Home Cookin' Sports Chowdah Update- Home of the Braves, No Hospitality as Atlanta's NL Club Gets Back to Its Beantown Roots; Beckett Notches First Career No-No, Shuts out Phils

RED SOX- Somebody break up the Red Sox! Of course, if I said that a week ago it would've sounded like some sort of plea to invoke the mercy rule when they looked to be matching or beating the record for consecutive regular season games lost by a defending World Series champion with that disastrous series against Tampa Bay [Not to mention the homestand against Toronto and Detroit- NANESB!].

Although it didn't look that way at first, things started to turn around with Monday afternoon's game at Turner Field when the Red Sox rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game at 6-6 before a rainstorm moved in and caused an hour-long delay. After the delay, the Red Sox got two more runs and the bullpen persevered to make it an 8-6 final- their first win since May 14th.

The following night in Atlanta, Boston made it two in a row after scoring four unanswered runs in the top of the 7th, rallying from a 3-2 hole to go on and win by a 6-3 final.

Wednesday night saw the series shift to Boston- the original home of the Braves until 1953- and the games opened up with a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the 2004 World Series team with alumni on field [with the notable exception of Big Papi- the only member of the 2004 'idiots' still on the Red Sox roster- NANESB!]. This included a ceremonial first pitch from Manny Ramirez that was cut off by fellow outfielder Johnny Damon in an impromptu recreation of one of the more infamous "Manny being Manny" moments during his time with the Red Sox



It gets better for Red Sox nation, though. After the ceremonial first pitch, Lackey and the Red Sox bullpen hurled a gem with Lackey, Tazawa, Capuano and Breslow shutting out the Braves by a 4-0 final and capping their 3rd straight win.

On Thursday night at Fenway, the Braves jumped out to an early lead with a Jason Heyward solo homer in the 3rd and an RBI single from Evan Gattis to make it 2-0. In the bottom of the 5th the Red Sox got on the board with an RBI double to make it 2-1, but Atlanta added to their lead with a booming Freddie Freeman RBI double that barely stayed in the park to put Atlanta up 3-1.

In the bottom of the 8th, Brock Holt led off the inning with a single to shallow left off of David Carpenter and advanced to second on a fielding error by Justin Upton. This was followed by a Xander Bogaerts single that plated Holt to make it a 1-run game. Dustin Pedroia would then single to put Bogaerts in scoring position with nobody out. Bogaerts then came home on a Pierzynski single to tie the game up at 3-3.

Carpenter got Gomes to strike out for the first out of the bottom of the 8th before Luis Avilan came out of the Braves pen to strike out Grady Sizemore and intentionally walk Big Papi. Craig Kimbrel then came out of the Atlanta pen to get David Ross to strike out and end the threat, but the damage had been done.

After Uehara came on in relief of starter Jake Peavy, Ryan Doumit led off the inning with a single followed by a Tommy LaStella sac bunt to move pinch-runner Jordan Schafer over to second. With Schafer in scoring position, Uehara got Andrelton Simmons to ground out and Jason Heyward to strike out and end the Braves threat in the top of the 9th.

In the bottom of the 9th, Jackie Bradley Jr and Brock Holt led off with walks, putting runners in scoring position right away and with nobody out. On Kimbrel's 15th pitch of the inning, Xander Bogarts hit into what initially looked like a double play- or at least a routine groundout- to 3rd, but Braves 3B Chris Johnson's throw to second was low and dribbled past Tommy LaStella.



An alert Jackie Bradley Jr bolted for home and Lastella's throw was wide of the plate, giving the Red Sox a walkoff 4-3 win in the bottom of the 9th to complete the home-and-away series sweep against Atlanta.

While winning four straight against a club like the Atlanta Braves is always good, the Red Sox need to improve their record within the AL East and they'll have a chance to do exactly that when they host the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. David Price [4-4; 4.42 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Brandon Workman, who was recently called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. In seven starts against the International League this season, Workman has a 3-1 record with a 5.12 ERA.

The game will be televised on NESN with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 ET.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Former Red Sox starter Josh Beckett has pitched the first no-hitter of the 2014 season last weekend as the Dodgers blanked the Phillies 6-0 on Sunday. This also marks the first no-hitter in Beckett's distinguished career and the first no-hitter for the Dodgers since 1996. Although Beckett's no-no was the first of 2014, the last MLB no-hitter actually took place on the final day of the 2013 regular season when Marlins [another one of Beckett's former clubs- NANESB] starter Henderson Alvarez threw a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers.

Beckett, a 1999 1st round draft pick by the Marlins, made his MLB debut for Florida in 2001 and won his first World Series in 2003, besting the Yankees in six games. In 2006, Beckett and then-teammate Mike Lowell were traded to Boston and Beckett won a World Series title with the Red Sox in 2007 after Boston swept the Colorado Rockies in four games.

During the colossal trainwreck that was the 2012 season, an underperforming Beckett was traded to Los Angeles along with outfielder Carl Crawford and 1B Adrian Gonzalez for infielder James Loney in the biggest post-deadline transaction in MLB history. Although the Red Sox had to pay the salaries of the traded players for the remainder of the 2012 season, the move freed up nearly $250 million in salary for the Red Sox.

Beckett's pitch total

Long Overdue Kickoff Sports Chowdah Update- Buffalo Nickeled and Dimed in Pats Season Opener; BC Wide A-Wake vs Deacons; Sox Offense Explodes in the Bronx; IOC Big in Japan

From Thursday night's Bronco's blowout of the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens to Monday night's [technically Tuesday morning's- NANESB!] stunner in San Diego where the Texas bested the Chargers 31-28 as time expired, it's good to see that football is back at long last.

Donald Huepel- Reuters

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- New coach, new QB, new receivers- but pretty much the same results for Buffalo on kickoff Sunday.

Although New England had to punt on their first possession of the game, they'd get the ball back when DT Tommy Kelly recovered a CJ Spiller fumble at the Buffalo 11 yard line and Brady would connect on 3rd and goal to give the Patriots an early 7-0 lead.

On their next possession, the Patriots started out with great field position thanks to a 15 yard penalty on Buffalo's punt coverage tacked onto a 16 yard return by Edelman, giving New England the ball at mid-field to start off with. However, the Patriot's drive would sputter once inside the Bill's 30 yard line and New England would have to settle for a 48-yard Gostkowski FG to put them up 10-0.

Buffalo's defense would get the Bills back in the game in the 2nd quarter when safety D'Norris Searcy recovered a fumble from Stevan Ridley inside the Bills 30 and returned it 74 yards for paydirt, making it a 10-7 game.

With less than 4 minutes to go before halftime, Pats DE Rob Ninkovich recovered a Marquise Grissom fumble on the Bill's own 35 yard line, giving Brady a short field to work with. On the first play of the drive, RB Shane Vereen went 21 yards before Brady once again connected with Edelman to make it a 17-7 game.

However, with 1:03 remaining in the half and the Patriots getting the ball back on their own 25, Bills CB Justin Rogers picked off Brady at the Pats 37 yard line, giving EJ Manuel a short field to work with. It took all of two plays for the Bills to hit paydirt, with Manuel hooking up with WR Robert Woods to make it a 17-14 game.

