There's not enough lipstick in the world to cover up this pig. It's been a long, long time since we've had to report on a Patriots game that was this hard to think about, let alone write about. The Pats welcomed Miami to Foxboro with open arms, a red carpet, and a map to the end zone, and as a result are 38-13 victims. The story of the game was the Miami offense, which left......

Roy Halladay wasn't going to let the Red Sox celebrate on his dime. With the magic number at one, the Sox just needed to beat Roy and the Wild Card spot (at least; they're still not giving up on Tampa Bay) would be theirs. But as the Sox learned, you can't spot Halladay a 5-0 lead and expect to come back. Jon Lester was surprisingly un-automatic, as the Blue Jays touched him for one in......

Well, they flipped the switch, and we're still here. Our MVP All-World QB is gone, and we're still here. The Rays are officially going to leave Fenway still in first, and we're still here. And we feel fine. Fenway last night didn't have that edge-of-Armageddon feeling that it sometimes does when other teams are in town for a September game with first place on the line. And if any of the crowd was extra fired......

Folks...the late season magic has arrived. The Red Sox seemed poised for another near-sweep, so close and yet so far. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the master at digging then getting out of holes, had gotten the Sox down 4-0. The seventh-inning stretch had arrived. (By the way, Bostonist was at Fenway the other night and noted that fans now have to be reminded to stand up for the seventh-inning stretch, but leap up out of their seats......

Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose high pitch counts and low ERA give one the unsettling feeling of watching a chess master who mysteriously sacrifices all of his pawns before winning everything with his bishop and rook, won a tidy 8-0 shutout last night against the White Sox. Dice-K pitched eight innings, during which he struck out eight, walked two, and allowed two hits. The win improved his record to 16-2 and tied him with Hideo Nomo for......

Is this going to be the game that we look back on and say, yes, this was the day the 2008 Red Sox got it together? It's not out of the question. The Sox have been - let's go with scuffling - for a couple of weeks. They've watched Toronto blow them out of Fenway and blow Jon Lester out of SkyDome or whatever it's called now. And they stepped up, taking the Jays to......

While Carl Yastrzemski was "resting comfortably" at MGH after his triple bypass surgery, the current Red Sox were 400 miles south, honoring Yaz with some clutch hitting and some fire as they beat Baltimore again, 7-2. The hitting came from Jason Varitek (2 HR in 2 nights?!?) and Kevin Youkilis (3-for-5 with a homer), among others. The fire came from Dustin Pedroia, who launched a few indiscretions at umpires, and Coco Crisp, who became the......

A ten-run inning wasn't enough to hold a lead on Tuesday, but a nine-run inning was last night. That's partly just the vicissitudes of baseball, and partly the difference between wet-behind-the-ears Charlie Zink and pretty-reliable Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Sox pounded yet another hapless Texas pitcher (Tommy Hunter, and we wouldn't bother memorizing that name) for a nine-run second inning, highlighted by another Ortiz 3-run home run amid 13 Sox batters. Other offensive stars for the......

Nice to see everything come together, isn't it? The Red Sox got some better-than-usual pitching from Daisuke Matsuzaka, some timely hitting, from some guys who needed to step it up, and some good luck as they evened their series with the White Sox in a 6-2 win. Dice was pretty fantastic, going eight innings and giving up only one run and only three walks. He got himself in trouble a couple of times, but induced......

Was this team really in turmoil four days ago? (Yes.) Were we convinced that the swagger was gone for good? (Yeah, pretty much.) Did we think that losing a Hall of Fame slugger would come back to bite the Red Sox in the butt (We still kind of do, to be honest.) Whatever the future holds, let it be known that the Red Sox righted the ship in record time after the Angel sweep and......

Maybe it's the fact that the Mariners are 24 games under .500. Maybe it's the healing waters of Puget Sound. Whatever it is, after 48 hours in Seattle, the Red Sox look like themselves again. Daisuke Matsuzaka became the second straight Sox pitcher to blow away the hapless M's. Dice was in complete control through seven innings, striking out six and walking only three. They did get to him for two runs in the eighth,......

Seven Red Sox are headed to the Bronx (by train!) for the All-Star Game. And what better way to arrive at the giant party at the house of the enemy than defending World Champions, back in first place. It's a lot of fun to travel in style like this. The Sox haven't exactly charged into first place. A combination of the Rays' miserable week (at midnight, the spell may wear off and they change......

Yesterday, we asked the musical question, "How Many Red Sox All-Stars Does It Take To Win a One-Run Game?" Turns out the answer is three, plus a couple of Japanese guys. The Sox shook off the stink of their road trip and beat the Twins 1-0 last night in a pretty exciting pitchers' duel. Daisuke Matsuzaka and Minnesota's Scott Baker traded zeroes for seven innings. Each got in trouble (though a hat tip to Dice......

This is getting out of hand. On a night when the Sox finally decided to support their starter (Daisuke) with some offense, the bullpen decided it was their turn to ruin the evening and send Sox fans to their rosary beads, panic buttons and fallout shelters. The Sox cobbled together a 4-1 lead on a Pedroia home run, a Drew RBI triple, and a series of fortuitous bounces and wild pitches, the kind that's been......

We don't expect miracles when guys come back from the DL. But yesterday, in his return to the mound, it seemed like a miracle each time Daisuke Matsuzaka got a Cardinal out. Which he only did three times before being sent to the showers, as the Cards rocked him for seven runs en route to a 9-3 pasting at Fenway. Daisuke says he felt OK. Sure, he gave up a two-run homer to Aaron Miles,......

