DL Edition Sports Chowdah Recap for June 30 to July 3rd- Depleted Sox Add to O's Woes; Dutch Treat as Brazilians Whacked

Take your pick- the DL could stand for 'Disabled list' or 'Distraught Latinas'.

MLB: For the second year in a row, the Red Sox head into Independence Day with a 49-32 record. Friday night's 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles was probably to accommodate all the speed-daters present, since that took all of 2 hours and 7 minutes. Tim Wakefield scattered 7 hits through 8 innings of work while JD Drew had two solo homers and went 2 for 3 on the night with Daniel Nava coming on to pinch hit for Eric Patterson in the bottom of the 8th to break the 2-2 deadlock with a bloop RBI single- not as dramatic as a grand-slam in his 1st ever at bat, but just as effective.

Papelbon came on in the 9th for another 1-2-3 save opportunity, his 19th of the year.

Tonight's game wasn't as brisk, but who am I to complain about the results? Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie lasted only four innings while giving up nine hits, six runs- including a one out 2 RBI double in the bottom of the 1st to JD Drew- and walking three while Jon Lester improved his record to 10-3 with 7 innings pitched, an earned run, three walks and seven strikeouts. JD Drew has gone 5 for 6 with 4 RBIs in the series so far. Boston wins by a 9-3 final. Game three of the series will have Brian Matusz (2-9; 4.90 ERA) start for Baltimore against Lackey (9-3; 4.46 ERA)at 1:35 PM Eastern time tomorrow.

All this comes with more additions to the DL. If losing Buchholz, Ellsbury, Lowell, Beckett and Pedroia to injury wasn't enough, Sox Captain Jason Varitek was placed on the DL with a broken left foot on July 1st. The same day 'Tek went on the DL, Boston reacquired a familiar name, C Kevin Cash from the Houston Astros in exchange for infielder Angel Sanchez. No State Police escort from the airport this time around, but Cash did a good job of backstopping Wake Friday.

MLB All-Star Game: The rosters for the 2010 American League and National League All-Stars will be announced at noon eastern time tomorrow on TBS prior to their broadcast of the Blue Jays/Yankees game.


WORLD CUP: Well...stick a fork in Brazil- they're done like a churrasco after the Dutch put a wooden clog to their collective backsides...actually the game was alot closer than that, but scantily clad dames of varying nationalities and ethnicities in the stands and snarky hyperbole are typically the only things that can maintain any interest in the World Cup on my part.

Brazil got out to a quick 1-0 lead, but the equalizer came on an own-goal off the noggin of Felipe Melo and the Dutch went up for good on Wesley Sneijder's header for the 2-1 win. My offer to the sultry and no doubt dejected Brazil fanbabes fanbase via backrubs and assisting in the application of sunblock still stands, however.

In other World Cup news....wow....what a bunch of worthless douchebags Spain turned out to be. Screw you, Spain!

[*ring ring* You keep watching the game, Larissa- I'll get it!]

Paraguayan Lingerie model Larissa Riquelme promised to strip naked and run through the capitol city of Asuncion's main plaza should Paraguay win the World Cup (although some variations of the rumor reported she'd be wearing bodypaint in the team's colors). However, in order for that to happen, they had to get past Spain.

OK....Spain...how hard would it have been to take a dive? But nooooooo....what's his name Villa scored in the 82nd minute for the only goal of the match in Spain's 1-0 win. You better have somebody of equal or greater hotness in red & yellow paint willing to do the Lady Godiva thing (sans horse) in Plaza de de España.

[Must...practice...headball....drills]

Of course, on the flip side of the coin it's not often I get to say this, but "Thank you, Germany". Apparently a similar exhibitionist wager was made by bloated, coked-up Argentina coach Diego Maradona. So it seems Maradona promised to run naked around the obelisk in the middle of Buenos Aires' Av. 9 de Julio should Argentina win the 2010 World Cup. The Germans convincing 4-0 on Saturday's rout of the Argentines meant that Maradona would not be able to make good on his threat.

Danke shein, baby!

Also- Uruguay ousted Ghana in a scoreless contest that was decided by penalty kicks. Apparently this was the match that was being watched in that village in the Eastern part of Congo when a fuel tanker crashed and exploded.

