Folks got their money's worth at Fenway last night. But what do you say to recap the game? We were set to write about the big-league debut of knuckleballer Charlie Zink. Then we were going to write about the titanic 10-run first inning (Bostonist was returning from a weekend trip, and the first inning alone got us from near Meriden all the way up past Hartford and to Vernon. That's a good first inning.) 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,......

We at the Bostonist remember a time when many thought the Red Sox were babying Jon Lester. Before the cancer scare and before he had ever threw a ball at Fenway, we kept hearing how special this kid is and how they needed to make sure he was ready for Boston. Cut to this year and Jon Lester, some would say is the ace of the staff. He’s been spot on most of his appearances......

When Bostonist were kids, there were two nights a year we were permitted to stay up wicked late: New Year's Eve, and the baseball All-Star Game. We don't think we would have been allowed to stay up 'til 1:47 A.M. as kids. But that's what it would have taken to make it through last night's game. When it finally ended, in front of about 20,000 people who paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars a ticket......

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......

"Night game, day game, get in at 5, night game, day game, day game, night game, extra innings, get in at 5." Beat poetry, or Jason Varitek describing the most recent stretch of the Red Sox' schedule? In any case, the brutal road trip and the Minnesota-bullpen-sponsored rebirth are in the rear-view mirror, and only a series with the perpetually underperforming Orioles stands between the Sox and the All-Star Break. Many of the Sox, of......

Hey, these are starting to look like the good Red Sox again! Except for one bad inning by Jon Lester, the Sox looked pretty good last night, beating the Twins 6-5. Lester pitched a mostly solid game, and the Sox once again found some clutch hitting and took advantage of another team's shaky bullpen. Lester, in fact, had some in the crowd buzzing early about a repeat performance of his May no-hitter (well, a few......

"Sick of playing that game," said Kevin Youkilis when it was all done. And can you blame him? The Red Sox had to wait out a rain delay, wait out the surprisingly resilient Joel Piniero, overcome a Papelbon blown save, and endure 13 muggy, soggy innings to finally beat the Cardinals 5-3. Youk's second homer of the game finally sent everyone home. The Cards touched Jon Lester for two in the sixth, while the Sox......

Outnumbered? Well, if you count Motown Steve Javie as wearing a Detroit jersey over his referee's uniform. Endless moaning about the refs is for losers and Spurs, so we'll keep it brief. We'll just say that if you have the desire to send Richard Hamilton any fan mail, just address it to the free throw line at the Garden; it's the one place he's sure to be found. Outgunned? Well, yeah. The Pistons, who have......

Yesterday, we gleefully noted that Yankee superstar Joba Chamberlain blew the ballgame on Tuesday night. Well, the wheel of karma moves swiftly and decisively, so today we must report a blown save and a loss for Jonathan Papelbon. Stupid wheel of karma. It was a roller-coaster of a game, with the Tigers chasing Clay Buchholz out early. The Sox hung around though, as homers by Kevin Youkilis (twice) and Mike Lowell eventually tied it all......

If we had to pick one favorite moment from the Celtics' rout of Atlanta last night... Contenders would be Pierce's opening flurry of 3-pointers, or Ray Allen confidently taking over in the third quarter, or Rondo's patented "huck the ball off the other guy while falling out of bounds" move. Or any of numerous blocks, dunks, defensive shutdowns that made the 104-81 final not really even as close as that. But the greatest moment of......

Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon is hot commodity for advertisers. So it comes as no surprise that Dunkin' Donuts would use him in an advertisement. The ad itself is pretty funny, which is at Center Field (no embed available) because it involves a series of butt-pats: This is karma for Papelbon leering at former NESN host Tina Cervasio's butt, right? Not exactly. Surviving Grady let us know that Jonathan Papelbon used a stunt double for......

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......

Did you enjoy yesterday's narrowly-averted international incident? All is well, and the Sox will be landing in Japan this morning. The deal as we understand it is that instead of the $40K(!) the coaches were supposed to get as a business-trip bonus, they're now getting a good chunk of that from MLB, and the Red Sox will make up the difference. The best thing to come out of this is that the team's been united......

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.......

The wheels are coming off the bus. After Monday night's debacle in DC and Tuesday's shutout at the hands of Florida, the Bruins desperately needed a strong showing last night, with Toronto in town and their six-seed hanging by a thread. They gave a strong performance, all right, but only if you gauge by smell. The Bruins opened a 1-0 lead, then watched helplessly as the Leafs pummeled them into a fine dust, scoring eight......

