Newbies

In his first night in a Boston uniform last night, Victor Martinez went a less-than-impressive 1-5. When he went 1-5 on June 19, he followed it up with a dismal streak of 0-15 through 4 games. Not this time, though. Today against the Orioles he got a season-high 5 hits, going 5-6 with 4 RBI (also a season-high). It's nice to see V-Mart bounce back like he did today; he also got to see a variety of Boston pitchers in his first game behind the plate, as Clay Buchholz, Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez, and Takashi Saito all got to the mound today.

Newcomer Josh Reddick has also looked impressive in his first two Major League starts. Yesterday, he became the first Red Sox rookie in over twenty years to hit two extra-base knocks in his first Major League start, and today, he hit his first Major League homerun. I love seeing the young guys, so if J.D. and Bay continue to struggle I'd love to see more of this 22 year-old, who just gives more depth to this Red Sox staff. On soxprospects.com, he's the #2 prospect for the Red Sox, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him optioned back down to double or triple-A in the coming weeks, but when the roster expands to 40 guys on September 1st, we could be seeing deja-vu of the 2007 season, when Jacoby Ellsbury debuted for the Sox and gave them a push through the postseason.

Kasey Kotchman also got some playing time today, his first game with the Red Sox. He did not start, but came in late in the game to hit for Lowell. He went 0-1, but I'm sure Lowell was happy to get the start, go 3-5, and come out early to hit the showers--or whatever old men do after a day's work.