World Cup-O-Plenty Sports Chowdah Update- Brazilian Whacks, Germany Steamrolls World Cup Host to Advance to Final; Magic Carp-et, Red Sox Earn Split of White Sox Series With Carp Walkoff; Hot in Cleveland, Lebron Announces Return

RED SOX- After taking two out of three from the Yankees in the Bronx to wrap up the month of June, the Red Sox managed to win exactly one game in Fenway last week, getting swept by the Cubs [and barely avoided being no-hit in the opening game of the series- NANESB] and dropped two out of three against Baltimore over the 4th of July weekend.

The opening game of this week's series against that other Chicago team [y'know, the one that had actually won a world series in the last 106 years- NANESB!] got off to a less-than-promising start when the ChiSox shut out Boston by a 4-0 final in Monday's opening game. On Tuesday, the Red Sox managed to get on the board, but Chicago erupted for a big 9th inning to put the game away and beat Boston by a 8-3 final.

On Wednesday, the White Sox once again jumped out to an early lead and were cruising along with a 4-0 advantage in the top of the seventh inning, but the Red Sox got on the board with an RBI single from Dustin Pedroia and RBI doubles from David Ortiz and Jonny Gomes to cut the Chicago lead to 4-3.

The bottom of the 9th started off with Jackie Bradley Jr being retired on a pop foul. With one away, Pawtucket callup Mookie Betts- who made his MLB debut in the June 29th game against the Yankees- was hit by a pitch and was on first when Daniel Nava stepped into the batter's box to pinch hit for Christian Vasquez. The decision to have Nava pinch-hit paid immediate dividends when he hit a game-tying RBI double to left center, bringing Betts home. With the winning run on second, Brock Holt would hit an RBI single to give Boston a walkoff 5-4 win in the bottom of the 9th.

For Thursday afternoon's game, White Sox starter Jose Quintana got some early run support when Jose Abreu hit an RBI double off of Jon Lester in the top of the first to give Chicago an early 1-0 lead. However, after Quintana cruised through the first five innings, the Red Sox bats got through in the bottom of the 6th starting with Stephen Drew and David Ross leading off the frame with walks before Jackie Bradley Jr got the Red Sox on the board with an RBI single that plated Drew to tie the contest up at 1-1. The runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd on Brock Holt's groundout before Pedroia grounded out to 3rd base. However, Big Papi was able to put the Red Sox on top with a 2-out 2 RBI double to give Boston a 3-1 lead.

However, that lead would not hold up in the top of the 9th when Koji Uehara uncharacteristically blew a save- allowing a leadoff single to Alexei Ramirez before surrendering a 2-run homer to pinch-hitter Connor Gillespie with one out. Koji retired Tyler Flowers and Leury Garcia to prevent any further damage, but the game was tied at 3-3.

After an uneventful 9th in which the Red Sox went in order, the game headed to extra innings. Andrew Miller came on in the top of the 10th to relieve Uehara and gave up a leadoff single to Adam Eaton. Gordon Beckham then sac bunted to move Eaton into scoring position but Miller got Dayan Viciedo and Ramirez to ground out and end the inning.

In the bottom of the 10th, Daniel Nava pinch hit for Jonny Gomes led off with a walk. Mookie Betts then laid down a sac bunt that got Nava to 2nd before Stephen Drew was intentionally walked. Mike Carp came on to pinch hit for David Ross and with the count at 2-2, this happened:


Carp- on only his 3rd at bat since going on the DL over Memorial Day weekend- wins the game in extras with an RBI single to left to give Boston it's second walkoff win in less than 24 hours and a split of the series against the White Sox.

The Red Sox have one more series to go before the All-Star break where they'll travel to the Lone Star state for a 3-game series against the Astros starting Friday evening. John Lackey [9-6; 3.84 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Scott Feldman [4-5; 3.86 ERA]. First pitch from Minute Maid Park is scheduled for 8:10 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- The Red Sox have designated catcher AJ Pierzynski for assignment. The veteran catcher was hitting just .254 with 4 HR and 31 RBI this season, but was struggling mightily in his last 18 games- going 11 for 62 and batting .177 since June 14th. In addition to David Ross, the Red Sox have called up catcher Christian Vazquez from AAA Pawtucket. In 66 games with the PawSox, Vazquez has been batting .279 with 3 HR and 20 RBI. Last season, Vazquez led the Eastern League with a 46.5% caught stealing rate.

In addition to designating Pierzynski for assignment, the Red Sox also sent pitcher Brandon Workman down to Pawtucket and recalled starter Rubby De LaRosa.

ELSEHWERE IN THE AL EAST- The New York Yankees have designated veteran outfielder Alfonso Soriano for assignment. Soriano originally came up through the Yankees system in 1999 and left as a free agent in 2004 for the Texas Rangers. He also played outfield for the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs before returning to the Yankees in 2013.

Meanwhile, Yankees rookie starter Masahiro Tanaka [12-4, 2.51 ERA] went on the 15 DL and is expected to undergo an MRI after he was reportedly diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. Tanaka had been the only bright spot in an otherwise shaky Yankee starting rotation and is in the first year of a 7-year $155 million contract.

The Yankees also traded starter Vidal Nuno [2-5; 5.42 ERA] to the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Brandon McCarthy [3-10; 5.01 ERA] in what many consider an attempt to stabilize the back end of their rotation.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- The first 'big' trade of the 2014 season took place when sough-after Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija was traded to the Oakland A's last week. Despite a respectable 2.83 ERA, Samadzija had a 2-7 record with the Cubs in 2014.

Samardzija not only played for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team, the Valparaiso, IN native was also an All American Wide Receiver for the Fighting Irish football team and was drafted in the 5th round of the 2006 MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs. In exchange for Samardzija and starting pitcher Jason Hammel [8-5; 2.98 ERA], the Cubs receive top prospects including SS Addison Russell, P Dan Straily, OF Billy McKinney and a player to be named later.

Samardzija made his A's debut in Oakland against the Toronto Blue Jays, going 7 innings and allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run in the A's 4-2 win over Toronto.

FIFA WORLD CUP- Wow- and to think some people call soccer 'the beautiful game'. The Brazil/Germany was so ugly that I think this picture of an attractive yet dejected Brazil fan should sum it up quite nicely, rather than any stills from the game.

Brazil- the host nation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup- lost their semifinal game to Germany by a 7-1 final. And by all accounts the game wasn't even that close. Germany got on the board 11 minutes into the first half and added four more goals between the 23rd and 29th minutes to take a 5-0 lead. The Germans would go on to win by a 7-1 final- probably allowing that one goal because they felt bad for the host nation at one point.

I don't follow soccer regularly, but I know enough that allowing five goals in the span of six minutes tends to indicate that you're not that good of a team. Apparently the school of thought is that Brazil was automatically qualified for a Word Cup berth by being the host nation, which led to some complacency on their part. Yet even if that were the case, Brazil still breezed through pool play suffering nothing worse than a scoreless tie with Mexico. However, Brazil advanced past Chile in the Round of 16 with penalty kicks after regulation ended with a 1-1 tie and the host nation then bested Colombia by a 2-1 final.

Despite the humiliating loss that has led to all sorts of internet memes, the Brazilians do have one more game left- a consolation match against Holland on Saturday while Argentina will advance to face Germany in the Championship game.

ELSEWHERE IN THE FIFA WORLD CUP- Since it's this late in the tournament and we're talking about four teams that AREN'T Team USA, you can probably guess that the United States has been eliminated from the tournament.

Although the USA was eliminated by Belgium in the Round of 16, Tim Howard's historic performance against the Belgians was what had everyone talking. Despite a sustained attack throughout much of regulation, the Belgians weren't able to break through until extra time.



Despite an unprecedented 16 saves by Howard, the Belgians would go on to win by a 2-1 final. Julian Green would score the lone goal for the USA- which also came in extra time while Belgium would be eliminated by Argentina in a 1-0 shutout in the following match.

NBA- Nearly four years to the day after LeBron James announced his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami in a fit of overblown self-promotion, the NBA superstar has announced that he will return to Cleveland.

Instead of an overhyped half-hour ESPN special, the decision was announced with slightly less fanfare in a SI.com article.

When I left Cleveland, I was on a mission. I was seeking championships, and we won two. But Miami already knew that feeling. Our city hasn't had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what's most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio

The decision came as a surprise to many given the bellicose and acrimonious reaction from Cleveland fans [and some in the Cavs front office- NANESB!] a few short years ago over the media circus surrounding his free agency.

NHL- The Colorado Avalanche have signed free agent Jarome Iginla to a 3 year $16 million deal last week. During the 2013-14 season, the 37 year old RW had 30 goals and 31 assists in 78 games played.

