Blue Jays 8, Red Sox 1

 

And just like that, the Boston Red Sox are back to their losing ways, dropping two in a row in Toronto. They're now 2-2 in the Chad Tracy era, which at least is better than their year-to-date 12-19 record. The last-place Red Sox are eight games out of first place and 2½ behind the fourth-place Jays.  

Willson Contreras homered in the top of the first, so the game started off on a positive note, but after Toronto starter Eric Lauer settled in, that was it for the Sox. They managed to load the bases in the fifth, but then Contreras hit into a double play, ending the inning. They loaded them up in the eighth, too, but a Duran strikeout and a Wong grounder ended that inning. Still, at least they were hitting and threatening to score, even if not capitalizing on their opportunities.

But the news gets worse. No more Crochet Days for a while, at least 15 days. As many suspected, there was a physical problem that affected his season so far this year, and yesterday the Sox put him on the 15-day IL with an inflamed left shoulder. The Sox are off today and will play the equally hapless Astros (11-19) back at Fenway starting Friday; no word yet on who will be Boston's starting pitcher in lieu of Crochet in the first game of that series.

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.

Sabres 3, Bruins 1

 

Don't get your hopes up. This Bruins team isn't going anywhere this year. Even if they pull out of this tailspin and manage to win the series against Buffalo (they're down 2-1), they're not going to win the next round against the winner of Montreal-Tampa Bay.

These are serious times and there are serious matters we need to consider. These Bruins are not a serious team. Your concerns are best directed elsewhere.  

 

Yankees 4, Red Sox 1

 

The Boston Red Sox (9-15) have gotten so bad that getting a single run in the bottom of the ninth off an RBI single seems like some kind of improvement. "Hey, at least we didn't lose by 4-0 again."

The Sox fall to 0-2 in their home series against New York (15-9), and few don't expect them to get swept. They are in last place in the AL East, six back from the Yankees, and it's only a historically awful start to the season by the Kansas City Royals that keeps them from being the worse in the league. 

I'd go over the highlights of the game, but there weren't any.  

It's so bad that the Red Sox have called Payton Tolle up from the minors to pitch today against Adolph Schittler. Tolle pitched in eight games last season, including a one-out relief appearance in the top of the ninth in a playoff game against the Yankees (he got a ground out off Trent Grisham). 

Meanwhile, Schittler famously went eight innings against the Sox in the 2025 playoffs, getting Boston to strike out a dozen times while giving up five hits. In their excitement, ESPN's announcers practically wet themselves praising Schittler during the game. Between Schittler and Judge, the announcer's hard-ons last over a week. Schittler's 2-1 so far this season with an ERA of 1.95, and has struck out opposing batters 36 times in five starts.

Manage your expectations - the Sox will lose but at least this game won't be on fucking ESPN.

Yankees 4, Red Sox 0

 

This is the stuff of legends. Not the good stuff, to be sure, but the part of the legend where the hero is beaten down and seemingly defeated, cast to the dogs and abandoned. This is the suffering that all Red Sox fans have endured that makes the eventual victories so satisfying and meaningful.

The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry may or may not be the greatest in all of sports, but it's one that I've been caught up in for literally 50 years now. After the Bucky Fucking Dent incident in 1978, I got this close to actual fisticuffs with my own father, an ardent Yankees fan.   

Young Connelly Early is now 0-2 against the Yankees. He lost a playoff game last year, also by a score of 0-4, and again this year he pitched well despite his loss but got no support from the batters. For 5⅓ innings last night, he struck out four. He gave up one unfortunate homer to the first batter in the second inning after going 3-up-and-3-down in the first,  and then gave up only one hit, a single, in the next three innings. It wasn't until the sixth inning that he got himself into trouble, opening with a pair of walks and then giving up a two-run double. He was pulled after walking the next batter and finished with 92 pitches and 23 batters faced. Unfortunately for Early, the Red Sox bats gave him nothing, just like in his playoff appearance last year. Hard to win when your offense goes scoreless.  

Toronto won last night, so the Red Sox are now all alone in last place in the AL East, five back from New York.  

Ranger Suarez (1-1, 3.22) starts tonight against Max Fried (2-1, 2.97). In four career games, Suarez has yet to give up a run to the Yankees, while the Sox are 1-3 against Fried, with the one win coming in last year's playoff, when Yoshida hit a two-run double off him in the seventh. Let's make sure Yoshida starts today.  

Also, for those curious, the picture above is an AI version of the infamous time that Boston University students managed to hack into a Comm Ave. electronic warning sign. 

Bruins 4, Sabres 2

 

This is the kind of Bruins' game I like - entering the third period with a 3-0 lead, Viktor Arvidsson scored his second goal of the game in the first 16 seconds to break Buffalo's heart. Geekie and Zacha both scored in the second, and Pastrnak skated off the ice with two assists. Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves and held Buffalo scoreless for the first 53 minutes of the game.

The Bruins tie up their quarterfinal series, 1-1, and return with confidence and momentum to Boston, where they'll play Game 3 on Thursday night.    

Sixers 111, Celtics 97

 

You didn't thing we were going 16-0 through the playoffs, did you?

I don't care what the pundits say - the Sixers didn't "rise" to any challenge last night, it was the Celtics failing to play at their own high level. 

The quarterfinal series is now tied at 1-1, and while it's unfortunate the Celtics ceded home-court advantage to Philadelphia, it's as good a time as any for the Celtics to pick up a loss -  early in the playoffs and early in the series as a lesson in what can happen if you're not 100% while on the court and playing at your best. Also, and I'm speaking to Mazzulla here, don't bench González. He's your lucky charm, your talisman. He may not score a lot of points, but he's like sand in the gears of the opposing team's offense. 

