5/4 vs. Tampa Bay Rays (7-3 W)
Facing Sox slayer Scott Kazmir who was coming off the DL, the Sox managed to knock him around a little bit and force him out of the game at the end of the 4th inning. Jon Lester had his second impressive start in a row, going six innings and only allowing one run. Big Papi sat out this game with soreness in his surgically repaired knee, but Kevin Youkilis provided all the offense we needed going 3-for-4 with a homer, 2 doubles and 4 RBIs.

5/5 at Detroit Tigers (6-3 W)
How Dice-K walks 8 and gives up 1 run in 5 innings is beyond me, but he made it work. Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz all homered for the Sox, accounting for 5 of the 6 runs we were able to score. Jacoby Ellsbury looked absolutely lost at the plate tonight; hopefully he rebounds quickly. Craig Hansen made his second appearance for the Sox and his first inning went very well, but when he came back out for his second inning, his own fielding error cost us a couple runs. Young players make mistakes, let's hope he learns from this.

5/6 at Detroit Tigers (5-0 W)
This game was unbelievably quick. Wake pitched eight shutout innings and the offense was able to come through for him. Manny went 3-for-4, Youk went 2-for-3 and Kevin Cash went 3-for-4. I just noticed something: Kevin Cash is hitting .361 so far this season. Now I know he doesn't get a ton of at bats and we're inferring from a small sample size, but he may be starting to show us that he is no longer all glove and no bat.

5/7 at Detroit Tigers (10-9 L)
This game was not any fun to watch, mostly because the bullpens did a terrible job holding leads. The real story, however, was the terrible defense played by Julio Lugo, which led to the loss. The first ball hit to him was a tough play and I personally gave him a pass on that one, but the second ball that he bobbled (which allowed the winning run to get on base) was absolutely terrible. Papelbon eventually gave up a bloop single and we lost. Youkilis and Lowell each had big games (Youk with 2 homers and Lowell with one) and knocked in 3 RBIs apiece.

5/8 at Detroit Tigers (5-1 W)
This is the way to rebound after a tough loss, with your ace Josh Beckett tossing a gem and Kevin Youkilis continuing his home run barrage with his 7th of the year and 4th in his last 4 games. This game was great to see, as Beckett pitched 7 strong innings, striking out 8 and only surrendering the one run. For the other team, there is something visibly wrong with Justin Verlander. Last season he routinely dialed it up to 97-100 mph with his fastball; I don't think I saw him get over 95 in this game. Whether he is hurt and not telling anyone or it's a mechanical issue, the Tigers are in huge trouble without him at his best.

5/9 at Minnesota Twins (7-6 L)
After we roughed up Boof Bonser for 6 runs in four innings, I thought the hit parade was going to continue, but Minnesota's bullpen shut us down for the rest of the game and we lost again on another bloop single off Jonathan Papelbon. You can all can blame me for this one as when Mike Lamb walked up to the plate, I said out loud that there was no way that he could beat us, and sure enough he did. I hope Paps can come back strong after this rough week and get back to his usual dominant self.

5/10 at Minnesota Twins (5-2 W)
Once again the Red Sox rebound after a tough loss the night before by beating the Twins with a come from behind victory. The long ball was working for the Sox, who had four solo home runs as a team. Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell, Coco Crisp and Jed Lowrie all homered, with Lowrie's being his first career four-bagger. Lowrie made a case for benching Julio Lugo more often (which most of us at this site agree with) by going 3-for-4. Dice-K needed only 96 pitches to get through 7 solid innings; this is a great sign because he's needed that many pitches to get through 4 innings a lot this year.

In other Red Sox news, Bryan Corey has been traded to the San Diego Padres for cash or a player to be named later. All we have to say is it's about time. Also, Julian Tavarez has been designated for assignment, perhaps in an attempt to facilitate a deal with the Colorado Rockies. These moves are likely a precursor to calling up big man Bartolo Colon.

You A Bad Mang is a senior writer for Boston Sports Buzz.