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BOSTON -- This was seen not as a quick fix, but as a process. Daniel Bard was sent to Double-A Portland to refine his mechanics and regain his confidence, not to demonstrate overnight that he was ready to return to the Red Sox.

But that day of return and possible redemption has arrived. According to the Portland Press-Herald, Bard was told by Sea Dogs manager Kevin Boles that he will be returning to the Red Sox on Wednesday.

To make room for Bard on the roster, the Sox optioned knuckleballer Steven Wright back to Pawtucket. Wright made his major-league debut in Tuesday night’s 13-0 loss to Oakland, eating up 3 2/3 innings in a game that was out of hand (8-0) when he entered. He was charged with 5 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks.

Bard has spent the better part of three weeks working with Portland pitching coach Bob Kipper.

“Just been simplifying everything,” Bard told the Press-Herald. “I think I’ve made some good strides through spring training, and this was a chance to build on what we did.

“There was no better guy to do it with than Kip. He’s got a simple message. He preaches a simple delivery and a simple approach. It’s what I’ve been successful with in the past and it’s what I got locked into here the last few weeks.”

Bard started out shakily in Portland, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk over his first three appearances. But he has been unscored upon in his last five outings, spanning six innings, walking three and striking out three.

He pitched a scoreless inning Tuesday night, throwing 8 of his 10 pitches for strikes.

BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox Baseball Company played Game No. 17,396 in their century-plus history of hardball Tuesday night in Fenway Park.

All things considered -- weather (unfit for man or beast), score (13-0, Oakland), quality of play (awful, especially by one Alfredo Aceves), and ultimately a rain delay (37 minutes) -- this makes the short list of worst games ever.

The Red Sox have lost three games by 20 or more runs, including their worst-ever loss at home to the Yankees, 22-1, on June 19, 2000, in which Rob Stanifer and Tim Wakefield gave up 16 runs in the last two innings.

They’ve blown 10-run leads (13-11, 12-inning loss to Toronto after leading 10-0 through six, June 4, 1989).

They’ve had pitchers walk 12 batters in a game (Fritz Ostermueller) and give up 12 hits in an inning (Doc Adkins). They’ve had pitchers commit 4 balks (John Dopson), throw 4 wild pitches (Daisuke Matsuzaka), give up 6 home runs (Tim Wakefield) and 10 extra-base hits (Curt Schilling).

They’ve made 10 errors in a game (vs. Washington, 1927) and have had an outfielder, William (Tip) O’Neill make 6 errors in a game.

They’ve been no-hit 13 times, most recently by Chris Bosio (April 22, 1993).

As recently as last September, they absorbed a 20-2 beatdown from these same Oakland Athletics, but that game was overshadowed by Bobby Valentine’s exaggerated claims of persecution for showing up late after picking up his son at the airport.

But to mix it up into one spectacular batch of stink, it would be hard to top what took place in the rain-swept Fens Tuesday night. We will make the recap mercifully short:

* The weather. It was 42 degrees at game time, with a 16 mph wind from the north blowing sheets of rain into the faces of those sitting on the first-base side. The rain never came down in torrents, but it never stopped, either, and at 9:09 p.m., after seven innings, the tarp went on the field.

* Aceves. His third inning will live in infamy. He walked three batters, was called for two balks, failed to cover first base in a timely fashion after a great diving play by Mike Napoli, then threw the ball away for an error. The Athletics scored six runs in the inning, then Seth Smith accomplished the nigh-impossible in the fourth by hitting a ball through the gale for a two-run home run. That made it 8-0, Oakland, and when Jed Lowrie followed with a single, Aceves was done for the night.

* Steven Wright. Some guys begin their big-league career in storybook fashion, like Daniel Nava, who hit the first pitch he saw for a grand slam. Some guys begin their career in forgettable fashion, going 0-for-4 or getting knocked out in the third. But no one deserves to make their debut under the circumstances faced by Wright.

First, he hadn’t pitched in two weeks, making his last appearance in Pawtucket on April 9, then sitting around another full week after being called up by the Sox on April 16.

Second, he’s a knuckleballer, with a trick pitch that probably works better when the wind isn’t blowing sideways.

