Rally Allows Sox to Take 2 of 3 From Tribe

Trailing 5-0 after four innings, things didn't look good for the Sox Wednesday night, but two runs in the 6th and three in the 8th set the stage for extra-inning heroics from Jonathan Van Every.

You know things are going well when a a guy like Van Every comes up with a game-winning home run. Van Every's bomb to dead center gave the Sox a 6-5 win over Cleveland as they head to Tampa and New York for two big early season series.

To make the moment even sweeter, it was his first career home run.

BOX SCORE: Red Sox 6, Indians 5, 10 innings

Mike Lowell continued his hot hitting with two more hits and Tek continues to be a pleasant surprise at the plate with a couple more hits. He's hitting .250 now which is about all we can ask.

As usual the offense goes as Jacoby Ellsbury goes and he had three more hits. He's such a huge key to the offense. When Ells gets on base everything changes. It would be nice to see him walk a bit more though as his .323 on-base percentage is very weak for a leadoff hitter.

On the mound, Jon Lester had another puzzling outing. He looked good at times throwing in the mid 90s, but he allowed two more home runs and five runs in six innings.

That makes three out of five starts that Lester has been hit pretty hard. Hopefully he can regain his consistency soon as he needs to be the pitcher that he was last season.

The bullpen came through with four shutout innings, although Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima made things interesting, and Jonathan Papelbon shook off a couple of shaky appearances with a strong 10th inning.

On Tuesday night, the return of Julio "The Pig" Lugo coincided with the end of the Red Sox' 11-game win streak. Lugo actually looked very good at the plate hitting a couple line drives and knocking in a run, but his pathetic fielding cost the Sox big time.

Another guy challenging Lugo for top pig status is Javy Lopez. He continues to get into trouble, and in this one he couldn't catch a perfect toss from Youk covering the bag in the 9th which allowed the winning run to score for the Indians.

With the depth the Sox have in the bullpen and Hunter Jones emerging as another solid lefty, it might be time to cut ties with Pigpez.

Brad Penny had another terrible outing and his days in the rotation may be numbered with Dice-K close to returning and Smoltz about a month away.