While the Celtics are floundering out West, the Bruins have just finished an honest-to-goodness stampede through the South. And attention must be paid. Last night, the B's finished off a 4-0-1 Southern swing with a 5-3 win at Tampa Bay. Glen Murray scored twice, with Milan Lucic and Mark Stuart also scoring early. P.J. Axelsson took a Glen Metropolit pass and scored a shorthanded goal to put the Lightning away for good. Alex Auld wasn't......

So we were driving home from a party Saturday night, and heard on the radio that BC lost. Almost reflexively, we went, "Figures; as soon as we start paying attention to BC, they start losi....". Then we stopped and thought for a minute. Being reflexively negative and miserable just doesn't cut it when four of the five pro teams in town are either undefeated, in the championship game, or current World Champs. We know we're......

We sure hope Josh Beckett found time during yesterday's off-day to watch High Noon. If you haven't seen it, the plot is that Sheriff Gary Cooper has one day left until retirement, and a pack of mean outlaws are coming to town to wreak havoc. He tries to round up a posse to meet them, but everyone in town has a dentist appointment, or their hair is drying, or they don't roll on Shabbos, or......

The Red Sox were at home, facing down the Oakland A's on Tuesday night, but everyone had one eye on events unfolding in Florida. And wouldn't you know? Things worked out perfectly. The drama-filled Oakland game (only in September would one be able to string those words together) was decisively won by Boston and featured numerous reasons for the Fenway crowd to stand up and cheer. Tampa Bay managed to scratch together a 10-inning, 7-6,......

Let's ignore, if you will, the fact that the Sox seemed Friday night as if they wanted to reach a new club record for number of times they left the bases loaded stranded. Let's forget about the fact that Manny Ramirez is unlikely to return to the lineup during this series in Tampa Bay, which means he is officially (in our books, anyway) taking his annual September vacation. We can even push aside the feeling......

Earlier this season, when the Red Sox suffered a 2- or 3-game losing streak, we suggested that the mood in Red Sox Nation (a term we promise never to use again) was like the scene in Airplane! when Elaine got on the PA and asked if there was anyone on board who knew how to fly a plane. What movie scene defines Sox fans now? We've got to go with the one near the end......

We thought we might be able to squeak by with optimism (whether produced naturally or provided by alcohol), we thought that the worst was behind us. But here we are, rounding that final bend before we plunge into the postseason and...well...the Sox lost to the Blue Jays on Tuesday night, 4-3, while the Yankees pulverized the Orioles, 12-0. Here we go, gang: only two and a half games separate Boston and New York. Sox fans......

Yeah, baby! We all know that the Red Sox should be thumping the Devil Rays, but it's hard to argue with two consecutive hard-fought, come-from-behind wins from a lineup that's been painful to watch for stretches this season. Last night, the Sox surrendered four early runs to Tampa Bay, with starter Jon Lester throwing 65,431 pitches and only making into the fourth inning. Rays starter Edwin Jackson, looking like a Cy Young candidate (the Sox......

Long live the Slutter! There was much to celebrate in Red Sox circles last night, but at the top of the list, we have Jonathan Papelbon's brand (spanking) new pitch. The Slutter - a name that will leave mothers gasping as they cover the ears beneath their children's tot-sized hats and the cast of characters at the Cask'n Flagon cracking up. The Red Sox vernacular has expanded by leaps and bounds this season. We learned......

If the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were smart (and we're not for a moment suggesting that's the case), they'd look seriously into Tim Wakefield's "rolling" contract extension with the Red Sox, and try to figure out how much money it would take to lure Wake down to St. Petersburg full-time. Because it's possible that Tim's 19-2 lifetime record against the Devil Rays, and 9-0 lifetime record at Tropicana Field, are solely a result of the......

There are days when the Red Sox remind us of the Justice League of America - that inspired creation of D.C. Comics where a number of their best superheroes ally to use their unique talents, banding together to fight evil. Sunday was one of those days. Not that the Angels are evil, per se, but they clearly represented a menace to all that is good and just, or at least to the Red Sox' division-title......

Clay Buchholz is coming! The Red Sox have groomed and nurtured their up-and-coming phenom, and will turn him loose on an unsuspecting American Leage this afternoon. Well, not entirely unsuspecting, since it's been pretty widely reported. He has explosive stuff (if no gyroball), good command, and a great attitude, says everyone who's worked with him in the farm system. And he gets his first crack in the bigs today against the [Your Municipality Here] Angels.......

Boy, this one had "thrilling comeback" written all over it, didn't it? After the Red Sox pulled Tuesday night's game out of the grave, they spotted Tampa Bay a 6-0 lead yesterday afternoon. (Oh, inconsistent, Daisuke...what's to be done with you?) The Sox then started chipping away as they've done so many times. Jason Varitek's 2-run homer in the seventh chased starter Andy Sonnanstine to the clubhouse, then Crisp walked and Lugo followed with an......

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......

Well, if your game against Tampa Bay gets upgraded to "must-win" status, you had better make sure Tim Wakefield is on the mound. Wake owns the Devil Rays. And Wake, last night, handcuffed, bound, gagged and threw the Rays into the river, giving up only two hits in an eight-inning masterpiece. The Red Sox' home run boycott continued, but they did give Tim more than enough run support. David Ortiz doubled in the first run,......