Third, he was in for the long haul no matter how badly things went. Manager John Farrell wasn’t going to waste another pitcher if he could help it.

Wright dodged a blow when the first batter he faced, Brandon Moss, narrowly missed a three-run home run, yanking the ball just foul. Moss wound up hitting into an inning-ending double play, allowing the satisfaction of Wright to whack his glove in satisfaction.

But the Athletics scored four times against Wright in the fifth, added another run in the sixth and still Wright soldiered on.

* Finally, there was the Sox offense, such as it was, against a bigger-than-Guapo Bartolo Colon, who retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced, the only Sox batter reaching on a nubber to the left of the mound (Dustin Pedroia in the first). Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jonny Gomes hit back-to-back singles with two outs in the fifth, but Stephen Drew popped out to end the inning.

Jacoby Ellsbury walked and advanced to third on two ground balls in the sixth. He was the only runner to advance that far all night, and was stranded there when Pedroia tapped out to third.

Red Sox management was sufficiently embarrassed that they offered anyone holding a ticket to this dreck free admission to Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Athletics or Thursday night’s game against the Houston Astros, who will be making their Boston debut as an American League entry. Fans can exchange their ticket stubs at Gate E beginning two hours before game time.

Industry scouts grade a prospect's tools on the 20-80 scale, where 20 is poor, 30 is well-below major league average, 40 is "fringe-average," 50 is major league average, 55 is referred to as "solid-average," 60 is above-average (or "plus"), 70 is well above-average (or "plus-plus"), and 80 is elite (80 grades are rarely handed out). For prospects, a 50 is actually a very good grade, as it's an impressive accomplishment to profile as major league average in any given tool.

Here's a look at the players with the best tools in the Red Sox minor league system, as graded by the SoxProspects.com scouting staff. Note that this list omits minor leaguers who have graduated from prospect status such as Rubby De La Rosa, Daniel Bard and Ryan Lavarnway.

POSITION PLAYERS

Best contact hitter
1. 3B Garin Cecchini -- 60
2. SS Xander Bogaerts -- 55-60
3. OF Jackie Bradley Jr. -- 55

Notes: Cecchini profiles as around a .300 hitter with a 60 grade. A 55 grade projects a player to hit in the .280 range. Another hitter to keep an eye on is Low-A Greenville catcher Blake Swihart, who could be a 50-55 hitter in his peak years.

Best Present Power
1. SS Xander Bogaerts -- 50
2. OF Bryce Brentz -- 50
3. 1B David Chester -- 50

Notes: Bogaerts and Brentz are the best power hitters in the system as of today. Chester, a 24-year-old first baseman playing at Greenville, has tremendous power and fringe-average plate discipline, but his other offensive tools are below-average. The other top present power hitters in the system are 3B/1B Michael Almanzar and OF Keury De La Cruz.

Best Projected Power
1. SS Xander Bogaerts -- 65
2. OF Bryce Brentz -- 55
3. 3B/1B Michael Almanzar -- 55

Notes: Bogaerts is a potential 30 home run bat; there were only twenty-seven 30 home run hitters in the majors in 2012. While a 55 grade profiles a player in the 20-25 home run range, Almanzar still needs to make significant strides with plate approach, pitch recognition, and maturity to get to that stage. High-A Salem OF Brandon Jacobs also grades out with a 55 for projected power, and has similar strides to make.

Best Plate Discipline

(Read full post)

BOSTON -- Some quick hits from Fenway Park on Tuesday afternoon:

* Despite the miserable conditions, manager John Farrell expects the Red Sox and Athletics will play Tuesday night.

* David Ortiz is not in the lineup but is not hurt, the manager said. Farrell said he was planning to give Ortiz the night off, a decision made easier by the lousy conditions. The Sox have not placed any limitations on Ortiz as far as sliding, despite what looked like an awkward arrival into second base on his second-inning double Monday night. Ortiz had a good read on the play in left-center, Farrell said, and while the play was close, correctly determined a slide was unnecessary.

