The Red Sox bullpen has a new finesse guy. Who is he and where did he come from? He’s Naoyuki Uwasawa, and he signed a minor league deal with the Tampa Bay Rays this past offseason. After an up-and-down spring training, he triggered an out-clause in his contract, inducing the Rays to trade him to the Red Sox for cash. Uwasawa comes from Matsudo, a city in the greater Tokyo region. Matsudo is also the home of Japan’s second female astronaut, Naoko Yamazaki. Yamazaki spent 15 days on the shuttle Discovery in 2010, so if Uwasawa has trouble adjusting to the increased travel in MLB, he should giv ..read more

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport/Getty Images And we’re back Happy Tuesday. Was your day off enjoyable? The Red Sox are down in Georgia for two games against the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta, picked by many to go straight to the World Series have hit a little road bump. They’re 20-12 in second place in the NL East behind the phiting Philadelphia Phillies. First pitch is at 7:20 PM ET. Talk about what you want and be good to one another ..read more

Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images News and notes about the Red Sox. Ceddanne Rafaela homered yesterday, which might be a sign that he’s pulling out of a bad stretch at the plate and making adjustments to big league pitching. Is some old school pepper to thank for his recent performance? (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe) Vaughn Grissom came close to homering, too, but couldn’t quite power his ball over the big wall in right-center at Target Field against the Twins. If the 14 pounds Grissom lost battling the flu is at fault for that, then he’s doing his part to get his power back wit ..read more

Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images And Worcester, as a ballclub, has a day at the plate For the first time in a week, the Red Sox went yard — and they left the ballpark twice! After some days recently where the bats have left them liable, Sunday was Bat Day in Worcester and Greenville, too, featuring some likely names hitting for power as the affiliates ran the table. Portland and Salem got bailed out by their pitching. But altogether, the five pitching staffs –including Boston’s – allowed just seven runs. We’ll take it! Worcester: W, 11-1 (BOX SCORE) In the series finale again ..read more

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images With help from nemesis Frank Catalanotto Happy Monday. The weekend series against the Minnesota Twins didn’t really go as well as the Red Sox wanted but another solid outing from Tanner Houck, a bullpen game that was close, and a win against Joe Ryan are positives. Plus Vaughn Grissom’s first hit. And continued development from Ceddanne Rafaela. Boston is off today traveling to Georgia for two games against the Atlanta Braves. If Chris Sale remains healthy until Wednesday he’ll face his old team. Remembering 2004 Terry Francona’s freshmen year as Red Sox man ..read more

Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images The Red Sox week in review dives into Vaughn Grissom, Cooper Criswell, and the power outage. We’ve got ourselves a good ol’ fashioned good news-bad news scenario as we begin the first full week of May, folks. The bad news first, because it’s always best to get the bad news out of the way: the Red Sox weren’t able to finish last week’s slate with a record north of .500, as one loss at the hands of the Gigantes paired with dropping the series in Minnesota resulted in a 3-3 mark since you last heard from me here. The good news: the Celtics and Bru ..read more

Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports Someone had to stop them! So the Twins had some kind of unopened rancid rally sausage in their dugout as a good luck charm as they’ve carved out an impressive 12-game win streak, including the first two in this series against the Red Sox. Could Boston bust out of the casing or would they be contained to yet another defeat? Key Moments B2: Big Jam Escaped Bases loaded. No outs. Scary! Cooper Criswell somehow dug himself out of his own grave. Two K’s and a little tapper for the force out at home. B3: Jeffer’s Jack Someone had to break the ice. Unfortunately, it was t ..read more

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Stop the sweep! Ok, two games wasted. Some great pitching squandered. The Minnesota Twins remain red hot. The Red Sox are simply looking to salvage one game here. First pitch is at 2:10 PM ET on WEEI and NESN ..read more

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images The Sox drop their second game in a row to the Twins. Bullpen games — like smart refrigerators, touch screen refrigerators, and yet another streaming service — are things that absolutely no one wants, but which are being forced down our throats anyway. I hate them. You hate them. Managers hate them. But they’re here. There are two things that particularly suck about bullpen games. First, they eliminate the possibility of seeing one of the most fun things in baseball — an amazing individual pitching performance — before the game even begins. And, second, they ..read more

Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Let’s try this again Faced with the power of the sausage the Red Sox fell to the Minnesota Twins in game 1. Game 2 starts at 2:10 PM ET on WEEI and NESN ..read more