Were the folks at Fenway disappointed last night? 24 hours after the zany madcap roller coaster 19-17 win, the Red Sox came back and dispatched Texas in a much tidier fashion. They did it by riding a Kevin Youkilis hit parade and a (mostly) solid Jon Lester start to an 8-4 win. Youk got three doubles, the big one coming in the third and scoring two runs to make it 4-0. Jason Bay and Jed......

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......

He says he feels better. He says he's actually felt pretty good for a couple of weeks now. But David Ortiz must feel great today, after his season-long slump ended with a Monster shot grand slam off the hapless Rangers to spark a 11-3 whupping. It was such a rebirth for Papi that his teammates gave him the "silent treatment" in the dugout usually reserved for rookies hitting their first homer. Other offensive highlights: a......

We'll just say pitching was a factor in the Sox-Yankees game last night in New York. To be more specific, the Red Sox pitching - and complete breakdown thereof - allowed the Yanks to run amok, and while the Sox got plenty of offense, it wasn't enough, as the Sox got smacked 15-9. Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez homered off Clay Buchholz in the first to give NY a 2-1 lead. There was a little......

They worked hard enough in Game Two to go to OT. Last night, they took it a step further, as the Bruins beat Montreal for the first time since about 1982 in a thrilling 2-1 OT win at the Garden. It started with a Milan Lucic goal in the first period, giving the B's their first lead against the Canadiens since about 1995. Tom Kostopolous evened the score late in the second. So much for......

You've heard by now about the Red Sox T-shirt buried under the new Yankee Stadium. In all the stories about this yesterday, you'd think at least one media outlet could have mentioned that the Sox' bats were buried somewhere as well. Only a J.D. Drew home run prevented the shutout, and only a Coco Crisp 9th-inning bunt prevented us from breaking out one of our favorite Major League lines (the one where Harry Doyle cusses......

Well, the Twins aren't cooperating. Instead of being excited about the chance for yet another Minnesota star to come to Boston, they're dragging their feet on the inevitable Johan Santana trade. They now want Jacoby Ellsbury thrown in the mix, to counter Hank Steinbrenner's throwing-in of pitching prospect Phil Hughes. The Red Sox say maybe on Ellsbury, but that would mean no Jon Lester. The Yankees say if they don't hear from Minnesota soon, the......

The boys are back in town, the taco meat has been brought up from the cellar, and all of New England's non-essential personnel are taking the afternoon off for a parade. (Dude...Tuesday afternoon? Really?!) The good news, for some people, is that Jonathan Papelbon's dance of spontaneous excitement and youthful exuberance has now been added to the Official Canon of Sox-Nation-Approved Quirks. The Duck Boats will slow down at predesignated locations so that Papelbon can......

The Red Sox returned from a little trip of consequence out West on Monday and found several thousand fans waiting to welcome them back and get a taste of the victory parade planned for Tuesday. A caravan of buses rolled up to the park shortly after 5 p.m. Monday afternoon and those in attendance didn't have to wait long to see the hardware they'd been lusting after all post-season long: Tom Werner, John Henry, and......

Congratulations, Sox fans! You made it through approximately three minutes of the Red Sox Rally Monday festivities at City Hall Plaza before the first chants of "Yankees Suck" filled the air. New record! Well done! A few thousand fans descended upon the plaza early Monday afternoon to cheer on their hometown baseball team (and decry the arch rivals) for the Boston version of the shindigs going on across the country. Rally Monday was a tradition......

Dare we say things are starting to click at the right time? The Red Sox finished off Oakland with an 11-6 win. Now only a monumental collapse (look upward; no lightning) will keep the Red Sox from celebrating an AL East clinchin' party in the next day or two. The Sox smacked Oakland largely due to the bat of Mike Lowell, who collected five of his 116 RBIs (a Red Sox 3B record) on a......

With rare exception, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a different team when Scott Kazmir is on the mound. But on Tuesday night, the Red Sox was also a different sort of team - one that came back for only the second time in 43 games from a deficit heading into the eighth inning. Yeah, that's right. The Sox were down late in the game and they actually came back to win, 2-1. The game......

Let's give a hand to the Boston Red Sox: they're on the cutting edge. During a late (to us, anyway) Friday night game in Seattle, the team continued to show fans the new dance craze that's poised to sweep the (Red Sox) Nation: the Third Base Shuffle. It's easier than the Frug, more athletic than the Lean Back and only slightly more annoying to witness than the Macarena. All you have to do is wind......

It was a scenario we've experienced so many times before that Sox fans couldn't help but smile in anticipation. Bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park. The tying and go-ahead run already on base. One out. David Ortiz striding to the plate to tip the balance on a 6-5 deficit. We're supposed to win those games, right? Despite the fact that the Red Sox had given up its lead to the Toronto Blue Jays, even......

And we thought the days of musical Red Sox pitchers were over when Bronson Arroyo got traded. But we can't wait for July 17, when pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka will release his own mix CD, "Music From the Mound" with a collection of songs that inspire and touch the hurler, plus an original track or two. You may have heard one on Monday night, when NESN gave us a few seconds of "Gyro Ball", which......