* John Lackey came out of his rehab appearance in Portland with the normal arm stiffness pitchers have after a start, Farrell said. Lackey is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Thursday and, if all goes well, will make another start Sunday, either a rehab assignment or for the Sox. Farrell said he hopes it is for the Sox, but that decision will not come until after the Sox see how Lackey is Thursday. A wise guy might say that since the Sox are facing Houston (5-14) on Sunday, that would be tantamount to another minor league start, anyway.

Lackey went 3 2/3 scoreless innings for Double-A Portland on Monday night, throwing 67 pitches, 45 for strikes. He struck out five and walked two, allowing three hits.

* Jacoby Ellsbury has nine stolen bases and has yet to be caught this season. One more stolen base, and he will have tied his club record for steals in the month of April. He stole 10 in April 2009, the year he stole a club-record 70 bags.

Ellsbury also takes a 12-game hitting streak into Tuesday night’s game. That’s tied for the longest in the American League this season. Ellsbury has three multihit games during the streak, in which he is batting .308 (16-for-52), his overall average standing at .294.

* With their 9-6 win over Oakland on Monday, the Sox have won the first game of each of their first seven series this season. The last time the Sox did that was in 1917, according to STATS, Inc.

* The Sox are 10-0 when they score first. Only the Yankees are also undefeated (7-0) in games in which they score first.

* Left-handed reliever Craig Breslow is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday night in Portland.

* With Andrew Bailey having pitched each of the past three days and five of the past six, Farrell said he hopes to avoid using him to close Tuesday night. Koji Uehara is a likely option.

The clouds and damp streets outside your window notwithstanding, it looks like there might be a proverbial “window” in which to play tonight’s Red Sox-Athletics game at Fenway Park.

The early 6:35 p.m. ET start time will help, as there is just a 30 percent chance of rain between 6 and 7, and just a 20 percent chance from 7-8, according to Weather.com. From 8-9, there’s no chance of rain, but that number jumps to 80 percent from 9-10 and to 90 percent from 10 p.m. through 1 a.m.

Temperatures will be in the mid-40s and winds will be about 15 miles per hour, so it will not be a comfortable night at Fenway. On Wednesday, by the way, the temperature is expected to reach 70 in Boston (with partly cloudy skies), so there’s that to look forward to.

Here is tonight’s Red Sox lineup, which does not include David Ortiz:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Shane Victorino, RF
3. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
4. Mike Napoli, 1B
5. Daniel Nava, LF
6. Will Middlebrooks, 3B
7. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
8. Jonny Gomes, DH
9. Stephen Drew, SS
SP -- Alfredo Aceves, RHP

This week's regional @sinow cover: Jonny Gomes #BostonStrong twitpic.com/clf7ji

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) April 23, 2013

BOSTON -- Good morning from the Edes cave on a day hardly suited for baseball, but I am comforted by this: In the past few days, when the weather did invite us outside, I saw all those joggers on city streets and thought to myself, yes, we will run again.

You may have seen a tweet I sent out last night, which I later included in my Will Middlebrooks story posted currently, about how it took .6 seconds, by my unscientific estimate, for Middlebrooks’ home run to reach the Monster seats Monday night. Fortunately, I work at a place that has the means to render an accurate reading of how long, contact to splashdown, it took that home run.

Mark Simon of ESPN Stats and Information, after consulting hittrackeronline.com, informed me that the correct time was 3.45 seconds, the sixth-fastest home run this season. It traveled a true distance, Simon wrote, of 397 feet. It was traveling at a speed of 108.7 miles an hour off the bat.

What is true distance? As defined by hittracker:

If the home run flew uninterrupted all the way back to field level, the actual distance the ball traveled from home plate, in feet. If the ball's flight was interrupted before returning all the way down to field level (as is usually the case), the estimated distance the ball would have traveled if its flight had continued uninterrupted all the way down to field level.

The longest home run, in true distance, this season was a 475-foot drive by former Sox prospect Anthony Rizzo for the Cubs that reached the back of the bleachers in right-center in Wrigley Field five days ago. That would have ranked sixth among all regular-season home runs in 2012: Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins hit the year’s longest, 494 feet.

