Results tagged “jddrew”

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.

Is Jon Lester personally responsible for more wins this season than any other Red Sox? If Sarah Green, of the baseball blog UmpBump, is to be believed, yes, he is. She has compiled a pie chart showing the Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, of every Red Sox player with a positive rating. WAR is a new-fangled statistic that takes into account batting, baserunning, tendency to hit into double plays, and various aspects of defense to determine how many runs, and, consequently, wins, each player can take credit for. (It's briefly described here.)

The bats are alive, they've figured out how to win on the road, and the Red Sox are heading into the Yankee series this weekend playing a completely different brand of ball than they did over the previous two weeks. Oh, Dryer of Emotion, you've tumbled us out of the lint trap.

Runs = wins. It's not a 100% certainty, but since the Sox learned last week to their sorrow that "no runs = no wins", it was worth a try.

It's June. June 13. The game last night was the 61st game of 2009. But, it really could have been played in October. The last two World Series champions battled in a game the Red Sox won 5-2 in 13 innings in a game that was filled with great pitching, timely hitting and error-free defense. Bostonist is making no predictions but Boston and Philadelphia, well, hey, you saw the game. Admit it. You thought it, too. The Herald did it, too.

We were going to lead off with the Celtics, but yesterday afternoon was possibly the most frustrating and aggravating game ever, and so hard to come up with an angle on, that we're just going to talk about it later and start off with 2009's Play of the Year (nominations are technically open 'til December, but come on).

Complaining about the refereeing after a loss is a little ungentlemanly. Complaining about the refs after a win, however, is allowed and in fact encouraged after a game like last night, when the Celtics were legitimately going 5-on-8 down the stretch, but still managed to outdefend and outhustle Cleveland for a 105-94 win that helped throw the top of the Eastern Conference standings into a tizzy.

"It was an emotionless game and if I’m somebody on the outside watching our team right now, I don’t see a lot of character that you could really identify with." - Andrew Ference

It's been quite a year for the BC basketball team. They went down to Chapel Hill, shocked Carolina, and got everyone fired up. Then they came home and lost to Harvard, and everyone wandered off. Clearly, the only way to get our attention is to knock off college basketball's elite. Enter Duke. The Blue Devils came to Conte Forum last night not having lost to the Eagles since 1985. Well, forget about that; BC knocked Duke off 80-74, largely on the strength of 21 points by Tyrese Rice, who became the seventh Eagle ever to score 2,000 career points. With only four games left, and no Harvard in sight, BC (19-8) looks ready to head into March Madness at least slightly mad.

If watching the Tampa Bay Rays score 29 runs to the Red Sox' 5 over the course of two games and six and half innings weren't discouraging enough to watch on television this postseason, imagine the fans at Fenway Park.

Here, in the Bostonist confessional, it's OK to be honest. Did you give up last night? Did you see Daisuke get rocked for five early runs, (and Delcarmen for two more) look at the anemic Sox lineup, and think, "I don't need this agony and misery tonight"?

New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Cancun for Spring Break. And now, Anaheim in October. These are the place you go to get loose, have fun, and live it up. The Red Sox made it 11 in a row over the Angels in the postseason, crushing the Halos with a dramatic 9th-inning home run by J.D. Drew.

If the rumors are true, Troy Brown is expected to retire from the Patriots and the NFL today. He's been a Patriot since 1993, from the first year of the Bill Parcells era, and has been the kind of steady, reliable guy that sometimes gets overlooked. It'll be nice to have the spotlight on him for one more day.

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 a good day.

Before Bostonist introduces you to Charlie Zink, we’d like to discuss Josh Beckett’s 5-1 win last night against the Chicago White Sox. Even without David Ortiz in the line up, the Red Sox were able to leave the Windy City splitting the series and the Beckett we were use to seeing last season made another appearance.

Maybe it's the fact that the Mariners are 24 games under .500. Maybe it's the healing waters of Puget Sound. Whatever it is, after 48 hours in Seattle, the Red Sox look like themselves again.

