Results tagged “yankees”

Let's face it. That was uglier than Minnesota's starting power forward. But if the Celtics are going to make a run at 70+ wins this season (and while PTI and the Globe and others are speculating about the possibility, we say, let's can that talk and let things unfold), they have to win games like last night. Trap games, against young athletic teams, on the second night of back-to-backs. And somehow, finally, the Celtics did.

After starting the year with a 2-3-0 record that, quite possibly, looked worse than the actual record did, the Bruins left Boston looking to play better hockey. Coach Claude Julien actually said it's not that bad. Bostonist will just agree to disagree. One quick trip to Dallas and a complete 3-0 victory later over the Stars, and all is agreeable to Coach Julien and Bostonist. Call us crazy if you wish, but some Bruins hockey was on display in the first two periods. Marc Savard asserted himself with two goals and Patrice Bergeron added the third score. Tim Thomas turned back all 27 Dallas shots for his first shutout of 2009-10.

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.

OK. So much for the AL East pennant. The Yankees all but clinched the division last night, taking the rubber match of their series at Fenway with a low-scoring 8-4 win. Most troubling is that the eight runs came at the expense of Josh Beckett, about the most worry-free guy on the roster. Nobody's worry-free today.

Bostonist has obtained a picture of the 2009 Red Sox just before they embarked on their make-or-break week playing their top AL East rivals. If it looks like Sonny Corleone seconds before he was perforated by Barzini's men, it's not a coincidence.

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.

Baseball can be an exciting, intense and creative enterprise. You wouldn't notice that after Saturday's run-filled spectacle that featured 10 pitchers, 14 walks, four errors, 24 runs and one torrential downpour en route to a 15-9 Red Sox win. Boston's powerful offense was on display, too. The Sox scored runs in the first four innings, including three, each, in the first two innings to build a 9-0 lead. Boston had three runs in four different innings.

Wakefield's been pitching out of his mind. Penny and Lester have been good, for the most part, but not great. Smoltz is still a giant question mark. Dice-K seems to have been rightly sent on the "Julio Lugo Not-Really-Injured Tour Of The World". The one constant, with apologies to Terence Mann, is Josh Beckett.

It's June. June 13. The game last night was the 61st game of 2009. But, it really could have been played in October. The last two World Series champions battled in a game the Red Sox won 5-2 in 13 innings in a game that was filled with great pitching, timely hitting and error-free defense. Bostonist is making no predictions but Boston and Philadelphia, well, hey, you saw the game. Admit it. You thought it, too. The Herald did it, too.

The Red Sox clearly felt their happy fans needed a little tension and drama last night. Why not? The Sox have proven so far this year that they can beat the Yankees in blowouts, in pitching masterpieces, in slugfests, in New York, in Boston, for richer, for even richer...why not save the good times for the end just once?

Why is Derek Jeter making this face? Is it just because the Yankees have now lost all seven games to the Red Sox this year? Is it because first place in the AL East just changed hands? Or is he just going loco after having to stand in the field for long inning after long inning while his pitching staff lets the Sox run around the bases?

Six games does not a season make. Even though some easily-swayed souls seem to think so. But regardless, the Red Sox are indisputably 6-0 against the Yankees so far in this young season, everyone's happy, and last night's game was about as good as it gets.

"This is a nice spring/summer day sometimes where I'm from, so, you know, I enjoy this," said Jason Bay. Bay, as you probably know is from Trail, British Columbia, a collection of 7,000 hardy souls in the middle of a frigid, less-than-hospitable environment*. So the Bronx must have made him feel right at home last night.

We were going to lead off with the Celtics, but yesterday afternoon was possibly the most frustrating and aggravating game ever, and so hard to come up with an angle on, that we're just going to talk about it later and start off with 2009's Play of the Year (nominations are technically open 'til December, but come on).

If there's anything this weekend has taught us, it's that there is a formula at play when the Red Sox and Yankees square off. As confirmed by the manner in which the Sox defeated the Yanks, 16-11, during a summer-like April Saturday, it goes like this:

The Red Sox and the Yankees are constitutionally forbidden from playing a game in less than four hours. That's the only explanation, right? Luckily for us, the Sox only really started getting their act together as the clock crept towards midnight, as a pair of clutch home runs gave them a 5-4 win and a 1-0 advantage in the 133 games these two old foes are slated to play against each other this year.

We check the ESPN SportsNation polls often. It's an addiction. Yesterday, the question "Who Will Win the Celtics/Bulls Series?" was red enough to almost double as the Reagan/Mondale election map. Not today, brother.

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, the year that he won the AL Most Valuable Player award for the Texas Rangers. (He also, um, hit a lot of home runs.) [Sports Ilustrated]

People aren't going to the Garden to see basketball games these days. They're going to watch helpless individuals devoured by lions. Such was the fate of the Dallas Mavericks yesterday; they're a good team, not a great one, and were torn limb-from-limb by a hungry, determined, focused Celtics team. Thumbs down, Dirk Nowitzki, thumbs down.

We hope you still love Mike Lowell and David Ortiz. Because the slow tango between the Red Sox and Mark Teixiera came to a sudden crash yesterday, as the Yankees showed up on the dance floor with a briefcase full of $1000 bills and took the slugger back to New York.

The preliminary 162 are over. The Red Sox finished their regular season with a split, got to wave farewell to the Yankees, and now can head to Anaheim with a fresh start. Well, except for the daily agony that's keeping Mike Lowell on the shelf for who-knows-long, the nagging problems with J.D. Drew, and now the news that Josh Beckett pulled a muscle and won't start 'til Game Three. Other than that, we're ready.

Someone switched pages in the script.

It wasn’t too long ago when the Yankees came to town for a five game series that was a make or break situation for the Sox. But in historic Yankee fashion, they threw us over the proverbial barrel and violated us. But now the tables are turned and it feels good to be on top. Well, in second place and first in line for the Wild Card. But still, it could be worse. We could be the Yankees. Last night, Liza Minnelli’s rendition of “New York, New York” was heard echoing through out the streets of the Bronx when the Yankees lost to the Red Sox, 11-3.

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.

It’s the last Red Sox/Yankees series to be played at Yankee Stadium. Honestly, this act is getting as tired as it did when we were getting close to the millennium. But we understand why, there have been a few historic moments between the two teams there and when you’re five games out of the Wild Card spot, you need something to hold on to. After a nail bitter in Toronto, the Red Sox had yesterday off to recover and get ready for their series in the Bronx. Sox also recalled David Pauley from Pawtucket to work out of the bullpen, in case Tim Wakefield has a rough outing tonight.

The Red Sox got some revenge on the Toronto Blue Jays and Paul Byrd got his first win in a Red Sox uniform last night, when they beat the Jays 8-4. Paul Byrd pitched for six innings, got tagged for 4 runs and struck out 4. Alex Rios and Lyle Overbay both got homeruns off of Byrd in the first and fourth innings.

The Sox took the day off yesterday, heading for Canada and hoping to pay the Blue Jays back for the whupping that Toronto put on them at Fenway last week. Paul Byrd, a victim of the Jays during that series, gets the start tonight against Shaun Marcum.

We don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know why you keep losing. But feel free to stop whenever you feel like it. We’re not asking for you to throw a no hitter all of the time. But this whole losing thing you’ve got yourself into, it’s not working for us; especially when we’re three games behind the Devil Rays. Thanks for listening.

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me," Manny Ramirez said yesterday. We're not sure; at this point, it seems like a match made in heaven.