* Buona sera, Napoli: Mike Napoli’s five RBIs Monday night gave him 25 in the team’s first 19 games. Here is how that compares to the top RBI men in Sox history through 19 games, per Elias Sports Bureau, and how many they finished with that season (table on right).

The most RBIs Napoli had in the season's first month previous to 2013 was 14, which he had last season for the Rangers.

* Special delivery: In the midst of tragedy, Jonny Gomes and his wife, Kristi, celebrated the birth of their fourth child, a girl, Capri, on Monday. Gomes made it to Fenway Park about a half hour before Monday night's game but did not play.

* Base at a time: Dustin Pedroia has a .407 on-base percentage, the highest of his career for the month of April, due in considerable part to the 14 walks he has drawn so far. But what has yet to come is his extra-base production: In 99 plate appearances in April, 2012, Pedroia had 10 extra-base hits (6 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs). So far this season, he has 2 extra-base hits, both doubles, in 86 plate appearances.

The same can be said of Shane Victorino. The Flyin' Hawaiian has a .378 on-base percentage and has scored 11 runs, tied with Pedroia for third on the club, behind Jacoby Ellsbury (15) and Napoli (12). But of his 20 hits this season, he has just one extra-base hit, a double.

* WAR or WHA...?: I have come to respect WAR (wins above replacement player) as a legitimate tool for measuring a player's value to his team. But maybe someone a lot smarter than I am can explain to me how Napoli can rank only 101st in WAR this season with a 0.5, even though he has accounted for so many runs? I'm sure there is a plausible explanation, but it escapes me.

BOSTON -- The name gave Mike Napoli pause.

“Hack Wilson?” he repeated. “Sounds familiar.’’

But no, he said, he couldn’t place it.

“190 RBIs,’’ a visitor said. “Hack Wilson drove in 190 runs in 1930. The major-league record.’’

“No, no, no,’’ Napoli said, as if warding off a ghost. “One day at a time. I don’t like looking at stats.’’

He grinned.

“That’s funny,’’ he said.

On Monday night, Napoli drove in five runs with a second-inning double and a fifth-inning grand slam, both off Oakland pitcher A.J. Griffin, who had lost just once in 18 previous career starts in the big leagues.

Napoli has 25 RBIs in the team’s first 19 games. He leads the majors. In the last 71 years, Mo Vaughn is the only Sox player besides Napoli to match that number in the same number of games. That was in 1995. Mo was the American League MVP that year.

The Sox have seven games left in April. Manny Ramirez holds the club record for RBIs for the month with 31. He did that in 2001, his first season with the club.

Projected over the course of a 162-game season, Napoli would finish with 213 RBIs, making hash of Hack. He’s not going to maintain that pace for six months, but there’s no harm in trying, is there?

“I’d love it,’’ Will Middlebrooks said. “There’s no one we would rather see up with men on base.’’

He laughed.

“And there’s no one left for me to drive in,’’ he said.

Napoli, you remember, spent a good part of his winter trying to learn not only whether a degenerative hip condition, which had yet to show any symptoms but was detected during a physical administered by the Sox, would allow him to play. Play? He wanted to know what his chances were down the road of being able to walk and play with his kids, as yet unborn.

Those fears may yet be present, but they have been overshadowed by the way Napoli has hit with men on base. Nobody on, and he hasn’t hit a lick. He struck out in his only two at-bats Monday with the bases unoccupied, dropping him below the Mendoza line (.193, 6-for-31) with no one on.

But inhabit the bases, and Napoli is transformed. Monday night in the fifth inning was the sixth time he has come to the plate with the bases loaded. His grand slam was his fourth hit, along with two doubles and a single, all of which have produced a total of 11 runs.

With runners in scoring position, Napoli is batting .379 (10-for-27). In his first three weeks with the Sox, he has almost half as many runs as he drove in all of last season (56), when he was plagued with leg issues that originated with the badly dislocated ankle he sustained during the 2011 World Series.

“Last year I was up and down,’’ he said. “I didn’t feel like this last year. I’m trying to keep my routine the same, have the same feeling every day, see what happens.’’

So far, what has happened has exceeded anyone’s fondest expectations. The inning before the grand slam, Napoli was hit in his right arm, his back arm, by a fastball from Griffin.

