What Is Happening...

John Lackey is absolute garbage. Jon Lester just went down with a back injury following in the footsteps of Clay Buchholz a few weeks ago. Jonathan Papelbon may be the most overrated closer in recent memory. JD Drew seems like he forgot how to play baseball. Kevin Youkilis seems to have the most obscure injuries every 3rd game forcing him to miss a game or two in any given week.

Jon Lester had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning, but didn't take the mound. He left with a left lat strain, taking away any elbow room that was to be had on the disabled list.

In the ninth inning. Papelbon came in, gave up a moonshot to Jose Bautista, his 28th dinger of the season, and had to be bailed out by a Darnell McDonald cannon from left field to home plate to gun out Edwin Encarnacion for the final out. Very questionable call at the plate, as Varitek appeared to miss the tag high as Encarnacion swung his right leg around like a horseshoe around a stake.

Either way, Tim Wakefield and the Sox are taking on Ricky Romero and the Blue Jays, who the Sox have had success off of already this season, tonight at 7:10.

Go Sox.

Sox Finally Rid of Interleague

Taking 2 out of 3 from the Houston Astros, the Red Sox are rid of the dreaded Interleague Play for another season. No more Papi at first base, no more Gonzo in right, life with a DH will once again reign supreme.

Josh Beckett spun another gem today, going 8 innings, giving up 5 hits, one run and striking out a season-high 11.

The Sox are going back home for a 7-game homestand before the Mid-Summer Classic. The Bash Brothers, David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez will get the nod to start for the American League, with Josh Beckett and Jacoby Ellsbury rounding out representatives for Boston.

Sox Pull the E-Brake -- Stop Skid vs Phillies

Terry Francona earned his 700th victory with the Boston Red Sox this afternoon in Citizen's Bank Park, as the Sox beat down the Phillies, 5-2.

Boston finished the month of June with a 16-9 record, after starting out 12-2 but now stumbling into July. Mike Cameron was designated for assignment before the game, with Yamaico Navarro getting the call to the Show. The infielder was called up to give the Sox some breathing room while Kevin Youkilis heals up from a foul ball off the foot the other night.

Jon Lester was lights out, going 7 innings with 2 hits, 2 walks, no runs allowed and 5 K's. His battery mate Jason Varitek led the offense with 2 solo home runs, batting 5th today in an always-confusing interleague lineup.

Sox are traveling to Houston to take on the Astros, last place in the NL Central with a 28-53 record. Given the way they've played against the Pirates and Padres, the Sox could be in for another struggle, but hopefully they can start out July like they did June and stay hot this summer.

How Strong Are You?! TOO STRONG!

Fresh off their 14-2 smackdown (with Bobby Flay) of the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox got up early and never looked back against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

In Wednesday's game at Cleveland, the Sox thumped 4 home runs with the bats of Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford, David Ortiz, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Crawford finished the day a triple away from the cycle and ended up 4-4, whereas every other player on the team had at least 2 hits besides Jed Lowrie who finished 0-5, and received a day off on Thursday.

(LIVE)Their second afternoon game in a row, and their first of a three game series in Detroit, the Red Sox jumped out with 5 runs in the 2nd inning, with a lot of credit due to Jacoby Ellsbury's 3-run jack.

The Sox should just play day games more often, apparently, as they have now scored 14 runs thus far, with the game in the top of the eighth.

Vartiek flies out to retire the side. I think I'm going to close the book on this one. I know our bullpen is bad, so I won't say that the Tigers just have one run. Crawford, over the past two games is 8-9, with 4 singles, a double, 2 triples and a home run. He is hitting .330 in the month of April, an unbelievable turnaround for him, and just what Sox fans have been looking for. No need for a fourth walk-off hit when your team wins by double-digits.

And as I say that, into a rain delay we go. Well no matter what happens, the team with the most wins in professional sports in the month of May has won their third game in a row over the Detroit Tigers.

Tomorrow, Tim Wakefield will take on a surging Rick Porcello at 7:05pm.

One Win Away From the Stanley Cup Finals, B's Take Game 5, 3-1

One minute and nine seconds into the tilt, the Tampa Bay Lightning lit the lamp. Simon Gagne was fed on a one-timer by Steve Stamkos that he slipped by Boston goalie Tim Thomas and through the legs of defender Johnny Boychuk.

The Bruins tied it up 7 shots later--which took them almost 25 minutes of hockey--with an absolute laser off the stick of Nathan Horton. The B's only managed 19 shots on the entire night, but scored 3 times to take Game 5, 3-1.

