Sports Redux: Sox Fall Into Mariner Trap

You didn't have to be Einstein to see that last night's game had "trap" written all over it - letdown after a big series, Tavarez pitching over his head, Jeff Weaver the stat-challenged opposition. And the Red Sox stepped right into it. They made Weaver look like, if not Cy Young, a competent pitcher (not the world's easiest task), and Tavarez couldn't find his A-game. Could he be hurt? No one is saying anything yet, but he really looks to be laboring quite a bit on the mound.

So the Mariners got to Tavarez, and relievers Kyle Snyder and Mike Timlin, and a 2-1 lead in the fifth quickly turned into a 6-2 deficit, then 9-2. By the time Youkilis doubled in two runs in the ninth, most of Red Sox Nation had gone to bed.

Youk also made Red Sox history; last night was his 120th consecutive error-free game at first base, breaking the old record set in 1921 by the immortal John Phalen "Stuffy" McInnis.

Tonight, the Sox send youngster Kason Gabbard to the mound against the Mariners' Felix Hernandez, who looked like the second coming of Walter Johnson at Fenway back in April, but has pitched more like Walter Sobchak recently, watching his record fall to 4-4 and his ERA inflate to 4.00. Let's get him!

Just two days until the Celtics either (a) use the draft to bring in a young player who will mesh with the current youth movement and bring the team a step closer to respectability or (b) make a panic trade, just for the sake of doing something, that will confuse and sadden everybody. Don't ask us which one we're betting on. We'd recommend keeping an eye and a half on CelticsBlog until Thursday for the latest rumorbreaking.