On The Bleachers Central

By: Tyler Walters Dustin Pedroia will make his return to the Red Sox lineup tonight at Fenway Park against the Braves.  The only problem with that is the Sox didn't have room for Dustin on the 25 man roster, until now. Boston pulled the plug on Hanley Ramirez Friday morning and he has been Designated for Assignment.  The club now has seven days to decide if they want to trade Hanley or release him. This comes as quite a shock to the baseball world.  Ramirez is currently in the midst of a slump but had a terrific start to the season. He's batting .254 through 44 games with six home runs and 29 RBIs. The most obvious thing for the Red Sox to do to clear up a roster spot would have to get rid of Blake Swihart.  Swihart was once the top catching prospect in all of baseball but after he was injured playing left field for the Sox in 2016 he hasn't seen much action. He played in six games last year and has only made 33 plate appearances so far this season....

By: Tyler Walters Other than taking first place from the Yankees, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez's comments about the Home Run Derby has been the talk of Boston baseball this week. Both players have put any theories of the two battling it out in D.C. this summer to rest.  For very different reasons though. Betts made head lines this week when he said, "Hell no," to participating in the derby.  According to the Boston Globe  Betts says, "I don't hit home runs in BP.  Can you imagine me going against Aaron Judge?" Aaron Judge has already said that he will not be participating in this year's Home Run Derby but the point still stands with Mookie as he describes himself as "not that kind of hitter." Mookie Betts turns on a 3-2 slider for his Major League-leading 16th home run of the season, a three-run blast to left in the 3rd inning #DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/MSNR8uCONI — TheRenderMLB (@TheRenderMLB2) May 23, 2018 As much as the ...

By: Tyler Walters The Boston Red Sox wrapped up their four game set with the Orioles with a win Sunday afternoon. Their was a lot to be happy about this past weekend for Red Sox fans as the bats were great and the pitching was pretty good as well.  The Sox outscored the Orioles 21-12 in the series. Game one was dominated by David Price who through a complete game with only 95 pitches.  And had it not been for Manny Machado hitting a two strike, two out home run in the top of the ninth Price would have completed a shutout. David Price was dealing for the @RedSox tonight. 😤 pic.twitter.com/7eFkdH108i — Stadium (@WatchStadium) May 18, 2018 I'm still not sure what we're going to get out of DP this year.  He's had games like this where it looks like his only competition for the Cy Young Award will be Chris Sale. Then he's had the games like he did against the Yankees where he gave up four runs in the first inning and says that he can't feel his fingers.  ...

By: Tyler Walters J.D. Martinez is absolutely mashing baseballs in Boston for the Red Sox and I can't get enough of it.  J.D. was the biggest offseason free agent acquisition in the MLB and I feel like he's kind of going under the radar because he's playing with the second best player in baseball (Mookie Betts). It's not that J.D. isn't getting recognition, because he definitely is, it's that he should be the number one story in baseball every day with how great he's playing right now. Martinez is batting .344 with a .631 slugging percentage and a 1.024 OPS in the 40 games he's played this year (173 plate appearances).  He's one of four players in the MLB with at least 100 plate appearances that is batting .330+ with a 1.000+ OPS (Mookie Betts, Manny Machado and Mitch Moreland are the other three). All that stuff is great but make no mistake, J.D. Martinez was brought to Boston to hit home runs.  And he's done that 11 times so far this se...

By: Tyler Walters The Boston Red Sox dropped their second straight game to the Yankees in New York last night.  Boston blew a lead in the 8th inning and the Yankees went on to win 9-6.   The Yankees are now a game ahead of the Red Sox in the A.L. East standings and now hold the best record in baseball (26-10).   To be honest, I felt like my dog died after the Sox lost last night.  These games between the Sox and Yanks have meant more this year than they have in the past decade, but it's only MAY.   We aren't even close to the All Star break and I'm as tense as I normally would be in August.   The bullpen has been the nail in the coffin for the Red Sox this week.  Heath Hembree blew game one by juicing the bases in the bottom of the seventh and leaving Joe Kelly to try to get two outs and give up no runs in that situation.   Last night Matt Barnes blew the game in the eighth inning by giving up two qu...