He's An Early Hit, But Defense Lets Sox Down Again. Orlando Cabrera homered in his first at-bat with the team, but his 8th inning error (which should have been charged to Kapler) -- along with crappy bullpen work from Timlin -- led to Boston's 3-2 defeat Sunday afternoon.

The Red Sox held leads against both Radke and Santana this weekend, but ended up blowing both games. ... Pedro pitched very well (11 strikeouts and 2 runs in 7 innings), but Santana was even better: 8 innings, 2 hits (solo HRs from Cabrera and Manny) and 12 Ks. ... Oakland beat Texas 4-1, so Boston remains 1 game behind the Rangers for the wild card.

Red Sox players who have homered in first plate appearance with the club:

Player            Date                Opponent

Lefty LeFebre     June 10, 1938       White Sox 

Eddie Pellagrini  April 22, 1946      Senators 

Rip Repulski      May 10, 1960        White Sox 

Ken Harrelson     August 29, 1967     Yankees 

John Kennedy      July 5, 1970        Indians 

Rob Deer          August 22, 1993     Indians 

Curtis Pride      September 19, 1997  White Sox 

Orlando Cabrera   August 1, 2004      Twins

In Chicago, Nomar Garciaparra grounded into a double play (on the first pitch) in his first AB as a Cub. He finished the game 1-for-4 with an RBI.