So the semifinals will look something like this:
Germany vs. Spain on 7/7 from Durban
Uruguay vs The Netherlands on 7/6 from Cape Town

NCAA Baseball: Shoot....missed that whole College World Series thing. Besides being the home of the AAA affiliate of Kansas City (the Omaha Royals) Omaha's Rosenblatt stadium also hosted the College World Series every year since 1950. The 2010 World Series would be the last one played at Rosenblatt, with South Carolina winning the series 2-0 on a walk-off Whit Merrifield RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to beat UCLA by a 2-1 final. This is south Carolina's first ever College World Series title.

A new ballpark- TD Ameritrade Park- is slated to open in Omaha next to the Qwest Center in the North Downtown area of Omaha.

Quickie Cuppa Sports Chowdah June 27-29: Lackey's Outing Give Battered Sox Ray of Hope; World Cups Runneth Over

(Matthew West/Boston Herald)

Well, what a short but no less strange journey it's been for the Red Sox this week. After losing Pedroia and Buccholz to injury in the first two games, Victor Martinez made it a hat trick on Sunday with a broken left thumb after taking one too many foul tips off the mitt. Granted Martinez may not have lasted until the 4th inning, but neither did San Francisco's back-to-back NL Cy Young Winner Tim Lincecum. 'The Freak' gave up a solo homer to Big Papi in the first that landed in McCovey Cove before giving up a sac-fly to his counterpart Jon Lester in the 2nd followed shortly by Marco Scutaro's 2-RBI single to give Boston the lead for good. Adrian Beltre would put an exclamation point on the game with a solo homer of his own off of Sergio Romo.

Lester went all 9 innings giving up 5 hits, one earned run and struck out 9 for his ninth win of the season, giving the bullpen a much needed rest after going through eight pitchers on Saturday.

After a travel day, the Sox returned to Fenway Tuesday night to take on the 3rd place Tampa Bay Rays. The two newest Bruins- Tyler Seguin and Nathaniel Horton- threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game.

The game remained in a scoreless deadlock between John Lackey and James Shields when Shields had Cameron on 3rd, Scutaro on 3rd, Papi in the batters box and Youk on deck- all with two out in the bottom of the 5th. Shields decided to pitch to Ortiz and was rewarded with his offering winding up in the seats behind the visitors bullpen. Varitek- filling in for Martinez- had an RBI single in the bottom of the 6th, followed shortly by Nava hitting an RBI single of his own to make it 5-0 Boston. Rays 3B Evan Longoria put the visitors on the board with an RBI single in the top of the 7th.

Lackey would go on to pitch 7 innings, giving up eight hits, two walks, an earned run and striking out six on the night nd picked up the win in Boston's 8-5 victory over Tampa. Jason Varitek didn't show any signs of rust, going 1-3 with 2RBI and a walk while filling in for a DL-ed Victor Martinez. David Ortiz also went 1 for 3, with 3 RBI and two walks. 3B Adrian Beltre was 4-4 with two runs scored as well.

Tomorrow night will see Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2; 4.50 ERA) go up against the Ray's Matt Garza (8-5; 4.10 ERA). Tuesday night's win put the Red Sox a game out of 1st place in the AL East.

[Paraguay's flag never looked so good]

WORLD CUP: well, since my one and only rooting interest in the World Cup was eliminated by Ghana over the weekend, I have very little incentive to pay attention now.

Having said that, here is a quickie roundup of the World Cup results over the last 2 days:

NETHERLANDS 2- Slovakia 1

BRAZIL 3- Chile 0

PARAGUAY 0(5)- Japan 0(3)

SPAIN 1- Portugal 0

[Yay Brazil! Wait- what? They play soccer there, too?]

So the Netherlands will take on Brazil on July 2nd while Ghana and Uruguay go head-to-head on the same day; Argentina- having defeated Mexico will take on Germany on July 3rd after the krauts sent England packing at roughly the same time Ghana bounced out Team USA and Paraguay will take on Spain later that day.

[Don't stop jumping up and down on my account- especially you on the right]

This concludes your NANESB! World Cup update.

[La Nacion]

And distraught Chileana fans such as this one (who needs to rehydrate after shedding so much tears after the 3-0 loss to the nation that will be hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics) in need of consoling can reach me through this blog.