“It got inside my biceps,’’ he said. “I never got hit there before. My arm went numb. It kind of freaked me out a little, but I got the feeling back. It’s sore, but I was able to go on.’’

Numb one moment, electrifying the next, as he drove a low serving from Griffin into the Monster seats in left center, a fan in the first row catching it on the fly.

“Just trying to get a job done,’’ Napoli said, a slugger as unassuming as they come. “I try to stay within myself, don’t waste an at-bat with guys in scoring position.’’

Waste? He’s a one-man recycling operation. Who knows, years from now someone may approach another RBI machine who will say, “Mike Napoli? The name sounds familiar.’’

BOSTON -- There were some concerns coming into the season whether the Red Sox shortstop would hit.

But that conversation was about Jose Iglesias, not Stephen Drew. In one of those great incongruities for which this game is famous, Iglesias hit .450 in six games while Drew recovered from concussive symptoms, then was sent back to Pawtucket. Drew, meanwhile, came into Monday night's game with just three hits in his first 30 at-bats, and had 12 strikeouts and 4 walks in 34 plate appearances.

Drew is 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-12 with men on base, which is hardly in line with Sox expectations of how he would hit once he was fully recovered from a severely fractured ankle.

Drew sat out the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader after going hitless in five trips in the first game but was back Monday night, starting in the 9-hole for the first time this season. He drove a ball to the warning track that was caught by Oakland's Josh Reddick in the third, lined a single to right on his next at-bat, and also coaxed a walk. The night's work raised his average to .121.

Drew missed all but six games of spring training after being hit by a pitch March 7 and played in just four rehab games with Double-A Portland before joining the Sox. Manager John Farrell said more at-bats should resolve the issues Drew is having at the plate.

“There have been quite a few at-bats that haven’t been two- or three-pitch outs,’’ Farrell said.

The numbers bear that out. The only Sox hitter with at least 10 plate appearances this season who has seen more pitches per at-bat than Drew is Jonny Gomes (4.45 P/PA). Drew is at 4.32.

“I just think it’s a matter of at-bats for Stephen before things begin to click for him,’’ he said. “It’s not a flaw in the swing or anything like that. It’s a matter of getting some consistent timing and building some confidence on his end.’’

Drew, when talking about his slow start the other day, hardly sounded like a man lacking in confidence.

“I feel comfortable,’’ he said. “Just going through a little skid, the kind that everybody goes through at some point in the year. Mine happens to be at the beginning.

“I’m going to move past this, and it's going to be really good. Just keep my head positive. The great thing is the team is playing well, guys are hitting well, we’re just having fun. For me, it’ll come along sooner or later.’’

The biggest reason Drew’s slow start is sending up a few red flags is that he struggled mightily upon his return last season, 11 months after having ankle surgery in Arizona. Drew batted .193 for the Diamondbacks in 40 games, then was traded to Oakland, where he hit .250 in 39 games.

But the 30-year-old Drew, who signed a one-year, $9.5 million deal with the Sox last winter, said he is fully recovered, both from the ankle injury and the concussive symptoms that disrupted his spring.

“I feel great,’’ he said. “It’s good. The foot injury I had was definitely a major injury. Everybody says, ‘How do you feel?’ This year’s been great. Hopefully we’ll keep playing well. Defensively the range is there.

“The great thing is I don’t worry about it anymore. When I first came back, I came back a little too soon. I was trying to get my mobility, my pain tolerance down, and now that’s over with. It doesn’t even cross my mind anymore.’’

Drew has handled 39 chances in the field without committing an error. No one in the Sox infield had made an error until Pedro Ciriaco, filling in for Drew on Sunday night, threw one away.

“I’ve always that said when your at-bat’s over, don’t take it to the field,’’ he said. “I never have. Playing at short, playing that position, you don’t have time to do that.’’

BOSTON -- How cold was it in the Fens Monday night?

So cold that when David Ortiz spat into his batting gloves and clapped, the Red Sox batboy had to come to the plate with an ice pick so he could separate his hands.

How hot was Mike Napoli Monday night?

