Fifth time's the charm?

The Sox are after a winning record...again...having failed in their first four attempts. Now they'll have to take out their division rivals in the Rays to get there, which is something they've actually been entirely capable of doing so far this season.

Unfortunately, the attempt will come without Will Middlebrooks, which makes me sad and should do the same for all of you. Because nothing brightens up a day like a strong Will Middlebrooks at-bat.

Jon Lester

#31 / Pitcher / Boston Red Sox

Height: 6-2

Weight: 240

Bats: L

Throws: L

Born: Jan 07, 1984

Alex Cobb

#53 / Pitcher / Tampa Bay Rays

Height: 6-2

Weight: 195

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Oct 07, 1987

Go Sox!

Again? Didn't they just finish playing these guys? At least this time the series is at Fenway, where rafters will not come into play.

The Rays are one game back of the first place Orioles, and 3.5 games up on Boston. This weekend represents a chance to not only get back over .500, but to close the gap in the standings a bit. If the Red Sox take two of three from the Rays, they'll be 24-23, over .500 for the first time this season, and 2.5 back of Tampa Bay. It's not a massive jump, but given the flirtations with being over .500 in the past, and the diminished present-day state of the roster, we'll take small miracles in a three-game set.

Game 1: Alex Cobb (7 IP, 3.0 K/BB, 148 ERA+) vs. Jon Lester (57 IP, 2.0 K/BB, 104 ERA+)

Game 2: David Price (59-1/3 IP, 2.9 K/BB, 125 ERA+) vs. Josh Beckett (49-1/3 IP, 2.7 K/BB, 94 ERA+)

Game 3: Jeremy Hellickson (56 IP, 2.0 K/BB, 132 ERA+) vs. Clay Buchholz (49-1/3 IP, 1.0 K/BB, 53 ERA+)

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Jose Iglesias, SS

On the surface, it doesn't look like there's much to update here. Iglesias still has a rather sad-looking OPS, and aside from the stolen bases, hasn't done much offensively overall. But dig a little deeper, and things start to look like they're trending in the right direction. He's striking out just 11 percent of the time. The walks are back down a bit, as they were in the past, but still at six percent. And, most importantly, Iglesias is hitting .342/.357/.430 in May.

Let's not hang a mission accomplished banner on the USS Iglesias just yet, but for someone who progress has been incremental for at best over the last year, seeing him actually hit in a month's time is worth taking a moment to appreciate.

That being said, the drop in his walk rate is a bit disconcerting, even if it's come with alongside a serious drop in his punch outs. Iglesias doesn't have enough thump to give up sitting through longer plate appearances like this, but as part of the ongoing process to develop him into a tolerable major-league hitter, it certainly beats April's 485 OPS.

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Only flirts with it, mind. And more in the way you'd expect two coworkers with no interest in eachother just looking to break up the day to do it.

I'd better stop before I stretch this metaphor any further. It will snap like a rubber band.

Pawtucket W 4-1

Box Score

Jose Iglesias: 0-4, K
Ryan Lavarnway: 2-3, 2B, BB, K
Lars Anderson: 0-2, 2 BB
Alex Hassan: 1-4

Clayton Mortensen: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Mark Melancon: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Xander actually isn't completely amazing after the jump. Neither is Jackie Bradley. Crazy, right?

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It's still early in the season, but there already has been no shortage of players taking rehab assignments in order to work back from injuries. First it was Rich Hill and Andrew Miller, then Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kevin Youkilis, and now, after a brief stint back on the disabled list due to a trapezius strain, Dice-K is back at rehab, this time along with outfielder Darnell McDonald, recovering from an oblique strain.

Dice-K will make a start for Pawtucket on Saturday against the Toledo Mud Hens. He hasn't been consistently impressive at this level of rehab yet, giving up four homers and nine earned runs in 16-2/3 innings over four starts. It's understandable, since it's rehab, but sometimes it takes a bit more time to re-acclimate yourself after Tommy John surgery. Junichi Tazawa serves as a reminder of this -- he was hit hard, and often, at the lower levels during last season's rehab, but once he came around, he was nigh unstoppable on the mound against kids that he should (and did) overmatch.

