"We want to be greedy," said Claude Julien. And why not? After successively blanking the Oilers and the Canucks on 1-0 scored, the Bruins were hungry and ready to go for the Western Canadian sweep in Calgary. And when Patrice Bergeron caught Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff out of position for the quick 1-0 lead, Coach Julien's green looked like it might be rewarded. Alas, it was not. The Flames finally got to Tim Thomas, twice......

The Red Sox didn't just win a series the other night. They may have destroyed a Major League franchise. The Angels, winners of 100 games and the best record in the bigs, spend the entire flight home to California boo-hooing about how this never should have happened. "I'm pissed off. I'm just upset, and it's going to be with me for a while," said Torii Hunter. John Lackey, who was bettered twice by Jon Lester,......

First place was in their grasp. So close. Josh Beckett was humming, the Rays were putting up a line of zeroes, and even though it was only 1-0, the Red Sox had to feel good about taking first back last night. Until Carlos Pena solved Beckett and put one into the seats over a leaping Jacoby Ellsbury (shown here). Suddenly, it was Tampa Bay starter Andy Sonnanstine and the remarkable Ray bullpen that looked magical.......

Folks...the late season magic has arrived. The Red Sox seemed poised for another near-sweep, so close and yet so far. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the master at digging then getting out of holes, had gotten the Sox down 4-0. The seventh-inning stretch had arrived. (By the way, Bostonist was at Fenway the other night and noted that fans now have to be reminded to stand up for the seventh-inning stretch, but leap up out of their seats......

Someone switched pages in the script. The Red Sox were supposed to leave Yankee Stadium for the last time yesterday flying high, having crushed New York's spirit and set their sights firmly on catching and dispatching Tampa Bay. And it was headed that way, with Jon Lester cruising on a 2-0 lead going into the seventh. But Lester gave up a double, Francona decided to trust in his bullpen, and before you could say "Seriously,......

It's pretty sweet, isn't it? The Red Sox are going into Yankee Stadium for the last time (OK, OK, the last time during the regular season), Tim Wakefield made a more-or-less triumphant return to the rotation, the bullpen pitched as well as it has all year, and Alex Rodriguez was booed off the field by the Bronx more-or-less faithful. And the mighty Rays are stumbling, so the Sox are right back in this thing. It's......

Well, that's over. As you've probably heard by now, the Red Sox ended their relationship with Manny Ramirez, sending him to LA in a three-way deal that landed Jason Bay from Pittsburgh. Of course, to grease the wheels, the Sox had to send Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen away too, and they're still paying the rest of Manny's 2008 salary. There's not a lot of doubt who the motivated seller was here. Dan Shaughnessy says......

Relax, folks! Whatever happens now, the Angels aren't going to beat the Red Sox in October! Dan Shaughnessy said so, and like they say, "Hey, folks, when you're right 51% of the time, you're wrong 49% of the time." But the Angels sure can beat the Sox in July, and that's what they did, again, as John Lackey flirted with destiny in a 6-2 win over the lifeless Sox. The Sox waited until the ninth......

It doesn't take long, does it? All the Sox needed were three chances to whup the Mariners, and the bitter taste of the sweep in Anaheim is gone. True, the Sox did clock a little overtime yesterday, but the end result was a satisfying 6-3, 12 inning win. The Sox loaded the bases in the top of the twelfth on an Ellsbury single, a JD Drew walk, and an error. Mike Lowell brought two home......

Reporting on the Red Sox these days is starting to feel like reporting the weather (80s, humid, thunderstorms, and anyway, what happened to "if you don't like the weather in New England, wait five minutes"? Three months of continued 40 and windy, five nice days, and now two months of continued hot and sticky. I'm Andy Rooney, and this is 60 Minutes.) Again, there was a lack of timely hitting. Again, a decent outing by......

For most people, road trips are fun. Greasy burgers, fighting over whose iPod will play, diversions to see the largest rubber-band ball in South Carolina - it's a momentous event in anyone's life. Only the Griswolds and the Red Sox would disagree. The Sox are now 0-2 on their latest trip, and once again a pitching breakdown and a lack of timely hitting killed them. Josh Beckett cruised through six innings, but gave up a......

Hey, these are starting to look like the good Red Sox again! Except for one bad inning by Jon Lester, the Sox looked pretty good last night, beating the Twins 6-5. Lester pitched a mostly solid game, and the Sox once again found some clutch hitting and took advantage of another team's shaky bullpen. Lester, in fact, had some in the crowd buzzing early about a repeat performance of his May no-hitter (well, a few......

We always look for someone to blame, don't we? You look at the Red Sox' 2-1 loss in New York yesterday, and immediately start preparing to blame an anemic offense, or timely bad pitching, or something. Well, it doesn't work today; the fact is, the Yankees climbed on the backs of two old war horses and came away with a win that (sigh) they deserved. Warhorse #1 was Mike Mussina, who looked ready for the......

We guess if they'd come into the league as just the Rays (no Devil), they'd probably be working on their sixth pennant this year. But better late then never for Tampa Bay, who extended their AL East lead by dispatching the Red Sox, 5-4, in front of probably the largest assemblage of Rays fans ever. Things started off badly for Justin Masterson and the Sox, as B.J. Upton hit a leadoff home run. The Sox......

Paul Pierce proved you can get stabbed early in life, then come back and win an NBA title, as long as you're commited to playing good defense. Maybe that crossed Danny Ainge's mind as he used the 30th pick in the NBA draft to pick J.R. Giddens of New Mexico. "He has a chance to fight for minutes right away because of his defense," says Doc Rivers. "When he had structure and organization in his......

