Bruins 2, Sabres 1 (OT)

 

I'll admit it - I've been pretty tough on the Bruins so far this postseason, probably more than they deserve. But after the past few years, after they've disappointed me season after season, I've learned to protect myself from optimism.  

But last night, after Pastrnak scored a goal 9:14 minutes into overtime, my hope resumed. The Bruins, now 2-3 in the best-of-seven series, return home with a Philadelphia 76ers-size chance of taking back the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. The Bruins had 29 wins at home during the regular season, tied only with Carolina for the most home wins in the NHL. 

Elias Lindholm scored the only Bruins goal in regulation in the second period, and Swayman made 24 saves, including surviving some furious onslaughts in the OT. 

Game 6 is at 7:30 on Saturday. The Bruins can tie it up then, and then return to Buffalo and deny the Sabres their first playoff series win since 2007.  

   

Sixers 113, Celtics 97

 

Early in the third quarter last night, the Boston Celtics had a 13-point lead. Protecting that lead would have won the quarterfinal playoff series for Boston. But the Celtics only managed 34 more points the rest of the game while allowing the Sixers 63, and blew the opportunity. The series heads back to Philly 3-2, with the Sixers thinking they now have a longshot chance at winning.

There's no pointing the finger at any one player for blame - the whole team shot poorly all game, especially down the stretch. Nothing seemed to drop in the fourth, and although the three-point scoring was ice cold, the C's kept launching from outside. Even Pritchard was 1-5 on three-pointers. 

Down three games to one at the start of last night's contest, the Sixers were facing elimination and were obviously more motivated and wanted it more that the lackadaisical Celtics. That attitude had better be reversed Saturday for Game Six in Philly, because the Celtics shouldn't want to face the Sixers in a Game 7 back in the Garden, where Philly is 2-1 and confident this series.   

Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 0

Well, expecting a 4-0 run from these Red Sox might have been a bit much, even with the coaching shakeup and team reset. Payton Tolle went 4⅔ innings and gave up three runs. He's now 0-1 on the season, and his ERA went from 1.50 to 3.38.

Offensively, the Sox had nothing. After getting 27 runs in their last three games, Boston settled for none last night. The Jays' Yesavage wasn't overpowering - he allowed four hits and got three Ks - but the Sox only managed four hits all game and twice left runners stranded on third base. 

The Jays tie up the series, 1-1, and regain their 1½-game over the last place Sox (12-18). Boston's not leaving Toronto ahead of the Blue Jays.

Bello (1-3, 9.00) pitches today (5:00 pm). Bello is 3-6 against the Jays in 11 career games, with a 5.20 ERA and three home runs but 53 strikeouts. He's up against Toronto's Eric Lauer (1-3, 6.75), who's a career 1-0 versus Boston.  

After today's game, the Red Sox return home for a three-game series against Houston (11-19), one of the few teams in baseball with a record worse than Boston's. So I've got a crazy idea: win today and then return home and sweep the Astros to get that 4-0 win streak that eluded us yesterday.   

 

Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 0

 

The Boston Red Sox get the trophy for three consecutive wins for the first time this season. Last night, they shut out the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-0, after beating them 5-3 the day before and humiliating the Orioles, 17-1, the day before that. The Sox are 2-0 in the Chad Tracy era.

Ranger Suarez pitched an absolute masterpiece last night. He had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning, and finished in eight with only one base hit and 10 strikeouts. Weissert pitched the ninth and preserved the shut out. 

Carlos Narváez hit a solo homer to deep left center in the eighth, but prior to that blast the Red Sox had already made it 4-0 with base hits by Mayer, Anthony, Abreu, and Durbin. Funny how consistent hitting and good pitching win you games.

Tonight, the Sox will go for an unprecedented (for them) (this season) four in a row. Payton Tolle (0-0, 1.50) will take the mound against Trey Yesavage, making his first start of the season. The Sox haven't faced Yesavage before; he only pitched three regular season games last year in his rookie season. Tolle, meanwhile, has all of one inning against the Jays in a game last year (one walk, one K, and one hit - unfortunately, a homer), but friendly reminder that he struck out 11 Yankees in six innings last week, so there's that.

You feel the excitement in the air? Like a new start for the Red Sox, a new attitude, and a new confidence? Tracy fever - catch it!

Celtics 128, Sixers 96

 

Complete, utter domination by the C's. Joel Embiid was adorable in his comeback attempt, scoring the Sixers' first eight points before getting shut down by the Jays. Boston won the game by 32 points, and it was only by that few because the Celtics sat their starters in the fourth. 

Philadelphia, you must do some things great - I don't know, cheese-steak sandwiches? - but playing the game of basketball isn't one of them.

Payton Pritchard led all scorers with 32 points, including his trademark end-of-period points in the first and the third, and off the bench at that. Tatum had 30 points and 11 assists, and Brown had 20 points. As a team, the Celtics outrebounded the Sixers, 51-30, and hit 24 three--pointers to the Sixers' nine. 

The Celtics take a 3-1 series lead, and can seal it tomorrow back in Boston.

