Results tagged “rays”

So let's just hope the Sox aren't 12 games out by then. The Sox' woeful recent history in Tropicana Field continued last night, as the Rays jumped out to a lead and held on for a 6-4 victory and a 2-game sweep.

This ain't the Orioles any more, brother. The toughest week of the Red Sox' 2009 schedule began last night, and Game One ended with a thud, as two home runs by Evan Longoria led to a 4-2, 13-inning, five-hour Tampa Bay win over a dismayed Boston team.

Tonight the New Garden will get a taste of what things used to be like at the Old Garden. The pomp, the circumstance, awe and jubilation coming together as a banner rises to the rafters. The Celtics will officially kick off their quest for back-to-back championships tonight, hosting Cleveland, but the game won't get underway until the Celts have a party 22 years in the making. The rings, the banners, the biggest Celtic celebration since 1986.

Hey. If Daisuke Matsuzaka can be the shakiest, scariest 18-3 pitcher in baseball history, why can't the Patriots be the craziest, weakest 5-2 team in football? Maybe being the worst 12-4 team ever is a realistic goal. And why not?

Apparently, you're supposed to let the MCL surgery heal before you reconstruct the ACL. It's starting to sound like Tom Brady's been seeing Dr. Nick Riviera, as grim accusations are starting to fly about what exactly is going on with his knee. The Patriots are a little miffed that Brady got the operations done in California. On Tom's website, he says everything's going swimmingly, but that's as of last week.

If Tom Brady really is about to propose to Gisele, he's just going to have to do it without going down on one knee. Patriots fans are all aflutter about the news that Tom's knee isn't healing right, has needed followup procedures, and the surgery may have to be redone. Oh, fantastic.

With all the practice the Bruins have gotten in shootouts this young season, you have to believe they're going to win one at some point. For the third time, they had to accept one point from the OTL while their opponent (in this case, Buffalo) got the extra. "You almost feel like Groundhog Day here," said coach Claude Julien, which makes us realize we haven't seen that in a while.

So much for that. After the rousing Game Five comeback and the solid Game Six win, you can understand why we thought the experience and the mental toughness of the Sox would win out over the youth and the big dreams of the Rays. And, if the Sox had brought their bats to Tropicana Field last night, the story may well have ended the way we wanted it to.

Well. This is fun, isn't it?

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"?

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.

It wasn't one for the history books. But the Bruins, while integrating some new faces and welcoming back some old ones, got the better of Colorado and opened the 08-09 season with a 5-4 win.

On the way to Tropicana Field, Terry Francona announced his starting rotation for the ALCS! And it's...a continuation of the rotation from the first round. That was anticlimactic. Daisuke will start Game One in St. Petersburg, Beckett Game Two, and Lester and Wakefield will take the first two games in Boston. Tito says he has equal confidence in all three of his big guns (even after Beckett's stinkeroo last week), and says the order doesn't matter as long as they all potentially get to start twice. The man knows what he's doing.

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.

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 East lead and probably caused a sleepless night or two in Ray Country.

The Red Sox came ohsoclose to sweeping the Yankees out of the picture in New York last week. And they came, well, not quite so close this weekend, as good Chicago hitting and a dearth of run support for Tim Wakefield doomed the boys to a 4-2 loss to the White Sox at Fenway.