Reds 3, Red Sox 2

Wilyer Abreu homers in the fourth in a losing effort, and the Cincinnati Reds win the rubber game, 3-2, and take the Red Sox' first series of the season, two games to one. 

Greg Weissert takes the loss for giving up a three-run homer in the 6th.

The Red Sox (1-2) move on to Houston (2-2) for a three-game road series. Ranger Suarez starts tonight for Boston.  

Bruins 4, Blue Jackets 3 (SO)

 

Charlie McAvoy (BU, Class of 2016) scores in the third and Pavel Zacha chips in two third-period power-play goals to force OT. Then Viktor Arvidsson gets the winning goal in the shootout to give the Bruins a win over Columbus.

With the win, Boston (42-24-8) keeps the first Wild Card berth and gets a six-point lead over the first non-qualifying contender, Ottawa.

Tuesday, the Bruins host the Dallas Stars (44-18-12).

Celtics 104, Hornets 99

 

Tatum scores 32 points, becoming the youngest Celtic to reach 14,000 career points, and the Celtics clinch a playoff spot as Boston beats Charlotte, 104-99.

The Celtics (50-24) travel from Charlotte to Atlanta tonight to play the Hawks (42-33) 

Reds 6, Red Sox 5

 

Well, at least we forced extra innings.

Trevor Story homered in the third inning and Wilyer Abreu hit an RBI single in the 8th and homered in the 9th to tie the game up. Unfortunately, the Reds squeaked in a run in the 11th and that was that. Justin Slaten took the loss in relief.

Connelly Early pitches today in the rubber game.

Bruins 6, Wild 3

 

The Bruins' mission as of late seems to be denying other teams the chance to clinch a playoff spot. The other night, they beat first-place Buffalo, and last night they beat the number three team in the West, the Minnesota Wild.

Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha both scored twice against the Wild. Zacha scored late in the first period, following an early-period score by Andrew Peeke, and then scored again late in the third. Lindstrom scored early in the third, and then hit an open net in the last 0 seconds of play. Arvidsson scored a goal too, mid-way through the second. Swayman made 31 saves in the net.

The Bruins improve to 41-24-8 and at 90 points qualify for a Wild Card berth. Columbus has returned to the Wild Card ranks for now, but Boston's going to see what they can do about that. They play in Columbus today in a 5:00 p.m. game, and a Bruins' win could knock the Blue Jackets out of eligibility. 

Which seems to be Boston's mission right now.

 

Celtics 109, Hawks 102

 

No Brown, but Pritchard stepped up and dropped 36, including 6-of-11 three-point shooting, and Tatum hit a 26-point, 12-rebound double double. The Celtics beat the Hawks, 109-102.

The Celtics head to Charlotte Sunday for a 6:00 pm game against the Hornets (39-34). 

Red Sox 3, Reds 0

 

Opening Day. Crochet Day. RBI singles by Rafaela, Story, and Duran. Chapman gets a save. Red Sox win, 3-0.

Baseball's back. Any questions?

Bruins 4, Sabres 3 (OT)

 

Apparently, this was Boston's night to beat first-place teams. The Celtics took care of business with Oklahoma City, and in Buffalo, the Bruins knocked the Sabres out of first with an OT win.

Pastrnak scored first, hitting in the opening period with assists from Minten and Khusnutdinov. Arvidsson scored in the second, assisted by Pasta and Zadorov. In the third, it was Mittelstadt with the assistance of Aspirot and Zacha. 

But the Sabres also scored three times, and it was in that beautiful OT period that Zacha got the puck past the Sabres' Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, possibly the most Finnish person on the planet, scoring the winning goal a mere 38 seconds past regulation, assisted by Pasta and McAvoy (BU, Class of '16). 

The Bruins (40-24-8) are tied with the Canadiens at 88 points, but Montreal stays ahead in third place with the automatic playoff berth because of the games-played tie-breaker. Boston, though, still qualifies for the Wild Card, up by three points ahead of the Islanders.

The Bruins return home from this one-day road trip to play the Minnesota Wild (40-20-12) Saturday night for a one-game homestand.        

Celtics 119, Thunder 109

 

Giant killers! Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder swagger into the TG Garden tonight with their NBA-leading 57 wins, and the Celtics add a number to their loss column. 

The Thunder came out strong, outscoring the Celtics by 11 points in the first quarter, but Boston adjusted and outscored Oklahoma in each of the next three quarters. Jaylen scored 31 points total and Jayson scored 19, with 12 rebounds to boot. Pritchard had the hot hand on three-point shooting, going four of six and scoring 12 of his 14 points from outside the circle. 

If this was a playoff preview, I like what I'm seeing. These Celtics can play with - and beat - the best. 

The Celtics fly down here to Atlanta to play the Hawks (41-32) on Friday night.    

Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 2

 

Charlie McAvoy (BU, 2016) tried to make it interesting. After Elias Lindholm scored a goal in the first period and then Toronto ran off three unanswered goals in the second period and early in the third,  McAvoy scored a power-play goal assisted by Pastrnak and Zacha. Comeback time, baby! 

But no comeback beyond McAvoy's goal materialized and to add insult to injury, the Leafs scored on an empty net in the last minute of play to make it 4-2, Toronto.

