Sports Redux: Washouts

Charles Krupa / Associated Press

Josh Beckett was a very late scratch with back spasms, so the Sox sent young Michael Bowden to the mound with about 15 minutes' notice to try to stop the Blue Jays. Five innings later, Bowden and reliever Hunter Jones had both been sent to the showers with ERAs over 10. Two innings after that, the skies opened up and put the Sox and the Fenway crowd out of their misery. Final score: 11-5, Toronto, in seven innings.

Bowden doesn't want to blame the short notice for his troubles. "It's inexcusable. They could have told me at 7:05 and I should have been able to put forth a better effort than I did tonight." If there were any bright spots for the Red Sox, they were (a) it was only seven innings long, (b) Kevin Youkilis homered twice and David Ortiz once, and (c) Texas got pummeled, so there's a very good chance the Sox will get into the wild-card even in reverse at 50mph like they are now. And champagne will keep for another day or two. Maybe not a year, though. So, tonight's starter Clay Buchholz, keep that in mind.

Assuming that sometime this week the Sox do finish off the Rangers sometime this week, word is that the club is pretty optimistic that Beckett will be fine with his back spasms, and Jon Lester's knee will have stopped ringing from the shot he took off it in New York. Lester's scheduled to go against the Indians Thursday and right now looks like he'll start Game One, if of course there is one.

If you want something to distract you from the losing streak, something came along yesterday that should do just that. Something named Kevin Garnett, who was with his teammates at Media Day (the official launching day of the 2009-10 season) and said he and his knee are ready to go. "Better than anything I'm playing without any pain, which is something I really haven't had for some time now," said KG, who's been participating in full-speed 5-on-5 scrimmages with his teammates. He also gushed about new Celtic Rasheed Wallace: "To be honest, it's just weird to see him here in the green, and see how our chemistry is without even touching the ball, just how we flow." This team doesn't need a lot of motivation, but the Celtics organization has given the players a nice little fill-in-the-blank game to look forward to.

Finally...have $10 you need to get rid of in a hurry?