Valentine not discouraged by home record

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BOSTONWith Fridays 13-inning loss to the Orioles, the Red Sox fell to 11-14 overall, and 4-8 at home. Their record at home, though, does not reflect the quality of play, manager Bobby Valentine said.

We have played well at home, Valentine said. We just havent won the games that we could have won. I thought yesterday was a good game. We had a couple of leads, came back, pitched well in the bullpen for lots of innings. Thats a pretty good game. Just didnt get the bloop or ground ball that eluded their infieldersWell win plenty of games at home.

Several of those losses have been to teams that were projected as wins, including losing two of three to the As, who have the worst offense in the league, and Fridays series opener to the Os, the perennial cellar dwellers of the American League East.

Valentine, though, is not frustrated by the lack of home wins.

You have to look at the little victories when you play well. I mean, what are you going to do? Discount things that went well and say, Oh, well, we lost and all the good things dont count? A lot of good things happened and guys got to not lose sight of that. Just keep doing the good things and try to keep the other guys from doing something good during the game.

He is not taking the absences of Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Kevin Youkilis from the lineup as an excuse.

I think everyone plays without being at full strength and we have to be tough and do what we can do, he said. Itd be nice to see some of those guys. Theyll be here before its over. Its good to see other guys in the lineup. The guys we have now are busting their butt, doing a heck of a job.

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