Iginla's departure leaves the Bruins with about $5.6 million in salary cap space and may go towards signing restricted free agents Torey Krug and Rielly Smith.

Hump Day Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Engineer Twin Killing at Fenway; Feat of Clayton, Dodgers Starter Kershaw Throws No-Hitter; Team USA Gets By Ghana in 1st Round of World Cup While Reigning Spain Mainly Plain; Bruins, Thronton Part Ways; Suprred to Action, San Antionio Wins 5th NBA Title

RED SOX- The streak-ey Red Sox followed up Rubby De LaRosa's gem on Monday night with a couple of pitcher's duels at Fenway on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Jon Lester got run support in the form of a Pedroia RBI single in the 1st and a Bogaerts sac fly in the 3rd [Brock Holt was the runner that crossed the plate both times- NANESB!] and was able to outlast former Yankees starter Phil Hughes in Boston's 2-1 win on Tuesday night.

Wednesday was an afternoon game as the Red Sox were getting ready to leave on a west coast road trip. Twins starter Kyle Gibson confounded the Red Sox bats, ultimately striking out 8 and not allowing a hit until the bottom of the 5th. Lackey pitched nine complete shutout innings, but got no decision in the afternoon contest.

The first RBI of the game came when Twins outfielder Chris Parmalee belted a solo homer in the top of the 10th off of Koji Uehara in the top of the 10th to give the Twins the first lead of this week's series at Fenway.

However, after Minnesota reliever Casey Fein got Dustin Pedroia to fly out for the first out of the bottom of the 10th, David Ortiz managed to tie the contest up 1-1 with a solo homer that wrapped around the Pesky pole.



But the Red Sox weren't done with the extra-inning heroics....not by a longshot. Speaking of long shots, that's exactly what Mike Napoli did with an 0-2 pitch from Casey Stein that didn't come down until it reached the bleacher seats in the triangle behind deep center field. Boston wins by a 2-1 final, sweeping a surprisingly low-scoring series against Minnesota after splitting a 4-game series against Terry Francona's Indians. Despite scoring a combined total five runs over 3 days, the Red Sox are 3-0 this week. Despite allowing an uncharacteristic homer, Koji Uehara was credited with the win on Wednesday and now has a 2-1 record.

Hopefully some of this momentum will carry over to the west coast as the Red Sox will resume play on Thursday night in Oakland. Jake Peavy [1-4; 4.53 ERA] will get the start against Oakland's Scott Kazmir [8-2; 2.05 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 10:05 ET, 7:05 PT- the game will be televised on NESN.


OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox starter Brandon Workman has lost an appeal with MLB and will begin serving a 6-game suspension for throwing at Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria last month. Despite Rays pitchers- including starter David Price- hitting three Red Sox batters, no Tampa Bays pitchers have faced any MLB sanction from the May 30 contest.

Also on Wednesday, the Red Sox released outfielder Grady Sizemore outright. In 52 games with Boston this season, Sizemore has struggled- batting .216 with 2 HR and 15 RBI. June has been particularly hard on him as he's lost playing time with the emergence of Brock Holt and has been batting .133 with only 1 RBI in 30 at-bats.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS- There have been only two no hitters in Major League baseball so far this season and both of them belong to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Wednesday night, Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw struck out 15 in an 8-0 rout of the Colorado Rockies. The only baserunner to reach was outfielder Corey Dickerson who reached on a throwing error by infielder Hanley Ramirez in the 6th inning, costing Kershaw the chance at a perfect game. Still, Kershaw set down the rest of the batters he faced in order.

Earlier in the season, Josh Beckett threw a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 25th. Interesting, Kershaw's no-hitter was the 19th called by Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully throughout his career calling games in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles- this includes no-hitters thrown against LA, the most recent of which was a combined 6-pitcher no-hitter for the Mariners against LA at Safeco field in Seattle in June 2012.


NCAA BASEBALL- The final four teams for the NCAA College world series are almost set as the Texas Longhorns got by the UC Irvine Anteaters by a 1-0 final in Omaha on Wednesday night.

A baserunning error by the Longhorn's Ben Johnson in the 6th inning cost Texas a run. Johnson hit the ball into the left field corner and advanced to 3rd base, but was called out after it was determined he didn't touch first base. Mark Payton then hit a single that would've easily scored Johnson to give them a 1-0 lead, however, the Anteaters ended the Longhorn threat with no runs allowed.

Instead, CJ Hinojosa got Texas on the board with a solo homer in the 7th inning to give Texas the 1-0 lead that held up thanks to the Longhorns relievers. With just the second 1-0 game in the college World Series since 1985 and only the 23rd homer in the CWS since the venue was moved to TD Ameritrade Park from Rosenblatt stadium in 2011, Texas will now advance to face Vanderbilt on Friday.

Meanwhile, Virginia awaits the winner of Thursday nights contest between the TCU Horned Frogs and Ole Miss Running Rebels. First pitch from Omaha is scheduled for 5:00 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

FIFA WORLD CUP- We're already a few days into the FIFA World Cup from Brazil and Team USA is off to a good start.

Rookie John Brooks was the difference-maker in Monday's match against Ghana when the substitute scored in the 86th minute to break a 1-1 deadlock. Team USA would go on to win by a 2-1 final, avenging an earlier loss to Ghana's 'Black Stars' from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After Monday's win, the USA will have nearly a week's rest to go up against Portugal on Sunday from Arena Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil.

For the World Cup, the USA plays in what some have called 'The Pool of Death' which includes Portugal, Ghana and Germany.

Meanwhile, it's all over for defending World Cup champion Spain. They were blown in by the Netherlands in a devastating 5-1 loss to open up the tournament with a rematch of the 2010 title game before being shut out 2-0 by Chile. For a bit of perspective, Spain allowed all of two goals during their 2010 run in South Africa.

NBA FINALS- In a rematch of the 2013 NBA title that saw Miami win it in 7 games against San Antionio, the 2014 edition was nearly all San Antonio. The Spurs closed out the series with a exclamation point, crushing Miami by a 104-87 final in Game 5, and it wasn't even that close.

Forward Kawhi Leonard was named the tournament MVP and the title was head coach Greg Popovich's fifth since starting his tenure in San Antonio in 1996.

NFL- In a ruling from the US Trademark and Patent office this week, the Washington Redskins may lose copyright protection for their name and logo after the Agency's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the name was disparaging of Native Americans.

The Redskins organization announced that they would appeal the ruling and the team's copyrighted name and logo will still be protected during that time. While a number of Native American groups [including some of the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII- NANESB!] have said they have no issue with the Redskins name, a number of local and federal politicians- including US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D- NV] have called upon the organization to change names and threatening legal or legislative action to do so [because all the other problems in America- ESPECIALLY on Indian reservations- have been solved- NANESB!].

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has so far resisted pressure to change the Redskins name and mascot. The team was originally formed in 1932 as the Boston Braves and played at Fenway Park before moving to Washington DC in 1937.


BOSTON BRUINS- The Boston Bruins have decided not to re-sign defenseman Shawn Thornton. The 36 year old became a free agent at the end of the season.

Thornton, who has been with Boston since 2007 has been in two Stanley Cup finals, winning it against Vancouver in 7 games in 2011. However, at the end of the season Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli indicated that the game was moving away from the fisticuffs that Thornton specialized him and that they would make a decision about his future in Boston over the next few weeks. More recently, Thornton received a 15 suspension last season for his beatdown of Pittsburgh Penguins enforcer Brooks Orpik after Thornton blindsided him and dragged him down to the ice.

The announcement allows Thornton to pursue other offers as a free agent and a number of teams would be interested in having a veteran player with his playoff experience on the ice.

Break A Leg Sports Chowdah Update- Campbell Gone, But Bruins Take 3-0 Series Lead in Eastern Conference Finals; Big Papi Makes Rangers Pay

Steve Babineau/Getty Images

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS- To be honest, this was the kind of game I was expecting from Pittsburgh all along.

Although the Bruins got out the early 1-0 lead against Pittsburgh in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Garden on Wednesday night, this would not be a repeat of Monday night's game 2 blowout.

David Krejci put the Bruins on the board with a quick even strength goal- his 9th of the postseason- just 1:42 into the first period, the Bruins first shot of the game as it turned out. After that, getting one past Pittsburgh's Tomas Vokoun was about as easy as getting one past a brick wall.

Not quite nine minutes into the second, Chris Kunitz got the Penguins on the board with an even strength goal. With the game tied at 1-1 and the Penguins on the power play late in the second, Bruins F Greg Campbell slid down to block a Evgeni Malkin shot before getting back up and limping around for another 40 seconds- attempting to block another shot and chipping the puck out during the remainder of his shift. As it turned out, the shot broke Campbell's right leg and the forward will miss the remainder of the season.

