Astros 9, Red Sox 2

 

Umm, anyone else starting to get worried? 

It's bad enough that our offense has seemingly all but disappeared, but on top of that some feckless officiating is also screwing us over. Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth, two outs, starter Brayan Bello got three swinging strikes off Cam Smith, which should have ended the inning. But the ump apparently lost count of the balls and strikes and allowed the plate appearance to continue, which ended with a walk. Bello was pulled after the "walk" (to be fair, he had also given up five runs in the game), and rookie reliever Ryan Watson made the last out of the inning on a fielder's choice, but c'mon, lost count of the balls and strikes? Has counting to three gotten too ""mathy" for MLB officials?

We've got robo-umps now to help tell balls from strikes, but do we need then to help count to three now, too? 

But don't get distracted - despite the referee fubar, the Sox still sucked. Bello gave up six runs on eight hits, including one homer, in 4⅔ innings, Watson gave up two more runs on two hits, and Jovani Morán gave up another homer, this one to the lucky Cam Smith, who got a walk instead of a K in the ump's fifth-inning fuck up. Connor Wong doubled to right center in the fifth, scoring Marcelo Mayer, and Ceddanne Rafaela hit a solo homer to deep right in the eighth, but that was it offensively. 

The Red Sox are 1-4, dead last in the AL East, and are already three games back from the Yankees and Blue Jays. They have one game left in Houston on this woe-begotten, season-opening road trip, but the good news is it's Crochet Day, Boston's only pitcher so far with a win. Garrett's up against former Pirate Mike Burrows, who lost to the Angels, 6-2, in his first start of the year, so we've got a chance. 

Let's return to Fenway with a 2-4 record and ride the momentum of a Crochet win to get this season back on track. Not to look ahead, but our first series back home will be against the Padres, who, at 1-4, are off to the same dismal start as the Red Sox.

Bruins 6, Stars 3

 

What a game! Victor Arvidsson racked up a hat trick, and the Bruins scored four goals in the third period, including two Arvidsson empty netters. 

Arvidsson also scored a goal in the first, the second of the game following Khusnutdinov's opening score. Pastrnak, naturally, assisted with both goals. The Bruins' offense was quiet in the second, allowing the Stars to tie the game up at two each, but then the third opened with Elias Lindholm scoring on a power play 13 seconds into the final period. Henri Jokiharju scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Lindholm and Geekie, to make it 4-2, and then came Arvidsson's two empty netters. In between the two open nets, the Stars took advantage of a power play and a pulled goalie for a 6-4 edge to score a goal 

Joonas Korpisalo was in the net for the Bruins last night and made 13 saves on 16 attempts (.813).

The Bruins (43-24-8) are two points behind Montreal for third place and an automatic playoff bid. However, it's getting pretty comfy in the Wild Card race, as Boston now sits six points ahead of Columbus for the first berth and eight points up on contender Ottawa. With only seven more games to the regular season, it sure looks like the Bruins will get at least a Wild Card berth, if not a regular seed for finishing ahead on the Canadiens.

But it won't be easy. Thursday night, the Bruins play Florida (36-35-3), who are having an off year (for them) but have been the Bruins kryptonite team the past few seasons. There are also two games coming up against Tampa Bay (46-22-6), not to mention Philly (37-25-12), Carolina (47-21-6), Columbus (38-25-12) and New Jersey (38-34-2). No late-season cakewalk for our Bruins.         

Astros 8, Red Sox 1

 

Okay, I'm trying real hard not to freak out here. It's still March - christ, it's not even April yet - but after an Opening Day win, the Red Sox have fallen to a rocky 1-3 start on the season. Even that I could handle, but getting blown out, 8-1, by Houston? 

Starting pitcher Ranger Suarez, acquired from Philly in the off-season, went 4⅓ innings and gave up four runs, including two homers. Reliever Johan Oviedo, who we picked up from Pittsburgh, gave up four more runs with another two homers. 

Wilyer Abreu, about the only offense the Sox have shown this season, brought in the only Boston run of the game with an RBI double to deep right in 7th inning.

Brayan Bello makes his season debut tonight. Bello is 39-36 over four seasons with the Red Sox and has a career ERA of 4.09. He'll be up against the Astros' Hunter Brown, who issued nine strikeouts and no runs in his first game this season against the Angels, and is 36-31 with a career 3.46 EPA over four seasons.

C'mon, Boston, we need some offence! Trevor Story is batting only .150 so far this season, and Roman Anthony a mere .235. Let's win these next two games in Houston, and return from this opening road trip at .500!

Hawks 112, Celtics 102

 

Okay, Brown's back, so they sit out Tatum for the night. Brown responded with a 29-point, 10-rebound double double, and was one assist short of a triple double, but the Celtics lost to the Atlanta Hawks. Tied at the half, the Celtics got outscored 36-22 in the third quarter and never really recovered from that deficit.

Boston (50-25) has already clinched a playoff berth and lead the Atlantic Division by two games with seven left to the season, including one against the second-place Knicks. They trail Detroit by four games in the conference and are probably not catching up to the Pistons, barring a miracle. So long story short, this late-season road loss probably doesn't make much difference, but it still kinda sucks.

Shake it off and move on: from Atlanta, the Celtics fly down to Miami to play the Heat (40-36) on Wednesday night. ESPN will be carrying that game.  

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.