Sports Redux: Best Day Ever Edition

If you suspect that you are suffering from a sports hangover today, know that you're not alone. As a reward to all the Bostonians who (somewhat) graciously gave up our city to marathoners on Monday, the fates decided to bestow upon fans pretty much the single greatest championship-free sports day we can expect to see this year; while we were anticipating a busy day, we weren't quite expecting things to be that sensational.

While it was again Ethiopia and Kenya that represented at the top of the men's and women's results on Marathon Monday, strong American showings are going to fuel ample running stories in the weeks to come. Be sure to check out our gallery of marathon shots; we want to congratulate everyone who took part in the event.

Hours after the first finishers had crossed the line at Copley, the Baltimore Orioles were busy wishing they could run out of Fenway Park. What began as a tight matchup between the O's and Red Sox turned into a Red Sox rout in the sixth inning. Sure, it's great that the Sox won, 12-1. Obviously it's nice to have the first four-game sweep of the O's at Fenway since 1995, as was reported by WEEI. But here are the three things you need to take away from the game: 1) Justin Masterson is one of the best things to come the pitching staff's way since Josh Beckett; 2) Papi is hitting; and 3) the Sox are above .500 for the first time since April 8. If the rain holds off today, we'll see how this newly fired up team looks against the Twins.

Up in Montreal, the Bruins were playing a game that many fans were preparing to grimace through. The fired-up Centre Bell, an opponent too good this season to just roll over, and the loss of Milan Lucic for a game seemed to suggest that it was going to be rough going. It was, to be sure, and the Bruins spent much of the game demonstrating the weaknesses that contributed to their mid-season skid (shaky defense and lack of good puck movement). But goals by Phil Kessel, Shawn Thornton, Michael Ryder, and Chuck Kobasew and an absolutely spectacular third period earned the B's a 4-2 victory and the chance to put away the series on Wednesday night. We'd also just like to note that Shawn Thornton now has more playoff goals than Joe Thornton. Just sayin'.

After the Bruins game, giddy fans had a chance to turn their attention to the Celtics game, which those who elected not to watch the B's already knew was another neck and neck battle against the Bulls. Seriously, could you have two teams that are more closely matched right now? Every second counts...including the very last seconds, where Boston has the clear advantage in the form of Ray Allen. Making up for the last-second OT miss during game 1, Allen came up with two different huge, graceful, absolutely stunning three-pointers at the end of Monday's game. The first kept the team in it, the second gave the team the 118-115 win. So good (so good, so good). So now the series is all tied up and Paul Pierce says that the team is ready to really start showing off what it can do. If only for the sake of Danny Ainge, let alone all of us, we encourage the team to get things going ASAP.