Sports Redux: Papi Pounces, Pacers Pathetic, Playoffs Possible

David Ortiz is back! That guy who went to Japan, kind of looked like Papi, swung with a handicap, and made lots of outs was replaced by the confident slugger we all know and love. The real Papi singled in the fifth for his first hit of the year, then put the Sox on the board with a 2-run homer in the seventh.

The blast made a winner of Jon Lester, who pitched a great game for the second straight strong showing by a Sox starter (and you thought alliteration would be confined to the headline). Les went 6 2/3 solid innings. Bryan Corey and Manny Delcarmen preserved the shutout from the bullpen, as a parade of singles in the 8th and a Varitek homer in the 9th eliminated the need for Papelbon to come save it.

The Celtics reached win #60 in undramatic fashion, rolling a mediocre Indiana team out of the building. The win pretty much knocked the Pacers out of playoff contention, and it's starting to look very much like Atlanta will be the C's first-round foes. But there are seven more games to get through before that.

The Bruins, meanwhile, blew a lead with less than six minutes to go, and fell to New Jersey in the shootout. In the freaky world of the NHL's Eastern Conference, though, the loss (and associated point) didn't hurt much, as Philly lost, and the B's moved into a tie for 6th with Ottawa. Who's next on the schedule in the penultimate regular-season game. The Bruins could be in fifth at the end of the season, or golfing. Crazy.

UMass goes for the NIT title tonight against Ohio State. Completely unrelated, but very entertaining, is UniWatch's ESPN column about the history of hair in major league baseball. Manny does get his own section. The Lite Brite kids would be proud.

Photo by Ben Margot/Associated Press.