Alright, maybe it's time to hit the panic button on Big Papi.  Or the "What the hell is wrong with him?" button... or at least the "I'm slightly concerned about our three hitter" button.  Perhaps I'm overreacting, but it just looks like something isn't right with the "large father," whether his scoped knee's still sore or he's just trying too hard (I'm leaning toward the latter at this point).  He's definitely tinkered with his stance a bit again, so perhaps it'll just take a little while until he's totally comfortable with it.  He obviously won't bat .070 over the course of a full 162 game season, but it's a situation that merits observation over the next couple of weeks.

4/6 at Toronto (7-4 L)
Break out the brooms, it's the first Sox sweep of the 2008 season... unfortunately, we were the ones getting swept away.  Say what you will, but that looks to be a very solid Toronto team just north of the boarder and they will undoubtedly give both the Sox and Yanks fits throughout the year.  Either way, you're not going to win many games when Roy Halladay is effective, Frank Thomas nails his 11th career grand slam and Vernon Wells chips in a 2 run shot for insurance. 

4/8 vs. Detroit (5-0 W)
Ahhh, home opening day.  The dropping of the Championship banner, the giving out of the World Series rings, the extending of the Tigers' winless streak to 0-7...  Needless to say, Daisuke has been absolutely masterful in his first 3 starts, going 2-0 with 22 K's and a 1.47 ERA.  He likely won't keep up that blistering pace, but an 18 win season with 220 K's and a sub-3.80 ERA is looking more like an eventuality as opposed to a possibility.  Youk was perfect at the plate at 3-for-3 and drove in 2 of the Sox's 5 runs.

4/9 vs. Detroit (7-2 L)
Now that's the Detroit team we were supposed to see after they made those big offseason acquisitions.  Miguel Cabrera's struggles continued, but both Marcus Thames and Carlos Guillen hit homers for the previously-winless Tigers.  The big news in this one was Mike Lowell exiting the game prior to his first AB due to a thumb injury he sustained on a diving play at third.  Lowell was placed on the DL and is likely to miss at least the 15 day minimum, but the 5-spot in the lineup appears safe for now with JD on a tear.

4/10 vs. Detroit (12-6 W)
Wakefield was excellent, allowing just 1 earned run and striking out 5 over 5 innings of work.  The Tigers made it interesting late as they narrowed the Sox's lead to 1 in the 7th thanks to a Magglio Ordonez homer, but the Sox dropped consecutive 4 spots on the board in the 7th and 8th innings.  Although Ortiz's struggles continued as he went 0-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts, the Sox had 5 players with 2 or more RBI.

4/11 vs. NY Yankees (4-1 L)
Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang improved to 3-0 by allowing just 2 hits in the complete game effort (and one was a Coco Crisp bunt down the third base line in the 9th, so I don't even really count that).  On the positive side, the one legitimate hit Wang did give up was JD Drew's third homerun.  It shouldn't go unmentioned that Buchholz looked solid, allowing just 1 earned run in 5 innings, but newly-activated Mike Timlin relieved the rookie sensation and quickly gave up 2 big runs, including Giambi's first homer of the season.

4/12 vs. NY Yankees (4-3 W)
Beckett picks up his first win of the season thanks to a solid 6 2/3 innings that saw him punch out 5 Yankees batters.  Manny did most of the offensive damage with 3 RBI's that resulted from his second homer and his sixth double of the young season.  There were also some nice defensive highlights in this one, especially JD's forward-diving catch in right field. 

The Sox complete their three game set against the Yankees tonight at 8 PM on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.  We'll kick off next week's Red Sox Weekly Recap with tonight's game, so let's hope for a win.