I've M.I.A. for the past four days thanks to a beautiful long weekend. Normally, we'd have wrapped up the weekend games with a Weekend Update, but it's a little late for that, so here's a quick list of factoids to get us all back on track:

Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 20 games yesterday when he squeaked a grounder past the Francisco Liriano in the third. Jacoby has had more than a few of these fluky hits during this streak, but he's hitting .300  overall, so who am I to complain. Ten more hits and he'll tie Ryan Zimmerman's mark (30) from earlier this season...

Brad Penny puked his way through one of his best starts of the season yesterday. Despite fighting off a sinus infection ad an upset stomach, Penny fanned seven batter and held the Twin to three runs through 5 1/3 innings yesterday. Penny is now 5-1 with a 5.96 ERA overall and 3-1 witha 4.40 ERA in April... Batter are still hitting .302 against him, but he's half way towards winning 10 games and I didn't expect much more than that from him when the Sox signed him this offseason.

After surprising many of us with a very productive April (.310 BA, 23 RBI, 4 HR)... Mike Lowell came back to earth over the past two weeks. But then he got bored with that and decided to start hitting like a machine over the past two games. He went 4 for 5 yestedray while filling in for the still slumping David Ortiz and 3 for 5 with a 3-run ding dong against the Mets on Sunday. Like Penny, I wasn't sure what to expect from Lowell this season, but I think it's safe ti say he's already surpassed all expectations... let's just hope he's not limping come August.

Speaking of Ortiz... snapping the homerless streak was nice, but since then he's gone 1 for 16 with 7 strikeouts and looks, perhaps even more lost and frustrated than he did before the home run. Many of us thought a few games at the Fens would snap him out of it, but it didn't and the Sox will spend the rest of this month on the road. Then the Sox will have to start thinking about how to use Big Papi during interleague play... but unlike years past, I don't see them going out of there way to get him into the lineup when they play by NL rules.

Also, some of our blogging buddies seem to agree that it's time to drop Ortiz in the lineup and put JD Drew in the 3-hole... As you may recall, I voiced this suggestion on CSN's Baseball show two weeks ago... but at that time Tito said he didn't want to mess with the line up (or Papi's head)... time to bite the bullet Terry.

Big Papi's slump is a serious concern, but Jonathna Papelbon also has me worried right now. After a rocky start to 2009, Paps seemed to be settling in over the past two weeks, but he's given up homers in his last two outings and nearly killed a photographer with a towel after last night's outing. It could just be some bad luck or bad location... but Paps just isn't mowing them down like he used to. Thankfully, the Sox had a big enough lead that the 2-run homer from Mauer wasn't enough to steal the win from the Sox...

You know who doesn't have me worried? Jason Bay. He's not hitting .350 anymore, but his 13 homers and 47 RBI are the only reason David Ortiz hasn't been run out of town yet.

With yesterday's win, the Red Sox remain one game ahead of the surging Yankees in the East. The Blue Jays are struggling to keep pace after a strong start and the Rays have fallen off the map... It's still early, but with Arod anchoring the Yankee lineup again, the Bronx Bombers have gone on a tear and I'm really looking forward to their visit to Fenway on June 9-11.

I'll stop there and get ready for tonight's Lester vs Blackburn matchup. Go Sox!

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