Brad Marchand took a pass from Patrice Bergeron that skimmed just in front of Mike Smith, and tossed it top shelf to take the lead, 2-1. With under a minute to go, Rich Peverley broke out down the ice to lock the game up with an empty-net goal.

Tim Thomas, brilliant again with 33 saves on the night, made one of the best saves of the entire season. The puck was launched off of Steve Downie's stick with about 11 minutes to go in the third period, but just in the nick of time, Thomas reached out with his stick as the puck dinged off of the left pipe and slapped it out of the fray.

The Bruins took Game 5 in front of 17,500 at the TD Garden, and are one win away from their first Stanley Cup finals berth since 1990. The Vancouver Canucks are also a win away from the Finals, and will host the San Jose Sharks tonight for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals will be from the St. Pete Times Forum Wednesday night.

Go B's.

Sox Fall to the Tribe - Again

(AP Photo: Mark Duncan)

Clay Buchholz and Justin Masterson matched up beautifully Monday night both going at least 7 innings, but neither of them factored in the decision. Daniel Bard came on in relief in the bottom of the 8th at Progressive Field in Cleveland, only to give up a double to Michael Brantley for the game-tying run, followed by another double off the bat of the white-hot Asdrubal Cabrera to slam the door, 3-2.

The Red Sox have won 7 of their last 9, and were leading for most of this game thanks to a solo home run hit by Carl Crawford in the fifth, his second of the year.

Buchholz took the mound tonight, giving up 4 hits and two earned runs over 7 and 1/3 innings and receiving his second straight no decision. Masterson's line was eerily similar, going 7 and 2/3 innings.

First pitch was at 8:10pm, an hour later than scheduled due to some passing showers over the ballpark, but once it was underway, the game took less than 3 hours.

Adrian Gonzalez continued his tear with a single tonight in a 1-3 performance including a walk, putting his batting average to .342. Kevin Youkilis' hit streak was snapped at 10 games tonight, going 0-3.

Scary moment in the top of the 8th when Dustin Pedroia, attempting to round 2nd base turned his left ankle, and had to exit the game. He was reluctant to put pressure down on the ankle, which he has had problems with in the past, including last season when he missed most of the final three months of the season. No word yet on the severity of the injury.

With the loss, Bard falls to 1-4 on the season and gets his second blown save. Since 2009, Bard only has 4 other losses, and is looking to figure out how to get back on the right track as quickly as possible. Bobby Jenks, similarly terrible this year, threw a 26-pitch bullpen session, and is looking to get his first action in a rehab start in the coming week.

Sox take on the Indians tomorrow night at 7:10pm from Progressive Field. With the win tonight, Cleveland moves to 30-15 on the year, and 8-2 against the AL East thus far.

Crawford Gets 3rd Walk-off Hit, Sox win 4-3

Photo Courtesy: AP/Charles Krupa


For the third week in a row, Carl Crawford has lifted the Boston Red Sox past their opponents in the bottom of the 9th inning with a walk-off hit.

After struggling mightily out of the gate, Crawford is slowly turning things around in May. Crawford is only hitting .212 on the season, with an OBP of just .249. But consider if you were in the second month of a 7-year, $142 million contract - you don't think that price tag on your forehead might make things a little bit tougher?

With his clutch performances, a certain weight has been lifted off of his shoulders, but the fans in Boston need more. Crawford will not make it the entire season off of the benefit of the doubt he is getting right now.

As for Thursday's game between the Detroit Tigers and the Red Sox, there may not be a better pitching match-up than that of Justin Verlander and Josh Beckett. Both teams scraped across a run in the second inning with the Sox taking a 2-1 lead after 4, but other than that, Verlander and Beckett roared through this game that was on pace to be completed in just two and a half hours.

That all came unraveled in the top of the 8th inning. Daniel Bard came in looking for the hold, but instead gave up back-to-back shots to Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera. Thanks to Big Papi David Ortiz's solo blast a half inning earlier, the game was knotted up at 3 apiece.

To the bottom of the 9th we go. Kevin Youkilis drew a leadoff walk, and Jose Iglesias came in to pinch-run. Big Papi hit a single to right-center, allowing Iglesias to move to third. With runners on the corners, JD Drew earned himself an intentional walk after his bomb in the 4th inning. Bases full of Sox, Jed Lowire had an impressive at-bat that ended in a bloop single and a force-out at home as Iglesias was forced to hold in case the ball was caught.

