The Bruins clinched the Northeast division title with a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Thrashers yesterday. John Lackey was lacking last night and Texas' powerful lineup took advantage of him as they earned a 12-5 win over the Red Sox, now a surprising 0-2 on the season.
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A soldier from Beverly has died in Afghanistan. [The Salem News]
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Results tagged “revolution”
Here's the latest: Thomas R. DiBenedetto, President of Boston International Group, Inc., and a group of American investors are bidding to buy top Italian club Roma in April. DiBenedetto's crew reportedly plans to drop $109 million on Unicredit bank for a 60%chunk of the three-time Serie A champs. He wants to return Roma to greatness. DiBenedetto wants a new stadium built.
Scoring two runs a day isn't any way for a team clinging by their fingernails to the pennant race to vault themselves back into the contention. Especially if it takes 18 innings to score them. The Red Sox lost 3-1 to the White Sox yesterday afternoon, then went back to work at night and lost 3-1 again. Even with Tampa Bay losing, the Sox still lost ground, and their tragic number is down to 20.
Eventually, pluck runs out. This isn't the movies. And although to a man, the Red Sox will point out that math and physics haven't ruled them out of catching the Yankees or the Rays for a playoff spot, nobody's that optimistic after losing two of three at Tampa.
Wow. A lot happened this weekend. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it inexplicable. Let's start with the good news.
Sometimes you just lose. Sometimes a great player plays a great game and carries his undeserving teammates to a win that you never thought would happen.
We've got wins to cover. We've got a playoff matchup set, and another one developing with some bad blood. We've got near-injuries and shocking displays of power. And we won't mention T---- W---- or golf once, except for just now. Let's get started.
Three power play goals in the first 26 minutes? Who were those guys in Bruins jerseys yesterday?
The Celtics are beating good teams by double digits. They're ticking off All-Star opponents. They're 4-0 after dispatching the Hornets last night at the Garden. And most importantly, they seem to have locked up their point guard for a few more years.
Another even-numbered game on the schedule; another win. It's a more reliable way of telling time than waking up this morning and not remembering if your cell phone/computer/alarm clock made the change for you.
It's hard not to experience a letdown after a 59-0 thrashing like the one the Pats put on Tennessee last night. The schedule makers, though, were kind enough to put another winless patsy in the Patriots' path, and the boys responded, delighting Londoners (well, we like to think so, anyway) with a 35-7 mauling of the Buccaneers.
Technically, the Patriots aren't playing the Tennessee Titans today. In honor of the 50th season of the old AFL teams, the Titans are dubbing themselves the Houston Oilers today in Foxboro. But whatever they call themselves, they're a good (or so we thought) team that's somehow 0-5, and the Patriots are a good (or so we thought) team that's 3-2 and hasn't really looked like itself. Something's got to give.
Last time the Bruins saw the Carolina Hurricanes, Scott Walker beat Tim Thomas in OT to put an abrupt end to the magical 2008-09 season. Last night, they got together again, and the Bruins beat them on the scoreboard, in the face, and up and down the ice in a 7-2 pummeling that almostsortakinda erased the pain of last season, or at least redirected it onto their foes.
Clearly, winning the AL East is a low priority for the Red Sox. Considering how heated the Boston/LA rivalry's has become in the last few days, obviously Terry and the boys feel like another Sox/Angels series is the only way to clear up the bad blood.
Clay Buchholz, who has been throwing baseballs at catchers' mitts in the Major League since 2007, has finally decided that he has become a pitcher.
Maybe someday in the future - not even the distant future - we'll look back at yesterday's Red Sox loss as something good. No, wait, really. Maybe Roy Halladay's dazzling performance and total shutdown of the Sox' offense will cause some team - some National League team - to pull the trigger and trade for the Jays' ace. If he's out of the AL East and the Red Sox never have to see him again, isn't that worth a late-July loss?
