seen a lot of throw junk at them in the strike zone, they shut down. They don't seem to know what to do if half of them aren't getting free passes to first.

Bruney goes down; who's coming up?

Well of course of all the relievers on the Yankees staff to get injured, it has to be the one who finally seems to be putting it all together. Brian Bruney looks to be out for the season with a torn foot tendon and Chad Moeller is to be designated for assignment according to Pete Abraham's blog. It's a tough break for Bruney who had significantly trimmed down in the off season and had learned to consistently throw strikes. He was definitely working his way toward inheriting the set-up role once they plugged Joba back into the rotation. It's always the good ones who get hurt, never the Farnsworths.

They should look to bring up Edwar Ramirez. His K rate is just too ridiculous to ignore. I know he got tagged up last year in limited outings, but they have to give him a little bit more of a chance to succeed than 23.1 career innings that he has. Anyway with Moeller gone they can bring up Duncan who has been absolutely murdering Triple-A pitching to the tune of .309/.426/.745. I really think Duncan would be an excellent player for the Yanks if they can get him going in the first base platoon and off the bench. I think he will hit for power no matter what but that he will be better as an all-around hitter than anyone gives him credit for.

One last thing. It was nice to see Melky rip home run number four last night. If his power keeps progressing then maybe he does end up becoming Bernie Williams with a better arm. That always seemed to be a good comparison to make when you looked at their early careers, and Bernie didn't really break out until years 3-5 when his average and power really developed. And even though it was brief, it was a ray of hope from Hughes last night that he might have found himself.