Let's start with the good news. Manny Ramirez finally broke out of his home run slump, and cracked career shot #499, a three-run shot off Seattle's Miguel Batista. Um, that's about it. The bad news is that Seattle won, 4-3, on a Jose Lopez single off Mike Timlin in the ninth. Julio Lugo got tossed for arguing a check swing, and Terry Francona was dismissed early when he came out to challenge it. "'Bout time,"......

Maybe a scheduled day off and a rainout were the tonic the Sox needed to find themselves again. Maybe the Brewers were just incredibly overmatched. Whatever the reason, the Sox find themselves back in a virtual tie for first after sweeping Milwaukee yesterday at Fenway. Game One, which had to start at 3:55 because God forbid anybody do anything that would upset Fox's precious stranglehold on the Saturday schedule, belonged utterly and completely to Daisuke......

It might be important to remind yourself this morning that the Celtics have home-court advantage, and they could still go 16-12 in the playoffs, 0-12 on the road, and still hold up a trophy in June. But the sad and sorry fact remains that they're 0-4 on the road in the playoffs, and last night they committed the worst sin of all: they were defensively rotten and just plain uncompetitive. With LeBron James still way......

With their backs against the wall, responsible for a sudden regionwide crisis of confidence, the Celtics responded with one of their best, most balanced games of the season to punch Atlanta 110-85 and regain control of the first-round series. The C's put on a virtual clinic of how to spread the ball around, rely on your stars, let the bench guys contribute, and never really let the other guys into the game. Garnett set the......

Maybe, in retrospect, it's not the best idea for a guy to mouth off before a game everyone know he's going to lose. In four years, remember, Freddie Mitchell went from Super Bowl trashtalker to disgraced Indiana substitute teacher. Who knows what the future holds for Atlanta Hawk point guard Mike Bibby, but you've got to wonder why he's still talking while he utterly and completely fails to back it up on the court. Not......

He says he feels better. He says he's actually felt pretty good for a couple of weeks now. But David Ortiz must feel great today, after his season-long slump ended with a Monster shot grand slam off the hapless Rangers to spark a 11-3 whupping. It was such a rebirth for Papi that his teammates gave him the "silent treatment" in the dugout usually reserved for rookies hitting their first homer. Other offensive highlights: a......

They worked hard enough in Game Two to go to OT. Last night, they took it a step further, as the Bruins beat Montreal for the first time since about 1982 in a thrilling 2-1 OT win at the Garden. It started with a Milan Lucic goal in the first period, giving the B's their first lead against the Canadiens since about 1995. Tom Kostopolous evened the score late in the second. So much for......

When the rumor first broke that Bill Buckner was the mystery guest at Opening Day, we thought that sounded just right. A perfect chance for diehard Sox fans, or at least the Opening Day crowd, to say all was forgiven, if in fact any forgiveness was due to the man who had to flee to Idaho to escape the indignity of a loss that he symbolized even though his was far from the only tragic......

There are 39,195 lucky souls in the metropolitan area today. They're the ones holding tickets, through fair means or foul, to the home opener today at Fenway. They get to see the flag unfurled, the bling distributed, and hopefully the Red Sox get back on track against the winless Tigers. And when we say foul means, it's not just our standard we-can't-get-tickets bitterness. Stories like the Sox auctioning off Green Monster seats, and police giving......

Jonathan Papelbon shouldn't be allowed access to big game balls once the final out has been recorded. It's one thing when a dog eats the ball that won the 2007 World Series for Boston, but when word spread this morning that another sentimental game ball likely fell victim to our closer? Paps, it's time to have a little chat about what a keepsake is. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched brilliantly on Tuesday night, during the latest stop......

There was almost a full slate of MLB games yesterday. Not here. There were a good handful of NBA games last night. Not here. There were a couple of NHL games. Not here. There are teams still thriving and striving for NCAA glory. Sigh. Almost everything cranks up again tonight; the Sox are in Oakland, for another game out of prime time. When do they get back home? The Celtics are in Chicago looking for......

1-0. That's all that matters. Sure, Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched like he just got off the plane after a 19-hour trip. Papelbon was shaky. J.D. Drew got hurt. But look at the bright sides. Hideki Okajima upstaged his countryman and got the win. Manny's on pace for 648 RBIs. And J.D. was replaced by Brandon Moss, who hit the game-tying home run. In case you had cable or satellite problems, you weren't alone. And ESPN's GameCast......

Even the most pie-eyed, green-blooded Celtic optimist didn't think it was going to be this good. No team since the Kings did it in 2001 has traveled the fabled Texas Triangle without at least a nick and a scratch. Maybe no team since then has really been as good as the 2007-08 Celtics. And last night was tough; make no mistake. The Mavericks, even though they haven't gotten all the attention of some of their......

Courtesy of Red Sox Monster, we are seeing the Papelbon Jig and Dice-K in a Teletubby costume in a whole new light: Let's just hope the Red Sox opponents see them the same way whoever made this video did.......

Radio guy Sean Grande said it at one point in the second half; there were a lot of bloggers and NBA experts ready to go on the Internet and write that the Celtics really weren't for real. After the first quarter, they'd have had a serious case. The C's couldn't hit the broad side of the barn, and their vaunted defense was being repeatedly torched by Tony Parker and company. This looked bleak. The Celts......