Twins 6, Red Sox 0

 

Yeah, we really suck, don't we?

The Red Sox join the White Sox, the Rockies, and the Giants in the .353 Club - the four teams with the losingest records in baseball. Even the Houston Astros won last night (to be sure, they were playing the Rockies), and are now a half-game ahead of the gruesome four.

If it's any consolation - and we'll take solace wherever we can find it - the fucking Yankees are on a 3-7 skid and are in third place, three games ahead of Boston.

This road trip and three-game stand in Minnesota comes to an end this afternoon (1:40 pm). Connelly Early (0-0, 2.63) pitches against the Twins' Simeon Woods Richardson (0-2, 4.60). Young Mr. Early hasn't faced the Twins before in his seven career starts, while Woods Richardson gave up three runs on five hits, including one homer, in his only career start against the Red Sox. 

We're probably going to lose and get swept in Minnesota because it's that kind of year, but hope still springs eternal. 

  

Bruins 4, Devils 0

 

After a disturbing 0-5 losing streak near the end of the season, the Bruins snapped out of it and put together a back-to-back pair of wins. Last night, in the final game of the regular season, they beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-0. All the scoring occurred in the first period when Kastelic scored twice, Geekie scored his 39th goal of the season, and Arvidsson scored just before the period ended. Swayman made 21 saves for the shutout.

So what now? The Bruins (45-27-10) end the season in fifth place in the Atlantic Division and the No. 7 seed and top wild-card team in the East. They'll play a seven-game first-round series with the No. 2-seeded Buffalo Sabres (50-23-8), schedule yet to be announced.

The Bruins won their season series against Buffalo, going 3-1-0. The three wins included two overtime games, both with final scores of 4-3, and a 3-1 win in regulation. The Sabres' sole win was a 4-1 victory back in December. 

In Round 2, the winner of the opening round will face the winner of Montreal-Tampa Bay. The Bruins had better hope that the Canadiens persevere against the Lightning, because they were 2-2-0 against Montreal this season, but 0-4-0 against Tampa Bay, their new kryptonite.  

  

Twins 13, Red Sox 6

 

WFT? It was Crochet Day! And one thing Garrett Fucking Crochet doesn't fucking do is give up 11 fucking runs in the first two fucking innings!

In the worst start of his career, the Red Sox ace gave up 11 runs on nine hits, including two home runs, in 1⅔ innings. He threw 55 pitches to 18 batters and his season ERA ballooned to 7.58. 

It's that kind of season. In a game where Duran homered and Abreu went 2-for-3 at the plate, the Sox lost by seven runs. 

The Red Sox (6-10) are tied with the White Sox and the NL's Rockies and Giants as the second-worst team in MLB. Thank God for the Astros (6-11). 

The day after your ace gets booty-blasted out of the ballpark, all you can do is get back on your feet and play the next game. Today, veteran pitcher Sonny Gray (2-0, 2.76) goes against the Twins' Mick Abel (0-2, 6-08). It might seem like Boston has the statistical advantage here, but if we learned anything from yesterday's debacle it's that anything can happen and besides, Gray is a career 1-5 against the Twins in eight starts. Gray's fifth-highest team ERA is against the Twins (5.14) and Minnesota has nine HRs against him, his fifth highest total. It will be Boston's fist time facing Abel. 

Red Sox 9, Cardinals 3

 

The Red Sox earn another trophy by winning their first road series of the season after beating St. Louis, 9-3, yesterday and taking the series, two games to one. 

Willson Contreras hit a two-run homer in the first and an RBI single in the fourth, Roman Anthony earned an RBI on a ground out in the second, Jarren Duran hit a three-run double into deep left field in the fourth,  and Trevor Story hit a two-run double in the ninth. Brayan Bello earned the win by going 6⅔ innings with two runs on six hits, two K's, and two walks. 

There are now four teams in Major League Baseball with worse records than the Red Sox (6-9). Boston is tied with Toronto for the fifth-worse team in the league, and both are only two games back from Baltimore and New York for first place in the AL East.

And it's Crochet Day! The Sox travel up to Minnesota for a four-game series, starting with Garrett Crochet (2-1, 3.12) against Bailey Ober (1-0, 5.27), who's 1-2 in four starts against the Red Sox.    

Bruins 3, Blue Jackets 2

 

The Bruins finally break their five-game losing streak and win the penultimate game of their regular season with a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Kuraly, Jokiharju, and Kastelic scored the goals, all even-strength, and Korpisalo made 33 saves in the net.