You didn't have to be Einstein to see that last night's game had "trap" written all over it - letdown after a big series, Tavarez pitching over his head, Jeff Weaver the stat-challenged opposition. And the Red Sox stepped right into it. They made Weaver look like, if not Cy Young, a competent pitcher (not the world's easiest task), and Tavarez couldn't find his A-game. Could he be hurt? No one is saying anything yet,......

What a depressing ending. All of the characters were in place, the tension was building, the smell of a big finish was in the air, and then...nothing. Zip. Just like that, it was all over. We kept looking for some extra time, or some trick being played on us, or something to keep us from screaming, "That's IT?!?!?!?" Coco Crisp's line drive sailed right into Chris Young's glove in center, and it was over. Of......

Remember J.D. Drew? David Jonathan "J.D." Drew, 31 years old, plays right field, graduated from Florida State? J.D. Drew hasn't generated much favorable buzz these days. The only things we've heard about him for the past month and a half has consisted of justifiable griping from fans and predictions from Theo Epstein that The Slump is only temporary. But Drew made his presence known on Friday night during interleague play in Arizona. Continuing his widely-known......

Trot Nixon's homecoming game at Fenway was one to remember. Not so much for Trot (1-for-3), but for the fact that this game had a little bit of everything. An inside-the-park home run for Kevin Youkilis (shhh...20 game hitting streak...shhh). A conventional home run for Manny, tying him with former teammate Jim Thome for 25th place all time. A controversial third-strike call in the ninth that brought both managers out for some earnest discussions with......

It was a tense time at Fenway Saturday. Curt Schilling looked human (or worse). The Sox were suffering from a chronic case of "hitting the ball right at Miguel Tejada". Losing two in a row to the Orioles looked like a distinct possibility. But then came the Orioles bullpen, who helped the Red Sox turn a nailbiter into a 13-4 rout. A 5-4 lead turned to 8-4, on a Crisp fielder's choice and a 2-run......

On a day when Daisuke looked mortal, and the bullpen was in a state of flux, the Red Sox turned to Manny Ramirez to get them out of trouble. And so he did, hitting a 2-run homer in the 4th to give the Sox a 7-5 lead, then a solo shot deep into right to give them their 8-7 win. Daisuke struggled in the first, no thanks to two fielding muffs by Alex Cora Julio......

First, the Patriots draft troubled but talented safety Brandon Meriweather. Now, they trade for talented but troubled wide receiver Randy Moss, for a fourth-round pick and a round of KFC Famous Bowls. Is Bill Belichick trying to start a gang? Or is he convinced that he can take these miscreants and ne'er-do-wells and mold them into a Super Bowl team? Our money is on the latter. "There's no such thing as a bad boy," said......

The Sox express train derailed last night, as the Jays finally solved Tim Wakefield en route to a 7-3 win. The culprits? Well, the first four guys in the lineup went 1-for-19. A doable 2-run deficit doubled in the 8th inning; Vernon Wells hit a rocket into center field. Wily Mo Pena looked more like Sily Mo Pena as the ball bounced over his outstretched glove and careened around for a triple. Aaron Hill then......

Daisuke Matsuzaka Mania has already jumped the shark, and the season hasn't even started yet. The Globe had a long, loving look at how the arrival of Matsuzaka is going to juice up Boston's economy. (Better hide Pastor Wall's warning to tourists about the risks of getting shot around here.) We are anticipating Matsuzaka's official debut as much as the next sports fan. And we are tickled that one guy is expected to pump $14......

Boston beat Seattle 118 to 103. And Al Jefferson is playing like a star, scoring 31 points in the game. The team also appears to have finally caught on to some basic defensive principles. On the downside, the Celtics are carrying more injuries with Ryan Gomes having a busted left foot and Delonte West still feeling the affects of the concussion he sustained against the Rockets. But the Celtics were able to beat the Sonics......

It's getting exciting down in Florida. Dice-K seems to be living up to the hype, and David Ortiz has returned in top form. In fact, the two almost collided the other day, enabling the AP to suggest a potential "confrontation" between the two if Dice-K pitches to Big Papi. We can't wait. Speaking of physical fallouts, something's going around Fort Meyers. Terry Francona has the flu, and Mike Timlin hurt his back while pitching. But......

Bostonist loves it when a cartoon show will animate a real life Bostonian and weave them into their plot line. Tom Brady has already been featured on “The Simpsons” and most recently, “The Family Guy." Besides that awful episode of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, the Red Sox haven’t been featured on many non-sports related television shows. Well, this morning WGBH changed all that by having a few Sox players from past and present......

While the Red Sox's long homestand has been a welcome sight for fans of the team, it's proven to be a timely stretch that will ultimately help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Soon after Katrina bulldozed over our Gulf Coast, the Red Sox placed tables around Fenway Park to accept donations that would be sent off to help those affected by the devastation. That raised a healthy chunk of change from the patrons visiting the Fens......

Coming off a six-game road winning streak, fans of the Red Sox had a weekend of baseball, fireworks, and (Fenway) franks to look forward to. Of course, the Indians did come in and put a damper on things, taking two of three in the first series. The tribe rode the back of Travis Hafner on their way to those two wins. But - credit where credit is due here - the Indians had one Mr.......