Red Sox start series in Cleveland

The Boston Red Sox will take to the road once again, as the defending world champions visit Cleveland's Progressive Field this evening for the first of back-to-back meetings with the struggling Indians.

Boston kicked off its 2008 campaign with a mammoth 19-day trek that took the club to Japan, the West Coast of the United States and eventually Toronto before finally landing back in New England last week. The Red Sox proceeded to win four of six games on their homestand, including two of three tests against the rival New York Yankees over the weekend.

In Sunday's finale with the Bronx Bombers, Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury each drove in two runs and a shorthanded Boston bullpen provided strong support of Daisuke Matsuzaka as the Red Sox came away with an 8-5 victory.

Youkilis finished 2-for-3 with a run scored and Manny Ramirez had two hits, two runs and an RBI to help power a Boston offense that generated 11 hits without slugger David Ortiz.

Matsuzaka (3-0) was hardly perfect, allowing four runs on five hits and walking six over five innings. However, David Aardsma, Mike Timlin, Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen limited the Yankees to one run on three hits over the final four frames.

The relief corps was without closer Jonathan Papelbon and top setup man Hideki Okajima, both of whom were declared unavailable by manager Terry Francona after each were extended in Saturday's 4-3 decision over New York.

Continued at My Sportsbook...