Ottawa has pulled up to within one point of the Bruins (44-27-10) in the Wild Card race. Should Boston hang on to their lead and beat the New Jersey Devils (42-36-3) on Tuesday night, they'll play the No. 2-seed Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Bruins are 3-1-0 against the Sabres this season. Should they lose and Ottawa passes them in the standings by beating Toronto on Wednesday, the Bruins will face the No. 1-seed Carolina Hurricanes. The season series with Carolina is tied at 1-1-0.

    

  

Celtics 113, Magic 108

 

Last game of the season, playoff seed clinched, so the Celtics bench Tatum for a meaningless game. And Brown. And White. And Pritchard, Queta, Hauser, and Vučević. Even González.

No problem. The Celtics still won, beating  Orlando by five points.  Baylor Scheierman led the team with 30 points, Luka Garza scored a double double with 27 points and a dozen rebounds, and Ron Harper, Jr. dropped 27 as well. John Tonje (who?) played 29:36 off the bench, and we have a player named Dalano Banton? 

The Boston Celtics finished the regular season at 56-26, first in the Atlantic Division, three games ahead of the Knicks, and second in the Eastern Conference, four back from the Pistons. 

As the No. 2 seed in the NBA Playoffs, they'll face the winner of Wednesday's Philly-Orlando Play-In Tournament. Game 1 will be on Sunday, April 19, at 1:00 pm. 

Red Sox 7, Cardinals 1

 

Leading 2-1 after eight innings, the Red Sox could surely have used an insurance run before turning the mound over to closer Chapman for the win. While that sounds like the lead-in to so many of this season's losses, instead the Sox scored not one, not two, but five 9th-inning runs, and won the game 7-1, tying the road series and not even needing to give the ball to Chapman.

Way to go, boyos!

The ninth started with a Trevor Story walk. Marcelo Mayer advanced him to second with a fly ball (first out), and Carlos Narváez got him to third with a single. Another single by Ceddanne Rafaela brought Story home (3-1, Boston) and advanced Mayer, and Roman Anthony loaded the bases with a third single. A Caleb Durban single brought Narváez and Rafaela home - Boston 5, St. Louis 1. Jarren Duran brought Anthony home to make it 6-1. Then Wilson Contreras made it 7-1 with the sixth single of the inning. The Sox wound up going the full cycle at bat, and the inning finally ended with a Trevor Story fly ball. 

Hurray! With the win, the Red Sox (5-9) are now only the second-worse team in Major League Baseball,  a half-game ahead of the White Sox (5-10). 

Brayan Bello (0-1, 9.00) takes the mound today in the rubber game. He's up against Andre Pallante (1-0, 1.80). Bello lost his only career start against the Cards back in 2024, giving up three homers and a total of five runs over 4⅔ innings, while Pallante is 1-1 in four games with two starts, and has given up only two runs in 12⅔ innings.

It doesn't bode well for Boston.

Lightning 2, Bruins 1

 

Back on March 31, the Bruins were 43-24-8, two points behind Montreal for third place in the Atlantic Division and an automatic playoff bid. They were six points ahead of Columbus for the first Wild Card berth and eight points ahead of Ottawa. 

Since then, they've lost five straight games, including last night's 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay. The Bruins are now 43-27-10, eight points back from Montreal and tied with Ottawa in the Wild Card race. However, with only two games left to the season, they've clinched a playoff spot, so they've likely lost all motivation to win the last two. Yeah, let's end the season on an 0-7 losing streak!

The current standings after last night's loss have Boston entering the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the East and playing No. 1 seed Carolina (52-22-6). The Bruins are 1-2-0 against the Hurricanes this season.

Tonight, they play the penultimate game of the regular season against Columbus (4-28-12), who are fighting for their lives to qualify for a playoff spot. The Blue Jackets are eliminated from the Wild Card race but are only two points behind Philly for third and a playoff berth in the Metropolitan Division. Their post-season lives depend on winning their last two games and Philly losing at least one.

Celtics 144, Pelicans 118

 

Mazzulla brought Jaylen back in for last night's game but sat Jayson, but no worries: the Boston Celtics beat New Orleans, 144-118 to secure the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. 

Sam Hauser was hot outside the line, hitting all of his team-leading 24 points on three-pointers (8-12 from downtown). White scored all of his 9 points on threes as well, and Walsh scored all 6 of his on threes, too. Brown scored 23 points total, including 2-3 shooting outside the line, and Pritchard scored 21, racking up the double double with 10 assists.