With the game deadlocked at 1-1 and both Rask and Vokoun turning aside everything that came their way in the 3rd, the game headed to overtime. Despite a trio of power plays in the first OT, the Bruins still weren't able to get anything by Vokoun and the game remained deadlocked 1-1 heading into the second OT.

With just under five minutes remaining in the second overtime, it almost looked as though we'd be heading for a 3rd OT until this happened.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, Patrice Bergeron ended Game 3 on a tip in that got past Vokoun to give Boston the 2-1 win and a seemingly commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

Rask turned aside 53 shots throughout the night (29 of those shots coming in the 3rd period or OT) while Vokoun stopped 38. Neither team capitalized on the power play, with the Bruins going 0-5 and the Penguins going 0-6. The Bruins have a chance to sweep the Penguins and punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final with a Game 4 win on Friday night. Game 4 will get underway Friday night at 8:00 ET from the Garden with the game being televised on the NBC Sports Network and the CBC.

As an aside, let me just pose the question: How big was Wednesday night's win? Think about it- instead of Pittsburgh cutting the series lead in half with no Campbell, the Bruins are now firmly in control of their own destiny and one game away from returning to the Stanley Cup Final.

ELSWHERE IN THE NHL- A go-ahead goal from Chicago's Marian Hossa early in the 3rd period broke a 2-2 deadlock and handed the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings their first home loss of the postseason on Thursday night. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford turned aside 19 of 21 shots faced and Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell also scored for the Hawks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Like the Bruins, one more win separates the Blackhawks from a return to the Stanley Cup. Should both the Bruins and Blackhawks advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, this will be the first time since the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals that two Original Six teams will be in the Championship game.

Charles Krupa- AP Photo

RED SOX- After exploding for 17 runs on Monday, the Red Sox bats were fairly quiet against Texas starter Alexi Ogando and the Rangers bullpen on Wednesday night. Boston managed only five hits and left 8 runners on base in their 3-2 loss against the Rangers, setting up a rubber game for Thursday night.

Serving as the Rangers DH, Jeff Baker got the Rangers out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second with a shot off of Jon Lester. In the top of the 3rd inning, former Red Sox 3B Adrian Beltre would add to the Texas lead with a 1-out solo homer [the Red Sox were fortunate it wasn't a 2-run blast as 1B was thrown out attempting to stretch a single into a double to lead off the inning- NANESB!].

The Red Sox finally got on the board and cut into the Texas lead after a 2-out 2-RBI double by Dustin Pedroia off of Rangers starter Derek Holland in the bottom of the 3rd. Things would look promising for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 5th after Ellsbury belted a ground-rule double to start off the bottom half of the frame. Gomes singled to left to bring Ellsbury within 90 feet of home, but was tagged out by Texas catcher AJ Pierzynski at home when he tried scoring on a fielder's choice off the bat of Pedroia. Big Papi then hit into a double play to end the inning and seemingly kill the Red Sox momentum.

In the bottom of the 7th, Ellsbury once again led off the inning with a double off of Texas reliever Robbie Ross. Gomes followed that up with a single, and while Pedroia struck out, Ross walked Ortiz to load the bases. Rangers manager Ron Washington then pulled Ross for former Blue Jay Jayson Frasor, and this time Ellsbury came home to tie the game on a fielder's choice hit by Mike Napoli. Although Daniel Nava would strike out to end the inning, the Red Sox bullpen would pitch two shutout innings against Texas.

Michael Kirkman came in to pitch the bottom of the 9th for the Rangers and immediately gave up a leadoff double to the deepest part of the park to Johnny Gomes. Ron Washington then counter-intuitively had Kirkman walk Pedroia so they could pitch to Big Papi. Big Papi responded by doing this:

Instead of the Rangers running the risk of any hit from Pedroia bringing home Gomes and Texas losing by a 4-3 final, Big Papi blasts the first pitch he sees into the Texas bullpen for the 6-3 win. The Red Sox take two out of three from the AL West leaders, wrapping up the regular season series in dramatic fashion.

Despite leaving 10 runners stranded, the Red Sox had a pretty good night in the batter's box. Both Gomes and Ellsbury went 4-5 on the night and Big Papi's 3-run homer was his first hit of the evening. Neither starter factored into the decision- Andrew Bailey was credited with the win and Kirkman gets the loss.

The Red Sox will next host the Anaheim Angels over the weekend, with Felix Doubront [4-2; 4.88 ERA] will get the start against the Angels' Tommy Hanson [2-2; 4.19 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET [weather permitting- NANESB!] and the game will be televised on NESN.

NBA FINALS- Despite the advanced age of some of their marquee players and nine days off, the San Antonio Spurs showed no signs of rust in Thursday night's opening game of the 2013 NBA Finals. The last time LeBron James faced the Spurs was the 2007 NBA finals when he was still with Cleveland. Despite professing to be fifty times better, his triple double on Thursday night wasn't enough to get the Eastern Conference champs past the Spurs. San Antonio point guard Tony Parker had 21 points on the night- 10 of them coming in the 4th quarter as the Spurs rallied, but none more important than this one late in the 4th.

Parker quiets the home crowd with a late buzzer-beater to give the Spurs some insurance. San Antonio wins Game 1 of the NBA finals by a final of 92-88.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Grimm Prognosis for Rangers in Game 1 at Fenway; MLB Expected to Dish Out Suspensions Over "BALCO East" Clinic; Fit For a King- LA Shows Signs of Life in Western Conference Final

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

RED SOX- If Ryan Demptser was worried about getting some run support in pursuit of only his third win of the season, the Red Sox bats put those concerns to rest quickly on Tuesday night's home game against the Rangers.

Rookie Texas starter Justin Grimm lasted only 1⅔ innings and surrendered eight earned runs, and the Red Sox were just getting started. Among the second inning highlights was rookie Jackie Bradley Jr hitting his first career homer- a 2-run blast to make it 4-0 at the time. After Grimm gave up a single to Daniel Nava and walked Mike Carp, the Rangers starter got Dustin Pedroia to fly out before Big Papi belted a 2-RBI triple off of him into the triangle at center field. Ortiz hardly had time to catch his breath from ambling around the bases before coming home on a Mike Napoli sac fly. Grimm would then give up a double to Saltalamacchia before getting the hook from manager Ron Washington.

Boston would jump on top by an 8-0 margin in the second inning and never look back from there. After getting swept by the Rangers in Arlington last month, the Red Sox teed off on Grimm and the Texas bullpen, notching 19 hits in their 17-5 win over the Rangers. There were literally too many hits to count, but the highlights included a slumping Stephen Drew going 4-5 with a homer and 2 RBI, Mike Carp going 3-4 with a homer and 3 RBI, Jackie Bradley Jr's going 1-5 and with 3 RBI- including his first career homer- and Big Papi's first triple since 2011. The 17 runs represents a season best from the Red Sox.

Dempster went 7 innings, allowing five hits and three earned runs and striking out six for just his 3rd win of the season and Jason Frasor is the only pitcher out of the Texas bullpen who didn't allow a hit on Tuesday night.

As gratifying as the win was, it still only counts as one game and the two teams will go back at it on Wednesday night. John Lackey [3-5; 2.96 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Alexi Ogando [4-2; 3.08 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET and the game will be televised on NESN and ESPN2.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- The head of a Miami-area clinic accused of supplying performance enhancing drugs to MLB players has agreed to be interviewed by the league, which will likely result in some big-name suspensions according to ESPN.

Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players.

One source familiar with the case said the commissioner's office might seek 100-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Braun and other players, the penalty for a second doping offense. The argument, the source said, is the players' connection to Bosch constitutes one offense, and previous statements to MLB officials denying any such connection or the use of PEDs constitute another.

Sources said Bosch will meet with MLB officials in New York on Friday to begin sharing information and materials. He is expected to meet with lawyers and investigators for several days. The announcement of suspensions could follow within two weeks.

Sources said discussions between Bosch and MLB were delayed while Bosch's lawyers spoke to the U.S. Attorney's office to get a sense of what sort of legal jeopardy Bosch might face. Before he would agree to a deal, sources said, he wanted an assurance that MLB could help mitigate any criminal exposure. MLB officials promised to do what they could, but do not have the power to stop a federal criminal investigation.

Investigators have had records naming about 20 players for more than a month. But without a sworn statement from Bosch that the records are accurate and reflect illicit interactions between the players and the self-described biochemist, the documents are little more than a road map.