So hot that he still played with the top buttons of his jersey undone, as if he was in his native south Florida, and drove in five more runs with a second-inning double and fifth-inning grand slam in Boston’s 9-6 win over the Oakland Athletics before a blanketed crowd of 28,926.

Napoli’s only visible concession to temperatures that dipped into the 30s (with wind chill factored in) was an undershirt beneath his jersey, but even that had short sleeves, the kind he wears even on the warmest of afternoons. These days, Napoli is so impervious to any discomfort that he even ignored the fastball with which Oakland starter A.J. Griffin drilled him in the crook of his right elbow in the fourth inning.

Napoli has 25 RBIs, catapulting him into the major league lead in that category. With seven games left in the month, Napoli is within striking distance of the club record for RBIs in April, which is 31, set by Manny Ramirez in 2001. In just 83 plate appearances, Napoli is nearly halfway to the total number of runs he drove in last season (56) in 417 plate appearances.

The RBI doesn’t enjoy the prestige it once did, with 21st-century statistical analysts disparaging it as a mere “counting” stat, dependent on team and batting-order performance. They’re right, of course. But at his current rate (25 RBIs in 19 games), which will be impossible to maintain, Napoli would finish the season with 213 RBIs, 23 more than Hack Wilson’s record of 190. That would light up silos in Lawrence, Kansas, to paraphrase Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy whenever he takes to tweaking Bill James.

Napoli’s home run, which was caught on the fly by an occupant of the first row of Monster seats in left-center field, was one of two longballs struck by the Red Sox.

Will Middlebrooks, who came into the game 4-for-43 since his three-homer game in Toronto April 7, hit a laser into the left-field seats for a three-run home run that gave the Sox a 4-2 lead in the fourth.

The win went to Felix Doubront, who survived a 30-pitch fifth inning in which Oakland cut the lead to 4-3 but left the bases loaded. Doubront went 6 2/3 innings, though even on such a cold night, it probably fried Sox manager John Farrell that he was forced to bring in Junichi Tazawa (and later Andrew Bailey) after Clayton Mortensen gave up three runs and Alex Wilson walked the only batter he faced.

The Athletics arrived in town with a 12-7 record, a half-game behind Texas, but were swept three straight by Tampa Bay in the Trop and have lost four in a row, their longest losing streak since losing nine in row May 22 to June 1 last season.

It looked like a Sox alumni game, with four former Sox players in the starting lineup -- Coco Crisp, Brandon Moss, Jed Lowrie and Josh Reddick. Oakland coaches Mike Gallego, Curt Young and Chili Davis all have Sox ties as well.

Bailey recorded a cheap save against his former team, pitching the ninth with a three-run lead. The save was the fourth for Bailey, but not before he walked leadoff man Chris Young to start the ninth, the eighth walk issued by Sox pitchers. He bounced back to whiff the next two hitters, giving him 17 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings, before pinch hitter John Jaso rolled out to first baseman Napoli to end it.

BOSTON -- Last season, Andrew Miller appeared to have finally crossed the threshold from big tease to effective big league pitcher, overcoming the control issues that had undermined the great stuff that made Detroit choose him sixth overall in the 2006 draft.

But three weeks into this season, gale warnings have been posted from Block Island to Cape Ann. Miller’s control issues, at least early on, have returned with a vengeance. He has walked six batters in just four innings, which translates to a walks-per-nine-innings ratio of 13.50, the highest in the major leagues of anyone who has pitched at least three innings.

On Sunday night, Miller walked Lorenzo Cain on four pitches to force in the deciding run in Kansas City’s 5-4 win in 10 innings. That was one of two walks issued by Miller in the inning.

Last season, Miller was money against left-handed hitters, holding them to a .149 average, with 33 strikeouts and 10 walks in 102 plate appearances. This season, the early returns have been messy: three hits in seven at-bats (.429 average), plus an additional two walks in a total of nine plate appearances.

For now, Miller is the only lefty the Sox have in the bullpen. Craig Breslow begins a rehab assignment Tuesday in Portland, is scheduled to go again Friday for Pawtucket, and then will be re-evaluated. Franklin Morales, whom the Sox would like to stretch out as a starter, was supposed to pitch Wednesday in Portland, but he had some soreness in his left pectoral muscle and was pushed back to Friday in Pawtucket.