We here at the Redux are starting to get awfully cranky. You see, we are running out of ways to tell folks to keep the faith and stay off the Zakim Bridge. We've invested a lot of time in the act of reassuring Red Sox fans, asking them to refrain from hitting the panic button. You'd think the Red Sox would help us out and do their part to keep people calm. That would be......

Oh, hindsight. What tricks you play on fans, coaches and baseball bullpens. It made sense, in some respects, for Tampa Bay pseudo-starter Jason Hammel to be pulled from Friday night's game during the sixth inning. Considering that Hammel, a reliever bumped up to starting rotation placement, had walked consecutive batters when the DRays were holding onto a precious 1-0 lead, the decision to turn to the bullpen was one that many baseball enthusiasts would support......

Two previous games, two total runs. Thursday night, runs were scoring every time you turned around. 14-9 Red Sox. Such is baseball. Recapping all the runs chronologically would take forever, so let's look at a few highlights. Like Manny Ramirez: Two home runs, including a bomb in the second that landed near Akron. Mike Lowell: three-for-five. And (sit down) Wily Mo Pena (!), who went 4-for-5 (!) with a 3-run home run that blew the......

Remember May? When this kind of thing happened all the time? The Red Sox and White Sox played a close, competitive game for six innings. Then the Chicago bullpen melted down in a big way, and the good Sox found themselves on the right end of a 11-2 win. The Red Sox had a 2-1 lead going into the sixth, when a J.D. Drew RBI double and a Coco Crisp RBI single gave Kason Gabbard......

It may not have been as impressive as the fireworks display later in the evening, but the continued presence of actual offense - beautiful, productive, run-scoring offense - at Fenway Park warmed the hearts of Sox fans and good Americans on the Fourth of July. The immediate beneficiary was Tim Wakefield, who improved to 9-8 after pitching six very fine innings and one-third of a bad one. He fell apart in the seventh, but the......

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......

Bostonist was walking past the hustle and bustle of Fenway Park on Friday afternoon when we finally identified that nagging feeling that had been with us ever since the Park Street station. We had seen more Baltimore Orioles jerseys, hats and T-shirts in an hour than we saw all day when we traveled to Camden Yards last season! What was going on? Everyone knows that the orange-accented Baltimore ballpark is known fondly in Red Sox......

This Japanese Word of the Day will, we hope, be brought to you by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will try to use his houri to send the Yankees packing tonight. The Red Sox took game two of the latest Ultimate Regular Season Series yesterday; Josh Beckett recovered from a couple shaky innings to hold New York in check. David Ortiz provided the big hit, as he is wont to do, with a two-run homer around......

We Boston sports fans are a funny bunch. While we cheer on the Patriots' hard play through those cold winter months, we're busy dishing, dissecting and debating the Red Sox hot stove season. And yet today, as we count down the hours until Dice-K takes the mound at Fenway, we can't get the Pats off our minds. Why? The new season's schedule is out, friends. New schedule. While we know that many will want to......

The Bruins pounded the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 last night. Not only are the Bruins winning consistently, but they are getting closer to a playoff spot. A few weeks ago, this would have been inconceivable, but the Bruins continue to surprise. It's looking like Marco Sturm is close to re-signing, and Patrice Bergeron seems to be recovering from his injury. After a series of spankings, the Celtics played the LA Lakers last night, 122 to......

The rumors started earlier this week that the Police are coming to Boston this summer to play a show at Fenway Park. There's been speculation for a while now that the Police would be playing a number of dates during the summer of 2007 for a 30th anniversary/reunion tour. One thing that has been confirmed is that the Police will be rocking the Grammy awards in LA on Sunday night. According to the BBC there's......

The Red Sox are making their way through a series with Tampa Bay before they come back home to take on the Yanks. It is still a long haul until we start getting nervous about every time they lose a game (which they’ve been doing a lot of lately). There have been a few items of Red Sox news this past week that don’t actually relate to baseball: Big Papi was apparently profiting. He spent......

OK, so this space is usually dedicated to musings and ramblings about teams from the hometown, but unfortunately, the Foxboro-boys bumbled and fumbled away a chance at a home-field AFC Championship game during the Denver debacle and Bostonians are forced to watch arch-nemesis Pittsburgh play the NFL's representative from the great northwest, the Seattle Seahawks in the biggest sporting event of the year, Super Bowl XL. The burning question for most this week in Boston-land......

Well well well... reports of the death of the New England Patriots' dynasty were greatly exaggerated. It looks like the champs will have a bit more than a cursory title defense this year, come January, and hopefully, February. After all the naysayers refused to jump on the Patriots bandwagon because their previous two victories were over “lesser opponents” (Buffalo and NYJ), many said, "come back to us after the Tampa Bay game." Well, Bostonist......

Tom Brady’s week can be summed up best with a reference to eclectic director Quentin Tarantino’s latest film(s), the Kill Bills. In the movie Kill Bill Vol. 1, David Carradine’s character “Bill” finds his former cohort and lover, Uma Thurman’s character, Beatrice Kiddo (a.k.a., the Black Mamba, the most deadly woman in the world) in a small Midwestern town on the eve of her wedding. Beatrice, who has obviously left her former life as an......