Buffalo would then take the lead on their opening possession of the second half, with CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson getting most of the work done on the ground after the Bills started out on their own 20. The drive was capped with an 18 yard TD pass from Manuel to WR Stevie Johnson to put Buffalo up 21-17 for their first lead of the day.

Although the Buffalo was able to keep Brady out of the end zone on their first possession of the 4th quarter, a 33 yard Gostkowski FG made it a one point game with Buffalo still on top 21-20.

After Buffalo went three and out on an offensive series where they just needed a few first downs and keep the clock moving, New England would get the ball back with just over four and a half minutes remaining. Brady would move the Pats down the field thanks mostly to short passes to Vereen and Danny Amendola that would drive New England down inside Buffalo's red zone with less than a minute remaining. With less than a minute to go in regulation, New England was content to just run down the clock before Gostkowski kicked a 33 yard FG to put the Patriots up with 5 seconds remaining in the game.

Nothing would come of Buffalo's next possession after the kickoff and the Patriots would go on to win by the final of 23-21. Tom Brady would go 29 of 52 with 288 yards, 2 TDs and an interception while Buffalo's EJ Manuel went 18 of 27 with 150 yards and two TDs. Julian Edelman was the recipient of both of Brady's TD passes and had 79 yards on the day.

The Patriots have a pretty quick turnaround this week with their next game on Thursday night against the Jets, which will be the New England home opener. The Pats may have to do it without Vereen and Amendola, though.

The Jets themselves are coming off a win decided by a FG in the waning seconds of the game against Tampa Bay. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:25 ET and the game will be televised on the NFL network.

Bill Kostroun- AP

RED SOX- Since Wednesday night, the Red Sox have scored a grand total of 57 runs- with 37 of those runs being scored against the Yankees.

Throughout late last week and the weekend, the Red Sox bats feasted on Yankees pitching including an improbable 5-run rally in the top of the 7th after trailing 8-3, followed by a 4-run top of the 8th to put them up 12-8 on Friday night. Although the Red Sox would end up losing Sunday afternoon's contest by a 4-3 final, the Red Sox would take three out of four from the Yankees over this weekend's four game series. The skid puts the Yankees three games behind Tampa Bay the final Wild Card berth in the AL. Baltimore and Cleveland also leapfrogged past the Yankees with the Yankees loss to the Orioles on Monday night.

Interestingly, since all but two of Boston's remaining games will be against AL East opponents, this means that the Yankees, Orioles or Rays will need an assist from the Red Sox if they want to clinch one of the remaining Wild Card berths [It's a tight race between the Rangers and A's in the AL West, so it's likely that the runner-up in that division will get the other Wild Card berth- NANESB!]. In other words, Rays, O's and yes...even Yankees fans...will likely be rooting for the Red Sox at some point between now and the end of the regular season.

Subtle imagery courtesy of Getty Images

As much as I love the Red Sox taking three out of four from the Yankees when the Bronx Bombers are in dire need of W's, this weekend series in the Bronx was almost an afterthought.

The big news in Red Sox nation isn't the fireworks display from the Red Sox bats last wee, but the return of Clay Buchholz to the mount for the first time since June. In August, Buchholz appeared in rehab starts for both the Single-A Lowell Spinners of the New York-Penn league and AAA Pawtucket Red Sox. In his most recent start, Buchholz was limited to around 75 pitches and gave up 4 hits and 2 earned runs while walking two and striking out five in 3⅔ innings against the Rochester Red Wings in the first round of the International League playoffs. The start with the Paw Sox was actually pushed back a day so that Buccholz could be with his wife when she gave birth to the couple's second daughter last week.

After his rehab start in Pawtucket, Buchholz travelled with the team to Yankee stadium and threw a bullpen session over the weekend- reportedly the final step prior to his returning to the lineup.

For Tuesday night, the Red Sox will travel to Tampa's Tropicana  Field to take on the Rays. Clay Buchholz [9-0; 1.71 ERA] will be tested against David Price [8-7; 3.51 ERA] on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET and the game will be televised on NESN as well as the MLB network in some markets.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury is sidelined with a compression fracture right foot after undergoing an MRI and returning to Boston over the weekend. Both his agent and Red Sox manager John Farrell said it was likely that he could return by the end of the regular season.

Ellsbury has been batting .299 with 8 homers and 52 RBI. He also leads the majors in stolen bases this season with 52, only getting thrown out four times. The All-Star center fielder becomes a free agent at the end of the season as well.

OTHER MLB NEWS- The Pittsburgh Pirates have clinched their first winning season in 21 years after coming out on top in a pitcher's duel in the Lone Star state. Gerrit Cole bested Rangers starter Yu Darvish and threw 7 shutout innings against Texas while Pedro Alvarez brought ex-Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd home for the game's only RBI.

Currently the Pirates are one game behind the St Louis Cardinals in the NL Central pennant race and one game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card chase- although it appears likely that the two NL Wild Card berths will come from the NL Central.

PAWTUCKET RED SOX- With a little help from none other than Clay Buchholz, the Paw Sox managed to best the Rochester Red Wings in the first round of the International League playoffs. The defending International League champions will next take on the Durham Bulls at the Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, NC at 7:05 ET.

Michael Dwyer- AP

NCAA FOOTBALL- Only the second week into the regular season and the Boston College Eagles have already matched their win total from 2012. Not only that, the Eagles managed to match their conference win total on Friday night when they played their first ACC match of the season against Wake Forest.

BC got out the the early lead after Eagles DB Spencer Rositano recovered a Deacons fumble at the Wake Forest 30 yard line on Wake's opening possession of the game. Eagles QB Rettig then made a quick strike to WR Alex Amidon on a 26 yard catch and carry to hit paydirt and go up 7-0 just 40 seconds into the game.



Trailing 17-7 late in the second, Wake had a golden opportunity to get back in the game when a Nate Freese punt was blocked at the Eagles 28 yard line and recovered by Wake at the Eagles 3 yard line. Wake would try and punch it in with 50 seconds remaining, but would be denied on 4th and goal with only 10 seconds to go in the half.

The Eagles would pad their lead in the second half thanks to a TD pass from Rettig to WR Spiffy Evans and an Andre Williams rushing TD and go on to win by a 24-10 final.

The next couple of weeks look somewhat difficult for Boston College as they travel to the west coast to take on the USC Trojans before hosting the #10 Florida State Seminoles on Chestnut Hill on September 28th.

UMASS MINUTEMEN- While the Eagles improved to 2-0 on the season, an FCS school and one-time Minuteman rival bested UMass in Gillette Stadium over the weekend.

The Maine Black Bears trailed early, but would score 21 points to surge past UMass and win by a final of 24-14, giving them a 2-0 record for a share of first place in the Colonial conference- the Minutemen's former conference before jumping up to the FBC and MAC.

The Minutemen will travel to Manhattan, KS next week to take on Kansas State [interesting side note- Kansas State has already lost to defending FCS champion North Dakota State in their season opener- NANESB!]. However, Kansas State won last weekend's contest against Louisiana-Lafayette by a 48-27 final.

AP- Shizuo Kambayashi

OLYMPICS- The International Olympic Committee named the host city for the 2020 summer Olympiad with Tokyo garnering more votes than Istanbul. This would be the fourth time that Tokyo has hosted the Olympics and the fourth time overall that Japan has hosted the Olympics. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Games and the mountainous cities of Sapporo and Nagano played host to the winter games- in 1972 and 1998, respectively.

