Long Overdue Sports Chowdah Update: Spring Has Sprung; B's Stumble, Savard Out Cold in Igloo; C's Filibuster Washington

(Nati Harnik- AP)

Well, in what feels like the blink of an eye to some we've gone from the closing ceremonies of the winter Olympics to the start of Spring Training. After taking on Boston College and Northeastern in exhibition games last week, Grapefruit League play got underway for Boston with a 2-1 win over Ft. Myers cohabitants Minnesota last Thursday.

On Monday afternoon, the Red Sox hosted the Pujols-less St. Louis Cardinals. Josh Beckett got 3 innings worth of work and made it look pretty easy, putting away all 9 batters he faced and striking out 3 of them. Papelbon, Okajima and Ramierez also followed up with one scoreless inning apiece.

Boston led 2-0 until the 7th, when a shaky Manny DelCarmen, allowing a hit, two walks and a run. With 2 on in the 8th, Dustin Richardson induced what looked like a routine groundout with two out that hit an umpire and brought two Cardinals baserunners home and left with an 'apparent injury' according to overthemonster.com. Down 3-2, Angel Sanchez and Che Hsuan Lin were walked and the iffy-hitting Jose Iglesias homered off of St Louis' Eduardo Sanchez and putting the Sox back up by a margin of 5-3. However, Randor Bierd struggled mightily in the top of 9th inning for the Sox after replacing Richardson, hitting a batter and giving up 4 hits without recording an out and letting the Cards retake the lead 6-5 before Scott Patterson came on to close out the inning. However, in the bottom of the 9th, Aaron Bates would reach on an error while Josh Reddick recorded a clutch, game-tying 2 out double, setting up Lin for some Grapefruit League heroics with a walk-off go-ahead single with two out.

The Cards' Chris Carpenter had two innings of work allowing 4 hits and an earned run. Evan MacLane was the losing pitcher for St. Louis. The Red Sox will take on the Marlins tomorrow.

(AP)

The Bruins sought to continue their winning streak after the Olympic break, dropping their first game back to Montreal before going on to beat the Maple Leafs and Islanders. On Sunday, they took the early 1-0 lead against Pittsburgh at The Igloo on a Blake Wheeler power play goal before Pascal Dupuis scored the game-tying goal five minutes later by hacking away at a puck that looked for all the world like Tim Thomas had corralled and was waiting for the whistle to blow. Evgeny Malkin put the Pens up for good less than 2 minutes into the third to make it a 2-1 game, however, the story of the game would be Matt Cooke's late hit on an unwary Marc Savard 14:23 into the third period. Marc Savard was unconscious for a few moments and removed from the ice by a stretcher.

Head coach Claude Julien didn't mince words after the game.

“It’s pretty obvious that was definitely a dirty hit,...[snip] That’s probably the classic blind-side hit to the head.”

Julien also thought that Cooke's blindside hit warranted a suspension while Cooke defended his actions by saying he was simply finishing his check.

Pittsburgh is 4-0 since the Olympic break while Boston is 2-2. The Bruins travel to Toronto for a Tuesday night game against the Maple Leafs- Savard said he hopes to be in uniform for Tuesday's game and is listed as day-to-day.

While I hadn't been paying that much attention to the NBA during the final week Olympics, it looked like the same held true for the Celtics. Seriously.....how could anybody lose to the Nets this year? But fear not! They seem to be offsetting that embarrassment with a 4-0 start to the month of March, taking down Detroit, Philly, Charlotte and most recently, Washington. Trailing by 13 with 6 minutes remaining, the C's managed to pull ahead with a 20-4 run- including 8 points from Ray Allen and another 6 from Rajon Rondo- for the 86-83 win over the Wizards at the Garden on Sunday. The win comes despite one of Kevin Garnett's worst performances in a Celtics uniform, going 0-7 in 30 minutes of play (although he was 8 of 10 from the free-throw line).

The Celtics will travel to Milwaukee Tuesday night to take on the Bucks.