When Bostonist were kids, there were two nights a year we were permitted to stay up wicked late: New Year's Eve, and the baseball All-Star Game. We don't think we would have been allowed to stay up 'til 1:47 A.M. as kids. But that's what it would have taken to make it through last night's game.

If the Red Sox are going to defend their title, they'd do well to respond to more losses like this. A day after flopping to the Orioles, the Sox put a whuppin' on the hapless Birds, combining a Kevin Youkilis RBI derby with a brilliant performance by Tim Wakefield for a soul-satisfying 12-1 clobbering.

The Red Sox got some good news yesterday, then went out last night and created their own bad news. Let's start with the good stuff. We guess.

We don't expect miracles when guys come back from the DL. But yesterday, in his return to the mound, it seemed like a miracle each time Daisuke Matsuzaka got a Cardinal out. Which he only did three times before being sent to the showers, as the Cards rocked him for seven runs en route to a 9-3 pasting at Fenway.

OK...did everyone take a deep breath last night? The parade is over, there were no vital basketball events to watch last night, and we just have to bide our time until Opening Day when they raise the banner. Opening Day, by the way, might be the first time Kevin Garnett puts down the trophy.

We, to be honest, had the exact opposite of high hopes for last night's game. The Lakers were going to be in front of their home crowd, energized, with the referees desperate to be on their side to avoid another four-hankie Phil Jackson press conference. And if you'd told us before the game that Paul Pierce would be a train wreck, KG would be way off his shot, and Rondo would get hurt, we'd assume about a 114-91 blowout.

If you were with us all last night, you know what an intense game it was. The Celtics struggled at first, then spent the middle two quarters blowing LA off the floor, before getting silly and sloppy and watching LA take a 24-point lead down to two before Pierce and Posey iced it, 108-102, from the free throw line.

Outnumbered? Well, if you count Motown Steve Javie as wearing a Detroit jersey over his referee's uniform. Endless moaning about the refs is for losers and Spurs, so we'll keep it brief. We'll just say that if you have the desire to send Richard Hamilton any fan mail, just address it to the free throw line at the Garden; it's the one place he's sure to be found.

With the best year EVER in Boston sports coming to a close, it's time to do a little reviewing. We've come up with a series of lists from the highs to the really highs to the lows, and we'll be sharing them for the next few days. Here's a list of Boston sports' 10 Biggest Disappointments of 2007:

Sorry for those who waited anxiously for yesterday's Redux, but Bostonist was swamped. We were busy circling Celtic game dates on our calendar (with green Sharpie, natch), on hold to buy season tickets and hanging out with Kevin Garnett - which is hardly surprising, considering he's EVERYWHERE these days. OK, so we weren't doing any of those things, but we know other people were. Lots of other people - Bob Ryan and a few sensibly...

Last night, author Dave Zirin said that when sports radio tries to tackle politics, the results are so ugly that "it's like imagining Mitt Romney wearing cornrows." Something's just not right.

Things weren't exactly what one could consider promising yesterday afternoon, a few hours before the Red Sox and Yankees kicked off their series opener here in Boston. The skies were growling and peppered with sunshowers. Many of us were murmuring about whether we thought Alex Rodriguez was going to pull a stunt on the field (and whether Dustin Pedroia would be the first to lead the counter-attack). Starting pitcher Tim Wakefield was set to enter...

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Unless you're somewhere in the Blue Hills living in a cave, you are aware that today is opening day at Fenway Park. The Red Sox open the 2007 season at home against Ichiro the Seattle Mariners, with Josh Beckett taking the hill. Bostonist expects to hear a thunderous ovation for our returning Red Sox, and a warm welcome for the new guys (JD Drew, Julio Lugo). Outside of today's team introductions Bostonist was contemplating what events spanning the 81 games played at the Fens would send the Fenway Faithful into a frenzy. The following five events are some of the can't-miss occasions for those who love being able to say "I was there this season when ..." -