Despite choosing venues such as Sochi, Russia or Rio de Janerio, Brazil, considered potentially risky by some, observers say the IOC opted to play it 'safe' with the Tokyo selection and go with a city that has already hosted the games once and should have little problems accommodating another summer Olympiad.

In 2011, the IOC announced that the mountainous South Korean municipality of Pyongchang would be hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics.

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.

Sports Chowdah Update- Junior Seau, 1969-2012; Dream Weaver in OC; Caps, Rangers Triple Down; Pierce Soars Against Hawks;

NFL- Former San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau was found dead in his Oceanside, CA home on Wednesday. Seau was killed by what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. According to a statement from Oceanside police chief, Seau's girlfriend called for help after finding him unresponsive shortly after 9:30 AM Pacific time.

Born and raised in Oceanside, Seau attended college at the University of Southern California. After sitting out his freshman year, Seau garnered the attention of pro scouts with his defensive play and he became a first round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in the 1990 NFL Draft. The locally born and raised Seau became the face of the Chargers franchise throughout the 1990s and made 12 consecutive Pro Bowl appearances and was on the team for San Diego's only Super Bowl appearance- a 26-49 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Superbowl XXIX.

In 2003, Seau was traded from San Diego to the Miami Dolphins and after two season in Miami, Seau announced his retirement before the 2006 NFL season. However, within days, he was coaxed out of retirement by the New England Patriots, appearing in 10 of 11 games with the Pats before breaking his arm in a contest against the Chicago Bears in November of that year. Seau returned to the Patriots the following year, where they went 16-0 in the regular season only to lose at the last minute to the New York Giants by a 14-17 final in Super Bowl XLII. Seau returned to New England for two more seasons before announcing his second retirement  in January 2010.

In a November 2011 ceremony during a Chargers home game against the Broncos, Seau was introduced by Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Fouts to a sold-out crowd at Qualcomm stadium as the linebacker was named to the Charger's Hall of Fame.

Even before being traded to Miami, Junior Seau opened up a restaurant bearing his name in San Diego's Mission Valley. In 2009, he hosted a TV show on the Versus network called Sports Jobs With Junior Seau which documented such behind-the-scenes jobs in sports such as Indycar pit crew member or pro-golf caddy. In fact, one episode brought Seau to the TD Garden in Boston so camera crews could document the rink from a Bruins game being converted to a hardwood floor for an upcoming Celtics game on the same day.

In 2010, Seau was at the wheel when his SUV plunged off an embankment in Carlsbad, CA. He was later treated and released from a La Jolla, CA hospital. The accident came less than a day after Seau was arrested and released by Oceanside police for domestic battery charges.

MLB- As woeful a start as the Red Sox got off to in April, they seemed absolutely scorching compared to the Angels, who made perhaps the biggest off season free agent signing in Albert Pujols when he left St Louis for Orange County.

But the Angels made headlines on Wednesday night for reasons other than their shitty start after starting pitcher Jared Weaver threw a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins at Angels Stadium. Weaver threw 121 pitches, struck out nine and walked just one in the Angel's 9-0 win. Aside from the one walk, the only runner to reach base for Minnesota was 1B Chris Parmalee, who broke for first after a passed ball on strike three by Angels catcher Chris Ianetta.

In the top of the 8th inning, Twins 3B Trevor Plouffe came tantalizingly close to going yard before the ball hooked foul past the left field pole by a few feet.

This is the 10th no-hitter in the history of the Angels franchise and the second for the club in less than a year. On June 27 2011, Ervin Santana threw a no-no against the Cleveland Indians at Jabobs Field.

RED SOX- After an impressive 6-1 road trip through the Midwest- including an impressive 1-0 pitchers duel between Jon Lester and Jake Peavy on Chicago's South Side on Saturday- the Red Sox returned to Fenway on Monday to rout the Oakland A's by a 11-6 final.

However, after falling behind on Tuesday night, a late Boston rally fell short and the Red Sox were hung with the 5-3 loss while on Wednesday night, Oakland's Brandon McCarthy gave up only one run in 6⅔ innings in Boston's 4-2 home loss.

With Thursday off, the Red Sox will face the Baltimore Orioles who have won four out of their last five games. This will be the first regular season meeting between Baltimore and Boston since the O's ended the Red Sox season on September 28, 2011 with a walk-off Robert Andino RBI single against Jonathan Papelbon at Camden Yards. Wei Yin Chen [2-0; 2.22 ERA] goes to the mound for the O's against Jon Lester [1-2; 4.65 ERA] on Friday night at Fenway.First pitch is at 7:10 PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- 3B Kevin Youkilis has been placed on the 15 day DL with what's been described as a sore lower back. The Red Sox have called up 3B Will Middlebrook and Clay Mortenson from AAA Pawtucket. Middlebrook is batting .358 with 9 homers and 27 RBI in 81 plate appearances in the International League this season.

Mortenson, who was part of the January trade that dealt Marco Scutaro to Colorado, has a 0.90 ERA batting average while with Pawtucket.

Meanwhile in AA Portland, Daisuke Matsuzaka went 4 and ⅔ innings in a rehab start for the Portland Sea Dogs, allowing 3 hits and one earned run. Matsuzaka's next scheduled start is set to take place on Monday night at McCoy stadium in Pawtucket when the PawSox host the Rochester Red Wings.

EVEN MORE RED SOX NEWS- Items from Ted Williams' baseball and military career went up for auction at Fenway Park over the weekend. Some of the items included a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth for Ted Williams ($195,000), Williams' bat from the 1960 All Star Game ($81,000), Williams' Hall of Fame Ring ($109,000) and his 1949 American League MVP plaque ($299,000).

New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees participated in the auction via telephone, purchasing Williams' flight logbooks from when he served as an aviator in WWII and the Korean War for $35,600. Brees said he intends to loan the items to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

NBA- A strong defensive 4th quarter proved to be the difference maker for the Celtics on Tuesday night as they held that Hawks to 14 points in the 4th quarter at downtown Atlanta's Phillips Arena.

With Rajon Rodno suspended for one game after bumping an NBA official, Paul Pierce basically torched the arena with 36 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists in Boston's 87-80 win over Atlanta. This includes going 11 for 13 from the free throw line.

Kevin Garnett had 15 points and 12 rebounds while Avery Bradley had 14 points in Game 2. The series head to the Garden and Rondo returns to the hardwood for Game 3, which is set to take place on Friday night and will be televised on ESPN. The series, which is tied at 1-1, will resume at 7:30 PM Friday Night.

NHL- Marian Gaborik broke a 1-1 deadlock between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers in the 3rd OT of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals to take a 2-1 series lead. The Rangers converted on one of only four power play opportunities while Washington went 0-3. New York netminder Henrik Lunqvist turned aside 45 of 46 shots faced while Braden Holtby made 47 saves on 49 shots faced. The series between those two teams resumes on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 ET. The Rangers currently hold a 2-1 series lead.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Wednesday, Nashville shut out the Phoenix Coyotes by a 2-0 final for their first win in the Western Conference Semis.

On Thursday night, Philadelphia and New Jersey will resume their series which is knotted at 1-1 will get underway from the Prudential Center in Newark while Los Angeles and St Louis heads to the Staples Center with the Kings holding a 2-0 lead over the Blues.