Besides Rodriguez and Braun, other players named in the Biogenesis client list include Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, Nelson Cruz, Francisco Cervelli, Jesus Montero and many others who are identified by codename.

A spokeswoman for Yankees 2B Robinson Cano's foundation also appears on the client list, but according to MLB sources, the New York infielder is in no immediate danger of suspension.

The New York Yankees likely anticipated the news about the Biogenesis client list- at least as far as A-Rod was concerned. Over the weekend, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner made comments expressing his disappointment in the third baseman who signed a new 10-year $275 million contract in 2007. Yankees GM Brian Cashman also stated in an interview that A-Rod clearly hadn't lived up to his massive contract. It's likely these statements were made during the series against the Red Sox over the weekend to preempt any announcement from MLB regarding A-Rod's involvement in the Biogenesis labs scandal.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS- Although they fell into a quick 0-2 hole in the Western Conference finals, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings remain undefeated at home in the postseason, and Tuesday night was no different.

Like Game 1 of the western Conference Finals, the Kings got out to an early 1-0 lead. However, unlike Game 1, Los Angeles was able to maintain their lead- although it looked somewhat tenuous in the 3rd period.

Justin Williams put LA on the board just 3:21 into the game and Slava Voynov got what would prove to be the game-winner six and a half minutes into the second period. Midway through the second period, Chicago's Duncan Keith hit Jeff Carter with a high stick. Carter would leave the game and require multiple stitches while the Blackhawks are waiting on word from director of player safety Brendan Shanahan on whether or not Keith will receive a suspension.

Chicago got on the board and cut the lead in half in the closing seconds of the second period on an unassisted goal by Bryan Bickell. Kings netminder Jonathan Quick would be kept busy in the third, but Dwight King would clinch the game late for LA as he tallied an empty-netter to put the Kings on top 3-1.

The series will resume will LA trailing 2 games to 1 on Thursday night. Wednesday night's NHL action will feature the Game 3 of the Eastern conference finals from Boston as the Bruins look to go up 3-0 on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

NBA- After a decisive 7th game against the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat are the Eastern Conference champions. The Heat bested the Pacers by a 99-76 final in Game 7 on Monday night. Miami's LeBron James led scoring for the Heat with 32 points, 8 rebounds and four assists on the night.

The Heat will face the San Antonio Spurs, who completed a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies a week prior to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Game one is set for Thursday night in Miami and will get underway at 9:00 ET. The game will be televised on ABC.

OTHER NBA NEWS- Point guard Jason Kidd has announced his retirement from the NBA this week. Kidd was named co-rookie of the year along with Grant Hill back in 1995 and was an all-star ten times throughout his 19 year career. In addition to leading the NBA in steals in 2002 and assists per game in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004, Kidd also won a gold medal with the US Men's Olympic basketball team during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

After playing for the Cal Golden Bears, Kidd played for the Mavericks, Suns, Nets and most recently, the New York Knicks.

Sports Chowdah Update- National League Comes Up Giant in Mid-Summer Classic; Ray Allen Takes a Shine to South Beach

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

ALL STAR GAME- Well, one possible upside of having so few Red Sox players at this year's All Star Game is that they can't be blamed for the colossal trainwreck that was the American League's performance. I would say Ron Washington manages the American League All Stars like President Obama manages the economy, except Washington's performance isn't costing anybody their jobs.

The wheels came off to the AL in the top of the first after Detroit's Justin Verlander got touched up for five runs. Milwaukee's Ryan Braun scored the first of many runs with a 1-out RBI double. After striking out Joey Votto, Verlander then walked the Cardinals' Carlos Beltran and the Giants' Buster Posey before Posey's teammate- Giants infielder Pablo Sandoval- cleared the bases with a 3-RBI triple. For good measure, Atlanta's Dan Uggla brought Sandoval home on an RBI single for the 5th run of the inning allowed by Verlander.

In the bottom of the first, the Yankee's Derek Jeter led off with a single, but he would be the only batter to even reach base until the bottom of the 4th. By then, the NL All-Stars would add 3 more runs- an RBI single from St Louis' Matt Holliday and a 2-run homer from the Giants' Melky Cabrera off of the Rangers' Matt Harrison.

And that would basically be it as the National League cruised to an easy-looking 8-0 win. San Francisco Giants players accounted for 5 of the NL's 8 RBI's and the winning pitcher was Giants starter Matt Cain who allowed one hit over two complete innings of work. Cabrera was also named MVP of the All Star game.

This is the third straight season which the National League has won the All-Star gam and the largest margin of victory in the history of the Mid Summer Classic. The win means that once again, the NL Pennant winner will have the first two games of the World Series at home.

Detroit's Prince Fielder was the winner of Monday night's Home Run Derby at Kauffman Stadium, besting the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista 12-7 in the final round.

Next year's All Star game is slated to have the Bill Maher-funded New York Mets play host in Queens at Citi Field.

Jim Rogash- Getty Images

RED SOX- After dropping three out of four games to the Yankees the weekend before the All Star break, the Red Sox hit the halfway mark at .500.

Although 2B Dustin Pedroia went on the DL, one pleasant surprise for Red Sox fans has been the performance of Pedro Ciriaco since getting called up from Pawtucket to play second base. Seeing limited time with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season, Ciriaco was batting .301 with four homers and 21 RBIs through 64 games with the Paw Sox this season.

In just three games with Boston, Ciricao is batting .538 with 4 RBI, 2 stolen bases and 4 runs scored.

The Red Sox resume regular season play on Friday when they travel to Tampa Bay for a 3-game series against the Rays. Franklin Morales [1-2; 3.50 ERA] will get the start against the Ray's Jeremy Hellickson [4-5; 3.41 ERA] on Friday the 13th. The game is scheduled to get underway at 7:10 ET and will be televised on NESN and FOX sports Florida. DirecTV Sattelite and Time Warner Cable subscribers will reportedly be getting a free week of baseball with MLB Extra Innings being shown for free for the first week of the second half of the baseball season.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Outfielder Carl Crawford is expected to return to the diamond in Pawtucket on Thursday evening for what could be his final rehab start before heading back to Boston if all goes well. Scott Podsednik, also rehabbing in Rhose Island, is expected to start at DH for the Paw Sox on Thursday as well.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AL EAST- The Toronto Blue Jays have locked up power-hitting first baseman Edwin Encarnacion before he was slated to become a free agent at the end of this season.

Encarnacion has been hitting .295 with 23 homers and 58 RBIs at the halfway point of this season. The 3 year extension is reportedly worth $27 million.

BOSTON CELTICS- Like many predicted, the Big Three era in Boston has come to an end with the defending Champion Miami Heat luring Ray Allen out of Beantown.

Although the C's had agreed to a contract extension with Kevin Garnett earlier in the offseason, Boston's signing of free agent guard Jason Terry from the Dallas Mavericks earlier this month brought a level of uncertainty for Allen Assuming he had stayed with the Celtics.

Allen, the NBA's leading 3-point shooter, was signed to a 3 year contract that garuntees $3 million in the first year with Miami the same day the heat announced they had reached an agreement with free agent forward Rashard Lewis who most recently had played for the Washington Wizards.

OTHER CELTICS NEWS- The Celtics had two first round picks in the 2012 NBA draft, selecting Jared Sullinger from Ohio State and Syracuse's Fab Melo. Melo's Orangemen teammate Kris Joseph was selected by the C's in the second round.

Celtics head coach Doc Rivers' son- North Carolina's Austin Rivers- was the 10th overall pick in this year's NBA draft and selected by the New Orleans Hornets.

Miami Vice Sports Chowdah Update- Heat Turned Up All the Way; Fish Are Squished & Youth Is Served At Fenway; Odd Development in Sandusky Trial

RED SOX- On Thursday night at Fenway, it was the young guns that helped the Red Sox complete a 3-game sweep of the Marlins.

After taking the first two games- including what amounted to batting pracitce in Wednesday night's 15-5 win- the Red Sox found themselves trailing late at Fenway Park on Thursday evening. With Daisuke Matsuzaka on the mound, the Red Sox quickly couhged up a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning before eventually settling down. Boston would get some runs back when Cody Ross and Jarrod Saltalamacchia led off the 4th inning by getting hit by pitches from Miami starter Carlos Zambrano in consecutive at-bats. Will Middlebrooks drove Ross home on an RBI single and Saltalmacchia came home on an Aviles sac-fly to cut Miami's lead to 3-2.

In the bottom of the 5th, the Red Sox would tie the game up on a Middlebrooks RBI single, but the Marlins would re-take the lead after Matsuzaka gave up a solo homer to Giancarlo Stanton. After giving up the homer, Matsuzaka was relieved by Andrew Miller, who allowed a 2-out RBI double to Omar Infante to give the Marlins a 5-3 lead.

