Sports Redux: The Good News Edition

Remy's back! Almost! The beloved Sox announcer and NESN made it official that he'll be back in the booth Friday night at Fenway when the Sox play the Yankees. He did a pop-in at Fenway last week after spending most of the season recovering from cancer surgery and subsequent depression, got shown all kinds of love by the fans, and now is ready to come back. Probably on a limited basis at first, so no need for Dennis Eckersley to go away just yet - it's the best of all worlds.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox were making good things happen on the field, too. With Clay Buchholz once again matched up against a certified AL Ace, the hitters decided to ease his mind by thumping Toronto's Roy Halladay. Homers by Ortiz and Bay paced the Sox to a 5-1 lead, and another by Victor Martinez gave them an insurance run in the 6-1 win, which nudged the Sox back over Texas for the wild-card lead. That's two road wins in a row, which we never thought we'd say again without the Orioles being involved.

That's also three days in a row for Ortiz with a homer, the first time that's happened since July of 2006. So it's no coincidence that the team seems to be playing with a new spirit, says hitting coach Dave Magadan: "As he goes, we seem to go, too." Ortiz' secret? "Just see the ball and hit it, man. Simple." Similarly, the theory of "See Kevin Youkilis at the plate, hit him", as Youk was plunked in the ninth by a Jays reliever. The contretemps was kept to a minimum.

The good vibes were also flowing for Buchholz, who went to 2-2 with the win. "Went up against a guy that’s in the running for Cy Young candidate. It’s hard to go out there and expect a lot of run support, so you want to keep the runs to a minimum," said Clay, who did just that, holding Toronto to six hit and one run in six innings. "If you want to succeed in this game for a long time, you’ve got to succeed against the guys that are the best in the game."

Patriots-Bengals tonight. And we've already found the best headline of the preseason.