The wheels are coming off the bus. After Monday night's debacle in DC and Tuesday's shutout at the hands of Florida, the Bruins desperately needed a strong showing last night, with Toronto in town and their six-seed hanging by a thread. They gave a strong performance, all right, but only if you gauge by smell. The Bruins opened a 1-0 lead, then watched helplessly as the Leafs pummeled them into a fine dust, scoring eight......

Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn once famously said of preachy movies, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union.". Well, Western Union is now out of the telegram business, so the Celtics had to send a message to Detroit some other way, playing stifling defense, fundamental offense, and grinding out a win that - well, that sends the message - that they just might actually be the best team in the East. Everybody chipped......

You'll have to forgive the Celtics if they felt like they arrived in Portland having lurched their way up the Oregon Trail. Three losses in a row doesn't quite compare to running out of buffalo meat and spilling a wagon into the Big Blue River, but combine that with the debacle in Phoenix, and you can understand why some of the team felt like they died of cholera. Things reached the lowest of the low......

You've got to be kidding us. We can't get anywhere near the rest of the media during Red Sox spring training (MLB doesn't believe in the journalistic credibility of blogs, can you believe it?), and the big press conference of the pre-season takes place in the Red Sox spring training complex PARKING LOT? We totally should have gone to Florida to try to jump in on the conversation that took place on Monday between Curt......

Today has all the anticipation of postseason award announcements, with all the anxiety of a Law & Order episode. This afternoon, George Mitchell's going to go public with his steroid report. There's all kinds of stuff in there about making improvements to testing and recommendations for ways to keep this from happening in the future, but all anyone really cares about is the "naming names" part of the process. Who will be implicated? Sources say......

The Sox got the message. After making decisions that led to the breakup of the 2004 champs, like letting Pedro (which we grudgingly understood) and Johnny Damon (hey, how's that working out for you anyway, Johnny?) leave, Sox fans stood as one and declared that if they didn't bring back World Series MVP, great fielding, clutch hitting, hard working, popular Mike Lowell, we'd...be pretty unhappy. So Mike Lowell will be right where he belongs next......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

Well, the Red Sox proved that they can win even when Colorado finds its offense. So it's 3-0, and teams coming back from 3-0 is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. (We're engaging in a little post-2004 thinking, but don't think we're not engaging in all the superstitions, wearing the same cap, drinking the same coffee, wearing the same underwear, etc., in the meantime). The Sox came out blazing, slapping Rockies starter Josh Fogg around for six in......

There's been interesting discussion prompted in New England these days: that we're the center of the sports universe. We don't know what will come of our shiny and new Celtics lineup, but it sure looks pretty. The Patriots have suggested thus far this season that they are as close to unstoppable as a team that has to play on any given Sunday (or Monday) can be. The Bruins have decided to stop lurking in the......

Ryan Montbleau Band Paradise Rock Club Saturday and Sunday Doors at 8 p.m., 18+ Ticket information With Nate Wilson Group and Tom Bianchi on Saturday; Dwight & Nicole and Jesse Dee on Sunday Website At first glance, one could believe that this weekend brings a perfect confluence of two of Ryan Montbleau's long-standing passions: making music and the Red Sox. On Saturday and Sunday, Montbleau and the rest of the Ryan Montbleau Band will return......

Sox fans, the request has been made of you: dig out your reddest of red and wear it proud today. The Sox brass hit the television news airwaves on Friday and asked you to show the Red Sox that you're behind them - and show the Indians that in order to get to the World Series, Cleveland is going to have to get past our team AND our fans on our turf. Fans have added......

There will be no Ultimate Battle of Good Vs. Evil this year. Evil couldn't get past the first round. Ten men left on base, a useless home run from Alex Rodriguez (bet it will be bold-formatted on the resume), and a miserable start from Chien-Ming Wang had the Yankees calling for tee times by the fifth inning. For Yankee-haters, the fun starts now. Joe Torre has already been given the Dread Pirate Roberts treatment by......

Well...that was a little scarier than it had to be, wasn't it? While Curt Schilling was completely dominating and mastering the Angels lineup, the Red Sox lineup took their sweet time getting around to dominating the game. So for a game that ended 9-1, there was an awful lot of fingernail chewing and knuckle whitening. The Sox did take the lead, insurmountable as it turned out, in the fourth, when Papi and Manny went deep......

In the bid to make 2007 the first season when all four LDS's were sweeps, the National League took care of business yesterday. The Rockies bid adieu to Philly, while the Diamondbacks went to Wrigley and broke Cub fans' hearts for the 99th straight season. Which, if you're a Red Sox fan, at least means that when we win the World Series, at least we won't do it on the back of long-suffering Philly or......