It was looking as though the Red Sox would have to write this one off until the bottom of the 8th inning, when Saltalamacchia led off the inning with a wall-ball double. Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen pulled relief pitcher Randy Choate for Edward Mujica. Facing Middlebrooks, Mujica immediately gave up a 2-run homer to tie the game for Boston and then a Ryan Kalish single. Kalish would then advance to 3rd on an Aviles groundout before Daniel Nava brought him home on an RBI single to take the lead. Pedroia and Gonzalez would go down quietly, but the damage was already done to Florida and Boston took a 6-5 lead heading into the top of the 9th where Alfredo Aceves had a 1-2-3 inning to nail down the Red Sox win.

Matsuzaka gave up 4 earned runs on 4 hits and one walk in 5⅓ innings of work. Coming in in releif after Miller, Scott Atchison got credit for the win while Aceves had his 18th save of the year. Of course, the real story was the clutch performance of the youngsters Nava and Middlebrooks. Slotted at 3rd base on Thrusday night, Middlebrooks went an impressive 3-4 with 4 RBI- half of them coming in the game-tying homer he belted. Nava went 2-4 and the one RBI he had on the night proved to be the game-winner.

The Red Sox will host the Braves on Friday night with Jon Lester [4-4; 4.53 ERA] scheduled to get the start against Jair Jurrjens [0-2; 9.37 ERA]. The game will be televised on NESN, Peachtree TV and MLB Network with a first pitch of 7:10 ET. Boston's former National League team comes in to Friday night's game at Fenway having taken two out of three from the Yankees, putting the brakes on the Bronx Bomber's impressive double-digit win streak.

NBA- June 21st 2012 will go down as a sad sad day in which the "I'm setting my phone to LeBron James mode- No rings!" joke died a tragic and untimely death. Damn you, NBA!

After taking Game 1 of the NBA finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder lost four in a row against the Miami Heat. The Heat won the clinching Game 5 at home by a 121-106 margin and with former Cavalier Lebron James having a 26-point night- a little off by his standards, but teammates Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and Mike Miller picked up the slack- Miller coming off the bench for 23 points. This would be the Heat's second title in their franchise history, with the first coming back in 2006. A low point in the trophy ceremony was when the Miami crowd decided to boo Basketball hall of famer and 11 time NBA champion Bill Russell when he presented the trophy to the Heat in a postgame ceremony.

Although unsuccesful, the Oklahoma City Thunder's trip to the NBA finals after just three seasons in the Sooner state has made the rest of the Western conference sit up and take notice.

Not to get all sour grapes or anything, but in hindsight I'd almost have to have to say the highlight of this abbreviated NBA Season was the lockout.



You see, I discovered that with no games to televise between late October and Christmas, alot of regional sports channels filled the air time of the scheduled NBA games with NCAA women's college volleyball.



Yes- attractive, fit college-age women sprinting around the court in shorts that would make a Hooter's girl blush while occasionally huddling and reassuring teammates with a pat on the backside. Damn it, NCAA- why were you holding out on us?



Sadly, with no NBA labor dispute on the horizon, it doesn't appear that we'll be in for a many televised college volleyball tournaments in the fall of 2012, but then again, considering the volleyball season generally overlaps with NCAA Football and Basketball, there's already enough competition in the works. For those of you with a reasonably fast internet connection, alot of conferences will gladly live stream many in-conference games [goes for just about any sport- NANESB!]

NCAA FOOTBALL- Jurors were expected to deliberate on Friday after hearing testimony from witnesses in the Jerry Sandusky trial.

After character witnesses testified on behalf of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, the case took a bizarre turn when one of Sandusky's own sons accused the former co-ordinator of molesting him. Matt Sandusky- an adopted foster child of Joe and his wife Dottie- made the accusations public on Thursday afternoon, although it was too late for him to testify against his adopted father.

Sports Chowdah Update- Quick Work For LA As They Win Stanley Cup; Cain And Able; Marlins Flounder After Late Sox Rally; Thunder Interrupts Heat Wave

Alan Diaz- AP Photo

RED SOX- After being swept by the white-hot Washington Nationals at home over the weekend, the Red Sox hit the road for Miami where their woes looked like they weren't going away anytime soon after Beckett was touched up for 4 runs against his former team in the Marlins 4-1 win on Monday.

The loss was followed up on Tuesday night by a strong outing by Clay Buchholz where he gave up one run and struck out nine in seven innings of work, outduelling Mark Buehrle in a 2-1 Boston win.

Wednesday night's game was the rubber match of the series, with Felix Doubront getting the start against Miami's Ricky Nolasco. The Red Sox got on the board when Mike Aviles grounded out with Scott Podsednik coming home from third in the top of the 3rd inning before Big Papi added to the lead with a 1-out solo homer in the top of the 4th to make it 2-0 Boston. This was followed up by an Adrian Gonzalez RBI single and aBig Papi sac-fly in the top of the 6th to make it 4-0.

Doubront was doing well on the mound for Boston, hurling 5 and ⅔ innings of no-hit baseball before giving up a solo home run to SS Jose Reyes in the bottom of the 6th to give the Marlins their first run of the game.

Miami would then cut the Red Sox lead in half with an RBI groundout from Justin Ruggiano in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-2. However, that's as close as the Marlins would get. In the top of the 8th, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Ortiz, Saltalamacchia and Punto would each get RBIs- with all but Salty's coming on singles [Salty had a sac-fly while Punto managed to drive in two runs w/his single- NANESB!] to make it a 10-2 ballgame, which would be the final from Miami.

Doubront had his best outing of the season, going 7 innings while allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out 9. Vincente Padilla, Andrew Miller and Matt Albers came on to close things out for Boston once the game was blown wide open in the top of the 8th.

Thursday is a travel day for the Red Sox as they return to the Windy City, this time taking the El all the way up to the Addison stop on the North side where former Red Sox GM and the Chicago Cubs will play host to them at Wrigley Field- the second oldest ballpark in use in the majors. The last time the Red Sox played a regular season game in Wrigley was not that long ago- 2005. Prior to that, the last time the Red Sox played in Wrigley was the 1918 World Series- their only title for 86 years.

While the Red Sox have struggled mightily just to remain right around 500 this season, the Cubs have the worst record in the majors right now at 21-41, more than a dozen games out of first place in the NL Central.

Jeff Samardzija [5-4; 3.96 ERA] is scheduled to get the start for the Cubbies while the Red Sox starter hasn't been announced as of Wednesday night. The game is scheduled to get underway at 2:20 PM ET (1:20 Central) from Wrigley and the game will be televised on NESN and the MLB Network.



OTHER MLB NEWS- Matt Cain pitched the first-ever perfect game in the 122-year history of the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. This would be the 22nd perfect game in the history of the big leagues, but already the second of the 2012 season [The ChiSox's Phillip Humber retired all 27 Mariners batters he faced in a road game at SafeCo field in late April- NANESB!].

Cain threw a grand total of 125 pitches on Wednesday night against the visiting Houston Astros- 86 of them for strikes- while San Francisco's batters chased Astros starter J.A. Happ from the mound after he allowed eight runs in three and ⅓ innings. Cain's bid for perfection was preserved thanks in large part to a diving catch by outfielder Gregor Blanco in the top of the 7th, robbing Jordan Schafer of a base hit. The 10-0 win over the Astros was almost an afterthought as Giants 3B Brandon Crawford fielded pinch-hitter Jasn Castro's ground ball and threw to first for the final out.

The last time there was two perfect games in the same season was in 2010 when Oakland's Dallas Braden threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Mother's Day and Philly's Roy Halliday retired 27 straight Marlins less than 3 weeks later. A few days after Halliday's perfect game, Detroit's Armando Galaraga was denied perfection against the Cleveland Indians with two away in the bottom of the 9th by a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce, who later admitted to blowing the call and apologizing to Galaraga.

This is the first no-hitter for the Giants since July 2009 when Jonathan Sanchez no-hit the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park. Interestingly, this is not the firt time the Astros have been no-hit by the Giants; Juan Marichal no-hit the Astros on June 15, 1963.

Cain's perfect game came after Seattle Mariners starter Kevin Millwood and five relievers combined for a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers at SafeCo during the series opener. This is the 5th no-hitter of the 2012 season, the first time since 1917 that there have been five or more no-hitters before mid-June.



STANLEY CUP FINALs- After the 8-seeded Los Angeles Kings lost back-to-back games against the New Jersey Devils, the seed of doubt had been planted as to whether or not they could close the deal in the Stanley Cup finals.

