Sports Redux: A Loss For A Higher Purpose?

Maybe someday in the future - not even the distant future - we'll look back at yesterday's Red Sox loss as something good. No, wait, really. Maybe Roy Halladay's dazzling performance and total shutdown of the Sox' offense will cause some team - some National League team - to pull the trigger and trade for the Jays' ace. If he's out of the AL East and the Red Sox never have to see him again, isn't that worth a late-July loss?

Halladay, ostensibly pitching for the Blue Jays but really auditioning for scouts from the Cardinals, Mets, Yankees (grrr), Phillies, Dodgers, Nippon Ham Fighters, AC Milan, and the House of David travel team, threw a complete-game six-hitter to beat the Sox 3-1. The only run came off an Ortiz sac fly in the first; then it was the Halladay show. "They should have traded him the other day, and to a National League team," said Terry Francona. We're sayin'. Jason Bay summed up the frustration, saying that a patient team can't work a guy like Halladay because he always throws the pitches he wants anyway, so you might as well swing.

The Sox start a three-game series tonight in Texas (Smoltz vs. Kevin Millwood). Their lead in the AL East is down to one, after the Yankees finished a three-game sweep of the Tigers.

Shalrie Joseph returned from a knee injury to help end the Revolution's miserable summer, scoring a goal in his first game since June, pacing the Revs to a 2-0 win over Chivas USA, their first MLS win since June 7th.

Without Tiger Woods in the final round of the British Open in Scotland, the world - at least the part of it that watches golf without Tiger Woods - watched as Stewart Cink came from behind and beat feel-good story Tom Watson, who at 59 was trying to dispel the world's notion that old men aren't very good at golf.