Let’s look back to where we were last week: I was calling for upper management to fire Bobby Valentine, questioning the team’s starting pitching and pondering whether or not we should trade our injured pair of quick-as-a-rabbit multi-million dollar outfielders. 

Luckily, the Boston Red Sox had the ailing Minnesota Twins to start the week after last Sunday’s home rainout against the Yankees. They swept the Twinnies in three games and then won three of four against the White Sox in ChiTown, going from 4-10 to 10-11 by the end of the week. I’ll take it... Even though we’re still at the bottom of the AL East. 

There have been many encouraging signs this week after questionable performances by multiple players last week. Jon Lester has had two strong starts, Youk has started making good contact with the ball, and Alfredo Aceves has been hitting as high as 98 MPH on the radar gun and looking dominant (at times) as a closer. 

I guess it’s time to just go with the flow, eh?

Here are this week's player awards: 

Best Hitter: Would love to give this to my boy Ryan Sweeney, but David Ortiz retains this award for the fourth week in a row after belting 2 out of the park and driving in 6 RBI’s. 

Best Pitcher: Ending the week at 1-1 and giving the Sox 6 and 6 2/3 innings each game he started, Josh Beckett deserves this award if only because he redeemed himself from earlier, much poorer performances. 

Biggest Surprise: Ryan Sweeney has been a consistently great hitter– the kid’s got 25 hits in 18 games played. 

Biggest Disappointment: Darnell McDonald just can’t seem to hit major league pitching. It’s too bad because he seems like a hard worker with a lot of raw talent that just can’t channel his physicality into baseball.  

Unsung Hero: Kevin Youkilis is working really hard at the plate, and it looks like he’s starting to come out of his early season slump.  

Injuries: Left Fielder Carl Crawford is going to be out longer than expected earlier in the year. Not only does he have wrist problems, he’s now sprained a ligament in his throwing elbow. #bust 

Biggest Bum: Clay Buckholz has been getting shelled this whole year. Every game, he’s given up more than 5 earned runs and 6 hits. He has clearly proven to be the weakest part of the Sox’s rotation with this atrocious 8.87 ERA. 

Coming Up: Three at home verses the 11-12 Oakland Athletics, a day off, and then three more at home against the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles. Seems like we're finally heading in the right direction.