G48: Tigers at Red Sox, 1:30 PM

Tigers  - 
Red Sox - 

Doug Fister / Felix Doubront

Nava, LF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, RF
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, 1B
Saltalamacchia, C
Sweeney, CF
Middlebrooks, 3B
Aviles, SS

Ryan Sweeney may return to the lineup today. He suffered a concussion making a diving catch against the Phillies on May 19. Sweeney's return may end Adrian Gonzalez's time in right field, and re-open the debate of whether Will Middlebrooks should be in Boston or Pawtucket. (Kevin Youkilis is 6-for-16 (.375) since coming off the DL.)

The Red Sox - 11-5 since May 10 and 23-24 overall - host the Tigers for a four-game series. This is the latest the Red Sox have been under .500 since August 23, 1996. After starting the year 9-3, Detroit has gone 14-21. The Tigers are in third place in the AL Central, 3 GB Cleveland.

G47: Rays 4, Red Sox 3

Rays    - 000 100 102 - 4  9  0
Red Sox - 000 000 300 - 3  7  1

Alfredo Aceves blew his first save opportunity since April 21, as Sean Rodriguez hit a two-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth.

Buchholz (7-8-2-1-6, 111) turned in his best start of the season. Adrian Gonzalez hit a three-run dong for Boston. Gonzalez also batted with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, but grounded out to shortstop.

The Red Sox went in order in the ninth. ... Kevin Youkilis and Scott Podsednik each had two hits.

Jeremy Hellickson / Clay Buchholz

G46: Red Sox 3, Rays 2

Rays    - 000 000 200 - 2  4  0
Red Sox - 000 001 002 - 3  9  1

Pinch-hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia's two-run home run off Fernando Rodney in the bottom of the ninth gave the Red Sox their first walk-off win of the season.

With Boston down 2-1, Daniel Nava started the ninth with a walk. Nick Punto bunted him to second and then Saltalamacchia batted for Marlon Byrd. Salty blasted an 0-1 pitch over the Red Sox bullpen in right-center.

Josh Beckett (7-4-2-0-5, 91) allowed only one base runner through the first six innings.

Daisuke Matsuzaka for Pawtucket: 5-1-0-1-2, 56.

David Price / Josh Beckett

The Rays comment on the Luke Scott HBP. Joe Maddon:

I'm kind of curious regarding who put out the hit, because I know it wasn't one of their players. By the way their players reacted to the entire situation, I knew it did not come from them. It's kind of incompetent behavior ... [T]he people that were incensed obviously they're the ones that were probably behind the effort, the really weak, cowardly effort on their part. Did I say that strongly enough? Did I make my point?

G45: Rays 7, Red Sox 4

Rays    - 004 300 000 - 7  8  1
Red Sox - 100 012 000 - 4  4  1

Lester (4-6-7-3-4, 81) gave up three home runs. Matt Joyce hit a grand slam with two outs in the third and Elliot Johnson and Carlos Pena went back-to-back in the fourth. (In his first nine starts this season, Lester had allowed a total of four homers.)

Kevin Youkilis singled home Mike Aviles to give Boston an early 1-0 lead. Down 7-1, Scott Podsednik singled to start the bottom of the fifth, stole second, and scored on Adrian Gonzalez's double.

Although Boston cut the lead to 7-4 in the sixth - Marlon Byrd and Aviles had the RBIs - the Red Sox went in order in each of the final three innings, failing to hit even one ball out of the infield.

Franklin Morales hit Luke Scott with a pitch with two out in the top of the ninth. Scott took about four or five steps towards the mound, and the benches and bullpens emptied. Words were yelled, but no punches were thrown.

Alex Cobb / Jon Lester

Aviles, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Saltalamacchia, C
Nava, LF
Byrd, RF
Podsednik, CF

The Red Sox have won 10 of their last 13 games and Bobby Valentine says that if they keep playing well, "we're going to win a championship".

Laugh if you want, but Gordon Edes points out that since April 21, when Boston blew a nine-run lead to the Yankees,

the club is 18-12, the third-best record in the American League in that span, behind just the Baltimore Orioles (20-10) and Tampa Bay Rays (19-11). That's a winning percentage of .600. Overall, the Sox are now 22-22. If the Sox maintain that .600 pace, they would go 71-47 over their final 118 games, leaving them with a total of 93 wins.

Pawtucket: Darnell McDonald begins a rehab assignment tonight. Daisuke Matsuzaka will start on Saturday. I guess that issue with his neck wasn't all that serious!

Help A Veteran Get A PTSD Service Dog

Jeremy Brockway was a corporal in the United States Marine Corps. During his time in Iraq, he witnessed and participated in many traumatizing incidents. Although Brockway was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and severe depression, the military prepared to send him back to Iraq.