Once Ortiz was at third, Darnell McDonald was called upon to pinch run. Austin Jackson, playing shallow to avoid the cheap base hit, would not have had a chance on Crawford's frozen rope to deep center even if he were playing at normal depth. McDonald came across, and the Sox are now proud owners of a 6-game winning streak.

"You always want to get a hit in those situations," Crawford said. "You want to win the game - you don't want to go to extra innings. You just try to tell yourself to focus a little harder and hope for the best."

Crawford strategy has paid off for him once a week since the end of April. May 1st, May 9th and May 19th have all been walk-off victories thanks to Crawford.

Tonight's game is between the Sox and the visiting National League Central Division Chicago Cubs. This will be the Cubs first visit to Fenway Park since Game 6 of the 1918 World Series 93 years ago.

Doug Davis (0-1, 1.80 ERA) vs Jon Lester (5-1, 3.28 ERA)

Go Sox

Sox Walk-Off, 5-4 (11)

Jed Lowrie, who was supposed to be the Opening Day starting shortstop, is doing just fine as a backup middle-infielder. Plagued with mononucleosis for most of this season, the road back to the big leagues was tough. But of late, he's been on a pretty good tear.

Matsuzaka and Romero both gave up 4 runs in their respective starts tonight at Fenway, and the relievers kept the offenses at bay until the 11th, when Lowrie went deep into the Sox bullpen.

Rubber match tomorrow from Boston, Clay Buccholz (14-5) against Shaun Marcum (11-6). Go Sox

Ramon Ramirez Is Terrible

The Boston Red Sox scored 4 unanswered runs in the first 2 innings. Tim Wakefield gave up 4 in the third to tie the game up, but at the end of his 6 inning outing, retired 11 batters in a row. 6 relievers were used, and 5 of them gave up a combined 2 hits and 1 walk. Ramon Ramirez gave up a hit, a run, and 2 walks...and another loss.

Ramirez is 0-3 and the season, with an ERA of almost 5. I can understand putting him in the game to get him some more innings to see if he's going to turn things around, but not when the game is on the line, Francona, come on. But when you look at it, every starter except JD Drew had a hit in the game, they just couldn't string any together past the 2nd inning.

The rubber match between the Sox and Oakland A's is today at 3:07 EST. Clay Buchholz (10-4) is up against Gio Gonzalez (8-6). The Red Sox will look to win their 3rd series this month, and the first of their 3-series, 10-game West Coast Swing road trip.

Papelbon 50/50 Raffle

Even when he gets the job done, you still lose some sleep over it.

The Sox split with the Yankees in the latest 2-game series in the Bronx. After trailing the entire game, mostly by 5 runs, the Sox came back in the first game, only to see their lead squandered by Papelbon, giving up two 2-run shots to Alex Rodriguez and Marcus Thames (the walk-off).

Last night the Sox trailed most of the game by, surprise, 5 runs, but were able to turn it around against all odds and against Mariano Rivera. Papelbon came in for the ninth, and of course had to give up a run to make the game that much closer, but the came away with a save and a Sox victory.


As much as I want to, I can't give up on the Red Sox. They're finally starting to show a few signs of life, and Tacoby Bellsbury is coming back any day now. They're playing the Twins right now as I'm writing this, with Ortiz up in a big spot with 2 men on in the first. Scratch that, he popped out to left field.

Go Sox

Rollin' The Dice

Daisuke Matsuzaka finally showed Sox Nation that he can still play with the big kids. In his third start this season, Matsuzaka caged the Toronto Blue Jays for 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 9 batters, one below his career high.

On the offensive side, Varitek, Drew and Pedroia each had a pair of hits, with Varitek having the lone home run of the game, his sixth of the season.

Sox go for the sweep and look to remain perfect against the Jays this afternoon, as Tim Wakefield comes out of the bullpen and into the starter role to face Shaun Marcum.

Go Sox.

Sox Win 9-3

In the finale of the three game series at Fenway Park between the Sox and the Yanks, the Sox swung open the coffins with a 5-run third inning and take the game, 9-3. The Red Sox seemed to be banging on all cylinders, with the bats going, and Jon Lester giving them a solid 7 innings en route to his third victory in a row. Hermida hit his 4th home run of the season, ending the game with 3 RBI (19 total).

The Sox go again tonight in The Chapel with John Lackey facing Brandon Morrow in the first of three games against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Seriously?