It seemed understandable- prior to the two losses, the Kings had amassed an impressive 9-game road winning streak in the Stanley Cup playoffs, quickly dispatching the Vancouver Canucks and St Louis Blues- the top two teams in the Western Conference. Although they jumped out to a quick 3-0 series lead over the Devils, New Jersey managed to avoid the sweep. The longer the Devils lingered, the more questions there were about LA's ability to close them out and speculation over the series coming down to a 7th game.

But to get to game 7, the Devils would have to win game 6. Los Angeles decided to banish any talk of the series heading to a game 7 in the first when they got out to a 3-0 lead thanks to power play goals from Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter and Trevor Lewis.

Carter would make it a 4-0 game with an even stregth tally that got past Brodeur early in the second while New Jersey's Adam Henrique got the Devils on the board with a tally late in the period. However, by that point, the Kings already smelled the blood in the water, and just in case the 4-1 lead wasn't enough, teh Kings tallied two empty-net goals in the 3rd from Trevor Lewis and Matt Greene to win by a final of 6-1 and bring the Stanley Cup to Los Angeles.

Although they made an appearence in the 1992-93 Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings would lose to the Montreal Canadiens that year. This is the first Stanley Cup for the LA Kings francise, which joined the NHL the same year as the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, St Louis Blues and Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars).

The presentation of Lord Stanley's Cup capped off an impressive 16-4 postseason run for the Kings who had to duke it out with the San Jose Sharks on the final day of the regular season to determine the playoff seeding between the two. The Kings lost in a shootout and fell all the way down to the 8th and final playoff spot in April, earning a first round matchup with the Presidents Cup winning Vancouver Canucks. Far from being a hapless and outclassed #8 seed, the Kings proved to be a buzzsaw that cut through the Western Conference teams facing them, including a clean sweep of the St Louis Blues.

For the second straight season, the goaltender from the winning team was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy. Jonathan Quick seemed like a no-brainer for the NHL's equivalent of the MVP award, garner a .946 save percentage and 1.41 goals against average on top of three shutouts in the playoffs. Quick faced all of 18 shots in Game 6, turning aside 17. Last season, Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies as well as the Stanley Cup. This season, Quick is already a finalist in the voting for the Vezina winner and few would be surprised if he landed the hardware with the phenomenal postseason he's had.

A parade and rally sponsored by owner Phil Anschultz's AEG in the Kings honor is scheduled to take place in Downtown LA on Thursday.

NBA- Here's something I never thought I'd be saying back in 2008: "Go Oklahoma City!".

I seemed to have underestimated the disdain in which the Miami Heat is viewed by hoops fans from pretty much everywhere outside of South Beach- although my view of them has admittedly been slanted by having the Celtics lose to them in an arduous 7-game Eastern Conference final.

Perhaps the most surreal thing about this season's NBA finals matchup is that I actually find myself in the same boat as LA Lakers fans. Apparently a number of them are rooting for the Thunder based on a lingering fondness for Derek Fisher while I'm not the least bit interested in seeing Miami win another NBA title.

As far as that goes, things got off swimmingly in Game 1 from Oklahoma City Tuesday night when the Thunder overcame an early defecit to win by a 105-94 final. Kevin Durant led the scoring for Oklahoma City with 36 points to go with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. The Thunder's Russel Westbrook was no slouch, coming up with 27 points and 11 assists and 8 rebounds while LeBron James led in scoring for the Heat with a 30 point night.

Oklahoma City is off to a 1-0 series lead in the NBA finals. Game 2 is set to take place from OKC's Chesapeake Energy Arena at 9:00 ET and will be televised on ABC.

Sports Chowder Update for June 10- National Catastrophe at Fenway; The Devil Zone, NJ Stays Alive in Cup Final; The Heat is On- Miami Surges Past C's in Game 7

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

RED SOX- Damn those Beltway insiders!

The Boston Red Sox capped a rather forgettable week by getting swept by the first place Washington Nationals over the weekend. On Friday night, Nats phenom Stephen Strasburg struck out 13 batters in six innings of work while 19 year old rookie Bryce Harper went 3 for 5 with a homer and 3 RBI in Boston's 7-4 loss to the Nats.

Saturday saw the return of Daisuke Matsuzaka to the Red Sox lineup after an extensive trip through the Red Sox minor-league system as part of his rehab. Dice-K went 5 innings, allowing four earned runs and five hits and a walk while striking out 8 but was outdueled by Washington's Gio Gonzalez who went 6 and ⅓ innings and allowing two earned runs on three hits (including Saltalamacchia's 2-run homer) in the Nationals' 4-2 win.

Sunday's game saw the Nationals rally from a 2-1 defecit to briefly take a 3-2 lead on a 2-RBI double in the top of the 7th before the game was tied back up at 3-3 thanks to a Scott Podsednik RBI groundout in the bottom of the 7th. However, after Alfredo Aceves walked Bryce Harper in the top of the 9th, Nats outfielder Roger Bernadina belted a 2-out RBI double to give Washington the 4-3 lead, which they held on to after Tyler Clippard managed to get the last 3 outs of the game.

Having been no less than 2 and a half games out of the AL East lead last week, the Red Sox have fallen back to dead last and are now 6 games behind in the AL East standings. Earlier this week, Boston had dropped two out of three games against Baltimore at Fenway. For Monday, the Red Sox will head down to Miami to take on the Marlins. Josh Beckett [4-6; 4.04 ERA] will get the start against his former team while the Marlins send Josh Johnson [3-4; 4.56 ERA] to the mound. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN and gets underway at 7:10 ET.



ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Although they ended up losing the weekend series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners managed to no-hit the Dodgers despite going through six pitchers to do so.

Kevin Millwood threw six hitless innings before leaving with a groin injury on Friday night at SafeCo. That brought reliever Charlie Furbush out of the pen for ⅔ of an inning. Stephen Prior, who came on after Furbush and threw all of ⅓ an inning and faced just one batter was credited with the win. Lucas Luetge then came on for ⅔ of an inning. This was followed up by Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen, who got all three outs in the bottom of the 9th to preserve the 1-0 win (Seattle's only run came in the bottom of the 7th when Kyle Seagar brought Ichiro Suzuki home with an RBI single.

The combined no-no was the first of its kind this season and fourth no-hitter of the 2012 baseball season and already the second no-hitter this month. On April 21st, the Mariners themselves were on the other end of White Sox starter Philip Humber's perfect game.

Interestingly, this is not the first time six MLB pitchers were credited with a no-hitter. A June 2003 interleague game between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees unfolded in a similar manner when then-Astros starter Roy Oswalt left the game early with Pete Munro, Kirk Sarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combining to no-hit the Yankees in the Bronx.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Authorities in Alabama have identifies a suspect in the fatal shooting of three people at a party near the Auburn campus over the weekend. Two of the deceased have been identified as former football players- Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips- as well as 20 year old Demario Pitts. Three others were wounded by gunfire at the party. Christian had previously quit the team due to a back injury.

Police are looking for 22 year old Desmonte Leonard of Montgomery, AL who is accused of opening fire at the apartment complex to party took place in and starting a fight with partygoers over a woman. Leonard could be facing three counts of capital murder.

Paul Bereswill/Getty Images

STANLEY CUP FINALS- After falling into an 0-3 hole in the Stanley Cup finals, the New Jersey Devils are within a game of tying up the series at 3-3 after their 2-1 win over the LA Kings on Saturday.

The Devils got on the board late in the first with a Zach Parise power play tally [right when the announcer was talking about the King's near-flawless penalty killing in the postseason- isn't it always that way? NANESB!]. It was an uncharecteristically sloppy goal that Kings netminder Jonathan Quick coughed up after attempting to clear the puck, but it put the Devils on the board .

Justin Williams got the Kings on the board and tied things up at 1-1 early in the second, but about five minutes later, the Devils re-took the lead on a tip-in from Bryce Salvador. Despite outshooting the Devils 9-3 in the 3rd period, Broduer turned aside every shot he faced and the Devils hung on to win by a 2-1 final, forcing a Game 6 on Monday night.

So with the Devils a win away from tying the Cup Final and the King a win away from Clinching it, Game 6 will get underway from Staples Center on Monday night at 8:00 ET; 5:00 Pacific time- the game will be televised on NBC and the CBC.

NBA- The Boston Celtics season- and in all likelyhood, the Big 3 era- has come to an end with their Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.

The Miami Heat surged late and pulled away from the Celtics late in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Celtics 28-15 to pull away for good and clinch the Eastern Conference title with the 101-88 win at South Beach. Lebron James led the scoring with 31 points 12 rebounds and two assists. On the Celtics side of the ball, Rajon Rondo led the way with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.

