Results tagged “redsox”

The Bruins won! Sure, they gave up a 2-0 first-period lead, and they allowed Atlanta to tie the game again, 3-3, in the final minute. But Patrice Bergeron beat Ondrej Pavelec in the shootout to give the B's their first win in like forever.

With the Bruins and Celtics in slump mode, and Bill Belichick losing his mind for the first time since he was HC of the NYJ, local sports fans must have been waiting for some painful news from the Red Sox. On Monday, the Sox announced a 2010 ticket price increase averaging close to 4%. Larry Lucchino described the increase as "the second lowest average percentage price increase over the past 15 seasons with the exception of last season, when we implemented a price freeze across the board for all categories.” Thanks, Larry. Fans seem to disagree.

Sure, he may be the most expensive backup catcher in history. And maybe his stats aren't what they used to be, and even those stats aren't what they were a few years ago. But even if Jason Varitek the catcher is past his expiration date, Jason Varitek the heart of the Red Sox and the captain is still around. And still, we hope, worth the $3 million he decided to accept yesterday.

Have the Bruins turned the proverbial corner? After a solid month of alternating ups and downs, followed by a couple of weeks of unqualified downs, the B's finally notched their first honest-to-goodness winning streak of the season, beating the staggering Penguins 3-0 last night at the Garden

It's a busy time for Boston sports. The Bruins are preparing for tonight's game against the Penguins, most likely sterilizing everything any player could possibly touch while hoping that Saturday's absolutely brilliant play wasn't just a fluke. The Patriots are gearing up for Sunday's showdown with Peyton and Company, curious about how Dan Koppen could - or could not - factor into that equation. The Celtics, while off to a 7-1 start, are working on fixing what has appeared recently to be some pretty Shaq-like free throw skills.

It's one point. A shootout loss. One goal. The Bruins will gratefully take it right now. With the offense struggling to even find the goal, let alone put the puck in it, and with swine flu racing towards the team, it's time to think about baby steps.

Let's face it. That was uglier than Minnesota's starting power forward. But if the Celtics are going to make a run at 70+ wins this season (and while PTI and the Globe and others are speculating about the possibility, we say, let's can that talk and let things unfold), they have to win games like last night. Trap games, against young athletic teams, on the second night of back-to-backs. And somehow, finally, the Celtics did.

Before ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons became one of these most popular sports columnist in the country he was simply known as “The Boston Sports Guy” writing for Digital City Boston (what Bill has described as “AOL’s digital newspaper”). More than a decade later, the Holy Cross/Boston University alum has ventured beyond the sports column and into television; as a former writer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live", documentaries; as executive producer of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series and books; his latest The Book of Basketball just hit shelves this week.

Happy Celtics season opener, Bostonistland! The Men in Green are ready to kick off their 2009-2010 season tonight when they face the Cavaliers. The team is pumped, ready, focused on the task at hand--

Fans of American Football in London won't see a textbook example of the sport when the New England Patriots play the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. If the game on display isn't something the league really wants on display - unless the NFL loves potentially one-sided games - then that leaves this year's London game as a means to promote the league through its stars. In other words, Tom Brady. That's what Mike Reiss theory is, and he believes Brady has embraced that theory, too. That would explain the sight of Brady in a suit surrounded by teammates in their casual team gear. It might explain more detailed, emphatic answers to media inquiries instead of the usual Belichick-speak we are treated to.

Imagine our surprise yesterday to discover that we had a chance to snag ourselves some playoff tickets. And we're not talking just any old playoff tickets. Other people can go and buy themselves Yankees-Angels tickets or Dodgers-Phillies tickets. We had a chance to visit StubHub and get ourselves Red Sox playoff tickets, according to the emails that found their way into our inbox. We could even snag ourselves METS playoff tickets!

Nobody can say anything official, but everyone in Foxboro is unofficially saying that Junior Seau, who never strayed far from the phone, will be back with the Patriots sometime soon. Maybe. The amount of information runs from Seau's optimistic "I want to thank the management of both for making my return to the NFL with the New England Patriots a reality", to Bob Kraft's gushing "I’d love to have him part of our team for as long as he wants to be", to Bill Belichick's terse "we don’t have anything to say about it."

How considerate of the Boston Bruins. After the Red Sox and Patriots choked fell to the Angels and Broncos, respectively, on Sunday, Boston's boys of hockey decided to show solidarity and keep the losing ways going on Monday. A sloppy early afternoon game at the Garden ended with a happy Colorado Avalanche leaving with a 4-3 victory and the Bruins wrapping up a homestand with a 2-3 record.

• The early action in ALDS Game Three favors the Red Sox. A 5-1 lead thanks, in part, to Dustin Pedroia finally proving the Sox can score runs against the Angels. J.D Drew homered, too. Clay Buchholz leads Boston's potential last stand and needed 152 pitches to complete the first two innings versus the LAA.