So said Jonathan Papelbon afterwards. And if you're one of the millions who figured that (hour-long rain delay) + (10-1 lead) = (bedtime), we understand. Unfortunately, among the snoozing millions were the Sox bullpen, who turned a 10-1 lead into a devastating 11-10 loss in no time. This was ugly.
Some days you win, some days you lose, some days you can't buy a hit off a guy suffering from the flu.
Tommy Hanson, who started for the Braves and shut down the Red Sox 2-1, told his roommate/carpool friend Kris Medlen to be ready to start, because he wasn't sure he'd be able to make it. The Braves waited for Hanson between inning with wet towels and plenty of fluids. Then he went back out and humbled the Sox again. "If he was sick," said a grim Terry Francona, "I really don't want to see him when he's not sick."
Nick Green, who began the year as the Sox' third-string shortstop, may not stand out like flashy sparkles in the water or stars in the sky. But with Jed Lowrie out for who-knows-how-long, and Julio Lugo having been told that the Red Sox home park has been moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming (good move by the front office, by the way), the SS job may be Green's for the forseeable future. Keep having days like yesterday, Nick, and we'll all know why.
Hopefully, the Red Sox weren't planning on going out dancing after their first two games in Philadelphia. Extra innings on Friday, and an hour-and-a-half rain delay Saturday. At least Pat's is open 24/7 for a late night cheesesteak.
o...what's the deal with Daisuke? What's he really like? What's his favorite color? And why is he so maddeningly consistently inconsistent?
After winning his last start, we expected good things out of Dice. Better things, at any rate, than his 5 2/3 innings of Texas Rangers batting practice yesterday.
If you were in pain watching the Sox yesterday, you weren't alone.
Besides the existential pain of watching the Sox scratch out only four hits in their 5-3 loss in Toronto, there was the more immediate pain of watching Dustin Pedroia take a Brian Tallet fastball off the knee (he stayed in the game) and watching Rocco Baldelli slide knees-first at full speed into the outfield wall (he didn't). Baldelli's exit was particularly painful, since his two-run homer in the second accounted for most of the team's offense.
Well, Red Sox fans - it's OK to hate instant replay now.
For the first time since it was hurriedly instituted late last season, the umps went to the tape last night at Fenway, reviewing what was called a double by Omir Santos, realizing that it hit the angstrom unit between the top of the wall and a ledge, and called it a home run. A game-winning, pefect-Jonathan-Papelbon-season-spoiling home run. 3-2 Mets. Papelbon on instant replay: "No. Not a fan of it."
Sometimes, it takes a little while to remember how tense playoff hockey can be. When the Canadiens tied the Bruins 2-2 late in the second period last night, it all came back to us. Phil Kessel and David Krejci had staked the B's to a 2-0 lead late in the first.
Amidst all the sogginess, crankiness, and uncertainty of this weekend's "series" with the Yankees, we're forgetting one silver lining. Scalpers must be getting their butts kicked, after probably paying high prices for tickets that now nobody wants. They surely had visions of hundreds of dollars for a season-ending showdown, little realizing that it would be a messy, rainy matchup of Pawtucket vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that nobody really wants to go see, and the players probably don't really want to play. But at least tickets will be reasonably priced.
We'll get to the picks and the standings in a minute. The Sox and Rays were both off last night; the Twins and White Sox both lost, so realistically, the chances of them both making a major run and the Red Sox losing the Wild Card is slim. Very slim. But let's not count any chickens yet.
Are we ready to put last season's unpleasantness behind us? Are we ready to internalize that the exact number of wins doesn't matter, so long as it all ends with a three-game winning streak? are we, in the parlance of our times, ready for some football?
"I don't really like hitting fourth," said Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, after being moved in the lineup to cover for the ailing Kevin Youkilis. Luckily, at this point, Dustin can hit when he's hitting fourth, or eighth, or underwater, or with one leg pinned up behind his back. Dustin, to put it another way, is on fire. He went 4-for-4, again, to help the Sox batter Chicago 8-2, and now leads the AL at .327.
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.