SOX FIND ANOTHER WAY TO WIN

Another below average starting pitching performance bailed out by some timely hitting and surprisingly effective middle-relief work. Another ugly win, but most importantly: another win.

The Sox spent the first six innings squandering offensive opportunities. But Jon Lester was cruising until the 4th inning, when he allowed 2 runs. He gave up two more in the 6th before being replaced by Julian Tavarez. Tavarez pulled a rabbit out of a hat, stranded all three inherited runners and going 2.2 scoreless innings.

The Sox chipped away at the 4-1 Indians lead in the 7th when Pedroia knocked in Crisp with a single. Youkilis chipped away a little more with a solo shot in the 8th, his first of the year. Then in the 9th, a Lugo double, a Crisp sacrifice bunt, and a Pedroia sacrifice fly tied the game at 4-4. A few batters later, Ortiz singled, and Manny homered (#493, tied with Fred McGriff and Lou Gehrig).



Papelbon pitched a perfect 2 strikeout 9th for his 5th save. Paps is second on the team in strikeouts. Timlin got the win thanks to a perfect 8th inning. Ortiz also appeared to bust out of his lengthy slump with a couple of basehits.

Wakefield against Byrd Tuesday night.

Source:
MLB.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Mark Duncan

ANOTHER UGLY WIN FOR THE SOX

Of the Red Sox 7 wins this season, very few have been pretty. Either the offense was stagnant, or the bullpen ineffective, or the starter didn't last long. Sunday's 8-5 victory over New York was one of those games.

From a positive perspective, these ugly wins feature a few bad performances, but those are countered by some great play by others.

Daisuke had the ugly performance. It wasn't hideous, but it was still thoroughly unattractive. He went 5 innings, threw 116 pitches (only 62 for strikes), walked 6, allowed 5 hits, 4 runs, and only struck out 2. It was the Daisuke we saw a lot of last year: nibbling on the edge of the plate, not challenging hitters, not getting guys out.

But Matsuzaka was bailed out by some good hitting, and great bullpen work. The Sox got to Phil Hughes for 7 runs, and chased him out of the game with no outs in the 3rd. The 4-5-6 combination of Manny, Youkilis, and Casey went 6 for 9 with 4 RBI and 4 runs scored. Every Sox starter except Varitek got on base at least once.



The much maigned middle-relievers were the savior of the game, though. Daisuke left it a 7-4 contest, still very much in doubt. Aardsma came in and threw 2 hitless innings. Timlin came in to pitch the 8th, but he looked dreadful, allowing a solo homer to Giambi, then two singles before being pulled. Out of nowhere, Javier Lopez comes in and records 4 straight outs before giving Delcarmen the ball.

This should tell you how bogus the Save stat is. Delcarmen pitched 0.2 innings to end the game, a 3 run game, but won't be credited with a Save. If he had gotten 3 outs, he gets a Save. Had a runner been on first base when he came in, he would have gotten a Save. Silliness.

The Red Sox are already in Cleveland for tonight's ALCS rematch. Jon Lester goes against Jake Westbrook.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
AP Photo/Winslow Townson

WE BEAT LE SCUM 2-1!!!

Finally, after over a year of waiting, the Bruins have beaten the Canadiens! With the Sox winning multiple World Series, the C's dominating, and the Patriots nearly being perfect, we have forgotten the simple satisfaction of being an underdog and coming out on top. But the Bruins reminded us of that feeling last night with a 2-1 over-time victory.

Milan Lucic got the Bruins on the board first, and also got the first Boston lead over Montreal of the ENTIRE SEASON.

The first period ended with a scuffle, as Guillaume Iwearadress tried "fighting" Shane Hnidy. It looked more like Guillaume was trying to get lucky more than a fight. But what do you expect from the Canadiens?



Tom Kostopoulos tied it up in the second, and some missed opportunities by the Bruins kept it a 1-1 game through the 3rd. Then came the OT. I was in "The Greatest Bar" in Boston, just a couple of yards from the Garden, and I predicted a Bruins win about halfway through the over-time period. And I was right.

9:25 into over-time, a delayed penalty on Montreal allowed the Bruins to put 6 skaters on the ice. Amidst the confusion, Marc Savard slowly creeped in from the right-wing, across the face-off circle, received a cross-wing pass from Dennis Wideman, and beat Price to win the game.

Tim Thomas had a spectacular effort and made some huge saves down the stretch to keep the game alive.



Milan Lucic had one of his best games of the season, not only with the goal, but also leveling big hits, and forechecking brutally and efficiently.



The series continues Tuesday night in Boston.



Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BRUINS FALL TO HABS IN OT

This is what the Montreal Canadiens do. They "get their knees dirty" for their teammates, and thousands of voyeuristic Quebecois perverts cheer them on.

Over-time playoff losses are always heart-breaking, but I'm taking a lot of positivity from last night's 3-2 loss to the Canadiens. Ever since the first few minutes of Game 1, this has been a relatively even series. Some might argue that the Canadiens are simply turning "it" on when they have to, but they didn't do much of that in the regular season. During the year, when they got up 3-0 against the Bruins, they poured it on and would get 5, 6, 7, 8 goals.

The Bruins are not out of this series. They got to Montreal last night. They scored a couple of goals in the 3rd, and nearly pulled a win out of the Bell Centre, which is tougher than stealing steak from a bear.

The Bruins have a good chance of winning tonight. It's pretty stupid that in the playoffs they have to play back-to-back nights with travelling in the middle. Actually, it's beyond stupid, it's retarded.

