Sports Redux: Let Us Now Praise Timothy Stephen Wakefield

Go ahead, admit it. We will. Going into this season, we were counting on Schill, Daisuke, and Josh to guarantee us a .600 winning percentage, and we'd take our chances with the other guys. Not so fast. That guy with the 1.35 ERA, that guy who had the Blue Jays flapping their wings ineffectively all night? That old guy? That's Old Reliable Tim Wakefield, who improved to 2-1 with another bloodlessly effective outing. "He can go under the radar all the way to a bunch of wins," noted manager Francona. Succinct, and true.

The fringe benefit to having Wakefield on the team is the sudden pop of Doug "Miracle" Mirabelli, who homered in his second straight appearance. Mike Lowell and David Ortiz also gave Toronto bleacher-dwellers souvenirs, and Papelbon made things slightly interesting for Toronto before incinerating pinch-hitters (well...pinch-batters, anyway) Jason Smith and Adam Lind.

Unfortunately, Wake's outing wasn't the MLB pitching story of the night. That honor belonged to the other Sox' Mark Buehrle, who no-hit the Rangers in Chicago. His only blemish was a walk to Sammy Sosa, immediately rectified by picking Sammy off first.

The Sox finish their series with Toronto this afternoon; Jays ace Roy Halladay matches up against Mr. Six Edward James Olmos Freddy Krueger Julian Tavarez for Boston.

And they can finally turn off the hot-dog warmers on Causeway Street. The Celtics played game #82 of 82 the way they played so many this year: a hard-fought, exciting game that they just couldn't pull out at the end. The Pistons, in full "let's not let anyone get hurt before the playoffs" mode, gave the ball to Ronald 'Flip' Murray, who delighted coach Phillip 'Flip' Saunders with a game-winning bucket. Murray just got shot at in his house the other night, so he knows from pressure. Rajon Rondo, whose free-throws tied the game with 3.9 seconds left, led Boston with 19 points, nine assists and six steals. Ryan Gomes added 19 points of his own, followed by Allen Ray's 18 points and Al Jefferson's 17 points and 15 rebounds.

The season is now over. Done. Countdown to Draft Day.Boston ends the season with a 24-58 record, but Coach Doc Rivers gave his team credit for sticking together throughout: “The No. 1 thing that I told them I am most proud of over the whole year is that through all the turmoil and adversity, they never wavered as a team. You never heard any bickering. They stayed together as a unit and that’s unusual in this league or any league.”

In hockey, the Rangers (the one team we knew we wouldn't root for) became the first team to advance to the second round, sweeping Atlanta. The NBA Playoffs are settled; Bostonist is predicting the Pistons to come out of the East and all hell to break loose in a wild-open West. We'll say Phoenix, but reserve the right to change our minds 342 times.

Victoria Welch contributed to this post.
Photo courtesy of The Seattle Times