Fear of the number 13. As in, 13 innings. As in, losing in the 13th inning on an Ivan Rodriguez single off of Jonathan Papelbon.

But don't blame Papelbon, on a night when the Red Sox had two runs after three batters, then took the rest of the night off. A night when the team left a platoon on base. A night when - well, it just wasn't our night.

It started off well enough; Dustin Pedroia tripled and David Ortiz homered to give the Sox a quick 2-0 lead. Was superstar Jeremy Bonderman on the ropes? Well, not really; he settled down and went eight innings with nine strikeouts. The Tigers tied it up in the fifth with a 2-run Craig Monroe double, then hours and hours later, Pudge Rodriguez ended it by singling in Gary Sheffield. Mostly on the willpower of Pudge not wanting to go out and catch another inning, we suspect.

But once again, the sorry state of the AL East kept the loss from hurting too much. The Blue Jays were smacked by Cleveland (including a Trot Nixon home run), and the Yankees also fell in 13 innings, on Miguel Cairo's comedy of errors fielding a ground ball. So no win for Roger Clemens. Our hearts ache.

The pre-All-Star portion of the schedule ends this afternoon with 10-5 Daisuke going up againt 4-6 Nate Robertson. Hopefully, while the Sox have been in Detroit, Daisuke's picked up a Motown tune or two to put on his CD. More hopefully, let's hope the Tigers have nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.

The Revolution did almost the exact opposite of the Sox last night. They gave up a goal in the fourth minute to a team called Chivas USA (really?!), but then held them in check for the rest of the night, earning a 1-1 tie on an Andy Dorman goal in the second half. Because unlike baseball, eventually they stop playing.

The Globe's Shira Springer takes a look at Rajon Rondo, the heir apparent for the Celtics' point guard position. Rondo's coming off of a rookie season where he showed a LOT of promise in the passing and skills department, but now he has to learn to shoot more and become a team leader in a hurry. The Herald talks about Allan Ray, trying to fit in on a roster that now has Ray Allen, too. The Celtics have month to decide if they want to resign him; he's a good shooter (no Telfair jokes, please), but his position is overrepresented on the roster at the moment. The C's Summer League entry takes on the Spurs tomorrow afternoon, so expect to see some flopping.