It will be interesting to see who gets the start in net for both teams. Alex Auld is a very good backup, and could come up with a huge game. The Canadiens might stay with Carey Price (who may be tired after an OT game), or go with backup Jaroslav Halak, who had good numbers in extremely limited playing time.

With the back-to-back games, and the Bruins confident after forcing overtime last night, the Bruins win this game, and win it with relative ease.



Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
Dave Sandford/Getty Images

BC WINS NATIONAL TITLE!!!

After being snubbed for the Hobey Baker award (college hockey's Heisman), Nathan Gerbe went out and proved why he is the best player in college hockey, as BC rolled over Cinderella Notre Dame 4-1. Gerbe had two goals and two assists.

Gerbe scored at least one goal in all four of BC's tournament victories, compiling a total of 7 goals and 4 assists. Added to his Hockey East Tournament numbers, he had 11 post-season goals and 9 assists.

After two years of failure in the NCAA finals, the BC Eagles finally returned to the promised land, winning their third national title. This is also coach Jerry York's second national title at BC as a coach, and his third overall.

I worked at every BC home game this season, and it was nice to see one of the teams I work for actually win a championship.

Source:
ESPN.com
USCHO.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

SOX OUTLAST RAIN AND YANKEES

Josh Beckett looked like Josh Beckett yesterday. Kind of. It wasn't his most dominant start, but it was still a good outing. And it was certainly good enough to beat Mike Mussina.

Remember when the Yankees got Mussina? And seemingly in a panic, Duquette and the Sox signed Manny to a massive deal. Well now, 8 years later, how have those two signings panned out?

Manny's hit 256 HRs since becoming a Red Sock, and knocked in 811 runs. He's been named to 7 All-Star teams, won the 2004 Hank Aaron Award, won 6 Silver Sluggers, and won the 2002 batting title. Manny also has hit .321 in 9 playoff series with Boston, hit 11 post-season homeruns, knocked in 28 runs, and was the 2004 World Series MVP.

Mussina, on the other hand, is 103-65 with the Yankees, which averages out to a slightly mediocre record of 14-9 per year. He's also got a mediocre ERA of 3.95 with New York. He's never been to an All-Star as a Yankee, although he has won a pair of Gold Gloves. His mediocrity extends into October, as he's 5-7 in playoff baseball with the Yanks.



I think it's safe to say now that the Red Sox signing of Manny Ramirez has worked out much better than New York's signing of Mussina. We got Manny in his prime. They got Mussina in is decline.



And Manny was the big hero on Saturday, going 2 for 4 with a double, a homer, and 3 RBI (all coming with 2 outs). Manny's only hitting .277, but he's tied for 3rd in the AL with 11 RBI this season.

Beckett still has room for improvement, and eventually will return to being the Ace that he is. He wasn't bad against New York, just not great enough to win it by himself.

I don't know why some select people were worried about Jonathan Papelbon performing this season. The guy's been sick out of the gate. Yesterday was another difficult save, facing 4 batters, striking 3 of them out, getting the other to groundout. He got A-Rod, Giambi, Posada, and Cano. That's hard. Papelbon is averaging 2 Ks an inning.



Daiskue Matsuzaka looks to build on his strong starts tonight as he faces Phil Hughes in the rubber game.

Source:
ESPN.com
Baseball-Reference.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Winslow Townson
Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images

WANG COMES UP HUGE

The pitching match-up of Chien-Ming Wang vs. Clay Buchholz didn't favor the Sox, but the two actually dueled evenly for 6 innings before Mike Timlin allowed 2 runs in the 7th. Wang was nearly unhittable, as the 2 hits allowed demonstrates. But he wasn't his usually Wangy self. He lives by the sinker, which typically means lots of groundouts. But he had 14 fly-outs compared to 10 groundouts, and only 3 strikeouts. I'm not saying he got lucky, but it was one of those freak days when the balls were hit right at the fielder.

Pedroia reached base on what was originally scored a single, but later changed to an error, which could have caused controversy had Wang not allowed a hit after that. But Pedroia was eliminated on a double play. JD Drew got the second first hit of the game for the Sox with his 3rd homer of the year. Bobby Abreau could have caught it if he didn't take a chubby Little Leaguer's jump. Crisp got the Sox' 2nd hit of the night with a bunt single in the 9th.

The good news is that Buchholz looked good against an imposing Yankee lineup. The bad news is that Timlin didn't look good, which perhaps means the Red Sox still have middle relief problems.

I'll set the record straight here: Wang and the Yankees didn't dominate us. Wang allowed A LOT of contact, the balls just fell wrong for the Sox. The Yankees, on the other hand, got a few more bounces (and a few more walks), and went on to win. It was a much closer game than the boxscore would suggest.

Beckett against Mussina tomorrow afternoon.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images

LOWELL HITS THE DISABLED LIST, COREY RELEASED

Mike Lowell woke up with swelling in his injured thumb on Thursday and was subsequently placed on the 15 day disabled list. The injury may keep Lowell sidelined for 2 to 4 weeks. He'll be replaced on the 25 man roster by Jed Lowrie. In the lineup, he'll be replaced by Sean Casey, with Youkilis shifting over to third. We've also seen that Francona likes batting Youkilis 5th in the lineup with Lowell out. I'd prefer keeping Youkilis at #2, and moving Drew up to 5th, but that's me.

Mike Timlin will be activated today, and will replace Bryan Corey. Corey, who has a 14.54 ERA in 6 outings, is out of minor league options and will be designated for assignment, meaning he'll be released in 10 days.

Buchholz faces Chieng Meng Wang tonight.

Source:
Hartford Courant