Thomas Paine said, "These are the times that try men's souls". Hamlet said, "To take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." Dr. Peter Venkman said it a bit pithier, as above. All true. The Red Sox are in St. Petersburg tonight to play the Devil Rays, and if they don't treat the Rays like the second coming of the Big Red Machine, they're going to find themselves in serious hot......

Your optimists can say that the Red Sox still have a decent lead in the AL East. That October is a foregone conclusion at Fenway. That Schilling is back and hitting his stride just at the right time. That's why optimists don't last long around here. Games like last night, when the Sox couldn't get ONE SINGLE measly solitary guy around to score against the Devil Rays, break their spirit. In the midst of first,......

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......

As fans, we can afford to be capricious. That's why the Kevin Garnett-to-the-Celtics rumors, which seemed way too expensive back in June when we thought we were building for the future, have us a little giddier now. ESPN is reporting that the trade talks are starting to swirl around again; the deal would still involve Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff (who is the Celtics MVP based on how much everyone lusts after his expiring contract), and......

You'd think that the story of last night's Red Sox/Devil Rays series kickoff would be the glorious-yet-atypical change of character demonstrated by DR pitcher Scott Kazmir. Sure, we'll get to that, but c'mon - something huge happened. Julio Lugo safely hit the ball! And then he did it AGAIN! It had been a long, rough road for our offensively challenged shortstop - a road with 33 seemingly untravelable off-ramps along the way. Different spots in......