In addition, Joel Hanrahan threw a bullpen session Monday and is scheduled to throw another Wednesday. If all goes well, he too will go on a rehab assignment this weekend. The bullpen could soon need some pruning.

“There’s a lot to contend with there,’’ Farrell said when asked whether Miller’s mechanics are related to his control problems. “You’re talking about a guy with long limbs (Miller is 6-foot-7); timing is critical. With the exception of the game with Tampa, he’s come in with kind of his back against the wall, whereas in spring training it’s just: Here, go get your work in.

“So the more frequency we can bring him in, if we’ve got a game where there’s some room to keep the consistency of appearances, that’s what he needs. He’ll get a little side; that’s where you’ll see him miss with pitches to the arm side, or he’ll yank balls down and in to righties. There’s no denying the stuff; he needs more regular work.’’

BOSTON -- Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino, who missed both games of Sunday’s doubleheader with a back ailment, was penciled into Monday’s lineup against the Oakland Athletics (6:35 p.m.). Here’s the full lineup:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Shane Victorino, RF
3. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
4. David Ortiz, DH
5. Mike Napoli, 1B
6. Daniel Nava, LF
7. Will Middlebrooks, 3B
8. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
9. Stephen Drew, SS
SP -- Felix Doubront, LHP

Red Sox right-hander Andrew Bailey and first baseman Mike Napoli were named American League Co-Players of the Week.

Bailey went 1-0 with three saves, one walk and eight strikeouts over five innings in five appearances.

Napoli batted .345 (10-for-29) with five doubles, a triple, a homer and 10 RBIs over seven games. He hit the game-winning double to score Dustin Pedroia to help the Red Sox edge the Rays 3-2 on Patriots Day. It was Napoli’s third career game-winning hit, and gave Bailey his first win of the season.

It's just the third time Red Sox players have shared the weekly honor, joining Mike Lowell and David Ortiz (August 2007) along with Pedro Martinez and Trot Nixon (July 2002).

BOSTON -- Some quick hits before Monday’s game against the Oakland Athletics, who come to town with right fielder Josh Reddick’s beard neatly trimmed after looking like something worn by John "Liver-Eating" Johnson, aka the wildest mountain man who ever lived.

It may have been a pre-emptive strike by Reddick, who probably figured that if he didn’t tidy up before coming here, former teammate and current Red Sox outfielder/ DH Jonny Gomes would have been waiting for him, razor in hand.

What to make of the Royals’ doubleheader sweep of the Sox on Sunday?

• Well, for openers, it hasn’t happened in a long time. This was their first twinbill sweep at Fenway since May 31, 1971, when the smallest man on the field was 5-foot-5 Royals shortstop Freddie Patek, not 5-foot-7 Royals lefty reliever Tim Collins, the kid from Worcester who did not pitch Sunday after giving the Royals four outs the day before.

The Royals have finished with a winning record just once in the last 18 seasons, losing 95 or more games eight times in that span and chewing up six managers (not including two interims). But the Royals made some big changes in the offseason, adding pitchers James Shields, Wade Davis and Ervin Santana to a core group of young talent that includes outfielder Lorenzo Cain, catcher Salvador Perez, outfielder Alex Gordon, reliever Kelvin Herrera, bopper Billy Butler and first baseman Eric Hosmer.

So far, there’s a noticeable difference. The Royals woke up Monday morning in first place in the AL Central with a 10-7 record.

• You can’t dismiss the possibility that the Sox experienced an emotional hangover Sunday. They also had won seven in a row, so they were due to lose a couple.

• The Sox offense welcomed back David Ortiz, who has five hits in his first two games, but overall the hitting has come in fits and starts. Take away the six-homer output against Toronto on April 7 (Will Middlebrooks' three-homer game), and the Sox have hit just 10 home runs in their first 18 games. Two players, Mike Napoli (20) and Daniel Nava (14), have accounted for 41 percent of the team’s RBIs so far. And there are a number of players battling early-season slumps: Stephen Drew (3-for-30, .100), Gomes (.172, no RBIs in 38 plate appearances), Middlebrooks (.176), David Ross (.143), Pedro Ciriaco (.143), Jarrod Saltalamacchia (.208).

