2006 Boston Red Sox season

The 2006 Boston Red Sox season was the 106th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished third in the American League East with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses, 11 games behind the New York Yankees. The Red Sox were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 2002. It was also the first time that the Red Sox finished lower than second in the American League East since 1997.

Offseason

November 24, 2005: Shortstop Hanley Ramírez was traded by the Boston Red Sox along with pitchers Jesús Delgado, Harvey García and Aníbal Sánchez to the Florida Marlins, in exchange for P Josh Beckett, 3B Mike Lowell and P Guillermo Mota.
December 8, 2005: Édgar Rentería was traded by the Boston Red Sox with cash to the Atlanta Braves for Andy Marte.
February 1, 2006: Free agent catcher Ken Huckaby was signed by Boston.

Regular season

Transactions

January 27, 2006: The Red Sox sent Guillermo Mota, Andy Marte, Kelly Shoppach, a player to be named later and cash to the Indians, in exchange for Coco Crisp, David Riske, and Josh Bard.
March 30, 2006: Charles Johnson and Chris Narveson were obtained by Boston from the Rockies for Byung-hyun Kim and cash consideration. Johnson was released the same day.
May 1, 2006: Doug Mirabelli was acquired by the Red Sox from the Padres in exchange for Josh Bard, Cla Meredith and cash.
June 21, 2006: Jason Johnson was purchased by the Red Sox from the Indians.
August 4: Javy López was purchased by Boston from the Orioles.
August 16, 2006: Carlos Peña signed as a free agent with the Red Sox.
August 17, 2006: Eric Hinske was purchased by the Red Sox from the Blue Jays.
August 28, 2006: Jason Johnson was released by the Red Sox.
September 8, 2006: Javy López was released by the Red Sox.

Season summary

The Boston Red Sox finished eleven games behind the first place team in the American League East, the New York Yankees. While part of the blame for the Red Sox's demise could be the five-game sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees from August 18 – 21, the team had a poor record the entire month of August and September. Also, they suffered extensive injuries to Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, and Keith Foulke.

Record vs. opponents

Team	ATL	FLA	NYM	PHI	WSH
Boston	3–0	2–1	3–0	5–1	3–0

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; BB = Bases on balls; SO = Strikeouts; Avg. = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases
Bold indicates leader in category.

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg.	SB
Mark Loretta	155	635	75	181	33	0	5	59	49	63	.285	4
Mike Lowell	153	573	79	163	47	1	20	80	47	61	.284	2
Kevin Youkilis	147	569	100	159	42	2	13	72	91	120	.279	5
David Ortiz	151	558	115	160	29	2	54	137	119	117	.287	1
Manny Ramirez	130	449	79	144	27	1	35	102	100	102	.321	0
Coco Crisp	105	413	58	109	22	2	8	36	31	67	.264	22
Álex González	111	388	48	99	24	2	9	50	22	67	.255	1
Trot Nixon	114	381	59	102	24	0	8	52	60	56	.268	0
Jason Varitek	103	365	46	87	19	2	12	55	46	87	.238	1
Wily Mo Peña	84	276	36	83	15	2	11	42	20	90	.301	0
Alex Cora	96	235	31	56	7	2	1	18	19	29	.238	6
Doug Mirabelli	59	161	12	31	6	0	6	25	11	54	.193	0
Gabe Kapler	72	130	21	33	7	0	2	12	14	15	.254	1
Dustin Pedroia	31	89	5	17	4	0	2	7	7	7	.191	0
Eric Hinske	31	80	8	23	8	0	1	5	8	30	.288	1
Javy López	18	63	6	12	5	0	0	4	2	16	.190	0
Willie Harris	47	45	17	7	2	0	0	1	4	11	.156	6
J. T. Snow	38	44	5	9	0	0	0	4	8	8	.205	0
Dustan Mohr	21	40	5	7	1	0	2	3	3	20	.175	0
Carlos Peña	18	33	3	9	2	0	1	3	4	10	.273	0
David Murphy	20	22	4	5	1	0	1	2	4	4	.227	0
Adam Stern	10	20	3	3	1	0	0	4	0	4	.150	1
Josh Bard	7	18	2	5	1	0	0	0	3	3	.278	0
Josh Beckett	2	7	2	3	0	0	1	3	0	2	.429	0
Ken Huckaby	8	5	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.200	0
Corky Miller	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0
Jon Lester	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	0
Tim Wakefield	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	0
Matt Clement	1	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.333	0
Curt Schilling	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.500	0
Abe Alvarez	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0
Lenny DiNardo	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0
Jason Johnson	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0
Team Totals	162	5619	820	1510	327	16	192	777	672	1056	.269	51

Pitching

'' Bold indicates leader in category.''

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Josh Beckett	33	204.2	16	11	5.01	158
Curt Schilling	31	204.0	15	7	3.97	183
Tim Wakefield	23	140.0	7	11	4.63	90
Jon Lester	15	81.1	7	2	4.76	60
Matt Clement	12	65.1	5	5	6.61	43
David Wells	8	47.0	2	3	4.98	24
Jason Johnson	6	29.1	0	4	7.36	18
David Pauley	3	16.0	0	2	7.88	10
Devern Hansack	2	10.0	1	1	2.70	8

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Kyle Snyder	16	58.1	4	5	6.02	55
Lenny DiNardo	13	39.0	1	2	7.85	17
Kason Gabbard	7	25.2	1	3	3.51	15
Kevin Jarvis	4	16.2	0	1	4.86	7

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Jonathan Papelbon	59	68.1	6	4	35	0.92	75
Mike Timlin	68	64.0	6	6	9	4.36	30
Julián Tavárez	58	98.2	5	4	1	4.47	56
Manny Delcarmen	50	53.1	2	0	0	5.06	45
Keith Foulke	44	49.2	3	1	0	4.35	36
Rudy Seánez	41	46.2	2	1	0	4.82	48
Craig Hansen	38	38.0	2	2	0	6.63	30
Javier López	27	16.2	1	0	1	2.70	11
Bryan Corey	16	21.2	1	0	0	4.57	15
Craig Breslow	13	12.0	0	2	0	3.75	12
Jermaine Van Buren	10	13.0	1	0	0	11.77	8
David Riske	8	9.2	0	1	0	3.72	5
Mike Burns	7	7.2	0	0	0	4.70	7
Mike Holtz	3	1.2	0	0	0	16.20	2
Abe Alvarez	1	3.0	0	0	0	12.00	2
Team Pitching Totals	162	1441.1	86	76	46	4.83	1070

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Mark Loretta, starting 2B
David Ortiz, starting 1B
Jonathan Papelbon, reserve P
Manny Ramírez, starting OF

Farm system

The Class A Greenville Drive had previously been nicknamed the Bombers.
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Portland, GCL Red Sox
Source: