Did we promise we were finished with the Jason Bay puns? We don't think we did promise, technically. Anyway, it's appropriate, since Jason is now the King of Baltimore after slamming two home runs to help the Sox get back on track, 6-3 at Camden Yards. And if they don't name Maryland's most distinctive geographical after the kid, you can't blame us for trying. Bay hit a solo shot in the second and a 2-run......

Well...that sucked. Trying to stop a modest 1-game losing streak, Josh Beckett was turned into hamburger by the suddenly red-hot Blue Jay bats. The Jays shelled Josh for eight runs in less than three innings, and Beckett got the loss in a 15-4, 22-Toronto-hit massacre. "They were just really, really bad pitches. Well, good pitches to hit," said Beckett, and it's hard to argue. The Sox did scratch out a little offense - an RBI......

Due to rain, Friday night’s game was postponed. For those of you who had tickets, you can use them on September 13th for a day/night double header. Paul Byrd will make his debut in a Red Sox uniform tonight and look for Josh Beckett to pitch on Sunday. Who knows if these extra days off will work in the favor of Clay Buchholz, he’s had one miserable outing after another and we won’t be seeing......

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......

Hank wasn’t there to get the crowd going and the normally loud crowd at Gillette seemed to have taken a Quaalude before the game. But then again, it’s not a real game. Nothing was at stake; even Tom Brady was bundled up on the sidelines like Nanook of the North. (Tom, it was 70 degrees.) Maybe it was the cool crisp air that got to the Pats, but even a push at the end didn’t......

Two Red Sox may have moved themselves off the "what's wrong with this guy?" list in Kansas City last night. Well, nothing's really been wrong with Tim Wakefield; although he went into last night 6-8, he's gotten miserable run support and has had to deal with the constant emotional roller coaster that is the lot of the knuckleballer. But he was awesome last night (6 innings, 4 hits, 1 ER, 6 Ks), even though Royals......

We'll run out of Jason Bay-related headline puns soon enough, we promise. But we'll use them when we can, such as when reporting on Bay's first home run as a Red Sox, a three-run blast in the first that helped set the tone for the 12-2 massacre of Oakland yesterday at Fenway. Jon Lester had surrendered a two-run shot to Emil Brown in the first, but his offense gave him the leisure to cruise through......

The Manny Ramirez sycophants are still chirping, but whether they like it or not, the Jason Bay era has begun. Bay arrived in Boston and although, he didn’t get the police escort that Doug Mirabelli got when he returned back to Boston; he did receive a hero’s welcome. Not bad for a guy who’s been playing for a team that no one cares about. Last night, Bay and the Sox beat the Oakland A’s 2-1.......

Relax, folks! Whatever happens now, the Angels aren't going to beat the Red Sox in October! Dan Shaughnessy said so, and like they say, "Hey, folks, when you're right 51% of the time, you're wrong 49% of the time." But the Angels sure can beat the Sox in July, and that's what they did, again, as John Lackey flirted with destiny in a 6-2 win over the lifeless Sox. The Sox waited until the ninth......

It wasn’t that long ago when the Angels swept the Sox and with the Manny being the topic of every sportswriter’s columns across the country, the fans weren’t sure what they'd see last night. Would it be the shining star that makes the great catches and drives in runs two or three at a time? Or would they get the Manny we knew a few years ago who wouldn’t run out a grounder, or......

Tom Brady met the media as the Patriots began camp yesterday. After spending the offseason at beaches around the world trying to wash the disaster of last season off himself, he says the time off was good for him, and he's ready to join Coach Bill and the team in the singleminded pursuit of finishing the job this year. (Bostonist has to admit, we're partial to the idea of tanking opening day against the Chiefs,......

It doesn't take long, does it? All the Sox needed were three chances to whup the Mariners, and the bitter taste of the sweep in Anaheim is gone. True, the Sox did clock a little overtime yesterday, but the end result was a satisfying 6-3, 12 inning win. The Sox loaded the bases in the top of the twelfth on an Ellsbury single, a JD Drew walk, and an error. Mike Lowell brought two home......

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,......

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......

Over the last few years, Boston sports fans have grown accustomed to hearing about the bets waged between mayors and governors whenever their teams are duking it out for a title. The stakes? Typically, it comes down to food - lots of food reflecting some of the finest culinary tastes each team's hometown has to offer. In other words, food that the fans would love to be able to eat. The victorious fans are left......

"...full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." - Shakespeare, Macbeth Matt Walsh had his moment in the sun, and it turned out to be a whole lot of nothin'. The ex-Patriots employee promised tales of treachery and devious deeds, and hinted that he had shelves full of damning evidence. Just before the Superbowl, the Herald bit, and published Walsh's claim that the Pats taped St. Louis' final walkthrough before Superbowl XXXVI. Yesterday, Walsh met for......

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......

Two great outings by Red Sox starters...two perplexing losses. Maybe the Rays are for real. Josh Beckett, trying to stop the Sox' freefall back into a pennant race, pitched almost as well as humanly possible. He went seven innings, striking out thirteen, giving up only two runs - one unearned on a JD Drew throwing error, one on a home run by Rays wunderkind Evan "No, I'm Not Married To Tony Parker, Please Stop Asking"......

It wasn't a very good night at all for Boston teams playing south of the Mason-Dixon line. Not a very good night at all. We'll start in Atlanta, where the Celtics again brought their C+ game to the playoffs, and were shocked and discouraged to see the Hawks playing way above their heads to take Game Three of the first round. Atlanta was doing everything right - running a fast, efficient transition game, draining long-range......

Apparently the Patriots' bread has been dry lately; they've picked up Jerod Mayo to grease things up a bit. The Globe thinks the Tennessee linebacker will learn a thing or two from veteran LB Tedy Bruschi. The Pats got Mayo with the 10th pick overall in the NFL draft, which they obtained by trading their #7 spot and #164 pick in the fifth round with the New Orleans Saints for the #10 spot and a......

Put on your football helmets, folks, it's April--and the Patriots' schedule has been announced. Check it out at The Boston Channel or at Patriots.com, and start planning your fall around football and Brady-stalkin'. Because, you know, that's the only way to live. The Pats will kick off against the Chiefs here and end at the Bills--for the regular season, at least.......

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......

- The Bobcats are to the Celtics what the Giants were to the Patriots: confident, strong, capable of making a game of it (although we'd like to think that we won't see Jason Richardson celebrating a championship for at least another couple of years). The Celts barely beat the 'Cats in November, lost (embarrassingly) in January, and were challenged up until the end on Friday night, when Boston won, 108-100, at TD Banknorth Garden. Not......

The Bruins' win over Pittsburgh had a little something for everybody. It had scoring (including two by Marco Sturm), goaltending (Tim Thomas came one shot away from two straight shutouts), fighting (Milan Lucic exchanged pleasantries with Jarkko Ruutu for a good long satisfying while), and most importantly a win, which pulled the scorching-hot B's within four points of the Northeast Division lead. Kevin Paul Dupont analyzes why doing nothing might have been the best move......

It seems that the Bruins' approach to the NHL trade deadline - to hold steady and remain as is - might just pay off. On Tuesday night, against an Ottawa Senators team that the Globe kindly referred to as "thoroughly disinterested" (read: someone's will to play didn't arrive at the TDBN Garden with the rest of the Senators' gear), the Bruins cruised along to a 4-0 win, extending the winning ways that began out on......

From satire by the Upright Citizens Brigade (see video above) to Bob Ryan to editorials in the Boston Globe magazine, the media appears to be wailing on Patriots coach Bill Belichick after Spygate and the Super Bowl loss. So he lost, and so he might be a cheater, but would people be as angry if the Patriots won the Super Bowl? Maybe not. Doug Most writes in the Boston Globe Magazine, "But now it's......

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Bruins goalie Tim Thomas this year, and it's all been deserved. The guy's been a huge reason why the B's are still very much in the playoff hunt. But man is mortal, and Tim looked anything but great last night in Florida, giving up four goals in 12 shots through two periods. His defense was far from blameless, but Tim's been great at covering for their mistakes.......

Jacoby Ellsbury seems to be popping up all over boston.com as the new hot endorsement machine. Boston.com did a http://www.boston.com/business/gallery/sports_endorsements/">photo gallery of famous endorsements by sports figures, and they front-loaded it with an image of a shiny, muscled Ellsbury pushing a ridiculously large tire and a photo of him at Taco Bell. Is the new fascination with Ellsbury a sign that Tom Brady might be losing ground as Boston's resident sports stud? Even after BabyDaddyGate......

We don't like to think back to the final moments of Super Bowl XLII. If we could, we'd erase the name Plaxico Burress from our memory, and we'd focus on the good times we've had with Ellis Hobbs. But on Tuesday, Boston was asked to go back to the Super Bowl and that second, 35 from the end of the game and a perfect season, when Burress beat Hobbs and scored the touchdown that set......

He was the last man added to the Eastern All-Star team. When KG scratched, he waited for the call, only to find it went to Rasheed Wallace. When Washington's Caron Butler went down, the call finally came. He had to cancel the fishing trip and make plans to go to New Orleans. And when he got there, Ray Allen was awesome. He scored 28 points in 19 minutes, mostly in the fourth quarter, to lead......