It's still not clear who the next opponent will be. The Knicks apparently have their hands full with the Atlanta Hawks. New York won last night after back-to-back, single-point victories by Atlanta - the series is currently tied at two games to two. But whoever emerges from that scrum, it's still a smart-money bet that the Celtics will eventually play the Pistons for the Eastern Conference championship.

Red Sox 5, Orioles 3

 

Someone just hit the "reset" button. The Boston Red Sox, after a historically bad start to the season, fired coach Alex Cora and a bunch of his assistant coaches, and they're ready to start over. Think of it this way - the real season started today, April 26, and they spotted the New York Yankees a seven-game lead just to make things more interesting.

Chad Tracy of the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox is assuming the interim coach role. To welcome him to the majors, the Red Sox beat Baltimore for back-to-back victories for only the fourth time this season. Willson Contreras hit his sixth home run of the season, and Ceddanne Rafaela, Marcelo Mayer, and Andruw Monasterio also had RBI hits. 

Connelly Early allowed two runs in 6⅔ innings, striking out four. Zach Kelly retired the last batter of the seventh inning and Garrett Whitlock allowed a run in the eighth. Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth for his fifth save. Chapman now has 1,341 career strikeouts, passing Goose Gossage for second place as MLB's all-time leader among relievers. He's 23 strikeouts away from passing Hoyt Wilhelm, who played from 1952 to 1972.

The Sox are 11-17 and trail the Blue Jays (12-15) by a game and a half. They head to Toronto next for a three-game series against the Jays and can potentially pass them in the standings with a few wins. Ranger Suarez (1-2, 4.00) will take the mound for Boston against Dylan Cease (1-0, 2.10), who has yet to give up his first home runs after 25⅔ innings. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07 pm.

Sabres 6, Bruins 1

 

Keep moving. Nothing to see here. The Boston Bruins are not a serious team, and are down 3-1 in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals.

Only one more game and then we can stop thinking about them for six months.  

Cora Fired

Today, the Boston Red Sox (10-17) fired manager Alex Cora. The team also parted ways with hitting coach Peter Fatse, bench coach Rámon Vazquez, third-base coach Kyle Hudson, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. 

Game-planning coach Jason Varitek has been reassigned to a "new role" within the organization.

Red Sox 17, Orioles 1

 

WT the literal F? The lowly Boston Red Sox scored 17 runs, 10 in the ninth inning alone when they were already leading 7-1, and nine of those 10 ninth-inning runs were on homers, including an Andruw Monasterio grand slam?  I said "more home runs," but I didn't mean all in one inning when you've already pretty much clinched the win.

The scoring started in the second inning, when Caleb Durbin hit a double to deep right center, scoring Monasterio. Isiah Kiner-Falefa then singled to left, scoring Durbin, and then Ceddanne Rafaela hit another single into left field, scoring Connor Wong.

Kiner-Falefa scored again in the fourth, when Willson Contreras brought him home on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0, Boston.

Wong hit a three-run RBI double in the fifth that was very nearly a grand slam, but still scored Durbin, Monasterio, and Trevor Story.

And then, finally, let's talk about that ninth inning, arguably the best inning of Red Sox baseball so far this season. The inning opened with a Rafaela triple to deep right, and then Contreras brought him home with a single. Contreras advanced to second on a Wilyer Abreu single, and then Story advanced Contreras and Abreu on another single. With the bases thus loaded, Manasterio then hit his grand slam 412 feet into deep left center. 12-1, Boston. No outs.

After Jarren Duran followed Monasterio's grand slam with a single, the Orioles finally replaced their battered reliever with a new pitcher, who promptly gave up a home run to Durbin, a two-run blast that also brought Duran home. 14-1, Boston. No outs. 

Wong flied out for the first out of the inning, but Kiner-Faleda and Rafaela, in his second plate appearance of the inning, hit two consecutive singles, and then Contreras brought them both home with a three-run homer, 17-1, Boston. One out. 

The Orioles finally ended the inning with two fly balls, but not before a throwing error put Story back on the bases. Ten runs on ten hits, fourteen batters.       

   

Meanwhile, Garrett Crochet (it was Crochet Day, remember?) picked up his third win of the season, going six shutout innings, striking out seven, and giving up only three hits.  

Of course, all this doesn't mean shit. Boston is still in dead last place and 15 of the Red Sox' 17 runs were unnecessary for the win. But goddamn, were they ever fun to watch on this sorry-ass season and at least we no longer have the fewest homers in MLB (thank you, San Francisco!). Boston's now only one homer back from the Marlins, the Brewers, and the Mets, so maybe our next goal for this season should be to be the team with only the fifth fewest home runs in the majors.

Celtics 108, Sixers 100

 

With the Bruins obviously going nowhere in the playoff and the Red Sox off to a historically horrific start, a weary Beantown turns it's eyes to the legendary Celtics and all those championship banners hanging in the TD Garden. And the Celtics deliver, giving the fans a hard-fought but decisive 108-100 victory in Philadelphia.