Boston's favorite dancing fool has proven that the squeaky wheel really does in fact get the grease. Closer Jonathan Papelbon must have attended the Curt Schilling “How to Use the Media to Your Advantage School." After a week of complaining that he wasn’t being taking care of and how he should get the money he deserved all in the name of baseball, Papelbon got the money he wanted on Thursday afternoon. According to Amalie......

Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn once famously said of preachy movies, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union.". Well, Western Union is now out of the telegram business, so the Celtics had to send a message to Detroit some other way, playing stifling defense, fundamental offense, and grinding out a win that - well, that sends the message - that they just might actually be the best team in the East. Everybody chipped......

It felt great for a second or two, flipping the pages of the local dailies to check in with the Bruins. Win, win, shootout win, come from behind win, win...and then that Monday night game against the Capitals happened. The Bruins came back home to Boston last night a little humbled, but we'd hoped that they were ready to kick it up a notch and not make absolute fools of themselves again deliver a quality......

It was about a week ago when we noted that the Bruins were in 6th place in the Prince of Wales Eastern Conference, which was a decent place to be, thus drawing the winner of the weak-sister Southeast Division. In that week, the B's have solidified the 6th spot, but are now officially in spittin' distance of bigger and better things. They've won blowouts this week, they've won shootouts, they've won at home, they've won......

On the way out of the TDB Garden last night, we weren't completely thrilled about the Celtics' victory over King James and the Cavaliers last night. It was a kind of sloppy game, Paul Pierce was way off-target all night, and the effects of jet lag were obvious. Then we stopped for a second and remembered where this team was a year ago. In one season, we've gone from plummeting towards ignominy, to beating the......

Books Susan Choi draws on real-life, high-profile crimes for her literary works. Her last book was American Woman, based on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, and now she's inspired by her father's real-life experience as a former colleague of the Unabomber in her latest, A Person of Interest. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Movies Child of the Big City and Daydreams are two silent films from the vanguard of pre-revolution Russian cinema. The former......

You've got to be kidding us. We can't get anywhere near the rest of the media during Red Sox spring training (MLB doesn't believe in the journalistic credibility of blogs, can you believe it?), and the big press conference of the pre-season takes place in the Red Sox spring training complex PARKING LOT? We totally should have gone to Florida to try to jump in on the conversation that took place on Monday between Curt......

It looks like it's going to be an easy season for Red Sox beat writers. It looks like all they'll have to do is set up a microphone within half a mile of Jonathan Papelbon, and he'll come a-runnin' with enough material to fill a dozen Notes columns. More, if they can be padded out with 40-year-old rock lyrics (hi, Dan!). So it's the time of the season for Spring Training, and Papelbon held court......

The following is a public service announcement: The next time you steal a Red Sox's castoffs, particularly their sweaty cups, eBay would rather you sell them elsewhere. The Track Girls are spreading the word that SportsWorld, in Saugus, tried to sell Jonathan Papelbon and Kevin Youkilis' used jocks on their eBay store. Judging from how many times the Track Girls have written about SportsWorld and its Red Sox underwear sale, SportsWorld has been trying......

"I hope we have this problem every year," said Theo Epstein when asked about the final-out ball from the 2007 World Series. You may remember the fiasco and hurt feelings involved when the Sox and Doug Mientkiewicz embarked on their power play over the ownership of the 2004 ball. Last we heard was that Jason Varitek had slipped it into his pocket at Coors Field, then gave it to Jonathan Papelbon. Well, today it broke......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

Now that the Red Sox have won the World Series, how are they doing with the publicity grind? We'll evaluate each one's turn on late-nite television: Manny Ramirez on Leno: Two versions of Manny Ramirez exist--the sulky one and the gleeful one who invites everyone over to his house for drinks. Gleeful Manny showed up on Leno. He chatted with Leno about cars and awkwardly hit fists with Steve Carrell. At first, it seemed like......

While he was holding on to the 2004 World Series trophy and stepping off a stage, Mayor Tom Menino got a little too excited and fell. He injured his knee just before today's Rolling Rally. His spokeswoman told the Globe that Menino "hyperextended his knee" but heroically sacrificed himself: "He saved the trophy. He was more concerned about the trophy than himself." It could have been worse. The tips of the flags on that trophy......

Bostonist saw today's "Rolling Rally," featuring the players riding duck boats across the city and relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon dancing to the Dropkick Murphys, from two different vantage points--near the Common and at the Hynes Convention Center. Everyone clearly enjoyed themselves, especially Papelbon: Wherever you were along the parade route, it was simply madness. Of course, the Red Sox faithful turned out in their jerseys. Hundreds of little kids skipped school. College students sat down......