The Bruins (39-24-8) are still in the running for a Wild Card berth at 86 points. Ottawa has been on a hot streak, winning their last four games, and now have 85 points and the second wild-card berth. The Islanders are tied with the Senators in points, but the games-played tie-breaker goes to Ottawa. Detroit, who've lost their last two, trail Ottawa by one point.

The Bruins are off to Buffalo tonight to play the Sabres (44-20-7), who are in first place in the Atlantic with 95 points. It's a one-game road trip, to be followed by a one-game homestand, to be followed by another one-game road trip, to be followed by another one-game homestand to end the month. Then five of the seven games left after that in April are on the road, where the Bruins are 13-21-7. What a way to go!

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

 

Neither the Celtics not the Bruins played last night, BU's hockey season is over, the Iditarod's done, and I refuse to cover preseason baseball. So with this little intermission in the sporting schedule, the Sports Desk turns things over to the Gaming Desk for today's post. Video games are e-sports, right?

Having completed full playthroughs of The Outer Worlds 2 twice last month, we've moved on to Assassin's Creed Shadows. We started the game back on February 13 and have played for some 180 hours now, yet feel like we still have a long, long way to go before completing out first playthrough.

The game is another of  the open-world style Assassin's Creed games like Origins and Odyssey, as well as the less successful Valhalla and Mirage, this one set in 16th-Century feudal Japan. Although the trademark hidden blade is still present, as well as fast-travel viewpoints, it has many differences from its predecessors. 

In all four of the previous games, your character had an eagle or some sort of other bird to scout ahead of you and give you an bird's-eye preview of what was ahead. The bird is gone in Shadows, and if you want a high-level perspective on things, you have to climb up something and see for yourself. Which isn't as easy as the previous games, where you could climb virtually any surface and parkour around. In fact, the easy scalability of any wall, cliff, or building in the earlier games was to unrealistically easy it almost broke immersion, but also gave the games some of their unique feel and character. Parkour is still an important element of Shadows, but you often can't climb straight up flat surfaces without using a grappling hook, which feels a little more realistic but takes some getting used to.

The biggest difference, though, is the task list. There isn't one. In all the previous games, you had lists of tasks, sorted as major and side quests, character quests, etc., and there was usually a graphical chart of the major enemies, usually a cabal of conspirators that you needed to assassinate. In Shadows, everything is tracked by a staggering number of those charts, all displayed on one large objective board. There are displays on the board for the primary group of bad guys, the Shinbakufu, displays for various other side-quests, displays for regions, for allies, and some that seemingly randomly appear for no discernible reason. That foe you just killed? Turns out he's member of some renegade cult, and now there's a new display on the objective board of the other ten members of the cult that you now have to hunt down. Every time I start to think I'm making progress toward beating the game, new groups will pop up on the board, indicating many more hours still ahead.

The game throws a lot of new stuff at you early in the game. Not only is there the objective board, but there are separate skill trees for each weapon, and oh, you have two separate playable characters, both of whom have separate sets of skills trees. Plus you're supposed to establish and build up a home base, and recruit and manage allies and separate scouts. It's a little overwhelming and confusing at first, but it eventually starts to make sense as you go along.     

I like the game. Overall, it prioritizes stealth more than any games since the original Assassins-vs-Templars series, and it's stunningly beautiful to look at. I had thought Ghost of Tsushima (the Ghosts games are the obvious parallels to Shadows) had set the standard for cinematic Japanese beauty, but I admit the Ubisoft, the A.C. studio, topped the Ghosts high standard. My F3 button is getting worn down from all the screenshots I keep taking. 

I appreciate many of the innovations and changes made to the games, and while I miss the eagle and the ability to climb sheer walls, I applaud the effort to do new things. My biggest complaint is that the objective board with all its lists and displays can get overwhelming and confusing - after 180 hours of play, I forget NPCs that I had met some weeks ago. "This must be the town Tagoda Matsuoka told me to visit," my character will say as we ride into some new town, but I have no idea who Tagoda Matsuoka was, why I'm was supposed to visit there, or what it is I'm supposed to be doing. It all eventually works itself out, but I feel like that amnesiac character in the film Memento with no idea of why these guys are attacking me, or am I attacking them?

As I said, I like the game. A lot. I wouldn't have stuck with it for 180 hours, I think the longest any single first playthrough has taken me in any game, if I didn't. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all works itself out.               

Timberwolves 102, Celtics 92

 

The Celtics played a pretty good first quarter and a god-awful fourth quarter, and lost (at home!) to a Minnesota team they could have/should have beaten.

Brown led all teams with 29 points and Tatum got a double double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. But the Celtics were out-rebounded by the T-wolves, 56-53, and Boston's pathetic three-point average (27.3%) resulted in only 9 threes made to Minnesota's 12. The Wolves also managed to block seven Boston shots.

With the loss, the sneaky New York Knicks inch up to within a half game of Boston in the division, and the Detroit Pistons move 4½ games ahead in the conference with 11 games left to the regular season.    

Hopefully, this loss will serve as the kick in the ass the Celtics need to bring their A game to the Garden on Wednesday, when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team with the most wins this season in the NBA, come to town. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you, if the Celtics play like they did last night, the Thunder will walk all over them.