Mark Loretta

This was all new to him, the visitor from Southern California said, this quirky regional holiday known as Patriots Day ("Got to have something to do with the Revolution, right?"), a ballgame that started before lunchtime and a walkoff home run by his son, Mark Loretta, who in nearly three decades of playing baseball -- Little League, high school, Northwestern , the big leagues -- never had ended a game like this. "I just asked him right now," Dave Loretta said, moments after his son etched an unforgettable day in the family scrapbook, and one that should have some legs...

Dustin Pedroia, MVP. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? It's sort of like the first time you heard "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger" or "Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei. " Dustin Pedroia is the Most Valuable Player of the American League. This is simply one of the amazing sports stories of our time. He is a miracle. He is a hardball mutant. He is the most unlikely man to win this award in the history of major league baseball. Think about all the great Red Sox players who never won the award.

The scenario was so utterly implausible it was nothing short of stunning when it unfolded the way it did. When Red Sox rookie Jon Lester jogged off the mound after five innings against Oakland last night with a 3-1 lead, there was certainly no guarantee that outing would translate into his fifth win of the season. But of all the ways that cushion could go up in smoke, not once did anyone in the Boston clubhouse consider that Mark Loretta would boot a ground ball and cost the lefthander his hard-earned victory.

HOUSTON - The assumption, from the time the MLB computers spat out the 2008 schedule last summer, was that the Red Sox would be playing a meaningful series this week. But no one, outside of Joe Maddon's immediate family and closest friends, dreamed it would come at the Trop. That visit to the Bronx over the Fourth? Hey, the fireworks begin tonight in St. Pete, where the Sox try to wrest first place away from the Tampa Bay Rays, young, gifted, and still amped from the last time they played - and fought - the Sox. With Boston falling, 3-2, to the Astros yesterday afternoon, a tie-breaking pinch single by...

Last night, the Red Sox were fighting the weather. They were fighting Texas starter Kameron Loe's heavy, biting sinkers. Most of all, they were fighting the pace that the Rangers, who were anxious to make the game official, were setting while the rain continued to pelt the field. "It just stinks because you feel like you're racing against the innings, especially after they scored first," said Mike Lowell, who stood by a fast-growing pool of water along the third base line. "It didn't feel like a real baseball game.

NEW YORK -- Joe Torre put Bret Prinz in a tough predicament and wound up with yet another reason to believe in him. Prinz pitched out of a first-and-third, none-out jam in the seventh inning yesterday, preserving the New York Yankees' 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. Called up from the minors twice this season, the righthander has gained Torre's trust with seven scoreless outings. "It just seems that he's really become a very aggressive pitcher in the strike zone," the manager said.

Alex Gonzalez has some experience in replacing Edgar Renteria. In 1999, when the Marlins traded Renteria to the Cardinals, Gonzalez became Florida's everyday shortstop and made the All-Star team for the only time in his career (he pinch hit for Barry Larkin and popped to second base in the game at Fenway Park). Now, pending the outcome of the physical he is scheduled to undergo this morning after flying here yesterday from his native Venezuela, Gonzalez is poised to replace Renteria again, this time as shortstop for the Red Sox. The acquisition completes a makeover of the Red Sox...

PITTSBURGH -- For one round, anyway, as he sent home runs swan-diving into the Allegheny, including the longest of the night, a 488-foot drive that broke the water's surface on the fly, it appeared as if David Ortiz was about to adopt a new nickname for the night: Ol' Man River. But when it comes to the All-Star Home Run Derby, Ortiz is never the last man standing, and last night in PNC Park was no exception. For the third straight year, Ortiz did not make it past the second round of this made-for-TV exhibition and found himself watching someone else -- in this case, Ryan...

For all the talk about homecomings at Fenway Park this week, the Red Sox graciously allowing they will always leave a light on for Pedro Martínez, there can be no debate that Curt Schilling until further notice remains master of the house. And with an eighth-inning catch by Coco Crisp that second baseman Mark Loretta dubbed the "play of the year," a label that might actually shortchange Crisp by a decade or two -- "I'd have to think real hard about a catch that I've seen that was any better," said Schilling, the 19-year veteran -- the new guy in charge of the center-field lawn may have seized...

All in all, a pretty good week for the Red Sox here in the Apple. Last night's 5-3 victory gave them two out of three in the Bronx and the Sox flew home in sole possession of first place in the American League East. They also witnessed a play that could significantly tip the balance of power in the division. Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui fractured his left wrist in the first inning last night and will be lost to the Pinstripes for several months, possibly for the rest of the year.