Salty Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Royal Pains in Midwest; Things Get Uggla; Pats Keelhaul Bucs; Some Goodwill, Danica Leaving IndyCar?

RED SOX: After finishing their road trip with a whimper by dropping 2 out of 3 games to the Mariners, the Red Sox travelled home for a quick 3-game series against Tampa Bay (again, dropping two out of three) before heading to the heartland for a 4-game series in Kansas City.

Not unlike his start against Seattle, game one got off to a little bit of a choppy start with Josh Beckett on the mound as he gave up a leadoff double in the top of the 1st to 3B Alex Gordon. Gordon was brought home thanks to a sac bunt that moved him to third and a Billy Butler sac-fly to put KC in front 1-0.

The Sox got the equalizer in the top of the 2nd when Jason Varitek drove home Josh Reddick with an RBI single, although he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The Red Sox then took the lead on a 2-RBI single from Dustin Pedroia in the 3rd before KC got it right back with a 2-run Alex Gordon homer in the bottom half of the inning. Pedroia would come to bat with Ellsbury on 2nd and two away in the top of the 5th and get what would be the game winning RBI with a single (that like Varitek, he was thrown out trying to stretch into a double).

Daniel Bard would come on in the 8th and Papelbon would close out the game in the 9th to preserve the 4-3 Boston lead. The 7 innings thrown by Beckett puts him at 10-5 while Papelbon's save was his 29th of the season.

On Friday night, KC got out to the early 1-0 lead on an RBI sac fly hit by Alex Gordon off of Andrew Miller, but that's all Miller and the bullpen would allow as they managed to tie the game up on a Darnell McDonald RBI triple before taking the lead on a Jacoby Ellsbury sac fly in the top of the 4th.

In the top of the 5th and with two out and two away, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia belted a 3-run homer to give the Red Sox plenty of insurance at 5-1. The Sox would get two more to make it a 7-1 final. Miller gets the win after giving up a run and 3 hits in 5 and ⅓ innings of work while Alfredo Aceves worked 3 and ⅔ scoreless innings allowing one hit and striking out 3 to preserve the 7-1 lead.

Boston takes the first two in KC, setting up a matchup tomorrow between Tim Wakefield (6-5; 4.90 ERA) who has gone winless in his last four starts and Kansas City's Felipe Paulino (1-9; 4.30 ERA).

OTHER SOX NEWS:: David Ortiz is expected to miss up to a week with bursitis in his right heel. He was scratched from the lineup right before the start of the day/night doubleheader with Tampa Bay on Tuesday. Ryan Lavarnaway was called up from Pawtucket and replaced Big Papi in the lineup on Thursday night's game at DH, going 0-4.

Kevin Youkilis was placed on the DL this week as well with back problems and is also expected to miss a week.



ELSEWHERE IN MLB- MINNESOTA: On Monday night's game against Detroit in Comerica park, Minnesota slugger Jim Thome managed to belt career home runs #599 and #600 as the Twins out dueled the Tigers by a 9-6 final. On the landmark knight for the veteran slugger, Thome went 3-4 with 5 RBI, accounting for most of the Twin's offensive output that evening.

Thome's 3-run shot off of Daniel Schelerth in the top of the 7th made him the 8th major leaguer to enter the 600 Home Run club.

ATLANTA: Braves 2B Dan Uggla's hitting streak stopped at 33 games over the weekend. The Chicago Cunbs kept the red hot Uggla hitless for the first time in a month. Uggla's hit streak in July/August stopped just shy of the 1949 hit streak mark set by Red Sox outfielder Dom DiMaggio (or more recently, Benito Santiago's 34-game hit streak with the San Diego Padres in 1987). Uggla's hit streak now stand as the longest in Braves history, surpassing outfielder Rico Carty's 31-game hit streak in 1970.

CHICAGO CUBS: Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano (9-7; 4.82 ERA) abruptly announced his retirement after getting shelled by the Braves a week ago. Zambrano didn't even last 5 innings and gave up 8 earned runs as well as a career worst 5 homers. Zambrano was ejected after throwing inside on consecutive pitches to Atlanta 3B Chipper Jones.

Within days, the Cubs placed Zambrano on the disqualified list when it became clear he wasn't going to walk back his comments about retiring. The Players Association is protesting the actions the Cubs have taken against the hotheaded hurler in an effort to reduce any sanctions or fines that might be forthcoming.

After the Zambrano fiasco, the Cubs also announced that General manager Jim Hendry was terminated on Friday afternoon. Curiously, owner Tom Ricketts claimed he reached the decision on July 22 and told Hendry that day, but for whatever reason both parties didn't make any public announcement until nearly 3 weeks later- after the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline as well as the August 15 deadline to sign this year's draft picks.


NFL: QB Tom Brady went 11 for 19 including two TD passes in Thursday night's preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady worked for the first half and connected with TE Aaron Hernandez for a 16 yard TD pass and then WR Chad Ochocinco for TD pass #2. Ben Jarvus Green Ellis had two rushing TDs of his own, including one to close out the first half in New England's 31-14 preseason win over Tampa Bay.

The next preseason game for New England will be at Ford Field against the Detroit Tigers on Sat. Aug 27th. at 8PM ET.

NCAA FOOTBALL: One time Miami Hurricanes booster and convicted money launderer Nevin Shapiro made good on a jailhouse threat to disclose to the NCAA and the press improper benefits he gave to Hurricanes players while they were still with the university including cash, merchandise and parties on a yacht he owned that featured prostitutes.

Shapiro pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money laundering in September 2010 and was sentenced to a 20 year sentence in June. In a jailhouse interview, Shapiro detailed how he used funds from an ongoing Ponzi scheme going as far back as 2002 to finance donations to the University of Miami football and men's basketball programs in addition to giving out cash and favors to Hurricanes players.

The NCAA has notified University of Miami administrators that it's considering invoking a 'willful violators' clause to circumvent a 4 year statute of limitations on any investigation into the Miami athletic program. Traditionally, the NCAA’s bylaws would only allow it to sanction the Hurricanes for infractions that occurred during the four years prior to receiving a letter of inquiry from investigators. For example, if Miami received a letter of inquiry for a case on Sept. 1, 2011, the NCAA could only sanction the school for applicable violations dating back to Sept. 1, 2007. But the clause – reserved for “a pattern of willful violations” – can spin a probe back to the earliest applicable infractions.

Applied to the Shapiro allegations, it means the NCAA could reach as far back to early 2002, when the booster said he began funneling benefits to Hurricanes players. And if the probe stretched back to 2002, it would overlap with Miami’s two-year probationary period from the baseball program, which was leveled from February 2003 to February 2005. That could potentially tag the Hurricanes athletic program with a “repeat violator” label and make the school further susceptible to the NCAA’s so-called death penalty.

Only one Division one NCAA football program has been given the 'death penalty' before- the Southern Methodist University Mustangs in 1988. The NCAA banned the football team from taking the field in the 1987 season, and although away games were technically permitted the following season, SMU administrators decided it wasn't feasible to field a team for seven scheduled Away games that were already scheduled.

In 2003, the Miami Hurricanes baseball program was on probation from the NCAA for violations during the 1998-1999 seasons. If Shapiro's claims are true and the timeline match up, then he was funneling money to Miami players before the university even started probation.

