Red Sox Have Wild April

If anything positive can be drawn from the recent woes of the Red Sox, it's that they do remain near the top of the AL East despite a five-game skid.

The Tampa Bay Rays swept Boston at Tropicana Field over the weekend, marking the first time the champs have ever been victims of the broom in the short history of a ballpark where Sox fans regularly outnumber the locals.

The losing streak was preceded by a stretch of six-straight wins, which sums up the kind of bizarre opening month it's been for the club. April has had it all, from DL stints and a flu-ravaged clubhouse to a struggling Papi, a red-hot Manny and pretty much everything in between.

As the end nears and the calendar flips to May, it seems like an opportune time to serve up another installment of the Red Sox roundup as previously promised. To recap the month that was, here's a spanking new batch of the issues most pressing to the citizens of Red Sox Nation on the young season, along with my expert analysis on each of them.

Looking up at the Rays

Yes, you read that right. Entering Tuesday's action, Tampa Bay sits percentage points ahead of the Red Sox in the division standings in a tie for first place with Baltimore as they close in on the best start in franchise history. It isn't just the fresh uniforms on the backs of the Rays - now named for beams of sunlight rather than a sea creature - that has them looking like a new team. They've locked up much of the young talent they've accumulated by picking early in the MLB draft year after year, and the few established standouts on their roster are now joined by an abundance of budding stars like Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton. Pitcher James Shields has emerged as a second ace to Scott Kazmir, who currently looms on the disabled list. It's scary to think what their rotation will look like once the left-handed strikeout machine returns to join Shields, who out-dueled Josh Beckett on Sunday for a complete game, two-hit shutout to wrap up the sweep. Experts predicted a three-team race for the division with Toronto rising to become the third horse along with the usual suspects, but Tampa Bay seems poised to shake their pushover label and contend for a change, making the East as difficult a playoff ticket as ever.

Flu-gate

The trendy thing to do with any buzz-worthy recurring topic in sports nowadays is to attach the word "gate" at the end to make it official sounding. While the flu-like symptoms that have bounced around the Red Sox clubhouse recently lack the scandal or controversy of the Patriots' Spygate or Bootgate, and especially Nixon's Watergate, they're important nonetheless. The list of players who missed time due to the illness includes Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jason Varitek and Manny Delcarmen, and there's no telling if the bug has completely run its course. The current losing streak coincided with their absences from the lineup, with both Beckett and Matsuzaka missing scheduled starts during the span and Delcarmen admitting to an attempt to pitch through the sickness that proved unsuccessful. I'm no doctor, but I would think it possible for something like this to stem from the crazy road trip the Sox started the year on leaving them rundown and vulnerable. Whatever the case, it's lucky it was in April and not October that it happened.

The return of Mike Lowell

The veteran third baseman and reigning MVP of the Fall Classic has been sidelined for all but nine games this season with a sprained left thumb. He's scheduled to come off the disabled list in time for this week's home series against the Blue Jays and his steady glove at the hot corner and Fenway-tailored swing will be a welcome sight for manager Terry Francona, who's had to shuffle the lineup into a number of weird arrangements with the vacancy at the heart of the order. Free agent acquisition Sean Casey was hitting at a .346 clip and playing first base with Kevin Youkilis shifted over to third, but now Casey's been placed on the 15-day disabled with a right hip strain, making Lowell's timing even better. He should provide a spark as the Red Sox begin the home stand looking to reverse the trend in progress.

Pedroia's acting debut

Following in the footsteps of his skipper, teammates Jonathan Papelbon, David Ortiz, and countless others, Dustin Pedroia is the latest member of the Red Sox to appear in a hokey television spot for a local business in New England. Francona has appeared in multiple ads for the Massachusetts-based auto service company Sullivan Tire, serving up corny baseball lessons intertwined with even cornier metaphors for customer service to a pair of dweeby little kids who I'm convinced must be related to the owner and president who appears at the end of every commercial. Pedroia is unintentionally hilarious in Sullivan's latest effort, and if you haven't seen it, it's worth a YouTube viewing, or six. I'll set the scene for you anyway. Pedroia is "shocked" to learn that the square root of 196 is 14, which is the number worn by Boston great Jim Rice. Rice walks on-screen and actually speaks before Pedroia can express his amazement, at which point he flatly mutters, "I don't believe it. It's Jim Rice." The exclamation point is left off that sentence intentionally, because there is no exclamation. Pedroia looks so awkward and uncomfortable to be on camera that you half expect him to laugh after he delivers his lines. You will laugh when you watch it.

Masterson and Lowrie call-ups

I wrote in a Spring Training column that prospects Justin Masterson and Jed Lowrie would both make appearances at some point this season, treating fans to a glimpse of the future. I never expected those to come in April, and that each player would be so impressive in the process. Masterson made a spot start on April 24, allowing just two hits and one run in six innings of work in a game he stood to win when he left. Lowrie is batting .323 with five RBI in 12 games and has played all over the infield. Seeing these guys make an impact so quickly is exciting, unless of course you're Julio Lugo.

Chris Brodeur's New England Sports column runs every Wednesday. He can be reached at

Christopher.Brodeur@UConn.edu.