Well. This is fun, isn't it? Left for dead, the Red Sox are now in the enviable position of needing one game to move on to the World Series, and Jon Lester on the hill. There were moments of drama last night - would TBS get its act together? Was B.J. Upton's 74th home run of the postseason a sign that Beckett was cooked? Will all the umpires survive? - but they were erased, and......

If you made it through last night, go ahead on Monday (or Tuesday) and tell your boss you put in extra hours and deserve time-and-a-half. The Sox and Rays played for six and a half hours, eleven innings, time enough for players to get in and out of slumps, and almost time enough to forget that Josh Beckett's pitching has become a big red flashing question mark. The Home Run Derby portion of the game......

That was a long wait for some bad news, wasn't it? The bad news is that past results are NOT indicative of future success, and apparently the Angels aren't going to go away quietly after all. Now the Red Sox have to learn from the adversity that they had to wait for until the second round in 2004 and 2007. The blame for last night's loss, sadly, can be placed in a few different place.......

Remember Manny Ramirez? Bill Simmons does, and he's spent the last two months on a roller coaster of emotion about what went wrong (coughScottBorascough), what could have been done to fix it, and what it all means. The result is a 750-page analysis that's well worth the hours it will take to read it. Manny is still going strong, and so is his team, as he homered again to help the Dodgers wallop the Cubs......

The preliminary 162 are over. The Red Sox finished their regular season with a split, got to wave farewell to the Yankees, and now can head to Anaheim with a fresh start. Well, except for the daily agony that's keeping Mike Lowell on the shelf for who-knows-long, the nagging problems with J.D. Drew, and now the news that Josh Beckett pulled a muscle and won't start 'til Game Three. Other than that, we're ready. The......

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.......

We think we can officially admit that Tampa Bay isn't just going to go away. For weeks, while the Red Sox played very good ball, only to see the Rays blow through the rest of the AL, our mantra was always, "we've got six shots left at these guys". Now we're down to three, the Sox haven't won in Tampa Bay all year, and the half-game deficit has ballooned to two and a half. Uh......

We didn't really think there was going to be any Wally Pipp-ing of the injured Red Sox (well, maybe one of them). Even though the kids have been on fire, the Sox welcomed back Josh Beckett from arm trouble and Mike Lowell from a strained oblique with open (if sore) arms. And the two of them chipped in, in an 8-1 ripping of the Rangers that pulled the Sox within 2 1/2 of the AL......

It's a good thing nobody took us up on our bet that Tom Brady would be in his usual spot on the injured list. Well, he's not. And even though we all know, and everyone knows we all know, that the injury list is only mandatory because of wink-wink gambling, it's a good sign. Tom's going to play. We hope he plays better than all those weeks he was injured. Speaking of gambling...we'd love our......

Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose high pitch counts and low ERA give one the unsettling feeling of watching a chess master who mysteriously sacrifices all of his pawns before winning everything with his bishop and rook, won a tidy 8-0 shutout last night against the White Sox. Dice-K pitched eight innings, during which he struck out eight, walked two, and allowed two hits. The win improved his record to 16-2 and tied him with Hideo Nomo for......

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,......

Oh, Clay Buchholz. You teased us with that no-hitter last year. But, at heart, you're still just a young, inconsisent kid, except for the last few months, when you've been consistently bad. And last night, when your team gave you a 4-0 lead, well...that may have been the last straw. Yes, the Sox turned the 4-0 lead over to Clay and watched it quickly turn into an 11-6 loss, which will send Buchholz (who last......

Well...that sucked. Trying to stop a modest 1-game losing streak, Josh Beckett was turned into hamburger by the suddenly red-hot Blue Jay bats. The Jays shelled Josh for eight runs in less than three innings, and Beckett got the loss in a 15-4, 22-Toronto-hit massacre. "They were just really, really bad pitches. Well, good pitches to hit," said Beckett, and it's hard to argue. The Sox did scratch out a little offense - an RBI......

Due to rain, Friday night’s game was postponed. For those of you who had tickets, you can use them on September 13th for a day/night double header. Paul Byrd will make his debut in a Red Sox uniform tonight and look for Josh Beckett to pitch on Sunday. Who knows if these extra days off will work in the favor of Clay Buchholz, he’s had one miserable outing after another and we won’t be seeing......

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. Beckett, who’s now 11-8, threw for eight innings, getting tagged for one run off of seven hits. He struck......

It's been a month and a half since any of our local teams even competed for, let alone won, a championship. And while the Revolution will soon have to get back to work to finally get over the hump and claim their first MLS Cup, they can at least bask in the glow of the SuperLiga title. The tournament, featuring a few MLS teams and a few Mexican teams, came down to the Revs vs.......