NCAA HOOPS: Wow- if this is a 'Goodwill tour', I'd hate to see what the Georgetown Hoyas Malice Tour to China would look like.

The video above is from an altercation on Friday in Beijing between the Hoyas basketball team and the Shanghai Bayi Rockets- a squad that reportedly has ties to China's People's Liberation Army. The bench-clearing brawl erupted with less than 10 minutes to go in the game and the crowd threw plastic water bottles at the Hoyas as they left the court.



MOTORSPORTS: ESPN is reporting that Indy Car driver Danica Patrick is expected to announce a full-time move to NASCAR beginning next season. While the full details and terms of her contract have yet to be finalized, Patrick is expected to race primarily in the Nationwide series (something she's already appeared in) and make appearences in select Sprint Cup races.

Sports Chowdah Update- Cole Burner; Anybody Else Feel A Draft?

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images

MLB: After stumbling in the first two games, the Red Sox were able to salvage Game 3 against the Phillies and even managed to literally knock Philly starter Cole Hamels out of the game. After a scoreless duel with Jon Lester, Philly manager Charlie Manuel made the decision to pull Hamels after the starter took an Adrian Gonzalez line-drive off of his glove hand in the top of the 4th. Hamels reportedly had a large bruise to show for it, but Manuel wasn't going to take any chances with the starter.

The Red Sox managed to break the scoreless deadlock with a pair of RBI singles- one off the bat of Drew Sutton and the other from Jacoby Ellsbury- off of David Herndon in the top of the 5th. This was followed up by two solo homers from Jason Varitek and one from Dustin Pedroia.

Jon Lester came up pretty big against a potent Philly offense, allowing two hits and two walks and striking out five in 7 shutout innings of work. After Bobby Jenks scuffled in his second game back since returning from the DL, giving up a 2-run homer off the bat of Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, Papelbon came in for a 2-out save in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 5-2 win for Boston.

From there, the BoSox will travel to the Lone Star state for their second-ever sojourn to Houston. Tim Wakefield (4-3; 4.54 ERA) gets the start against Astros righty Bud Norris (4-6; 3.36 ERA) on Friday night.

NBA: The Celtics season has been over for awhile, and with a lockout underway the 2011-2012 season is in doubt as well. That's not to say the C's haven't been wheeling and dealing, however. In a draft day trade with the New Jersey Nets, the Celtics traded for Purdue's JaJuan Johnson in exchange for Providence's Marshon Brooks and a 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft.


NHL: The 2011 NHL draft last week officially closed the book on the 2009 Phil Kessel trade with the selection of OHL defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton was the 9th overall selection in the NHL draft- like last year's draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs had agreed to trade their 1st round draft pick to Boston in exchange for Kessel.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Paul Kariya, the Anaheim Ducks first-ever draft pick who started out in 1993, announced his retirement this week.

*It was made official at the draft when the former Atlanta Thrashers drafted OHL Center Mark Scheifele in the first round- the new NHL franchise in Winnipeg will resurrect the Jets name.

Just a bit of idle speculation on my part, but with Carolina, Florida, Washington and Tampa Bay having to travel to Manitoba several times a year to play a 'divisional opponent', realignment seems inevitable. What would probably make the most sense geographically is to have Nashville take the Thrasher's place and have them take Nashville's place in the Central but its possible for the league to move a team from the Northwestern division into Nashville's place in order to arrange the Jets playing the Oilers, Flames and Canucks on a more regular basis.

UPDATE: With not even the first full day of free agency in the NHL gone, the Philadelphia Flyers have announced a 1 year deal with Jaromir Jagr and a five year deal with former Penguins forward Maxime Talbot.

Summertime Sports Chowdah Update for June 27- Miller Repels Marauding Pirates; Dodgers Go For (Chapter) 11; Tim Thomas- More Hardware Than True Value

RED SOX: Well, aside from that 10-run inning against San Diego last week it's been a pretty forgettable week for the Red Sox. Heading into Sunday afternoon's game against the Pirates, the Sox had managed to drop 4 in a row- the last two against San Diego at Fenway and the first two in the weekend series against Pittsburgh at PNC Park.

It was not the stuff of legends, and the Sox were helped out considerably by 4 errors from the Pirates in Sunday's game. PawSox callup Andy Miller went 6 innings, giving up five scattered hits and two runs while walking two and striking out four in what was actually his second start for Boston (he had no decision in last week's 14-5 romp over the San Diego Padres).

Jonathan Papelbon pitched the bottom of the 9th for his 14th save in 15 opportunities while Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 11 games, Adrian Gonzalez (still at 1B) raised his batting average to a league-best .361 and Miller is now 1-0 with a 3.09 ERA in the 4-2 win. Interestingly, all of Boston's runs came on either outs or errors on Sunday- another PawSox callup, LF Josh Reddick, had two sac flies, one of which resulted in an RBI.

Interestingly, the Pirates are now one game over .500- this is probably the latest in the season that they've had a record of .500 or better in recent years and just 4 games behind the NL-Central leading Brewers.

The Red Sox travel to the city of Brotherly Love for a 3-game series against the NL leading Philadelphia Phillies starting Tuesday night, with Josh Beckett (6-2; 1.84 ERA) getting the start against Cliff Lee (8-5; 2.87 ERA). First pitch will get underway at 7:05 PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: The Los Angeles Dodgers filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy on Monday. The move came after MLB rejected a lucrative contract extension between the club and FOX sports and while the owner is close to finalizing a nasty and protracted divorce.

Two of the Dodgers largest unsecured creditors include the now-retired Manny Ramierez ($21 million) and Andruw Jones ($11.1 million). The Chapter 11 filing at a bankruptcy court in Delaware lists anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion in assets and $100 million to $500 billion in liabilities.

Owner Frank McCourt said the filing was to ensure that the team could continue to meet payroll, sign players and continue paying vendors and stadium personnel while preventing MLB from taking full control of the club.


BOSTON BRUINS: To hardly anybody's surprise, Bruins goalie Tim Thomas was named the Vezina trophy winner (NHL's Goalie of the Year) at the NHL awards last week. The former Vermont Catamount also won the Vezina in 2009, making this the second time he has garnered the award. Thomas was first on 26 of 30 ballots among votes submitted by NHL general managers.

Thomas conceded that his goaltending was far from perfect, even with an NHL-leading .938 save percentage.

"I don't think that my style's the perfect style -- that's for sure," Thomas said. "But it works for me.

"I'm kind of like the redneck of goaltending that duct-tapes everything together to fix it."

Thomas also won the Conn Smythe trophy (above) for the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup finals in the 7 game series against Vancouver.

The Big Daddy of Sports Chowdah Updates- Grin and Bear It, Triumphant B's Return to Boston, Parade & Fenway Ceremony; Interleague's Stranger Brew

NHL- After a private party at the Foxwoods casino club 'Shrine' in which Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand and Shawn Thornton were hand delivered a $100,000 bottle of champagne to drink out of the Stanley Cup, the Boston Bruins capped their most memorable week in nearly 40 years with a parade route jam-packed with yellow and black adorned fans on Saturday and a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park on Sunday.

[By the way, am I the only one that imagined the Bruins exodus from Vancouver might've looked something like the part in The Dark Knight where Gotham Police are escorting Harvey Dent in an armoured truck?- NANESB!]

