Results tagged “bcfootball”

But that's kind of a big deal, since it matches their season high. The "team goes up...team goes down" Bruins survived a tough beginning to come back and win in a shootout in Ottawa last night, 4-3.

Technically, the Patriots aren't playing the Tennessee Titans today. In honor of the 50th season of the old AFL teams, the Titans are dubbing themselves the Houston Oilers today in Foxboro. But whatever they call themselves, they're a good (or so we thought) team that's somehow 0-5, and the Patriots are a good (or so we thought) team that's 3-2 and hasn't really looked like itself. Something's got to give.

Clearly, winning the AL East is a low priority for the Red Sox. Considering how heated the Boston/LA rivalry's has become in the last few days, obviously Terry and the boys feel like another Sox/Angels series is the only way to clear up the bad blood.

Two weeks ago, if you had told us that two weeks from now(then), the Sox would be closer to catching the Yankees than they were to falling behind Texas, we'd have put you on the disabled list with flu-like symptoms. Not that we (seriously) think they're going to catch the Yankees, but it can't be denied that the Sox have been playing their best ball of the season lately, and the roll continued with an 11-5 throttling of the O's last night in Baltimore.

Somehow, in the quagmire and the deluge that took turns drenching the city yesterday, the Red Sox and the Rays found time to get in five innings. But one was really all the Sox needed.

First of all, we need to criticize the Globe for their game story, which reads like a prewritten obituary for Tim Wakefield. Yeah, he's old. Yeah, he's pitching through pain. But it wasn't really his fault that the Sox lost again in Chicago yesterday. When you almost get no-hit, you lose. It's a simple game.

The Celtics thought - and so did we - that going home would make everything OK. It didn't.

At what point do we ready the panic buttons? Two legitimate losses to two legitimate good teams (LA, Portland), one stinker that can be chalked up to Laker hangover (G.State)...but then, this, now. The Celtics' eight-game winning streak against the Knicks, which stretched back to those prehistoric pre-KG teams, is over. The C's looked flat, couldn't keep up with New York's speed and intensity, and fell 100-88.

Even with all the awesomeness that was the Celtics' 2007-08 season - the championship, the 66 wins, the beating every team in the league, the blowout of the Lakers - they never managed to win eleven in a row. This season, however, is barely a month old and the C's have already done that. They earned #11 by beating Portland, 93-78, in a game that featured more drama than the final score would indicate.

"We can beat anybody in this league and we can play against anybody, obviously," says Zdeno Chara. And who's going to argue with him? The Bruins finished off the Best November Ever by sending the Stanley Cup champ Red Wings home, as they've sent so many other teams home lately, sad and unfullfilled. So the month ends with the B's 11-1-1, picking up 23 out of a possible 26 points.

This has been a nice little homestand for the Bruins, hasn't it? Last night, they followed up blowouts of Dallas and Toronto with a spirited, come-from-behind 3-1 win over Buffalo that launched them into a flatfooted tie for the Northeast Division lead.

Amidst all the sogginess, crankiness, and uncertainty of this weekend's "series" with the Yankees, we're forgetting one silver lining. Scalpers must be getting their butts kicked, after probably paying high prices for tickets that now nobody wants. They surely had visions of hundreds of dollars for a season-ending showdown, little realizing that it would be a messy, rainy matchup of Pawtucket vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that nobody really wants to go see, and the players probably don't really want to play. But at least tickets will be reasonably priced.

Roy Halladay wasn't going to let the Red Sox celebrate on his dime. With the magic number at one, the Sox just needed to beat Roy and the Wild Card spot (at least; they're still not giving up on Tampa Bay) would be theirs. But as the Sox learned, you can't spot Halladay a 5-0 lead and expect to come back.

Are we ready to put last season's unpleasantness behind us? Are we ready to internalize that the exact number of wins doesn't matter, so long as it all ends with a three-game winning streak? are we, in the parlance of our times, ready for some football?

"I don't really like hitting fourth," said Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, after being moved in the lineup to cover for the ailing Kevin Youkilis. Luckily, at this point, Dustin can hit when he's hitting fourth, or eighth, or underwater, or with one leg pinned up behind his back. Dustin, to put it another way, is on fire. He went 4-for-4, again, to help the Sox batter Chicago 8-2, and now leads the AL at .327.