Sports Redux: Reunited

We didn't really think there was going to be any Wally Pipp-ing of the injured Red Sox (well, maybe one of them). Even though the kids have been on fire, the Sox welcomed back Josh Beckett from arm trouble and Mike Lowell from a strained oblique with open (if sore) arms. And the two of them chipped in, in an 8-1 ripping of the Rangers that pulled the Sox within 2 1/2 of the AL East lead and probably caused a sleepless night or two in Ray Country.

Beckett admitted he was nervous coming right back without a minor-league rehab start, but he was right in it, striking out Joaquin Arias and Josh Hamilton in the first, on his way to five glorious innings of 4-hit, 7-K ball. Lowell drove in the first three Boston runs, on a solo homer and a two-run single. (He'd drive in another in the ninth.) Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury hit rare back-to-back triples in the sixth, while the mighty Ranger bats could only scratch out one 9th-inning run off Okajima to spoil the shutout.

Tim Wakefield goes against Matt Harrison tonight. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays beat Tampa Bay 6-4. A team of scientists should be dispatched to Canada to figure out why the Jays aren't very good; every time we look in on them, they're winning. They're now only half a game out of third, as the Yankees continued circling the bowl, almost getting no-hit by some Mariner making his first start ever.

The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield welcomed new members yesterday. Cambridge's own Patrick Ewing was probably the biggest and most local star, but legends Hakeem Olajuwon and Adrian Dantley got enshrined too. Pat Riley took a break from scouting for the Heat, and Dick Vitale got in for his broadcasting work. We didn't see any of the ceremony, but we assume Vitale quietly accepted the honor, thanked a few friends and family, then sat down.

If you haven't yet read Thursday's story about the Taylor kids, grab a tissue and read it. James W. Taylor was a lifelong Sox fan in Utah who was poised to take his boys to Fenway for the first time, until he died after a helicopter crash in Arizona while working for Life Flight. Word of the promise he made reached the East Coast, and the Sox and the Nation pulled out all the stops to bring the kids to Boston and give them the ultimate Fenway experience. It's pretty awesome.