Boston Red Sox

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Red Sox have exercised their 2010 contract option on catcher Victor Martinez and declined options on shortstop Alex Gonzalez and catcher Jason Varitek, the team said on Monday. Boston have also signed right-handed pitcher Tim Wakefield on a two-year contract, keeping the 43-year-old knuckleballer with the club for a 16th consecutive season. Martinez, acquired shortly before Major League Baseball's trade deadline on July 31, had been widely expected to remain with the Red Sox after replacing Varitek as the starting catcher. The switch-hitting 30-year-old, who can also play first base, hit .336 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs ... Read Full Story

Author’s Note: As this post went up, the Red Sox announced Jason Varitek’s decision to re-sign with the team for the 2010 season. Good timing, eh? With the much anticipated—though ultimately unsurprising—announcement on Monday that Victor Martinez would return next season as the Red Sox primary catcher, Jason Varitek suddenly became the odd man out. While the Sox brass picked up extensions to the contracts of Martinez and pitcher Tim Wakefield, they declined to exercise their one-year, $5 million club option on the 37 year old Varitek, leaving his future with the team uncertain. Varitek now finds himself faced with the awkward choice of ... Read Full Story

Author’s Note: As this post went up, the Red Sox announced Jason Varitek’s decision to re-sign with the team for the 2010 season. Good timing, eh? With the much anticipated—though ultimately unsurprising—announcement on Monday that Victor Martinez would return next season as the Red Sox primary catcher, Jason Varitek suddenly became the odd man out. While the Sox brass picked up extensions to the contracts of Martinez and pitcher Tim Wakefield, they declined to exercise their one-year, $5 million club option on the 37 year old Varitek, leaving his future with the team uncertain. Varitek now finds himself faced with the awkward choice of ... Read Full Story

The lack of offense from David Ortiz to start the season has returned to haunt him in the playoffs. His Boston Red Sox teammates are looking just as punchless. And it's proving costly, with Boston facing elimination after losing 4-1 to the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night. The club that has owned the Angels in the playoffs most of this decade heads east trailing 0-2 in the best-of-5 AL series. Game 3 is Sunday at Fenway Park. Ortiz went 0 for 4 Friday, extending his hitless streak to 0 for 8 in these playoffs. With Boston clinging to a 1-0 lead, he stranded ... Read Full Story

Josh Beckett and Jered Weaver both pitched shutout ball during the first three innings Friday night in Game 2 of the AL playoff series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels. After scrawling the initials of late teammate Nick Adenhart with his finger on the back of the mound — a routine he has followed since the car crash that killed his friend back in April — Weaver retired his first nine batters and struck out two. Beckett received a little defensive help from second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who made a diving stop of Bobby Abreu's first-inning grounder in the hole and ... Read Full Story

Mike Jacobs hit a three-run homer and Alberto Callaspo's two-run double keyed Kansas City's biggest inning in almost a year, rallying the Royals past the Boston Red Sox 12-9 on Monday night. After falling behind 6-0 in the third and 8-2 in the fifth, the Royals seized an 11-9 lead with six runs in the sixth, the most they've scored in one inning since Sept. 24, 2008. Billy Butler had an RBI double off Manny Delcarmen and then Callaspo hit a two-run double. Yuniesky Betancourt finished it off with a two-run single off Daniel Bard (2-2). Butler had another RBI double in the seventh, ... Read Full Story

The addition of Victor Martinez to the Boston Red Sox lineup has proven to be mutually beneficial to the team and its grateful newcomer. Martinez had a career-high tying five hits and four RBIs, Josh Reddick and Rocco Baldelli homered, and the Red Sox reached season highs in runs and hits Sunday in a 18-10 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Eight different players had multiple hits for the Red Sox, although no one was as productive as Martinez. Obtained from Cleveland on Friday before the non-waiver trade deadline, Martinez singled in a run in the second inning, got two hits in a seven-run fourth, ... Read Full Story