As good as their starters have been all week, the Red Sox are not a team built to rely on their pitching. In the American League, their starters are (for the most part) good enough to keep them in the game, and let this vaunted offense do its vauntable thing and score bushels of runs.

Now would be a good time to start. There were no last-second heroics for the Sox last night, no timely hitting, no heroes. There was just Toronto's A.J. Burnett, blowing through the lineup. Tim Wakefield got the loss, but there's nothing to complain about there; he pitched a good solid Wake game. But when you only get four hits, you usually lose. At least Ortiz got two of them, and is closing in on .200.

The first-place Tampa Bay Rays come into town for the weekend. In other tangential Red Sox news, we were saddened to learn that Fox Sports' Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were ferried around town by U.S. Marshals during the World Series last fall. How those two were in federal custody and escaped deserves a full-blown investigation. There's got to be something in the Geneva Convention about subjecting a nation to them.

As you probably know, the Celtics are back in Atlanta to avenge Games 3 and 4, and try to rip the Hawks' young and hungry hearts out. It's not technically a "must-win" game, but it sure feels like one. In Atlanta, they're grumping about Al Horford not winning Rookie of the Year, and examining the psychology of the bandwagon-hopper. (Shaughnessy's Celtics column today isn't even worth linking to.) One thing to consider is that if the C's and Cleveland both close out tonight, they'll likely play a marquee matchip on ABC Sunday. In other words, maybe don't expect all the calls to go against the Celtics tonight.

Congratulations to the city of Detroit, which clinched a first round series (Pistons closed out the Sixers), a second round series (Red Wings pummeled Colorado), and beat the Yankees. Even though they're injury-riddled, under .500, and reeling, we still maintain every time the Yankees lose, an angel gets its wings.