Dice-K hasn't hit that moment yet, at least not in Pawtucket, but the Red Sox hope that sometime within his restarted 30-day rehab clock that he will. With Aaron Cook's knee still not healed, and Clay Buchholz failing to show any kind of consistency, Dice-K might end up as a necessary piece of depth, and Boston will need him ready for that.

As for Darnell McDonald, he has once again started the year out poorly, but it's mostly due to batting average. He's drawing walks over 12 percent of the time, and his Isolated Power is .178 thanks to a pair of homers and four doubles. He's hit just .179 on the season, though, as is bound to happen in just about any 65-plate appearance stretch. His .186 batting average on balls in play won't last the year, and his return would likely also mean the Red Sox have one more competent outfielder on the roster while they wait for July and the return of Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, Ryan Kalish, and Cody Ross.

Boston might not need a trade deadline acquisition that month, because they're going to have an entirely new-look team without so much as lifting a finger. Whether they can hold on in the interim is another question, but successful rehab assignments from Dice-K and McDonald could help them achieve that goal.

It's gotta be tough working twenty days a row with travel, getting one off day, and then getting back at it for another ten days straight. I know they get paid a lot, but that's a hard schedule.

Daniel Bard is having some issues. Anyone who has watched him over the last month knows that his velocity has slipped precipitously and his once pinpoint control has vanished. Rob Bradford looks at the issues and discusses them with Bard himself. (Rob Bradford; WEEI.com)

Bryce Brentz is learning. He's learning to handle the off speed stuff in Double-A and he's learning that his discipline is going to have to improve if he's going to continue climbing the minor league ladder. (Brian MacPherson; The Providence Journal)

Taking a look at some of the best partial seasons in big league history. (Chad Finn; Baseball Prospectus (free!))

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Portland Game 1 W 7-6 (In 8)

Box Score

Jeremy Hazelbaker: 0-3, 2 BB, K, A
Juan Carlos Linares: 2-5, 2B, HR, A
Bryce Brentz: 2-4, BB

Chris Hernandez: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
-Two straight stumbles for Hernandez after starting the year on fire.

Xander grows after the jump.

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Adrian Gonzalez has started the last two Red Sox games in right field, a necessity borne out of the absence of Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney, and another entire outfield's worth of outfielders. He's been able to do so thanks to the return of Kevin Youkilis, who switched to his old position of first base, in order to allow rookie Will Middlebrooks to stay at third base, where he had been playing while Youkilis was on his own disabled list stint.

That was on the road, though, and in most parks on the road, right field is going to be a simpler task than Fenway's. This is why it's unlikely Gonzalez is going to play in right field often, if at all, in the upcoming series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Left field isn't an option, either, as Gonzalez's limited outfield experience is in right, and asking him to bounce around from one no-comfort zone to the next likely isn't in his best interests. Let's not forget that a switch to left would also mean Daniel Nava either needs to go to right (possibly an even worse idea than Gonzalez out there in terms of defensive capabilities), or would need to sit (given his production since his recall, this isn't an option).

This means Gonzalez will be back at first, while some combination of Scott Podsednik, Marlon Byrd, and Che-Hsuan Lin will cover center and right field duties until Sweeney returns from the 7-day DL and his concussion. As for who plays third base on these days, there's no clear answer. General manager Ben Cherington said weeks ago that Kevin Youkilis did not lose his job by getting injured, despite the production of Will Middlebrooks in his absence, meaning you would think it's Youkilis who will get the bulk of the playing time. By the same token, though, the organization doesn't want to have Middlebrooks sitting on the bench, when he could either be playing in Boston or Pawtucket full-time. This is a quandary without an obvious or satisfactory solution.

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