Swept by the Orioles, the Red Sox were in desperate need of some home cookin'. The Sox were reborn in the Dirty Water of Fenway Park, embarking on a 4-game sweep of the Angels in which they scored 36 runs. Their record increased to 15-14, the first time they had had a winning record since Opening Night.

I starting writing this entry just before the start of today's (Saturday's game) and now that I've waited for the conclusion, I'm working to wipe the puke out of my keyboard before the keys get stuck together. Friday night, Beckett has them against the ropes for 3 innings, then pitches like he belongs in our bullpen, giving up 3 runs in the 4th, then another 6 in the 6th. Varitek got injured on a miscommunication over what pitch was being thrown with Beckett, Ortiz finally got a couple RBI, Beltre continued to suck, and the Human Laser Show went 0-5.

Today wasn't much better. The only positives were Darnell and V-Mart going yard for the offense, and on the defensive side, Beltre stayed true to form making his 7th error on the year. At this point, its practically an error every 4-5 games. I'm glad we got you for your glove though, you chump. Buchholz gave up 5 earned in 5 innings and was bailed out by a rain delay. Ramirez gave up a run, which was one more run than the outs he got. Schoeneweis gave up his usual 4 in 1.2 innings. Bard matched his one out with one run, and Jonathan Van Every made his second appearance on the mound, and gave up Teixeira's third bomb of the ball game.

10-3 on Friday
14-3 on Saturday.

Call me when the starting 9 comes back up from Pawtucket.

Game 4: Bruins vs Flyers

Boston took a 1-0 lead late in the first period, but the Flyers scored later to tie it up 1-1. That type of back-and-forth hockey was played for all 60 minutes last night in Philadelphia.

Taking a 3-0 series lead into last night's game, had the Bruins riding high, but their momentum was slowed down by the loss of David Krejci, after taking a hit from Mike Richards in Game 3 and dislocating his right wrist. The Bruins skated well last night, but ran into problems when the Flyers scored 2 goals within 5 minutes from the sticks of Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux. Milan Lucic scored early in the third period on a PPG to knot things up at 3 goals a piece, and then it was like each team had a fire lit underneath them. They skated furiously trying to net the go-ahead goal, and finally with 5:40 left to play, Ville Leino sniped one past Tuuka Rask.

The Bruins knew this wasn't the end. With 5 minutes to go, the Bruins showed why even though they had a rough regular season, they weren't ready to lose again. With 00:32 left, Mark Recchi scored on a wrister from Patrice Bergeron and Dennis Wideman, his second of the game to even the game out at 4-4. In overtime, it was an intense battle that raged on for almost 15 minutes before the previously injured Simon Gagne tipped in the game winning goal just past Rask.

Game 5 will be back in the Garden on Monday, where the B's took first blood from their opponents. One more win will secure a berth into the Conference Finals, a plateau not reached by Boston since 1992.

Best and Worst US Performances at the Games

BEST:

Bode Miller - Will have to probably pay for his luggage being a little heavier after he won himself 3 medals in skiing events at the Games.

US Men's Hockey Team - Forced OT against powerhouse Team Canada, and won the silver medal (3 days AFTER the higher-ups for the team had booked flights for the team to head back to the US...there's some confidence) Good job to those guys for battling every minute of those games.

Evan Lysacek - Hell yeah. Beating the self-proclaimed God-King of the Ice, Evgeni Plushenko in Men's figure skating. I bet that Gold looks a lot better than platinum, huh Evan?

Shaun White - There's not really a lot I need to say. Humans don't do that, Shaun. They just can't.

Shani Davis - The 27-year old, 6'3" speed skater from Chicago, who's hobbies include Taekwondo and fishkeeping. Oh, and he's black. Take THAT, world.

WORST:

Lindsey Jacobellis - If I had to see one more Vick's commercial with this girl in it... Busted right through a gate in Snowboard Cross. She better be booking a flight to Russia four years from now if she knows what she's doing with her life.

John Shuster - Not only embarrassed himself, but embarrassed my home nation in front of the world in one of the greatest sports to ever be played...Curling. 4 games in a row, Shuster. Not okay.

Apolo Ohno - Won a bronze and a silver in 2 other speed skating events, and he's only on the 'worst' list because of the doucher Canadian judge that DQ'd him in the 500m.

Johnny Weir - I don't even care, just know there are multiple reasons for his appearance on the 'worst' side.

Every country but America - For being silly and thinking they could get more medals than us.