Sports Redux: It Was That Kind Of Day

As a wise man once said, "sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar, welll, he eats you." Yesterday, the bar ate the Red Sox, as they couldn't solve Jays starter Mark Rzepczynski and couldn't overcome an outing in which Brad Penny turned into Bad Penny. Throw in defensive miscues like the one pictured here, and it all added up to a frustrating 6-2 loss in Toronto.

The one bright - well, sort of almost bright - spot for the Sox was a little pop off the bat of Jed Lowrie, who hit a solo homer in the seventh. It barely made a dent in the deficit, but it was a home run by a Red Sox SS, which is always noteworthy. Keep this up and he'll climb over that .100 batting average mark before you know it. (On the plus side, half his hits this season have been homers.) Penny, for his part, only took 82 pitches to get through five innings, but a large number of them were hit hard and far. "Every time he left an offspeed pitch up, they hit it or they made him pay for it," said Terry Francona.

It was the worst outing by a Sox starter in quite some time, and it put Jon Lester in the unenviable position of having to outpitch Roy Halladay (still a Blue Jay for the moment) to win the series. And keep ahead of the Yankees, who trimmed the Sox' lead to 2 with a win over Detroit.

The Celtics are poised to add Marquis Daniels to their bench. The 6-6 swingman from Auburn's been playing in Indiana, and is expected to come in in relief for Pierce and/or Allen. There might be a sign-and-trade deal involving Brian Scalabrine, which will have the double-effect of robbing the balcony of their favorite [target? cheerworthy warrior?] and making Indiana's dream of an all-white roster a little closer to reality.

Personnel matters are also consuming the Bruins, who are talking and talking and talking to Phil Kessel but getting nowhere in negotiations. The Globe outlines everyone's options.
Photo by Darren Calabrese/AP/Canadian Press.