Sports Redux: Did The Sox Even Play Last Night? Edition

If there was any question in your mind about whether an individual game matters at this point in 2009, just think of Melky Cabrera lining the baseball off of Jon Lester's knee. You'll see plenty of replays of the third-inning nightmare in the next few days. Lester went down on the mound, rolled around a bit, grabbed his knee and leg, and eventually limped off the field. In the fourth inning, Heidi Whatney reported Lester had a "contusion" on his right quad. An X-Ray confirmed Lester suffered a bruised quadriceps.

Oh, and the Red Sox lost the game, 9-5. Lester wasn't having a very good even before the ball hit his knee. He threw 78 pitches in 2.1 innings and allowed eight hits and five runs. David Ortiz had three RBI. A-Rod was 3-3 with four RBI and three stolen bases. The Yankees stole 97 bases. We know the box score says seven, but it felt like more.

Jason Whitlock is the most recent frustrated ex-football player with a forum to doubt Tom Brady. Bostonist never knew Whitlock played until he wrote it this week for us to read. Whitlock says Brady "is never going to mentally" overcome the knee injury that sidelined him for the 2008 season. The phrase "is never going to mentally" is what he'll never get over.

It's true that Brady isn't himself yet. It's crazy to count him out after just two games into his comeback season. Suggestion for Whitlock: Google "Brady draft pick," or "John Madden Super Bowl XXXVI". One issue contributing to Brady's ineffectiveness is the state of his receiving corps. Wes Welker sat out last week's loss in New Jersey. Randy Moss (back) joins Welker as questionable for Sunday's game with Atlanta. If Brady's primary weapons can't go, he's left with Julian Edelman and Joey Galloway, who admits he's still getting used to the New England's system. NESN reports the club has worked out free-agent wide receivers.

The Bruins defeated the Ottawa Senators, 2-1, on a Drew Fata goal. They conclude their preseason schedule against Columbus tonight. For some reason, the NHL has a team in Columbus.

A's player Matt Carson's first career MLB home run was seven years in the making. He was drafted in 2002 and reached the Show in 2009. That makes "the fan" who caught the ball and asked for $10,000 to turn it over to Carson an even bigger jerk.