RED SOX- As it turns out, the AL Central is providing quite the platform for the Boston Red Sox to rebound. After last Saturday's fiasco at Fenway in which Boston squandered a 9-1 lead against their archrivals, Sunday night's game against the Yankees was rained out before the Red Sox hit the road.
After sweeping the Minnesota Twins at Target Field, the Red Sox headed to the south side of Chicago for a four game tilt against the White Sox. Thursday's Game 1 saw Felix Doubront in his first start since Saturday's trainwreck against the Yankees going up against Phillip Humber in his first start since throwing a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners.
The Red Sox got on the board in the top of the first with an RBI double from Adrian Gonzalez and an RBI single from David Ortiz to take the early lead. Although Chicago would get a run back on a Paul Konerko RBI double, the Red Sox blew the game open the next inning with a grand slam from Kevin Youkilis immediately followed up by a Jarrod Saltalamacchia solo shot.
Doubront would go on to get his first win of the season and the Red Sox took Game 1 in the South Side by a 10-3 final.
Friday night's game in the south side saw Daniel Bard back on the mound as Boston's starter against ChiSox starter John Danks. The White Sox go out to the early 1-0 lead thanks to an AJ Pierzynski RBI double in the bottom of the 1st. Boston would go on top on a 2-run homer from Big Papi before the ChiSox would knot things up at 2-2 on a passed ball down in the bottom of the 3rd, then re-take the lead on a Konerko solo homer.
However the Red Sox would break the game wide open in the top of the 6th- after Cody Ross tied the game up with an RBI single and with the bases still loaded, Darnell McDonald cleared the bases with a 3-RBI double before coming home on an RBI single from Marlon Byrd to give the Red Sox a 7-3 lead and chased Danks from the mound. Boston would get 2 more RBIs in the top of the 7th- from Cody Ross and Kelly Shoppach and a solo homer from McDonald in the top of the 9th.
The RedSox would go on to replicate their 10-3 final from Thursday night, with Daniel Bard getting his second win since Monday when he came on out of the bullpen against Minnesota. Friday night's win in Chicago is Boston's 5th straight since coughing up that 9-1 lead in Fenway Park last weekend.
Saturday's matchup will take place at 7:10 PM with Jon Lester [0-2; 6.00 ERA] getting the start against Jake Peavy [3-0; 1.88 ERA]. The game from Comiskey Park will be televised on NESN.
ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was arrested in New York on hate crime charges stemming from an altercation outside the Midtown Manhattan Hilton as the Tigers were in town to take on the Yankees.
Young reportedly began shouting anti-semitic slurs at a group of men from Chicago and a panhandler wearing a yarmukule outside the hotel and knocked at least one member of the group to the ground before police showed up at the hotel.
In 2006, Young recieved a 50-game suspension from the International League after throwing a bat at an umpire while with Tampa Bay's AAA affiliate in Durham, NC.
BOSTON BRUINS- Although the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last season after no less than three Game 7s in the postseason, there will be no Stanley Cup finals for the Bruins this year as they were eliminated by the Washington Capitals in the first round of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Caps got off to the 1-0 lead in the first with a goal from Matt Hendricks before the Bruins got the equalizer from Tyler Seguin in the 2nd. After a scoreless 3rd, the game headed to OT where Caps RW Joel Ward scored the game-winner less than 3 minutes in- and apparently unleashed a torrent of ethnic slurs directed at him on social media. Both Washington and Boston later issued statements condemning the remarks directed at Ward, who's parents emigrated from the Barbados to Canada. [While some of the remarks appeared to come from Red Wings or Sabres fans, most of the comments directing racial slurs at Ward seem to have come from Bruins 'fans' who need to learn how the fuck to Google 'Willie O'Ree'- NANESB!]. Then again, the slurs directed at Ward also give Canadian sportswriters a chance to talk about something besides how no Canadian team advanced past the first round.
Tim Thomas made 25 saves on 27 shots faced Wednesday night while the Caps' Braden Holtby turned aside 31 of 32 shots faced. Boston went 0-3 on the power play (inlcuding one late in the 3rd) while Washington went 0-1 on their only opportunity with the man advantage.
On Saturday, Washington will go on to face the NY Rangers- who won their series against Ottawa in 7 games- while the Flyers will resume play on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils after nearly a week off.
Out in the Western conference, the Phoenix-Nashville series got underway with the series opener heading to OT (much like all but one game in the Coyotes-Blackhawks series went to OT) where Phoenix won by a 4-3 final on a Ray Whitney OT goal.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- The New England Patriots are clearly thinking 'defense' with this year's draft, trading up to take Syracuse DE Chandler Jones at #21 and Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower at #25 in the first round.
In the second round, the Patriots drafted former fighting Ilini Tavon Wilson at strong safety, although he's also had some experience at corner and could offer some versatility. Wilson was the 16th pick in the 2nd round, 48th overall while in the 3rd round, the Pats selected Razorbacks DE Jake Bequette in the 27th slot- number 90 overall.
BOSTON CELTICS- The C's wrapped up the regular season and first place of the Atlantic division this week with a 74-87 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the Garden on Thursday. For the first round of the NBA playoffs, they draw the #5 seed Atlanta Hawks. Game 1 gets underway from Atlanta at 7 PM ET on Sunday and will be televised on TNT.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NBA- The Laker's Ron Artest- who now goes by the name Meta World Peace- recived a 7-game suspension from the NBA for a vicious elbow against Oklamoha City's James Harden last week. Artest's elbow connected with the back of an unsuspecting Harden's head, sending the Thunder's top reserve to the hardwood with a concussion during Sunday's game in which the Thunder lost 106-114 to the Lakers.
The suspension was effective immediately and Artest missed the final game of the regular season against the Sacramento Kings. Artest will reportedly lose nearly $348,000 in salary if the entirety of his suspension is served this season- if the Lakers are quickly eliminated from the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, Artest's suspenstion will carry over into the next season [one more reason to root against the Lakers, I guess- NANESB!].
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