Motivated perhaps by his slide down the order, Robert Decker blasted two doubles and drove in six in the Red Sox 17-5 opening round victory against the Pirates on Tuesday night. Decker was the leader of the hit parade that included multi-hit games from Sam Cartegna, Mike Hartmann and Dustin Reck as well. The only concern coming out of this victory was the overall health of the Red Sox. Marc DiMatteo and Garrett Hollenbeck continue to have their playing time monitored due to injuries. As if those ailing sluggers didnt cause enough stress to head coach Scott Wisniewski, it appears that stand out rookie Tyler Kube may miss the second round game due to a worsening hamstring injury.

Speaking of the second round, The Sox square off against a red hot, full strength Cardinal team in perhaps the toughest match up of the year Thursday at 5:30