The win sets up an appointment with the Oklahoma City Thunder who came from behind to best to San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals last week. This would be the second year in a row the Heat have advanced to the NBA Finals- last year they lost to the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2.

Game 1 between the Heat and the Thunder is set to take place Tuesday night at 9:00 ET in Oklahoma City and will be televised on ABC.

Sports Chowdah Update- Jersey Chore, Devils Fall Into 0-2 Stanley Cup Hole; Jays-ed & Confused, Toronto Touches Up Bard; Heat Wilt In the Garden

BOSTON CELTICS- After putting the Miami Heat in a big hole early in Game Four on Sunday night, the Celtics managed to squander an 18 point lead against the visiting Miami Heat in the 4th quarter at the Garden.

However, for all the talk of offensive prowess and superstars like LeBron James, the turning point in Sunday night's game [and possibly the series- NANESB!] came courtesey of somebody who had exactly zero points on the night. With the contest tied at 89-89 at the end of the 4th and heading to OT.

Although the Celtics managed to take a 1-point lead, but not before Paul Pierce had fouled out of the game less than a minute into OT. One of the biggest plays in OT for Boston came not from Rondo or Garnett, but Mickael Pietrus who had a grand total of zero points on Sunday night. With less than two minutes to go and the C's desperately clinging to a 92-91 lead, Pietrus came up with two huge offensive rebounds to keep the clock going and retain posession for the C's after two missed shots. Then, with Miami heading back up the court, Pietrus drew the sixth foul of the evening on LeBron James- the first time LeBron fouled out of a game as a member of the Miami Heat.

With less than 25 seconds to go in OT, the C's made it a two point game when Rajon Rondo went 1 for 2 from the free throw line to make it 93-91. On the Heat's next possession, Dwayne Wade let loose from outside the line with a shot that looked like it was going to make it and give Miami the lead as time expired, but it ultimately clanged off the rim.

The Celtics didn't win this one so much as survive it. Paul Pierce had 23 points on the night along with 6 rebounds before lgetting tossed out of the game in OT. Rajon Rondo had 15 points and 15 assists while Mickael Pietrus had the two pivotal offensive rebounds in OT.

The win is Boston's second in a row in the Eastern Conference Finals and sends the series back to South Beach knotted up at 2 games apiece. Although the Heat could do little to stop Rajon Rondo, who had an NBA playoff-best 44 points in Game 2, Miami was ultimately victorious in that contest. So far, each team is undefeated in their home arena in the Eastern Conference finals.

With the series knotted at 2 games each, this basically becomes a best-of-3 series. Game 5 will get underway from South Beach on Tuesday night with a tipoff time of 8:30 ET on ESPN.

The winner of the Miami-Boston series will take on the winner of the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series out west. Like the Eastern Conference, the Western Conference finals are also knotted up at 2-2.



STANLEY CUP FINALS- Two games at Newark's Prudential Center, two overtimes but despite the best efforts of New Jersey's veteran goaltender Martin Brodeur, the Los Angeles Kings are seperated from Lord Stanley's cup by all of two wins.

After an Anze Kopitar tally broke a 1-1 deadlock in OT of Game 1, the Devils found themselves trailing again for most of Game 2 on Saturday night after an unassisted Drew Doughty goal in the first before Ryan Carter knotted the contest up at 1-1 with a goal early in the 3rd. Nothing was resolved in the rest of regulation, so like the series opener Game 2 went to OT. Also like Game 1, the deadlock was broken by the Kings in overtime after Jeff Carter figured out how to get one by Brodeur with 6:18 remaining in OT.

With the Kings two wins away from clinching the Stanley Cup Champioship, the series heads out to the West Coast beginning Monday. The puck drops at 8:00 ET, 5:00 PT at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Network and the CBC.

BOSTON BRUINS- Goalie Tim Thomas announced that he plans on taking next season off. The late-blooming netminder said in a message on his facebook page "At the age of 38, I believe it is time to put my time and energies into those areas and relationships that I have neglected, That is why at this time I feel the most important thing I can do in my life is to reconnect with the three F's. Friends, Family, and Faith".

Thomas reportedly told Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli that he was considering taking a year off on Friday. However, Thomas left open the possibility of a return to the NHL and expressed an interest in trying out for the US Olympic team in the 2014 Winter games. Had Thomas simply announced that he was retiring, the Bruins would've been responsible for a $5 million annual cap hit. Instead, Thomas is due $3 million for the 2012-2013 season although he had waived his no-trade clause back in 2010.

Although Thomas' plans to miss the 2012-13 season to take a sabbatical come to a surprise as some, the Bruins would still be in pretty good shape as far as goaltending is concerned. The Bruins still have Tukka Rask [although he becomes a restricted free agent in July- NANESB!] as well as Anton Khudobin as their top two goalies.



MLB- For the first time in their 51 year history, the New York Mets have a no-hiter to their name. The Mets milestone was reached on Friday night when starter Johan Santana threw a complete game no hitter against the St Louis Cardinals in their 8-0 shutout of the defending World Series champions. Santana threw a career high 134 pitches in the franchise's first ever no-hitter. Former Met Carlos Beltran, appeared to break up the no-hit bid in the top of the 6th with a liner over 3rd base, but it was immediately ruled foul by the 3rd base umpire- despite the fact that it kicked up some chalk.

Left fielder Mike Baxter preserved Johan's no-no bid at great personal expense, crashing into a wall while successfully chasing down a Yadier Molina fly ball [As of Sunday, Baxter was on the 15 day DL with a displaced right collarbone- NANESB!]. Mets catcher Josh Thole caught a foul tip off the bat of 2011 World Series MVP David Freese on a 3-2 count to complete the game.

With the Mets no-hitter in the books, this leaves the San Diego Padres as the only MLB franchise that doesn't have a no-hitter to their name.

OTHER METS NEWS- Noted misogynist and HBO talk show host Bill Maher announced on Sunday that he recently became a minority shareholder of the team. After being sued by one of the trustees for victims of embezzler Bernie Madoff last year, the Mets ownership decided to raise funds by The Mets management selling an undiclosed number of limited partner shares for $20 million each. Although Maher declined to say how much he paid for his share if the Mets, but the sale reportedly took place around the same time as the limited partner shares were made available.

RED SOX- Although the weekend got off to a promising start for the Red Sox, Sunday ended with a fizzle for the Sox as Daniel Bard got touched up for five runs in 1⅓ innings, including a 3 run homer by Jose Bautista. Boston would go on to win by a final of 5-1, with Boston's only run coming in the top of the 5th thanks to a Kelly Shoppach solo homer. Boston won the first two games of the weekend series thanks to strong outings by Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront. However, Boston lost Subday afternoon's game by a 5-1 final.

The Sox return to Fenway on Tuesday to take on the Orioles, who were knocked out of first place by Tampa Bay over the weekend [after the weekend, Boston and Toronto are tied for last place in the AL East, although both teams are only 3 games out of 1st place- NANESB]. Jon Lester [3-4; 4.79 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Baltimore's Jason Hammel [6-2; 3.06 ERA] on Tuesday night at 7:10 PM. The game will be televised on NESN.

OTHER BLUE JAYS NEWS- Blue Jays 3B Brett Lawrie left a food court at a popular Toronto mall seconds before a gunman opened fire on patrons, killing one and wounding several others.

Lawrie was one of the first to break the news on Twitter on Saturday evening. He had gone to the mall with a friend shortly after the Blue Jays lost to the Boston Red Sox in a Saturday afternoon game.

''Pretty sure someone just let off a round bullets in eaton center mall ... Wow just sprinted out of the mall ... through traffic,'' Lawrie tweeted. ''People sprinting up the stairs right from where we just were ... Wow wow wow.''

He later tweeted that he was ''Rattled right now.''

On Sunday, Lawrie said he felt lucky because he left the food court 10 seconds before the shooting.

''It was instant panic,'' Lawrie said before Sunday's game against the Red Sox. ''It was as if you stepped on an ant hill and then everyone just flooded out of the place. ... I just got out of there as fast as possible. I was the first person out of there.''

Lawrie said he wanted to get the news out fast.

''I just thought I'd give it out there just to anybody that could have been in the mall or anybody that needed to get there ASAP, I thought I could give them a good piece of information,'' he said.

Lawrie, a Canadian, said he never thought something like that could happen at the Eaton Centre, a Toronto landmark that is popular with tourists.

Toronto police identified the slain man as Ahmed Hassan and believe the shooting is gang-related. Although shootings have been on the rise in recent years north of the border, they are still relatively rare in Canada and Toronto prides itself on being one of the safest metropolitan areas in North America. Although the gunman wasn't publicly identified, a Toronto police spokesman said that between video survaillence footage, eyewitness accounts and the deceased's gang affiliation, they know the identity of the shooter.