• The New England Patriots face another key test today against Josh McDaniels and the Denver Broncos. Denver is 4-0 thanks to a stout defense worthy of Belichick.

• The Boston Bruins were thoroughly outplayed by the recently dreadful New York Islanders for most of Saturday's game, and looked headed for a third bad loss in four games. The Bruins ended with a memorable comeback featuring two Marc Savard scores, including the game-winner in a shoot-out.

• No need to wory about a third straight ACC title game forBoston College as the Eagles lost to #5 Virginia Tech, 48-14.

"Whatever the hex is, I guess somebody un-hexed it," said the Angels' Chone Figgins. We're not sure what that hex may be, or if it's really gone, but last night, the Angels looked like hex-free division winners. And the Red Sox looked like a team that staggered into the playoffs, mustering no offense and succumbing meekly to Anaheimorwhatever 5-0.

Man. It seems like it's been forever, doesn't it? At least a week and a half since we had very much local to talk about.

The Twins beat the Tigers, so the field of eight is set in the baseball playoffs. All we can do now is wait. And wait and wait and wait. The Red Sox won't play until tomorrow night, when all the other first-round playoff series start today.

It was a relatively quiet send-off for the Red Sox on Monday. Without the pageantry of Rally Monday, an event that MLB had been adding to post-season revelry since 2004, the Red Sox made their way from Fenway onto the team bus that sent them on their way to California for what is hopefully the first stop on a postseason tour that has grown awfully familiar over the years.

In some ways, the game was as ugly as the pink accents all over everything (yeah, we know, good cause and blah blah blah and all, but in the words of MAD Magazine, bleccch). In other ways, it was one of those tight, efficient Patriots game that may not be aesthetically pleasing but get the job done. In any case, it's a win, a grinder of a 27-21 over the previously undefeated Ravens.

Last time the Bruins saw the Carolina Hurricanes, Scott Walker beat Tim Thomas in OT to put an abrupt end to the magical 2008-09 season. Last night, they got together again, and the Bruins beat them on the scoreboard, in the face, and up and down the ice in a 7-2 pummeling that almostsortakinda erased the pain of last season, or at least redirected it onto their foes.

One minute, you're a war hero, a national legend, and the greatest hitter in the major leagues. The next, you're dead and your cretinous son is producing a dubious document saying your final wishes were to have your head severed and put in a deep freeze in Arizona.

The "he" in question is Alex Ovechkin, the two-time NHL MVP and star of the Washington Capitals. The "you" in question is Tim Thomas, Dennis Wideman (the quotee), and the entire Bruins organization, which saw Ovechkin score two goals and an assist to spoil Opening Day for the B's, 4-1.

Well, the Red Sox are officially on a roll. They're preparing for the playoffs by being swept twice in a row. And they did it with style last night, serving up another round of meatball sandwiches to give their guests from Toronto an 11-0 win.

Your 2009 Boston Red Sox clearly don't like to make anything easy. They hit losing skids, slugging droughts and pitching woes. They load the bases before settling in to retire the batters. They fall into deficits before they creep back to make the game thrilling.

Mother Nature was as sick of it as you were. Josh Beckett was a very late scratch with back spasms, so the Sox sent young Michael Bowden to the mound with about 15 minutes' notice to try to stop the Blue Jays. Five innings later, Bowden and reliever Hunter Jones had both been sent to the showers with ERAs over 10. Two innings after that, the skies opened up and put the Sox and the Fenway crowd out of their misery. Final score: 11-5, Toronto, in seven innings.

Someday, we're going to know what exactly we're supposed to expect out of the 2009 New England Patriots.

Clearly, winning the AL East is a low priority for the Red Sox. Considering how heated the Boston/LA rivalry's has become in the last few days, obviously Terry and the boys feel like another Sox/Angels series is the only way to clear up the bad blood.

Oh, and the Red Sox lost the game, 9-5. Lester wasn't having a very good even before the ball hit his knee. He threw 78 pitches in 2.1 innings and allowed eight hits and five runs. David Ortiz had three RBI. A-Rod was 3-3 with four RBI and three stolen bases. The Yankees stole 97 bases. We know the box score says seven, but it felt like more.

Boston and Los Angeles don't have much in common. We have miserable winters, they have palm trees. We have Ben Affleck, they have everybody else. They have Rodney King, we have Skip Gates. It's a different world.

We're officially done agonizing over Monday's collapse and Tuesday's shutdown. The Sox handled the Royals exactly the way a playoff-bound squad should handle a team of no-hopers, riding the cold-weakened arm of Clay Buchholz and the efficient offense to a 10-3 series finale in K.C.