Bullpen

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Clay Buchholz put 12 runners on base in 6 1/3 innings, so let's be careful about singing any arias about his performance tonight. But given his previous starts, it was a step in the right direction. Sporting shorter hair, Buchholz left with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning with a 7-1 lead. Three runs scored after he was in the dugout. Three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings counts as a quality start and dropped his ERA to 8.31.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff BALTIMORE — The Red Sox were a few days away from starting the season when they learned their closer, Andrew Bailey, had torn a ligament in his thumb. They replaced him with Alfredo Aceves, who had been a starter throughout spring training. He blew two saves in his first four chances. The pitcher they acquired to be the primary set-up man, Marc Melancon, was hit so hard in four appearances to start the season that there was little choice but to send him to the minors.

What you wanted to hear from Josh Beckett was, "Yeah, given that I missed a start with the lat muscle, I shouldn't have gone out and played golf. I know now how that looks to the fans and I need to exercise better judgment in the future. " But what we heard from Beckett when asked if he had any regrets about playing golf was, "None. I spend my off days the way I want to spend them. " When pressed, he said, "My off day is my off day. " There's something that Josh Beckett just isn't getting.

BALTIMORE — The Red Sox were a few days away from starting the season when they learned their closer, Andrew Bailey, had torn a ligament in his thumb. They replaced him with Alfredo Aceves, who had been a starter throughout spring training. He blew two saves in his first four chances. The pitcher they acquired to be the primary set-up man, Marc Melancon, was hit so hard in four appearances to start the season that there was little choice but to send him to the minors. He faced 18 batters and 13 reached base.

Has there ever been a more intelligent bullpen in baseball? Well, Mike Marshall, who won the National League Cy Young Award for the Dodgers in 1974, held three degrees from Michigan State, including a PhD in kinesiology. But he couldn't keep the kind of company you find these days in the Red Sox bullpen. Lefthander Craig Breslow has a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale, while teammate Javier Lopez has a degree in psychology from the University of Virginia.

The powwow Saturday night among Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, general manager Ben Cherington, assistant general manager Brian O'Halloran, and owner John Henry likely stumbled across the subject of the bullpen. The bullpen, which has an 8.64 ERA after 14 games, the one that allowed 14 runs (13 earned), 12 hits, and 5 walks in three innings in Boston's 15-9 loss to the Yankees after starter Felix Doubront left with a 9-1 cushion. If you can't rely on your bullpen to hold that type of lead, where do you go?

FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Japanese media is here in large numbers again, because Daisuke Matsuzaka continues to make great strides in his return from Tommy John Surgery. Matsuzaka had a very impressive bullpen session this morning, throwing hard and also throwing his secondary pitches. Interestingly, Matsuzaka was being watched by a few Red Sox personnel, but most notably Luis Tiant, who was offering suggestions to him in between innings. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Matsuzaka could be ready to pitch again in June.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff FORT MYERS, Fla. — Josh Beckett threw 50 pitches in the bullpen earlier today. Felix Doubront and Alex Wilson were on the mound, too. PItching coach Bob McClure said Beckett "looked good" on the mound and is determined to win a division title. Along with Beckett, Junichi Tazawa arrived today. According to McClure, the Red Sox plan to see how Tazawa looks as a reliever. The photo is of Daniel Bard playing catch.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Here's the most startling thing about the state of the Red Sox: They have lost 30 of their last 41 games going back to 2011. That's 73 percent of their games over what amounts to a quarter of the season. The 1962 Mets, the worst team in modern baseball history, were 40-120. They lost 75 percent of their games. At least the Mets had an excuse, they were an expansion team loaded with old players, rookies, and rejects.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff DETROIT —The Red Sox bullpen was weakened when record-setting closer Jonathan Papelbon fled to Philadelphia as a free agent. Then reliable set-up man Daniel Bard was moved into the rotation. When new closer Andrew Bailey was lost to a thumb injury on the eve of the season, transition turned into turmoil as those relievers further down the line were pressed into more vital roles. As Ben Cherington said on Wednesday, the loss of Bailey is felt perhaps more by what it means for the rest of the bullpen.