Knowing that he would likely not survive another deployment, Jeremy and his wife, Ashlea, sought refuge in Canada. You can a lot more about Jeremy's background and his slow process of healing here.

The Brockways are currently trying to raise funds to adopt a PTSD service dog named Buddha to help Jeremy cope with everyday life.

My partner, Laura, interviewed Ashlea about what Buddha is trained to do:

One of the major issues with PTSD is that people have a hard time being grounded - knowing that they are here, in the present, that they're safe, without their mind taking them back to the traumatizing experience. This dog will be trained in something called "deep pressure therapy". He'll push up against Jeremy's legs, pretty much all the time. When they're walking outside in public, or when they're home together, he will be pushing on Jeremy, and that physical feeling will help Jeremy focus and be present, help ground him.

Buddha will sleep in the same room as Jeremy. If Jeremy starts to have a night terror, Buddha will help to wake Jeremy, and then he'll crawl up onto Jeremy and provide the deep pressure therapy - and be there for support, so Jeremy can pet Buddha to help himself calm down.

Out in public, Jeremy can feel overwhelmed. And if you're overwhelmed and in a crowd, everything can go blurry, and you can start to have a panic attack. Buddha will be trained with a one-word command, to find a route out of the crowd, and lead Jeremy to a place that's quiet, so Jeremy can get refocused and calm down. ...

Jeremy has often said, "It's going to take a miracle to make me better. Only a miracle will get me out of this." After the first time we met Buddha, Jeremy told me that maybe this dog is his miracle. That really had an impact on me. It made me think this is what Jeremy needs and will respond to.

If you have been around dogs of any kind, you know how comforting and calming and loving they can be. I hope you'll help Jeremy with whatever you can. Any amount, even $5, will bring Buddha a little closer to the Brockway family. Thank you very much.

G44: Red Sox 6, Orioles 5

Red Sox - 011 003 010 - 6 13  0
Orioles - 110 002 010 - 5  7  0

Daniel Nava, Scott Podsednik, and Kelly Shoppach - the lower third of the batting order - all homered in the later innings this afternoon as the Red Sox took two of three from the first-place Orioles. Boston has won 10 of its last 13 games.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, Nava clubbed a home run to right-center, snapping a 2-2 tie. After Podsednik singled, Shoppach went deep into the left field bleachers.

Baltimore came right back with a two-out rally of its own, though, as Andrew Miller surrendered a two-run shot to Nick Johnson, who had also homered earlier in the game off Bard (5.1-5-2-4-2, 91).

Podsednik -- in his first MLB start since September 9, 2010 -- homered to right in the top of the eighth, giving the Red Sox a 6-4 lead.

Vicente Padilla walked Nick Markakis to start the bottom of the eighth and gave up a double to Adam Jones. Padilla fanned Chris Davis, but the Orioles still had the potential tying runs on second and third. Wilson Betemit hit a pop-up to shallow right-center. Che-Hsuan Lin, who had pinch-run for Kevin Youkilis and relieved Adrian Gonzalez in right field, raced in and made a diving head-first catch, turning what might have been a game-tying hit into a sacrifice fly that cut Boston's lead to 6-5.

Alfredo Aceves came in for a four-our save. He struck out Johnson to end the eighth and got three weak groundouts in the ninth.

The Red Sox finished their 20-games-in-20-days stretch with an 11-9 record. They are off tomorrow before hosting the Rays on Friday night.

Daniel Bard / Jake Arrieta

Aviles, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Gonzalez, RF
Youkilis, 1B
Middlebrooks, 3B
Nava, LF
Podsednik, CF
Shoppach, C

Ortiz And Leadership

David Ortiz, May 21, 2012:

I was reading an article [that] talked about the leaders people call "leaders" in this town. Basically, it seems like no matter what you do, it's not good enough. And you can only call leaders the guys who are out diving for balls on the field or calling pitches behind the plate? No. 1, I don't agree with that. And No. 2, what I do I don't do for people to know. I do it for my teammates, to get to know things better. I don't give a [expletive] about anybody knowing what we talk about, No. 1. And No. 2, I don't give a [expletive] what they call leaders. ...

What they call leaders is not what a leader is all about. They need to go to the dictionary and find out what the word "leader" means. You know what I'm saying? The leaders they call leaders are the ones who get in front of the crowd and try to lead them. But that's not the case here. I'm the kind of [expletive] who worries about winning games. I'm a winner. I hate losing. But what I do, I don't do for everybody to know. I do it for us to get better, and the trash talking out there to stop. ...

