Sports Redux: Overtime

If you made it through last night, go ahead on Monday (or Tuesday) and tell your boss you put in extra hours and deserve time-and-a-half. The Sox and Rays played for six and a half hours, eleven innings, time enough for players to get in and out of slumps, and almost time enough to forget that Josh Beckett's pitching has become a big red flashing question mark.

The Home Run Derby portion of the game lasted until the fifth. Pedroia (twice), Youkilis and Bay for us; Longoria, Upton and Floyd for them. There were other assorted doubles and RBIs, and it was 8-7 Tampa Bay into the eighth. By which both starters had left, showered, napped, had waffles, and rejoined the teams in the dugouts.

The Sox tied it in the eighth when Pedroia dashed home on a wild pitch by Dan Wheeler. Then the two bullpens began the War of Attrition portion of the ballgame, and in the end, it was the rusty, puzzling Mike Timlin who gave up the game-winner, a sac fly to B.J. Upton in the 11th.

If you're a "glass-half-empty" type, you're probably ready to light candles and say novenas to help Josh Beckett get his swagger back. He's been kicked around twice in the postseason. Even though you'd have to be a party-killing horse's ass to compare him to John Wasdin, there's no doubt that things are troubling. On the optimistic side, the job of any "underdog" (which, as Wild Cards, the Sox are) is to take one of two on the road and set up home-field advantage. Which is done. And if we can't trust Lester to deliver Monday, what hope then?

The 08-09 Bruins are going to be an adventure. The B's started Manny Fernandez in goal against his old team, and he got blistered for three second-period goals as Minnesota jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Marc Savard connected twice in the third, but it wasn't enough. Phil Kessel got the first Boston goal. More bad news: Chuck Kobasew broke his ankle in Denver on Thursday night, and we won't know how long he'll be out until they get home next week. Seems to us they could bring him home early.

Speaking of teams with question marks, tonight's Patriots-Chargers game, which looked like a barnburner when the schedule came out, is now a grim struggle for survival. The Patriots are 3-1, but they haven't beaten anybody good, and nobody's still sure what kind of team we've got sans Brady. And the Chargers are 2-3, fading in the AFC West, and desperate. The San Diego angst is palpable.