The Sixers, for their part, never gave up in the game and kept coming back at the Celtics again and again. However, the Celtics never gave up either, and successfully fought back each successive Philly assault. When the smoke finally cleared, both J's, Brown and Tatum, had 25 points. Pritchard, as per his style, scored all 15 of his points on threes. Vučević came alive with 15 points, same as White, along with six rebounds and three blocked shots. 

Meanwhile, Tatum's 25-point playoff performance tied Nikola Jokic in number of 25-point playoff games.  He joined John Havlicek, Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird with 3,000+ Celtic playoff points. He also joined Bird and LeBron as the only three players in NBA history to have 3,000+ points, 1,000+ rebounds, and 500+ assists in the post-season. From here on in, every game he plays and every point he scores puts him in ever more rarified air.  

The Celtics take a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 is in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Boston in five.

Orioles 10, Red Sox 3

 

When I talked about the Red Sox' lack of home runs yesterday and suggested they needed more, I meant offensive home runs. Homers hit by Red Sox players. The team must have misunderstood my request, because in Baltimore yesterday, they gave up seven home runs to the Orioles, three to the first five batters in the first inning. Cora didn't even pull starting pitcher Brayan Bello until the fourth but after he gave up two more homers and the score was 8-1, Baltimore.

Boston remains dead last in the AL East, and last in MLB in slugging percentage and home runs (offensive), I'm stating to think this Red Sox team isn't championship caliber. They're 9-17 on the season and have caught up with Kansas City to tie for the worst record in the American League. The only reason they're not the worst in MLB is because the Phillies are 0-10 in their last ten, while the Sox have gone a mere 3-7.

Today is Crochet Day. Remember when that used to be something to look forward to, something to be excited about? This season, Garrett has fallen to a 2-3 start and a 7.88 ERA, but even if the Sox don't turn their season around, you gotta believe Crochet will turn his. He has a career 1.64 ERA against the Orioles, and is 1-1 in three career starts. He's only given up two home runs and made 28 strikeouts against the Birds in 22 innings. He'll be facing lefty Trevor Rogers, who's off to a 2-2 start and 4.08 ERA. Rogers has a 1-2 record versus the Sox and a career 2.13 ERA. 

But pitching almost doesn't matter. The Red Sox batters need to wake up and start scoring some runs. Bello's performance yesterday aside, it doesn't matter how good your starting pitching is if you don't give them any runs with which to work.

Yankees 4, Red Sox 2

 

Well, at least it's over. The New York Yankees are moving on, taking their pinstriped asses out of Fenway so at least we won't have to look at Aaron Judge's big buck-toothed face any longer or wonder exactly which Reich Shit Hitler is supposed to represent.

The Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox in Fenway, 4-0, 4-1, and 4-2. Yesterday, Carlos Narváez hit a solo homer for the Sox and Marcelo Mayer hit an RBI double, but that was about it.

Predictably, the press coverage was all about Schittler's so-called dominating performance over the Red Sox. Aaron Boone kept Schittler in the game for eight innings, because of course he did, but he gave up both of Boston's two runs and only got the Sox to strike out five times. Meanwhile, Payton Tolle, in his first MLB start of the season, got 11 K's and allowed only one run, but Alex Cora pulled him after six, because of course he did, and relief pitcher Danny Coulombe promptly gave up three earned runs before Weissert had to be called in to end the inning. 

But the press covered the game as "Schittler Outdueled Tolle" even though, statistically, Tolle had the better game (game ERA of 1.50 versus Schittler's 1.77). The real story, as I see it, is Alex Cora, possibly the worst coach in MLB so far this season, pulled his pitcher early and cost his team the game.

The Yankees fucking suck, man. I mean, they really fucking suck.

Meanwhile, the last-place Red Sox are 9-16 and seven games back, and the only reason they aren't winning the race to the bottom of the American League is because Kansas City has gone 1-9 over the last ten. Hard to compete against a performance like that.     

Okay, time to move on. The Red Sox leave Fenway after a 2-5 home stand and head off down the road to third-place Baltimore (12-13). Tonight, Brayan Bello (1-2, 6.75) starts against the Orioles' Brandon Young.  Young has pitched only five innings so far this season, but gave up no runs and earned the win, so his record is 1-0 and his ERA, 0.00. Last year, he was 1-7 with an ERA of 6.24.

Bello is 4-2 against Baltimore in eight career starts, and he has 45 strikeouts against Orioles batters, the third highest of any team he's faced (his highest number of career strikeouts is against the Yankees, but his start was pushed back from yesterday against New York to today against Baltimore, because Cora).

The Red Sox current OPS (on-base plus slugging) is .636, their lowest since 1917. They have the lowest slugging percentage (.331) in MLB and third lowest batting average (.223), tied with New York (Yankees suck).  They're tied with San Francisco for the least number of home runs (14) this season, and the only reason they aren't all alone in that category is because of last night's Narváez blast.

Perhaps Baltimore, home to crabcakes and Edgar Allen Poe, is where the season will turn around for the Red Sox.