I don't give a [expletive] if they want to call me a leader. I don't give a [expletive] if they want to call me a captain. I don't give a [expletive] if they call me either of them. Because you know what? I always say I came to play this game and one day I'm going to be gone. And as long as I play, I'm going to try to do good. I'm going to try to do whatever it takes to win ballgames. ...

I don't get no respect. Not from the media. Not from the front office. What I do is never the right thing. It's always hiding, for somebody to find out. ...

Somebody wrote, "Why didn't he do it earlier?" Earlier? When am I going to do it, in spring training? What did I do wrong? Seriously, what did I do wrong? You hit 54 home runs, then hit 35, it's not good enough. How many people hit 35? Never good enough, bro. That's why I don't care. What I care about is the respect of my teammates, the [expletives] who know that we need to play the game better, worry about what we got to do, and that's about it. They respect that. We talked and then we go about our business afterward. I don't care about anything else. ...

We're playing better, we're winning, everybody is going about their business. And it's still May. Not late, like [some critics] want to say.

Ortiz made his surprising comments to Gordon Edes of ESPN after Monday's game in Baltimore. Edes explained that Ortiz was angry at comments made that afternoon by Tony Massarotti, a writer for the Globe and co-host (with Michael Felger) of a sports radio show. Mazz worked with Ortiz on a biography, Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits.

In an article on the show's website, Massarotti said:

The fact that it's Ortiz I'm happy to hear, I said to you at the end of last year I thought it was time to cut bait with him too. So thus far he has played very well, in fact he played well defensively in the time he got in the field over the weekend and if he is now taking it upon himself to assume leadership of this team I give him all the credit in the world for it.

During the show, Massarotti said that Ortiz

was the right guy [to call the meeting]. I have always wondered whether or not he would really do this sort of thing. He's always been more the kind to put his arm around someone, pull them aside, "Hey what's bothering you." Very empathetic, sympathetic, calm. He's not the kind of guy to start flipping stuff over. If in this one he was pissed off? Good. Someone in there needed to get pissed off a long time ago.

Nick Cafardo, writing in today's Globe, called Ortiz's outburst an "awkward, strange response" to the topic of leadership and respect, and noted that Ortiz

gave me an earful about the media being too tough on Josh Beckett in the reaction to his golf outing. After Beckett pitched another outstanding game Sunday in Philadelphia, Ortiz said, "They said Beckett was a cancer. What are they going to say now?"

It really bothered him that people had turned on Beckett, and part of that goes back two years ago when people were saying that Ortiz was done, based on a bad April. He hasn't forgotten that.

General manager Ben Cherington:

He's stepped up and been a true leader on and off the field. From the first day of spring training, he's played hard. He reported in great shape. He's run balls out. He's done what he needs to do in the field. He's done what he needed to do off the field and in the clubhouse. He's been a huge part of our team, the main reason why we've gotten through some tough patches early in the season. We're certainly happy he's on our side. ... There are moments during a season, especially in a place like this, you get frustrated. We were coming off a big win that he was a part of. Maybe it was something about the way the question was asked he didn't like. I feel good about our relationship with David. We support him and have a lot of respect for him.

Daniel Bard:

He's a leader, whether he likes it or not. Everyone listens to him and respects him because of what he's done. . . . Very few guys like to call team meetings, since it's not a positive thing. It's not fun to tell your teammates to pick it up, but sometimes it's needed. What better guy to do it?

There is no need for Ortiz to toss the post-game spread to make his points. His comments to the team when its backs were to the wall during the 2007 ALCS

Listen, we're not just a good team. We're a great team. And don't you fucking forget that. And let's go play one at a time and go prove that. Because let me tell you something ... There's a reason why you wear this Red Sox uniform. ... Because you're a bad motherfucker.

are part of his legacy in Boston. But last October, Ortiz made statements that indicated he had checked out and refused to deal with the deteriorating atmosphere in the clubhouse as the team's playoff chances disappeared. And it is those comments that give a perception of a lack of leadership.

I am nobody to determine who was doing the right thing and who wasn't. I'm another player, I'm not a boss. I'm nobody's babysitter. We have rules and they need to be followed. This case, I did what I needed to complete the rules. If others weren't, it's the bosses job to let them know what's up.

Ortiz said there was "too much drama" surrounding the Red Sox and admitted, "I don't know if I want to be part of this drama for next year." He even said that he would consider playing for the hated Yankees.

I wrote at the time:

As long as Ortiz is on the roster, the Red Sox are his team. And yet he checked out. By his own admission, he didn't care beyond punching his time card and working his shift.

While these comments were made when Ortiz was a free agent and unsure if he was in the Red Sox's plans for 2012, they did not show him in a good light. And they are a part of his history in Boston, alongside his bushel of big hits in 2004 and his inspirational words in 2007.