Billy Butler and Mike Moustakas homered, Bruce Chen won his third straight start and the Kansas City Royals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-3 Saturday night. Butler homered to left-center in the third with Alcides Escobar aboard. Butler also drove in Jarrod Dyson with a sacrifice fly in Kansas City's two-run fifth. Butler's eight home runs and 31 RBIs lead the Royals. Moustakas sent his sixth homer of the season into the right-field bullpen in the fourth. Chen, who has won three straight after starting the season 0-4, weaved his way into and out of trouble the first four...

All was quiet for most of the afternoon at Progressive Field on Sunday. Cleveland closer Chris Perez, who blasted Indians fans twice in less than 24 hours for not showing more support for the team that leads the AL Central, wasn't used in the 5-3 loss to the Miami Marlins. Since the Indians don't play Monday, Perez, unhappy that the Indians are last in the majors in average attendance, will have to wait until at least Tuesday night to know how fans will react to his strong words.

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke will have to continue waiting for that key run to turn a game around. Reliever Manny Parra gave up Trevor Plouffe' solo home run in the top of the 11th inning and Milwaukee lost 5-4 to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday. The Brewers threatened in the 10th when Corey Hart singled with one out off reliever Jeff Gray (3-0). After Nyjer Morgan struck out, Ryan Braun looped the ball over second baseman Jamey Carroll and Hart raced to third on the play.

The names coming out of the Chicago Cubs bullpen changed. The results didn't Carlos Ruiz hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the eighth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies used Hector Luna's first career grand slam to pull away for a 9-2 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday night. With recently demoted closer Carlos Marmol on the disabled list and Kerry Wood struggling, the Cubs turned to Shawn Camp, Scott Maine, and Michael Bowden in the eighth and ninth innings. The trio combined to give up 7 runs.

The Royals bullpen had been nearly unhittable this week during a stretch in which Kansas City won six of seven. That all changed Wednesday night. Closer Jonathan Broxton and three Kansas City relievers gave up all of Baltimore's runs in a 4-3 loss to the Orioles, with Nate Adcock allowing Adam Jones' home run in the 15th inning. Starter Felipe Paulino pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out nine, before departing. Broxton and Kelvin Herrera gave up three runs on six hits in the eighth and ninth innings.

Given the chance to finish off a sweep and continue their dominance at home against a division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers watched their bullpen give away what had been a close game. Still, taking two out of three games from the Chicago Cubs was a nice turnaround for a struggling Brewers team that had lost its last four series. An error by shortstop Edwin Maysonet allowed the go-ahead run to score in the seventh inning and the bullpen fell apart from there as the Brewers lost to the Cubs 8-2 on Sunday.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Bobby Valentine is getting ready to make some decisions about his pitching staff. "We're going to collectively map this thing out now," he said Monday after the Red Sox lost to the Twins, 8-4, at JetBlue Park. "It's about time to really figure it out. Probably going to make some cuts again so that we're down to a real manageable number and we'll have a pretty definite spot that they're going to pitch in. " Valentine said he's "not happy" with the bullpen because nobody has pitched in the role they'll be in once the season starts.

Washington had no trouble knocking San Francisco ace Tim Lincecum around. It was the Giants’ bullpen that gave the Nationals fits. Six San Francisco relievers combined to throw eight shutout innings after Washington built a four-run lead against Lincecum, and the Giants rallied to win 5-4 on Freddy Sanchez’s game-ending single with two outs in the 13th inning Monday night. “Sometimes four is enough, sometimes it’s not,’’ Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said.

Mickey Pena felt every pitch in his repertoire was working well as he warmed up in the bullpen before his fifth start of the season for Low A Greenville Tuesday in Greenville, S.C. "I was really spotting up my changeup," said the 21-year-old lefthander from Mission, Texas. "It was a real big help throughout the whole game. It really made a big difference during the game, helping me keep the ball low and away. And that's what I think I tried to maintain during the bullpen. "And I was able to transfer it onto the mound during the game.