Rainy Day Sports Chowdah Update- Tiger in the Tank, Sox Scuff Up Verlander Thanks to Feliz Nava-dad; 'Doc' Hits DL in Philly; Devils Egged Onto Cup Final

After dropping two out of three against the Tampa Bay Rays at home over the weekend- including a gut wrenching 4-3 loss on Sunday in which the Rays went ahead in the top of the 9th on a 2-run homer by Sean Rodriguez- the Red Sox played host to the team that swept Boston to start off the regular season.

Monday's 7-4 win over the Tigers came at a price for the Red Sox as Dustin Pedroia left the game with a jammed thumb. Although Pedroia sat out Tuesday's game while hoping to avoid a longer stint on the DL.

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

With Cy Young winner Justin Verlander on the bump against Boston on Tuesday night, runs against Detroit figured to be as valuable as the missing paintings from the 1990 Gardner Museum Heist, but Mike Aviles got the Sox on the board with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

Meanwhile, Daniel Bard put a few runners on base but was managing to pitch four innings of shutout baseball but had a grand total of one run for support until the bottom of the fourth. After allowing singles by Youkilis, Aviles and Podsednik, Verlander got Nick Punto [filling in for Pedroia on Tuesday] to pop up for the second out of the inning. With two away, into the batter's box stepped Daniel Nava. Verlander managed to get a 3-2 count on the left fielder, but Nava sent a 100 MPH Verlander offering into left field, clearing the bases with a clutch 3-RBI double.

As it turned out, the Sox would need every bit of run support. In the top of the 5th, the Tigers got on the board thanks to a solo home run from Jhonny Peralta to make it 4-1. In the bottom of the 5th, Big Papi drove home Adrian Gonzalez to once again make it a 4-run game but got thrown out at third after trying to stretch a double into a triple on the throw home.

Prince Fielder would account for the rest of Detroit's offense that night with a solo homer and an RBI single while Big Papi would hit a solo homer to once again widen the gap for Boston. Boston goes on to win by a final of 6-3, with Daniel Bard going 5⅓ innings with Hill, Atchison, Miller, Padilla coming in out of the bullpen and Alfredo Aceves notching his 12th save of the season after closing out the 9th. The game was halted by a rain delay of about 40 minutes in the bottom of the 8th- no word whether or not 1/32nd Cherokee Elizabeth Warren triggered the delay with an authentic Native American rain dance. Verlander was pulled after 6 innings, allowing 10 hits and 5 runs while striking out 7.

The win puts the Red Sox above .500 for the first time this season. While it may not sound impressive, Boston is actually all of 3 and ½ games out of first place in the AL East with Tampa Bay and Baltimore tied for first place. Game three of the four game series against Detroit gets underway at 7:10 PM ET on Wednesday. Jon Lester [3-4; 4.72 ERA] gets the start against Detroit's Drew Smyly [2-1; 3.14 ERA] for game 3 which will be televised on NESN.

OTHER MLB NEWS- Philadelhpia Phillies ace Roy Halliday is expected to miss anywhere from 6-8 weeks, landing on the 15-day DL with a right shoulder injury. Through 11 starts, Halliday is 4-5 with a 3.98 ERA.

In a seperate development, former Phillies and Astros starter Roy Oswalt signed a 1 year $5 million minor-league deal with the Texas Rangers. Last season, Oswalt went 9-10 with an ERA of 3.69 for Philadelphia although he spent some time on the DL with a bad back. Pending a physical, Oswalt is expected to start for the Ranger's AAA affiliate in Round Rock, TX.

NHL- After breezing through the Vancouver Canucks, St Louis Blue and Phoenix Coyotes, the Los Angeles Kings are heading to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since the 1993 season. The Kings will play the New Jersey Devils, who won their last Stanley Cup championship in 2003 against another Southern California team- the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Devils bested the New York Rangers 4-2 in the Eastern conference finals while the Kings bested the Phoenix Coyotes 4 games to 1 in the Western Conference finals.

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals is set to take place Wednesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Wednesday night and will be televised at 8:00 PM ET (5:00 Pacific) on NBC and CBC.

NBA- While the Stanley Cup finals get underway, the NBA Conferences finals got underway over the memorial day weekend. The Miami Heat currently hold a 1-0 edge after a 93-79 win over the Celtics at South Beach on Monday night. Game 2 is set to take place Wednesday night at 8:30 ET and will be televised on ESPN.

Over in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs took a 2-0 series lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 120-111 on Tuesday night.

Mother's Milk Sports Chowdah Update- B's Sweep Philly; C's Feeling the Heat; Crawford Notches Another Walk-off Win

Seems as though I missed all the excitement vis a vis Terry Francona and Joe West as well as Rajon Rondo's gritty performance in Game 3- well....I caught some of it on the radio, but that doesn't always effectively convey the moment.

AP Photo

NBA: After a game 2 in the Garden on Saturday that saw Rajon Rondo playing for 38 minutes with a dislocated elbow and was capped off with a 97-81 win against the Miami Heat, the series continued on Monday night.

Alas, while the C's led for much of the game there was no rallying point like Rondo's return in Game 3. With the clock counting down the final seconds of regulation and the game tied 86-86, Paul Perce attempted a jumper that ended up rimming out and forcing a rather anticlimatic overtime in which the Heat would go on a 12-4 run and win by the final of 98-90, putting the Celtics in a 3-1 hole [not the first time a Boston team has been in a 3-1 hole in the postseason, mind you, but an uphill climb nonetheless- NANESB!].

Rajon Rondo- unquestionably the hero of Game 3, was on the floor for 38 minutes and had 10 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists. Paul Pierce led in scoring with 27 points, followed by Ray Allen with 17. For the Heat, LeBron James had 35 points on the night followed by Dwayne Wade with 28 and Chris Bosh with 20.

Game 5- which is do or die for Boston- is set to take place Wednesday night at Miami starting at 7PM ET, 4PM Pacific and will be broadcast on TNT.

OTHER NBA NEWS: Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Lakers season ended abruptly after being swept in 4 games by the Dallas Mavericks. Even with the C's one game away from elimination, I still find myself smiling a little bit typing that above sentence.

NHL: Speaking of 4-game sweeps, the Bruins ensured that there wouldn't be a repeat of last year's epic collapse by eliminating the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1992.

Boston got on the board late in the first with a power play goal from Milan Lucic and Philly would come right back to tie it in the 2nd with an even strength goal from Kris Versteeg.

Boston would re-take the lead early in the 3rd on a Johnny Boychuck tally, but given what happened against the Flyers last year, one could be forgiven for not being convinced that a 1-goal lead late in the 3rd period was sufficient insurance. However, Lucic was able to provide some of that insurance when he managed to find the back of the net at the 15 minute mark. This was followed up by empty netters from Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille to seal the game by a 5-1 final for the Bruins, and ending the Flyers season.

Tim Thomas stopped 22 of 23 shots faced (it seemed like the overwhelming majority of them came midway through the 3rd period) while Philly's Sergei Bobrovski stopped 22 of 25 faced.

The win means that the Bruins will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. Tampa is coming off their own 4-game sweep of the underwhelming Washington Capitols. Game 1 won't get underway until Saturday evening, with both (presumably well-rested) teams facing off at the Garden starting at 8PM ET.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Patrice Bergeron left Game 4 with what was diagnosed a 'mild' concussion after a hit from Claude Grioux and is expected to miss at least two games. Bergeron, who has a history of concussions, will be replaced by 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin in the meantime.


RED SOX: After splitting the home series against the Angels and dropping the 1st game to Minnesota on Friday night, the Red Sox finished up their homestand with a 3-game win streak Monday night.

Monday night's game was a little closer than I would've liked and not exactly problem free, given that Papelbon blew his a save opportunity for the 1st time this season and the Sox stranded 11 baserunners.

Adrian Gonzalez had an RBI single, driving in Varitek to make it a 1-0 game and the Sox would tenuously cling to the lead heading into the top of the 8th. With Alfredo Aceves struggling, Jonathan Papelbon came on for a 4-out save, but gave up an RBI single to Jason Kubel, driving in the speedy Denard Span to tie the game at 1-1.

Hideki Okajima gave up two hits in two shaky but scoreless innings of work for the Sox, but Jim Hoey would come on and give up an RBI single to Carl Crawford, driving in pinch-runner Jose Iglesias, giving the struggling outfielder his second walk-off hit in nearly a week.

Boston will next travel to Toronto for a brief 2-game series before travelling to the Bronx to take on the Yankees over the weekend.