HOUSTON - Jonathan Papelbon was present in the bullpen in body only last night. He was not an option, even as it all slipped away for the Red Sox in an 11-10 loss to the Houston Astros. "I'm beat up," Papelbon said. "Just drained all over. " Nothing to worry about, he said as he strolled out of the clubhouse. Another night's sleep, and he expected to be on call again this afternoon, although with the Sox as protective of their pitchers as they are, that may rank as a "to be determined.

HOUSTON - Some things looked oddly familiar, even deep in the heart of Texas. The hand-operated left-field scoreboard, for one, and the Citgo sign suspended over the left-field wall, both inspired by their Boston counterparts. You could imagine Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramírez wondering if they ever left home during a 6-1 win over the Astros last night in their last regularly scheduled interleague series of 2008. Cecil Cooper, the first baseman on the '75 World Series team, sitting in the opposite dugout, managing the Astros.

Just as there is a generation of fans who can hardly imagine a season when the Red Sox are not playing in October, so it has become a given that the Sox will make at least one major move in the offseason. Just check some of the winter transactions of the last decade: 1997 - trade for Pedro Martínez 1998 - lose Mo Vaughn, sign Jose Offerman 1999 - trade for Carl Everett 2000 - sign Manny Ramírez 2001 - sign Johnny Damon 2002 - add Mike Timlin, Todd Walker, Bill Mueller, David Ortiz, and Bronson Arroyo 2003 - trade...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The simplest way to determine the value the Red Sox place on Alex Cora is to look at how they're paying him. A little more than two weeks after the end of the last World Series, before he even could get a sniff of what he was worth on the open market, the Sox signed Cora to a two-year, $4 million deal. He can earn an additional $1 million per year, depending on how many games he plays -- $250,000 extra starting with 110 games, with an additional quarter-million at every 10-game increment after that up to 140 games.

After signaling contrary intentions the day before, the Red Sox last night elected not to offer salary arbitration to outfielder Trot Nixon, who under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement could still return to the club, but almost certainly at a much reduced price than the $6.5 million he was paid last season. The Sox had six free agents this winter. One, Alex Gonzalez, already signed with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Sox will receive a supplemental draft choice as compensation.

TORONTO -- In 2011, when Manny Ramírez will be 39 years old, he will start to receive the first installment in 16 years of deferred payments. The checks that year will total slightly less than $2 million, and by the year 2026, when Ramírez will be 54 and the checks are scheduled to amount to $2.043 million, Ramírez will have collected close to $32 million in deferred payments, or twice the current payroll of the Florida Marlins. Do you suppose that 20 years from now, Ramírez will feel even the slightest bit of remorse for the way he quit on his Red Sox...

One day during the Barry Bonds watch in San Francisco, Giants manager Felipe Alou was watching a Red Sox-Yankees game. Mark Loretta was up and Alou said softly, as he pointed to the screen, "That's a good baseball player right there. " Loretta might not have the swing of Manny Ramírez or the presence of David Ortiz, but he has a vivid role on the 2006 Red Sox, which is to be a heads-up player who wins games with intangibles. One such moment occurred in the sixth inning of the Red Sox' 4-1 victory over the Devil Rays last night.

BALTIMORE -- Because the Red Sox won, Curt Schilling said, he was assured of getting some sleep last night. "An hour or two, anyway," he said. But the stuff that keeps Schilling up at night -- and Sox fans wondering what happened to the guy who was so dominant in his first four starts this season -- was already gnawing at him, long before Jonathan Papelbon got the final out in 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief by the bullpen to save Schilling's sixth...

The Red Sox may have crossed into the garbage time portion of their season, but there are still evaluations to be made that will affect decisions made in the offseason. And while owner John W. Henry responded to questions about the team's direction by saying, "Prior to the free agent season, it wouldn't make sense for us to publicly disclose or discuss our offseason strategy and plans," it is evident the remainder of the season will shape that strategy. The front office will surely be evaluating Manny Delcarmen, considered one of their future relievers, this morning and probably not very...

SEATTLE -- These are the dog days and your beloved Red Sox are playing like the Boston Bowsers. The last time the Sox lost 17 games in a month, they fired Jimy Williams in mid-month and replaced him with Nutty Professor Joe Kerrigan. The last time they lost 18 games in August, they finished in the basement and were managed by Daddy Butch Hobson. Today is Aug. 28 and the reeling Red Sox -- beaten, 6-3, at Safeco Field yesterday -- are 8-18 for the month. They still have four more games before September, three in the home of the West division-leading Oakland A's. If the Sox are...