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me," Manny Ramirez said yesterday. We're not sure; at this point, it seems like a match made in heaven. Last night was either Manny's last game in a Sox uniform, or it wasn't, and either way it was pretty pathetic. Trailing 3-2 after five, the sixth hit the fan once again, and when the dust settled the Angels had a 9-2 win, a sweep, and some legitimate......

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......

...which makes it three gifts in a row for the Red Sox, from the Minnesota bullpen. Twin relievers' ERA for the three-game series: 25.50. Come back any time, guys! Josh Beckett quickly fell behind 3-0, but the Sox scored four in the third off Livan Hernandez (portly pitcher, 453 degrees, alternate dark blue uniforms, must have been a pleasant day for Livan) and chased him in the fifth with two more. Terry Francona whisked the......

If you looked at the Red Sox schedule at the beginning of the season, and someone told you there'd be a series in the first week of July with first place on the line, you'd probably assume it was the weekend series in the Bronx. You'd be wrong. So wrong. The Red Sox find themselves on the last day of June in second place, looking up at the Tampa Bay Rays and heading into St.......

Objectively, the Celtics are right where we want them. They did their job and took one in LA, and have two chances to finish the Lakers off at home. Realistically, though, the C's had a golden opportunity - just waiting there - to snatch another game, and thus the series, away from the Lakers last night, but just couldn't finish it off. The Celtics did themselves no favors by digging another monster hole in the......

Does this game really have to start at 9? The fretting, the pacing, the worrying, the shot after shot of tequila - can't the NBA string this brutal and glorious anticipation out for three more hours? How about midnight basketball? No, it's going to start at 9. Or 9:07 or 9:15 or whatever. The Celtics and the Lakers are finally going to play basketball. It's almost impossible to sift through all the previews and projections,......

And just like that, the epic story of the Celtics' postseason road failures is over. The C's built a big lead, survived a Detroit run, built another big lead, survived another Detroit run, and walked out of the Palace of Auburn Hills up 2-1 with a 94-80 win. Home-court advantage is back, the haters and doubters are quiet, and all is more or less right with the world. Until we get to the Sox, that......

"...full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." - Shakespeare, Macbeth Matt Walsh had his moment in the sun, and it turned out to be a whole lot of nothin'. The ex-Patriots employee promised tales of treachery and devious deeds, and hinted that he had shelves full of damning evidence. Just before the Superbowl, the Herald bit, and published Walsh's claim that the Pats taped St. Louis' final walkthrough before Superbowl XXXVI. Yesterday, Walsh met for......

Hey, remember when the knock on the Celtics was their depth? Remember when everyone assumed Ghidorah would play great and then all hell would break loose when the second unit came in? Think Cleveland is remembering those predictions wistfully? The first quarter last night was a hangover from Game One. Ghidorah was still struggling (we were ready to call for a wheelchair to escort Ray Allen off the floor, if not a gurney). LeBron James......

We honestly don't have much new to say about this afternoon's game. Win, and everything's forgotten and it's 0-0 against Cleveland. Lose - the unthinkable - and God only knows how ugly it's going to get in this town. Doc needs to coach like he's NOT being mugged, coaching a playoff game and watching his house burn down at the same time. Pierce needs to be smart and not give the refs a reason/chance to......

Two great outings by Red Sox starters...two perplexing losses. Maybe the Rays are for real. Josh Beckett, trying to stop the Sox' freefall back into a pennant race, pitched almost as well as humanly possible. He went seven innings, striking out thirteen, giving up only two runs - one unearned on a JD Drew throwing error, one on a home run by Rays wunderkind Evan "No, I'm Not Married To Tony Parker, Please Stop Asking"......

The long drought is over! With the Revolution losing the MLS Cup, and the results of the Superb-oh God, we still don't want to talk about it - it's been almost six full months since a local team brought home a piece of significant championship hardware. No more. Boston College hockey captured their second title of the young century by flummoxing Notre Dame 4-1. Nathan Gerbe, as he does, led the charge with two goals......

It was a lot closer, anyway. That's about the best thing we can take from the Sox' 7-4 loss in Toronto that ended the worldwide road trip and sent the boys home 3-4 and in the AL East cellar. The big difference was that Toronto ace Roy Halladay pitched like an ace for the most part, while Sox ace Josh Beckett pitched like a rusty, easily-tired version of himself. He hung in for a while,......

A very weird day in Boston sports. It's a day when Ghidorah takes the day off, but the Celtics still romp. A day when the Bruins' hard work and perseverance is rewarded with a trip to the torture chamber. And we still don't know what the hell is going on with the Red Sox. So let's start there. The Blue Jays punished Clay Buchholz and a series of ineffective relievers en route to a 10-2......