Well, sending the JV squad out against Felix Hernandez didn't work. Noted. It still wasn't the full Murderers' Row on display at Fenway yesterday, but it was plenty enough, as the Sox' bats awoke to clobber the Mariners 11-3. The most important element of the lineup was Manny, who finally deigned to hit one in front of the Fenway fans. Number 504 gave the Sox and Tim Wakefield a 2-0 lead in the first, which......

Let's start with the good news. Manny Ramirez finally broke out of his home run slump, and cracked career shot #499, a three-run shot off Seattle's Miguel Batista. Um, that's about it. The bad news is that Seattle won, 4-3, on a Jose Lopez single off Mike Timlin in the ninth. Julio Lugo got tossed for arguing a check swing, and Terry Francona was dismissed early when he came out to challenge it. "'Bout time,"......

Is it possible the Celtics somehow transferred their Amulet of Not Being Able To Win On The Road to the Red Sox? True, the C's need it more right at this moment, but the Sox have to play better than they recently have in Minnesota, Baltimore, and now Oakland. Jon Lester's bid for his second straight no-hitter ended with the leadoff hitter, as Jack Hannahan singled to open things up. The shutout ended a few......

Maybe a scheduled day off and a rainout were the tonic the Sox needed to find themselves again. Maybe the Brewers were just incredibly overmatched. Whatever the reason, the Sox find themselves back in a virtual tie for first after sweeping Milwaukee yesterday at Fenway. Game One, which had to start at 3:55 because God forbid anybody do anything that would upset Fox's precious stranglehold on the Saturday schedule, belonged utterly and completely to Daisuke......

With all the recent sterling performances by Red Sox pitchers, for some reason they decided to try something different last night. Tim Wakefield didn't finish three innings, as he gave up homers to Craig Monroe and Adam Everett to help stake Minnesota to a 7-1 lead. But the Sox don't go away that easily. They scratched out three in the fourth, and the suddenly-red-hot Coco Crisp's homer in the seventh cut the lead to 8-6,......

Don't listen to the so-called experts. Kids LOVE pitchers' duels. Go up to any schoolboy and mention some of the great mound rivalries of the past - Koufax/Marichal, Gibson/Seaver, Palmer/Hunter - and, well, you'll probably get a blank look. But maybe you'll find a kid who knows what you're talking about, and chances are that kid appreciated the gem last night at Fenway. For the Sox, Jon Lester was throwing strikes (yay) and inducing groundouts,......

There are 39,195 lucky souls in the metropolitan area today. They're the ones holding tickets, through fair means or foul, to the home opener today at Fenway. They get to see the flag unfurled, the bling distributed, and hopefully the Red Sox get back on track against the winless Tigers. And when we say foul means, it's not just our standard we-can't-get-tickets bitterness. Stories like the Sox auctioning off Green Monster seats, and police giving......

We'd sure like to know what happened in the Bruins' locker room between the second and third periods last night. After two, the Leafs had tied the game 1-1, had peppered Tim Thomas with 18 shots, and had everybody at the Garden pontificating whether the game would be a microcosm of the entire season. Well, maybe not everybody. But whatever was said, it lit a fire under the B's; Phil Kessel, Glen Murray and Peter......

Yesterday was a bad day for Boston teams to play in cities associated with French exlorers. First, we'll blame Samuel Champlain, who established a fur-trading post on an island in the St. Lawrence River in 1611. That post eventually grew into the city of Montreal, whose major industry changed over the years from fur-trading to Bruin-beating. It was, truth be told, the best Bruins-Canadiens game of the season; the B's even escaped with a point......

Give Seattle some credit. Going nowhere, ready to board a long flight home after an extended road trip, they hung around with the Celtics for six or seven minutes. Which is six or seven minutes more than we expected, frankly. Once the initial six or seven minutes ended, though, the Celtics put down the hammer and commenced blowing the overmatched Sonics out of the building. Garnett had 18 (and was immortalized in bobbleheaded glory, as......

...only makes you stronger. That has to be the attitude the Bruins take today, after having their winning streak stopped, killed, set on fire, stomped, buried, and the earth salted. The good news is, they will never play a worse game than they did last night. It was 6-0 Capitals in the first period. Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick before half the fans had found their seats. Tim Thomas got pulled, put back in......

- The Bobcats are to the Celtics what the Giants were to the Patriots: confident, strong, capable of making a game of it (although we'd like to think that we won't see Jason Richardson celebrating a championship for at least another couple of years). The Celts barely beat the 'Cats in November, lost (embarrassingly) in January, and were challenged up until the end on Friday night, when Boston won, 108-100, at TD Banknorth Garden. Not......

The Bruins' win over Pittsburgh had a little something for everybody. It had scoring (including two by Marco Sturm), goaltending (Tim Thomas came one shot away from two straight shutouts), fighting (Milan Lucic exchanged pleasantries with Jarkko Ruutu for a good long satisfying while), and most importantly a win, which pulled the scorching-hot B's within four points of the Northeast Division lead. Kevin Paul Dupont analyzes why doing nothing might have been the best move......

Maybe it was being in L.A. one night after the Oscars, so the magic of the stars could rub off on them (because when you think "glamour", you think Coen Brothers). Maybe it wasn't. Probably it had a lot to do with the injury-riddled, overmatched Clippers. But whatever the reason, the results speak for themselves: the C's blasted LA last night, and come home with a 2-game winning streak. The Clippers only broke 20 points......

While the Celtics are floundering out West, the Bruins have just finished an honest-to-goodness stampede through the South. And attention must be paid. Last night, the B's finished off a 4-0-1 Southern swing with a 5-3 win at Tampa Bay. Glen Murray scored twice, with Milan Lucic and Mark Stuart also scoring early. P.J. Axelsson took a Glen Metropolit pass and scored a shorthanded goal to put the Lightning away for good. Alex Auld wasn't......