Is it possible the Celtics somehow transferred their Amulet of Not Being Able To Win On The Road to the Red Sox? True, the C's need it more right at this moment, but the Sox have to play better than they recently have in Minnesota, Baltimore, and now Oakland. Jon Lester's bid for his second straight no-hitter ended with the leadoff hitter, as Jack Hannahan singled to open things up. The shutout ended a few batters later, and finally, Hannahan ended any chance of the anemic Sox offense coming back to win it with a two-run single in the fourth.

The Red Sox at least improved on Saturday's one-hit "effort". Ortiz homered in the first, and Manny's 2 RBIs in the fifth at least put the Sox in shouting distance. But Javier Lopez surrendered a 2-run Jack Cust homer in the seventh that put it out of reach. Final: 6-3, Athletics. 21-5 at home, 10-17 on the road. Weird.

Lester did reveal that his dad was diagnosed last month with lymphoma, and he's happy that the Sox are going to Seattle so they can get together for the first time since they found out. The good news is Dad's cancer is slow-acting and treatable, and while he may never recover enough to no-hit the Royals, everyone expects him to be able to beat it.

The Celtics will try to keep their 1-game winning streak on the road going tonight in Game Four. Detroit's Chauncey Billups says he's going to fight through his hamstring injury, which is good news for the Celtics if it means he looks as bad as he did on Saturday. And as you wrap your Memorial Day fish leftovers in your Globe today, consider why Dan Shaughnessy wrote a Celtics-Lakers Finals preview (which we're not even going to link to) when (a)neither team has made it there yet, (b)we all know that if it does happen, he's just going to write the exact same column again, and (c)forget it, it's too depressing to think about. Thanks, Dan.