Sports Redux: Kansas City's Reign of Terror Is Over

It took a while, but after two straight losses, the Red Sox finally figured out how to beat those plucky KC Royals, and got themselves a much-needed 9-2 win last night.

The beneficiary was Josh Beckett, who got slapped around to the tune of twelve hits, but only let two of them score (a Yuniesky Betancourt RBI triple, and David DeJesus single). Still, it was 2-0 KC, the Sox were scuffling against Luke Hochevar, and people were worried. We were, anyway.

Finally, though, the Sox broke out of their torpor and hung a five-spot off Hochevar's giant ears. Ellsbury drove in two with a triple, and Pedroia, Bay and Ortiz also drove in runs. Ortiz followed with a three-run blast in the ninth to put the game out of reach of even the Sox' bullpen. So the magic number is down to five (Texas won, somehow) and Clay Buchholz will try to cut that to four in the series finale.

John Kruk set off all sorts of alarm bells in the Bostonist clubhouse when he wrote, "Boston is really the only team heading into the postseason that you can look at and say, 'This team is ready for the playoffs.'" A) It doesn't look that way to us, and B) thanks for tempting fate, guy.

As the Patriots prepare for the Falcons' visit on Sunday, the Globe gets a few minutes with former Boston College QB Matt Ryan. He doubts he'll visit the ol' alma mater while he's in town, but is looking forward to seeing some old friends, including old teammate and Patriots lineman Ron Brace. Brace is hoping to greet Ryan about eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Is the world ready for someone other than Bobby Cox to manage the Atlanta Braves? He announced yesterday that 2010 will be his last year with the club, and even though it seems like this isn't Boston-related, we're pretty sure that Cox has managed the franchise since the Braves left Boston in the 1950s.