Sports Redux: Every Streak Ends

The magic number is twelve. That's all that really matters, when you think about it; true, the Red Sox failed to complete the sweep of the Southern California Regional Angels of Los Angeles, and true, Billy "Country Time" Wagner suffered his first Boston loss. But these things happen.

The Sox jumped out to a 3-1 lead on homers by Ellsbury and Bay. Josh Beckett, who was good if not dazzling, gave up runs in the fifth and seventh to tie it. Country Time gave up an RBI single to Howie Kendrick in the ninth, and Halos closer Brian Fuentes worked 2/3 of a ninth that wasn't filled with drama, tears and recriminations to sew up the 4-3 ballgame.

The fallout from Wednesday's game continued, though. We can accept that the umps blew a call or two in the ninth (surprisingly easy to accept human error when it makes a hero out of Nick Green), but the umps said they got an undue amount of crap from Mike Scioscia and the Angels while trying to flee the field. Umpire Rick Reed: "They were initiating last night and I'm not pleased in the way they said things or in their presentation." Well, in Scioscia's defense, he didn't really have time to prepare PowerPoint slides. For his part, the skipper replied, "It wasn't even directed at them -- it was more venting in the clubhouse." Angels With Dirty Mouths.

Now, we become Anaheim fans as they go down to Texas put the Rangers out of their misery. The Red Sox start a weekend series in Baltimore, where they know from misery. It's Buchholz against Jeremy Guthrie tonight.

While the Jets keep talking about Sunday's game (Jets tackle Kris Jenkins says the game is the Jets' Super Bowl, which actually is amazingly rational, considering it's September), the Pats don't want to partake in the war of words. Laurence Maroney: "I just can’t wait for the game to get started, you know, because you hear a lot of talking, and we just do our talking on the field." Preferably in increments over 3.2 yards, is all we're saying.

In winter sports news, the Bruins unveiled the special jersey they'll be wearing for their Winter Classic game at Fenway. And the Celtics made everyone a little happier when they revealed that Kevin Garnett's knee is healing on or ahead of schedule.