The players from the Bruins brought the Stanley Cup into the Red Sox clubhouse before Sunday's game and players from both teams posed for pictures with the trophies and swapped caps and jerseys before the pre-game ceremonies.

For the actual ceremony itself, the Bruins entered Fenway Park on the same Duck boats from Saturday's parade (or the Celtics 2008 parade, or the Red Sox 2007 parade or...well you get the idea) taking a lap along the warning track and tossing out pucks and baseballs to fans before disembarking.


For the ceremonial first pitch, every member of the Bruins threw out a pitch to a Red Sox player, with captain Zdeno Chara (#33) throwing to captain Jason Varitek (again, #33) while the Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe award and Prince of Wales trophy were displayed on the mound.

On a side note, I got a book called Travels With Stanley which showed some of the places the Cup has been in its travels. Interestingly, this was not the Stanley Cup's first trip to Fenway in recent history.

Skip Cunningham, the Hurricanes other equipment manager, took possession of the Stanley Cup on August 16 in Boston, Massachusetts.

After a visit to Children's Hospital Boston, hockey's greatest prize visited the Boston Red Sox. In the clubhouse at Fenway Park, slugger David Ortiz did a double-take when he saw the Cup. "My my," he said, shaking his head. "Look at this trophy! Look what those hockey players get to play for. Now that's a trophy!"

Pitcher Mike Timlin stopped by to ogle the Cup, and recalled occasionally attending Maple Leafs games when he played in Toronto for the Blue Jays. Up on the Green Monster in Fenway Park's outfield, Cunningham and the Cup ran into Doug Flutie, retired NFL quarterback, who spun stories about watching hockey while he played in the Canadian Football League. Carolina's Craig Adams, a huge Red Sox fan, was also there with the Stanley Cup.

I remember reading that part and thinking 'Too Bad it's been awhile since the Cup has been inside the Hub- I bet that would go over well with everybody there if somebody took it to Fenway for an afternoon'. I didn't know how right I was, as it turned out.

My, what a differece a few years makes!

MLB- OK, so the hockey season is over- and with the best possible outcome, no less. There's still plenty of baseball to be played, however.

With the Sox taking Friday night's game and the Brewers winning on Saturday by a 4-2 final, Sunday's rubber game almost seemed an afterthought with the Bruins victory lap around the infield.

The Sox got off on the right foot with a 1-2-3 first from Tim Wakefield and 6 runs from the Boston bats in the bottom of the 1st, including a Youkilis 3-run homer. The Brewers would get two back in the top of the 2nd on a 2-run Nyjer Morgan HR, but Wakefield would go on to retire 12 of the next 13 batters he faced while the Red Sox batters continued pouring it on, scoring two more in the bottom of the 4th including a solo homer by Pedroia, followed by a Pedroia sac fly in the 5th and a 2-run Marco Scutaro homer in the bottom of the 6th to make it 11-2. Each team would get a run to make it a 12-3 Red Sox win on Sunday afternoon, with Wakefield going 8 whole innings while giving up 3 hits and 3 earned runs while striking out 6 and walking 1. Wake is now 4-2 on the season with a 4.26 ERA.

Beginning Monday night, the Red Sox will host Adrian Gonzalez (who had his 1000th career MLB hit on Sunday) former team in the San Diego Padres. Wade LeBlanc [0-2; 4.26 ERA] is expected to get the start for San Diego against PawSox call-up Andrew Miller [3-3: 2.47 ERA w/Pawtucket this season]. Game gets underway at 7:05 PM ET, 4:05 Pacific.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Shortstop Jed Lowrie, OF Carl Craford and starting pitcher Clay Buchholz all went on the 15 day DL this weekend. Lowrie is reported to have a left shoulder injury while Crawford is said to have a left hamstring strain. Buchholz will miss his scheduled start tomorrow with a strained lower back- Andrew Miller has been called up from AAA Pawtucket to fill in Monday night.

NEW POLL UP: I took it upon myself to wonder who's behavior would be considered more self-destructive this month- Congressman Weiner's or fans of the Vancouver Canucks? I'm interested in why you might think, so there's a poll where you can choose- It will be up for the next couple of days.

AHL: The Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League are the 2010-2011 AHL Champions after defeating the Houston Aeros on the road by a final of 3-2 earlier this month. The Ottawa Senator's AHL affiliate won the best of seven series by a 4-2 margin over the Aeros.

Sports Chowdah Update- Canucks go Luongo Distance; Red Sox on Wrong End of Sox Sweep; Shaq Packs it In

STANLEY CUP FINALS: For those of you who were wondering what it would've been like if the Bruins were on the losing end of that spectacular goalie matchup in Game 7 of the Eastern conference finals, Game 1 offered just a taste. With two Vezina-candidate goalies between the pipes, you had to figure it would be a low-scoring affair.

While they didn't score often (hell, nobody did) the Canucks scored late for the only goal of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals in Vancouver on Wednesday night. Raffi Torres put the Canucks on the board with less than 20 seconds left in regulation, eliminating the need for that pesky overtime.

The Canucks went 0-6 on the power play while the Bruins were 0-7 (including a 3 on 5 in the 2nd period) on the evening. So unlike Game 7 against Tampa Bay, the officials did take the whistle out of the pocket- although there were no penalties against either team in the 3rd.

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo turned aside all 36 shots faced while Tim Thomas stopped 33 of 34 faced in regulation. Game 2 is set to get underway at Vancouver's Rogers Arena on Saturday night at 8 PM ET, 5 PM Pacific Time and will be broadcast on NBC and CBC.

Granted the stakes are much higher in this one, but it's a little early to freak out and collectively hang heads in despair over the outcome of Game 1. The B's got off to much worse starts in their series against Tampa Bay and Montreal, yet somehow made it to the finals.

OTHER STANLEY CUP FINALS NEWS: The NHL has ruled that Canucks forward Alex Burrows will not be suspended after biting the finger of Patrice Bergeron during an altercation at the end of the 1st period. Both players were given offsetting minor penalties for roughing to start off the 2nd period.

OTHER NHL NEWS: In what's likely the biggest news to hit Winnipeg since.....umm.....hmm.....I guess the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway or Trans-Canada highway [care to help me out on this one, Maintobans? -NANESB!], it was announced this week that the Atlanta Thrashers would be moving to Winnipeg, MB upon completion of the sale of the Thrashers to True North Sports & Entertainment.

Winnipeg was home to the Jets, a World Hockey Association that was absorbed into the NHL in the 1970s, up until 1996 when the team departed for Phoenix, AZ to become the Coyotes. There had been much speculation that the financially struggling Coyotes would in fact be the team that would move back to Manitoba, but the organization was able to reach a long-term deal with the city of Glendale, AZ regarding an arena.

After the Winnipeg Jets left town, the city played host to the Manitoba Moose of the IHL and later AHL.

MLB: After taking 3 out of 4 over the weekend from the Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox travelled back to Fenway to take on the Chicago White Sox with Lester, Acves and Wakefield getting the starts over the last 3 games. Wednesday's game featured the White Sox rallying from a 3-1 hole in the top of the 5th to tie the game and eventually go ahead, winning by a 7-4 final. Wakefield went 6 innings in the loss, allowing 7 hits, 4 runs and getting no decision.