Sports Chowdah Recap for October 9th:BoSox Fizzle As Division Series Heads To Boston.Yanks To Play Dome-Ball w/ 2 Game Lead

Damn....they took my bootlaces away.

I think Game 1 of the Angels/Red Sox series should simply be referred to as 'Four Hours Of My Life That I'm Never Getting Back'. The Red Sox combined for eight hits and one run in the first two games of the ALDS while Torii Hunter belted a 3-run homer off of Jon Lester in Game 1 and Erick Aybar's 2-RBI triple off of Josh Beckett broke tonight's game open for the Los Angeles Angels of a Municipality Somewhere in Orange County California Immediately South East of Los Angeles Angels. There was a Papelbon sighting, but it was obviously a non-save situation. The two teams head to Boston with the Angels holding a commanding 2-0 series lead, and there really is no way to sugarcoat the clunker that has been 2009 Red Sox postseason baseball.

Now at this point I'd like to be a gushy, doe-eyed optimist and point out that the Red Sox have been down before 0-2: 2003 ALDS versus Oakland or the '99 ALDS versus the Tribe....or need I mention the historic comeback that was the 2004 ALCS? But the last two nights make it very difficult for me to be optimistic. It's not exactly the most scientific or insightful approach, but I'm not getting the same 'do or die' sense of urgency from this years' team than I was the 2003 Cowboy-up or 2004 Idiots or even last years Division winners rallying back from a 7-0 defecit to force a Game 7 with Tampa in last year's ALCS. Last year, after nearly sweeping the regular season series with Boston, the Angels were the better team on paper heading into the ALDS. This year, it's looking as though that advantage isn't confined to mere paper.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country Alex Rodriguez homered off of Twins closer Joe Nathan to tie the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Twins managed to get out of a jam with Yankee baserunners on 1st and 3rd with only one out in extra innings, Johnny Damon grounded into a double play. However, the Twins left the bases loaded in the top of the 11th and Mark Teixera hit a walk-off home run off of Jose Miljares. So baseball returns under the Metrodome with the Yankees holding a 2-0 series lead.

It was a travel day for the National League teams. The Philadelphia/Colorado series resumes tomorrow with the series even at one game a piece (TV: TBS, XM Radio Channel 140- 3:30 ET, 12:30 PT) while the Dodgers head to Busch Field with a 2-0 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals (TV: TBS, XM Radio Channels 140 and 175).

Also tomorrow- a bunch of College football. w00t!

Sports Chowdah Recap for October 7th.

I was peripherally aware of the tripleheader underway in the MLB playoffs yesterday- the Phillies had pretty much wrapped up Game 1 of the NLDS against Colorado by the time I finished work yesterday.

The Twins got out to an early 2-0 lead against the Yankees in the Bronx, but that didn't last long as the Yankees scored 7 unanswered runs. Gotta wonder about Gardenhire's decision to throw Lariano into what was looking more and more like a lost cause for the Twins at that point. But then again, I'm probably underestimating how depleted the Twins bullpen was after Tuesday's 12-inning affair.

Rounding out the tripleheader was LA's Jeff Weaver getting the win over St. Louis' Chris Carpenter in Game 1 of that series. Lots of runners stranded in scoring position for both teams last night, but the Dodgers managed to win 5-3.

And let's not forget today's big showdown between Boston and Anaheim.

Oh...wait- you thought I was talking about baseball still? Sure- why the hell not?

Another tripleheader later on today, starting with Rockies/Phillies, then Cardinals/Dodgers and finally Red Sox/Angels for the nightcap.

As far as I know, here are the ALDS Probables:

Game 1- Jon Lester vs John Lackey

Game 2- Josh Beckett vs Jared Weaver

Game 3- Clay Buchholz vs Scott Kazmir.

[NOTE: ESPN Mobile listed Game 3 Starters as TBA vs Joe Saunders late yesterday]

One final note- F Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins signed a 3-year contract extention yesterday.