That won’t last, but it’s indicative of how much the team’s early success can be attributed to its terrific pitching, and how even the slightest slippage -- Koji Uehara giving up a home run for the first run he’s been charged with as a member of the Red Sox, Andrew Miller issuing a bases-loaded walk in the 10th -- can result in defeat.

• You can’t say enough about how well the Sox have fielded in the early going as well. Ciriaco’s throwing error Sunday was the first error committed by a Sox infielder this season. Saltalamacchia needs to throw out someone stealing soon, too (he’s 0-for-8 with a throwing error), just for his own confidence and before teams decide they can run at will against him. He threw out 18 of 98 base stealers last season.

• John Lackey, Franklin Morales and Craig Breslow are all scheduled to pitch this week in Portland on rehab assignments. Lackey is slated for four innings or 65 pitches Monday, and depending on how things go, manager John Farrell said, Lackey could be back with the Sox to make his next start. The Sox are intent on stretching out Morales as a starter, and after he goes four innings Wednesday, he’ll likely remain on rehab for a while. Breslow is just beginning his rehab assignment, so figure he’ll need at least four or five appearances.

• Rookie outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., optioned to Pawtucket to make room for Ortiz, played Saturday and Sunday for the PawSox, leading off and playing center field in two games (he sat out one game of Sunday’s doubleheader). He had a hit and a stolen base in eight at-bats.

• Shortstop Jose Iglesias hit a home run Saturday and drove in three runs with a double Sunday, but overall is batting .206 (7-for-34) in his first nine games with the PawSox, after hitting .450 in six games (9-for-20) for the Red Sox while Drew was on the DL with a concussion.

BOSTON -- Good morning from the Edes cave, where like so many of you I can hardly comprehend that only a week has passed since Patriots Day.

I came up from the clubhouse at Fenway Park last Monday afternoon shortly before 3 expecting to write about an inspiring walk-off win against the Tampa Bay Rays, while my colleague Scott Barboza planned to tell you about how Terry Francona’s former players were looking forward to going to Cleveland to be reunited with their old manager the next day.

Instead, Kenny Powtak, who works for the Associated Press, told us as we arrived back in the press box that he’d heard two explosions. Moments later, we received the terrible news of what had occurred at the marathon finish line. Scott headed to Kenmore Square where runners were being held back from the finish line, while I congregated with many of my colleagues in front of a pressroom TV, watching events unfold, then trying to ponder what to write at a time like this. Baseball was so far, far away in that moment.

Only a week later, there are some halting steps back to normalcy. I told Dan Roche on WBZ-4 Sunday night after that day’s doubleheader loss against the Royals that maybe I should paraphrase David Ortiz and ask what’s wrong with the [expletive] Sox, a throwaway line that would have been unthinkable a little more than 48 hours earlier, when a terrorist suspect was still at large and the Sox had called off Friday night’s game against the Royals.

So many of us have grown up reading lines like this in the newspaper listing of that day’s results:

“Red Sox vs. Royals, ppd., rain.”

No one ever imagined anything like this:

“Royals at Red Sox, ppd., terrorist attack.”

But the games came back, and so did the fans in a weekend of catharsis, remembrance and perhaps the beginning of some healing.

We are not back to normal, not by a long shot. Not when there are dozens still in Boston hospitals, recovering from grievous wounds.

Not when there are folks gathered in churches, temples and mosques, private homes and funeral parlors, mourning the loss of loved ones.

Not when there is a terrorist suspect lying in a hospital bed, reportedly writing down answers to questions law enforcement authorities have about the hows and whys of what took place.

Not when, at 2:50 p.m., exactly one week after the explosions on Boylston Street, activity will come to a stop throughout the city as we observe a moment of silence, and church bells toll their mournful melody of sorrow.

But it is good to be able to write about baseball again, and I will be posting a number of updates today before the Red Sox play the Oakland Athletics tonight at Fenway Park. But this story, of what it was like for those at Fenway Park on Saturday, will stay with me for years to come.