We're going to predict it now: regardless of how the coming weeks treat our local baseball team, the 2007 Red Sox season - sorry, 2007 Pennant-Winning Red Sox season - is going to go down as one for the history books. Years from now, there are going to be many people out there who exclaim that they never doubted that the Sox would win the division. They're going to talk about how they knew that......

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......

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,......

The Red Sox didn't play yesterday, so of course they were more successful than usual of late, picking up half a game on the Yankees (thanks, Toronto!). Now they face their final homestand, against Oakland and Minnesota. This looked at the beginning of the season like a rough end to the season, but both those clubs have been surprisingly bad this season. Remember, all the Red Sox have to do is win five of the......

There clearly was a bit of a letdown for the Patriots yesterday. After the excitement of opening day, and the motivation leading up to the Charger game, there was nothing particular about Buffalo to get the competitive juices flowing. And that's why, for most of the first quarter, the Bills looked like they belonged on the same field as the Pats. When starting Buffalo QB J.P. Losman was knocked out early, it looked like the......

We're going to the playoffs! Sure, it's been an awful September, for the most part. And sure, the Red Sox still very much have to somehow finish off New York, and ideally fend off the Angels and Indians to secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason. But the first step is officially taken, as the Sox rallied to beat the Devil Rays 8-6 and ensure they would, at the very least, beat out Detroit for the......

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......

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......

No lead is safe against the Yankees. In case 100 years of bitter history hadn't taught you that, the fiasco on Friday night illustrated the need to jump on them, as soon as possible, and stay there. These guys have more lives than horror-movie villains. The Sox apparently remembered that lesson sometime between Friday night and Saturday afternoon, as they used a Josh Beckett masterpiece and a barrage of timely hitting to rout the Yanks,......

It was all going beautifully, in a manner that would make any Sox fan proud: Yankees roll into town for a late-season showdown. The Sox, boosted by a division lead and recent series of dramatic wins at Fenway Park, seemingly plunge their bats into the heart of New York baseball by taking a decisive lead in front of a riotous baseball crowd. After seven innings, Boston is five runs ahead and sitting pretty after a......

Lots to cover today, but let's begin with a show of hands: who turned off the Red Sox game once Devil Ray killer Tim Wakefield slunk off the mound in the fourth inning on Tuesday night? It's OK, there's nothing to be ashamed of - after praying for Boston's rains to clear up so Wake could face the DRays, it only makes sense that a poor start from the ol' knuckleballer would drive the NESN......

Sure, he's not in the starting rotation any more - how do you follow up a no-hitter? But the Sox learned last night that they can lean on Clay Buchholz when they're not strong, putting him out for three solid relief innings that kept Baltimore scoreless and allowed Jason Varitek to drive in the winning run of a tense ballgame. The Sox had given Tim Wakefield a 5-4 lead, mostly on the 3-run homer by......

Manny's still hurt. Okajima is cranky. Team officals are anonymously bellyaching that bringing back Mike Lowell next year might be too expensive. Boy, it's fun being in first place, huh? Last night vs. Toronto was a fairly ho-hum game, with a disappointing ending. Curt Schilling pitched well again (See? All is not lost.), but Manny Delcarmen and Okajima gave up killer home runs to Troy Glaus and Vernon Wells, respectively, and the Jays avoided getting......

When Bostonist were kids, pitching the tennis ball against the chimney for five hours straight, we often dreamed of the day we'd get called up to the Red Sox, in the heat of a pennant race, tabbed for a sudden start, and then go out and throw a no-hitter in our big-league debut. Clay Buchholz is a slacker. It took him until his SECOND Major League start to have a piece of memorabilia suitable for......

Were we sore baseball losers, we might snicker about how Johnny Damon's version of a home run is about as wussy as his arm. We could hypothesize about what Yankee operative snuck into the Red Sox clubhouse to tamper with the Icy Hot Manny Ramirez and Bobby Kielty were using to prevent their backs from seizing up during play. We might even politely ask Cameron Diaz to quit jinxing our team and instead focus on......

Think back to the glory days of '04, when an odd phenomenon swept across Red Sox Nation. The day after we realized that our beloved boys of summer-turned-autumn were heading to the World Series, many a bleary-eyed Sox fan remarked that winning the Series would be amazing, unheard of, astounding. But there was an anti-climactic twinge to the remarks, because Shaughnessy's curse had already been broken for some of the crowd. The Sox had already......