The Red Sox will go up against the Oakland A's at Fenway on Friday night at 7:10PM ET. Clay Buchholz (4-3; 3.41 ERA) will get the start against Josh Outman (1-0; 2.08 ERA).

DOWN IN PAWTUCKET: The Pawtucket Red Sox managed to rally against the Norfolk Tides on Wednesday night despite Kevin Millwood only going 2 and 2/3rds innings and allowing 4 runs. Outfielder Darnell McDonald went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs in the 8-7 win against the Baltimore Orioles affiliated AAA team, getting five runs in the bottom of the 9th.

On Tuesday night, John Lackey started for Pawtucket and went 5 and 2/3rds innings, allowing 3 hits and one earned run. Hideki Okajima came out of the bullpen and got the win in the 11-inning 5-4 win

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Daisuke Matsuzaka is expected to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, a Japanese news agenct reported. Matsuzaka had consulted with his family in Japan and got a 2nd opinion from a Los Angeles based doctor who confirmed the Red Sox diagnosis.

CELTICS: After an injury plagued season with the Boston Celtics, Center Shaquille O'Neal announced his retirement on Wednesday. The 7ft 1 Lousiana State star had a NBA career spanning 19 season with the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.

Playing Hooky Sports Chowdah Update- BoSox Take 2 of 3 From Blue Rays After Windy City Sox Breeze Thru Fenway; Eagles Soar While UConn's Sore

Elsa/Getty Images

MLB: Well scheisse....I've been a bad little blogger, trying in vain to score some easy cash playing the ponies whilst neglecting my blog. Then again, out of the last 6 games the Red Sox played, the only one I get to watch was Sunday's sucktastic snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory against the White Sox courtesy of Papelbon where the White Sox completed their sweep of the Red Sox.

The bad news is that absolutely NONE of the games in the subsequent homestand against Tampa Bay were close. The good news is that two of them went Boston's way, with Jon Lester going six innings while giving up four hits, two earned runs, three walks and striking out ten. Big Papi and Beltre homered and Ryan Kalish hit a grand slam off of Andy Sonnanstine in Monday's 12-5 win over Tampa.

Tuesday night was Boston's turn to get roughed up, with Daisuke Matsuzaka lasting all of four and 2/3rds innings while giving up eight earned runs in Tampa's 14-5 win over Boston.

Wednesday night's rubber game looked like it was going to be more of the same after Wakefield gave up an RBI sac-fly to Evan Longoria in the 1st, followed by a 3-run homer from BJ Upton in the 2nd. The Sox got on the board with a 2 run homer off the bat of Adrian Beltre before tying the game in the bottom of the 3rd with solo homers from Marcos Scutaro and Big Papi. Tampa briefly re-took the lead with an RBI double from Jason Batlett in the 4th, but the Red Sox re-took the lead in the bottom of the 5th thanks to Victor Martinez solo homer, followed by Ryan Kalish's RBI double and THEN scoring on an Evan Longoria throwing error with 2 away.

Boston would go on to tack on three more runs, including another homer by Scutaro to win by the final of 11-5 (this one being a little closer than it looked, given how quickly Tampa got out of the gate).

Vintage knuckleballer Tim Wakefield got 5 innings of work in, giving up 4 earned runs (plus one unearned) on six hits while walking two and striking out 4. With an abundance of run support, Wake's outing was good enough for the win, making the 44 year old knuckleballer the oldest Red Sox ever pitcher to get a win. Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley was 43 when he got his last win in a Red Sox uniform.

Thursday's a pretty light day in general in the American league, and the Red Sox will be travelling for another West Coast road trip that gets underway with a Friday night start against the Oakland A's with Clay Buchholz (15-6; 2.25 ERA) scheduled to start against Trevor Cahill (15-6; 2.72 ERA) at 10PM Eastern time, 7PM Pacific.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Jason Varitek made an appearence with the AAA PawSox for their final two games of the International League season at McCoy stadium, going 2-5, batting .400 and driving in a run in two games against the Syracuse Chiefs before being activiated by Boston on Monday night. The captain made an appearence in Tuesday night's loss, going 0-2 with two groundouts, but sat out Wednesday's game against Tampa with the knuckleballer starting.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The BC Eagles are off to a 1-0 start after their 38-20 win over Weber State at Chestnut Hill on Saturday. Eagles QB David Shinskie was 10-20 with 185 yards, 2 touchdowns and two interceptions and LB Mark Herzlich returned to the lineup after missing the 2009 season to undergo treatment for bone cancer.

This was pretty much a first week 'gimmee' where the hapless Division 1AA/FCS team gets slapped around by their 1A/FBS counterpart. Next week, the BC Eagles will host Kent State for a 3:30 PM ET kickoff.

The UConn Huskies had a much rougher start to their season at the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI. The Husky D couldn't contain an occasionally shoeless Denard Robinson, who was 19-22 with 186 yards and a touchdown passing while rushing for another 197 yards and a TD. Michigan wins their home opener against Connecticut, 30-10.

The Huskies will next host the Texas Southern Tigers at Storrs at noon Saturday.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Pretty good game Monday night between Virginia Tech and Boise State. The game took place at Fed Ex Field in Landover, MD- home of the Washington Redskins- and had the uncanny ability to time some big plays in the second half when I went out to flip some burgers or brats on the grill on Labor Day. The visiting Broncos held off a late drive by the Hokies to win 33-30.

Sports Chowdah Not Quite Labor Day Update- Not So Blue Rays Take 2 Out Of 3 From Sox; Manny Being Manny Elsewhere

RED SOX: Well, the 3 game series in Tampa Bay got off to a promising start with a 3-1 win behind the efforts of Jon Lester.

However, for two consecutive games, promising starts by the Boston pitchers were for naught as the late rallies by Tampa Bay erased early Boston leads. Clay Buchholz went 7 and 1/3rd innings Saturday night and was pulled after giving up he game-tying solo homer to BJ Upton. Scott Atcheson would go on to give up the tiebreaker in the bottom of the 11th, a solo shot to Rays DH Dan Johnson for the walkoff 3-2 Tampa win.

On Sunday, John Lackey gave up only one run over the first five innings before collapsing, giving up a 2-run homer to Carl Crawford and an RBI single to Dan Johnson before getting out of that and leaving runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 away for Hideki Okajima in the bottom of the 7th. Okajima got Crawford to strike out, but gave up an RBI single to Evan Longoria for some insurance in the Ray's 5-3 win on Sunday night. If dropping two out of three to the current wild-card leader wasn't bad enough, both the division leading Yankees and Wild Card Leader Rays won their respective games Monday.

The Red Sox have Monday off and will take on the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards Tuesday night. Josh Beckett (4-3; 6.50 ERA) is scheduled to start against Brian Matusz (6-12; 4.79 ERA).

OTHER SOX NEWS: The Red Sox traded relief pitcher Manny Del Carmen to the Colorado Rockies after being placed on waivers. The Sox will be getting minor league pitcher Chris Balcom-Miller, who's played with the Casper Ghosts of the Pioneer league and Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League.

