Two facts were clear from Justin Masterson's start in Boston Thursday.

1. He can pitch.

2. Boston needs bullpen help.

Maybe those two facts will merge into one eventual reality - Masterson to the bullpen.

To be fair to the relievers, Boston's starters have not gone deep into games, which is overworking the pen.

But, given that excuse, what do you think of the bullpen?

Mike Timlin, 42, has been written off before and has always comes back. But ... his ERA is 12.00.

Javier Lopez is not instilling confidence.

Meanwhile, Craig Hansen looked good, save for one gopher ball, in his re-entry to Boston for a day,

And Masterson shows he can get the crucial ground ball outs with his sinker.

The young arms could be coming to the rescue.

One observation from Triple-A:

I know everyone focused on Mike Lowell in the Pawtucket game (he went 1-for-5), but did you notice the PawSox pitching?

Starter Chris Smith went 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB and 2 K. His ERA dropped to 1.71.

Reliever Edgar Martinez, who has had some rough outingins, went 3 innings, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K.

E-mail this entry to a friend