The Celtics (55-26) have only one game left to the regular season, a Sunday matchup with the Orlando Magic (45-36) in the TD Garden. The game may be a playoff preview, as the current standings have the Celtics facing the winner of a Magic-Sixers play-in round.  

  

Cardinals 3, Red Sox 2

 

Losing I'm getting used to, but what makes this one particularly galling is we lost to our old "friend" Dustin May, who entered this game with an 0-2 record and an ERA of 15.89. The Red Sox managed to improve May to 1-2 and drop his ERA to 9.45.

Zack Kelly took the loss, falling to 0-1 on the season with an ERA of 8.10. Kelly came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth with one out, no one on base, and the Sox leading the game by a run. He promptly gave up a single, walked the next batter, allowed a run to come in with a single by the third batter, tying the game, and then advanced the runners with a wild pitch. The winning run scored on a sac fly by the fourth batter Kelly faced before he finally got the third out.

The Boston batters weren't able to catch up to the Cards' 3-2 lead. Roman Anthony was benched for some reason, but Wilyer Abreu went 2-4 at the plate with two singles, neither of which scored a run, and Trevor Story accounted the only Red Sox runs by getting on base by hitting into an RBI fielder's choice in the fourth and later stealing home from third base. 

With the loss, the Red Sox (4-9) return to being the worst team in either the American or the National League, two games back from the fourth-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East.  

If you can stomach any more of this, LHP Ranger Suarez (0-1, 8.46) starts tonight for the Sox against St. Louis' RHP Kyle Leahy (1-1, 5.40). If it gives you any hope, Suarez is 1-0 against the Cards in two career starts with an ERA of 1.13 over eight innings versus St. Louis.    

   

 

Knicks 112, Celtics 106

 

No Brown, no win. No way no Knicks are here to stay.

The Boston Celtics traveled down to Madison Square Garden and gave Jaylen Brown the night off to get ready for the playoffs. The Celtics led after three quarters and had a one-point lead with two minutes left, but a pair of Josh Hart threes in the last minute got a win for the Knicks, despite a pair of double doubles by Tatum (24 points, 13 rebounds) and Neemias Queta (10 points, 10 rebounds). 

The Knicks' victory doesn't mean shit. The Celtics (54-26) still lead the Atlantic Division by two games with two left. They still trail Detroit by four in the East. Even though they didn't clinch last night, they're still going to go to the Playoffs as the No. 2 seed.

The hapless New Orleans Pelicans (26-54) come to the TD Garden tonight for the season's penultimate game. The Celtics will win and clinch the Atlantic, and in the playoffs face the winner of a Magic-Sixers play-in tournament.      

Shadows, Still

 

For some 228 hours now since February 13th, I've been playing the video game Assassin's Creed Shadows, and I've still not finished my first full play-through. This is by far the most time I've spent in completing any game. 

Since neither the Bruins nor the Celtics played last night, and since the Red Sox played early and we covered them yesterday, the Gaming Desk is taking over posting for today to talk about Shadows. Remember, video games are e-sports.

Prior to AC Shadows, the most time I've spent completing a single playthrough of any game was 149 hours for Death Stranding. I'm almost 80 hours past that and still not through Shadows.  

Actually, my record for non-repeat time in a game is 335 hours in Ark: Survival Evolved and I actually never even finished that one. I played it single-player style although it's actually designed to be a multi-player game, and the enormous number of hours I spent were trying to accomplish alone what a team of players is supposed to achieve. After a while, I was just kind of hanging out in (barely) survival mode until the sheer futility of trying to craft a larger encampment finally got the better of me. 

But back to Shadows. I'm far enough into the game that I can see I'm approaching the end. I'm now at Level 61 and there are only three major bosses left to dispel, although side quests keep unexpectedly popping up. Also, there's still one ally I haven't yet found and some of those "how many of these things can you find?" quests that I may never complete. 

Shadows is a truly open-world game with a lot of freedom, but one consequence of all that freedom is I've not completed until late some side quests that should have been played earlier. For example, there's a side quest that unlocks a significant combat skill I wish I had picked up far earlier, and others where I finally find out who those seemingly random enemies who kept challenging me actually were, and why they were so angry with me. "I need you to kill all the silver bandits in the province," a samurai tells me, weeks after I had randomly taken out the last one.

I'm not going for full completion, i.e., every possible achievement, but I don't feel like I've beaten a game until I complete at least every quest and side quest, and uncovered every question mark on the map. My guess is it's going to take another 20 to 30 hours before I'm done, although if it takes longer I might at least be able to see that the game lasted longer than fucking Ark.