The Red Sox were reported late last week to have put in a claim for Angels 1B/C Mike Napoli off of waivers, altough the Boston Herald is reporting that an actual trade with Anaheim is unlikely. Instead, the waiver claim by Boston was seen as a purely defensive move to block Napoli (.249 BA; 21 HR & 60 RBI) from going to another team in the AL East.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia is alive and well and back in Pawtucket now. The trade deadline pickup from Texas went 1-3 with a walk in last night's 2-1 win over the Rochester Redhawks at McCoy stadium in Pawtucket. Saltalamacchia was put on the DL and sent to the hospital after a localized infection in his right leg was discovered.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Manny Ramierez is with the Sox- this time the Chicago White Sox. Shortly after the Dodgers put Manny on waivers, he was picked up by the White Sox (National League Teams had first dibs on the shaggy slugger) and will likely join the team in Cleveland Tuesday night. Manny was batting .311 with 8 homers with the Dodgers this year

Roger Clemens pled not guilty to six counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in a Federal Courthouse in Washington D.C. Monday. The judge presiding over Clemens' arraignment set a jury selection date for April 5, 2011.

The Washington Nationals announced late last week that Stephen Strasburg will likely need Tommy John surgery in the offseason after it was learned he had a signficant tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. Strasburg was also seeking a second opinion from the same doctor who performed Tommy John surgery on fellow Nat Jordan Zimmerman last year.

NFL: The Pats lost to the St. Louis Rams 36-35 on Thursday night in which the defense apparently forgot to show up. One more preseason game remains, Thursday night against the NY Giants at the New Meadowlands stadium in E. Rutherford, NJ. Having said that, wake me when the games count.

NCAA FOOTBALL: For football games that will count, there's a full slate of NCAA football games this weekend. This includes the two Division 1A/FBS in New England. The BC Eagles will host the Weber State Wildcats at Chestnut Hill at 1PM ET, while UConn travels to the Big House in Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines at 3:30 PM ET. Both games are on Saturday.

Sports Chowdah Update for August 10-14- Lone Star Heat Wave; Saints Come Marching In

RED SOX: The current road trip seemed to be getting off to such a promising start, first by splitting a 4-game series with the Yankees in the Bronx and the taking the first two from Toronto in the Rogers Centre. However, the Jays managed to avoid the sweep with 4-run bottom of the 9th on Thursday- with three of those runs coming off of Papelbon- for the 6-5 win over Boston.

On Firday the 13th, they were in Arlington, TX to take on the AL West leading Texas Rangers for the first of a 3-game weekend series. Despite an offensive explosion early from Boston in the form of a 7-run 4th inning, starter Josh Beckett got as far as 5 complete innings before the bullpen squandered the 8-6 lead to the Ranger's potent offense. Although JD Drew added a solo homer to the tally in the 7th, that wasn't enough insurance as Scott Atchison gave up a sac-fly and RBI double in the 7th to make it a one-run game and Ranger's DH Vlad Guerrero ran out an infield single that plated Josh Hamilton to make it a 9-9 game in the 8th and eventually force extra innings. DelCarmen and Papelbon would hold the Rangers scoreless for the 9th and 10th innings, but Nelson Cruz would belt a solo homer off of Tim Wakefield as the first batter in the bottom of the 11th for the Ranger's walk-off win.

So if last night was home run derby, and it was- Lowrie, Big Papi and Beltre had solo shots while JD Drew had two to his credit and Mitch Moreland, Josh Hamilton and Michael Young all went deep for Texas...not to mention Cruz's walk-off- then tonight's game can be described without any snark or hyperbole as a pitcher's duel and Lester adeptly filling in the role as Boston's 'stopper'.

Requisite Awesome Lester Photo courtesy AP

With the mercury pushing past 102 at the start time and bullpen needing some rest after the last two games, Lester didn't disappoint. Of course, Rangers starter Colby Lewis didn't give up a run until the top of the 5th inning on a JD Drew RBI single. Throughout the rest of the game, the Sox 1-0 advantage seemed insurmountable, with Lester going 8 whole shutout innings and throwing 109 pitches, allowing five hits (including a 1-out Nelson Cruz triple that he managed to work around in the 7th). However, given the inconsistent nature of the Sox bullpen and the explosive nature of the Ranger's bats (presently batting a team average of .275- tied with 2nd best in the AL), the desire for some insurance runs was perfectly understandable.

And that wish came true in the top of the 9th when 1B Mike Lowell worked a 9-pitch at bat into a leadoff double (which the Rangers announcers were convinced could've been a triple if it weren't for Lowell's deteriorating hip) off of Darren O'Day before reaching third on a Ryan Kalish single. Bill Hall then singled to bring home Lowell, snapping O'Day's club-record 29 scoreless innings pitched. Scutaro then hit a fly ball to center off of reliever Matt Harrison that probably was deep enough to bring in Lowrie from 3rd, except Texas OF Julio Borbon couldn't quite handle it on the fly- so instead of one home, two away and one out, it was one in, bases loaded with nobody out. Harrison would get out of the inning by getting JD Drew to ground into a double-play, intentionally walk Victor Martinez and then get Big Papi to ground out and end the inning.

With Bard and Papelbon being rested (not to mention their less-than-stellar outings Thursday and Friday), Scott Atchison was sent in to close it out. He got Micheal Young to line out to start off the inning, but Josh Hamilton belted a solo homer to deep center and Vlad Guerrero reached on yet another headfirst slide into first base.

Not satisfied with the way things were developing, Francona sent in Felix DuBront to relieve Atchison. Guerrero helped DuBront out considerably by attempting an ill-advised steal of 2nd base where Victor Martinez threw him out from home. Pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland would strike out looking to end the ballgame and give DuBront his first Major League save.

The rubber game in this weekend's series will feature Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-3; 4.09 ERA) against CJ Wilson (10-5; 3.30)

OTHER SOX NEWS: 'Hey- where's Jacoby Ellsbury?' you might be asking. The answer is 'Back on the 15-Day DL'....this comes after he collided with Texas pitcher Tommy Hunter while running to 1st during Friday night's game (Friday the 13th, no less). Ellsbury was back in Boston undergoing MRI and CT scans on Saturday and was diagnosed with bruising on the left side of his ribcage. Friday night's game was only his 9th of the season after two seperate stints on the DL stemming from an April collision with Adrian Beltre in Kansas City.

In other DL news, Dustin Pedroia began the first of what was expected to be a 2-game rehab stint in AAA Pawtucket on Saturday. Pedroia went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk in Pawtucket's 6-4 win over the Buffalo Bisons on Saturday night.

Carlos Delgado is also down in Pawtucket, batting .250 with three hits in 12 official at-bats over the last 4 games.

NFL: Whaddaya know? Preseason's here!

Thursday's preseason game against the defending Super Bowl New Orleans Saints didn't count, so naturally it had a much different outcome than that one-sided beatdown on Monday Night Football last season.

Although he's reportedly healing nicely, WR Wes Welker sat this one out, which was probably just as well, seeing that New Orleans RB Lynelle Hamilton tore an ACL during practice on Wednesday and P Thomas Morstead was knocked out of the game on the first play, tackling Pat's WR Julian Edelman after a 40-yard kickoff return. Pat's RB Laurence Maroney had 30 yards and 2 TD's on the night.

Pats win this one 27-24 at Gilette on the boot of Gostkowski with 53 seconds left in regulation and will face the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome next on Thursday. The regular season kicks off with a home game in Foxboro against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, September 12.

[Don't get me wrong- I'm glad football season is right around the corner, but I can't get that worked up about the games until they start counting in the standings- NANESB!]