Game 3 is Friday night in Philly. Win it, Boston! 

      

Red Sox 8, Tigers 6

 

The Sox manage to eke out a split in their home series against Detroit but the game wasn't without drama. 

Leading 2-1 after 2⅔ innings, starting pitcher Sonny Gray (2-1, 4.30) left the game with a hamstring pull. It's not yet clear how long Gray will be out, but he's currently listed on the Injured List as "day to day." He joins starting pitchers Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval (15 days) and Tanner Houck (60 days) on the IL. 

Act 2 of the Patriot-Day drama came in the ninth. Leading 8-3, Boston reliever Ryan Watson gave up one  run and then bullpen ace Aroldis Chapman uncharacteristically gave up two more before getting the final out and earning the save. For a minute there, though, it looked as if the Sox were getting set to blow a five-run lead in the last inning.

But it was Patriots Day and the Red Sox won. They split the home series with the Tigers, 2-2, and improve to 9-13 overall. The Sox are still tied for last in the AL East with the Blue Jays and are four games back from the New York Yankees, who've regained first place.

To make things even more interesting, those first-place Yankees are bringing their pinstriped asses to Fenway for a three-game series starting tonight. Connelly Early (1-0, 2.28) will be taking the mound for Boston. The young lefty has made only 10 major-league appearances, four this season, but is emerging as Boston's new ace, what with Crochet off to a rough start. Early has pitched against the Yankees once before, in New York in a divisional playoff game.  He struck out six and gave up four runs on six hits in that game, but got no support from the Boston bats and lost the game, 0-4. Hard to win a game when you have no runs to back you up.

Early will be up against New York's Luis Gil, who's off to a rough start (0-1, 7.00). 

First pitch is scheduled for 6:45, but the game will still be competing with Game 2 of the Celtics-Sixers playoff series (7:00 pm) in the Garden and Game 2 of the Bruins at Buffalo (7:30 pm) in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals.    

                  

The Boston Marathon

 

John Korir of Kenya won the Boston Marathon for the second straight time, finishing at 2:01:52 and setting a new course record. That's 26.2 consecutive 4-minute, 37-second miles (my personal best for just one single mile is a little over six minutes, and even that was back in 1988). Fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi, the defending women's winner, also repeated as champion with a time of 2:18:51.

Korir's brother, Wesley, won the race in 2012. Kenyan runners have won the men's division 26 times since 1988; West African runners have won in 34 of those 37 years (the race was cancelled in 2020 because of the covids). The last time the United States won the race was 2014 when Meb Keflezighi won, and he was an Ethiopian refugee.    

Kenyan and Ethiopian runners have won the women's division 26 times since 1997. The last U.S. woman to win was California's Desiree Linden in 2018.   

Marcel Hug of Switzerland, nicknamed "The Silver Bullet," won the men's wheelchair division for the fourth straight time and ninth time overall, with a time of 1:16:06, missing his own course record by 33 seconds. That's an average speed of 21 mph. He is now just one win short of Ernst Van Dyk's all-category record of 10. Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain won the women's wheelchair division, her second Boston win, in 1:30:51.

Sabres 4, Bruins 3

Look, when you give up four goals in the third period, you're not likely to win the game.

The Bruins headed into the third up 1-0 on a Morgan Geekie first period goal, and quickly made it 2-0 with an Elias Lindholm goal. Both were assisted by Pastrnak. But then the wheels came off the cart as the Sabres scored three even-strength goals followed by an open netter.  A Pasta power-play goal in the last seconds of the game made the score look a little better, but the Bruins head into the Stanley Cup playoffs ass first, losing their opening game in Buffalo.

Unless this is going to be another out-after-one-round playoff season for the Bruins, they better start playing better.   

Tigers 6, Red Sox 2

 

Oh, no! Garrett Crochet gives up five runs in five innings! He struck out eight, but he also gave up two home runs in his fifth and final inning. The Red Sox, obviously, lost again.

Willson Contreras homered for the Sox in the first, but that was about it for Boston. 

The Red Sox (8-13) fall back into a tie with Toronto for last place in the AL East. What little consolation there is can be found in the fact that they've still got a better record than the White Sox, the Royals, and the Astros, so they're not the worst team in the American League.

The Tigers take a 2-1 lead in this four-game series, and game four is this afternoon, inconveniently timed with the finish of the Boston Marathon to make traffic in town as bad as possible. Sonny Gray (2-1, 4.43) takes the mound against Jack Flaherty (0-1, 4.05). 

Can we at least get a series split on Patriots' Day?

 

Celtics 123, Sixers 91

 

Boston takes Game 1 of the opening playoff round decisively. The Celtics scored first in the game and never trailed after that. Jaylen scored 26 points and Jayson scored 25, along with 11 rebounds. Houser got all 12 of his points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting.

Hugo González got only one minute of playing time, but caught a defensive rebound and blocked a shot in that one minute.

Just an all-round great effort by the Celtics.

The Celtics take a 1-0 lead in the Conference Semifinals. Fifteen more wins to an NBA title.

 

Tigers 4, Red Sox 1

 

It says something, I'm not sure what, but something, when the only run Boston scored the whole game came on an RBI when the backup catcher hit into a double play. Other than that, the Sox struck out a dozen times, managed only five hits (four of those singles), and managed to leave 15 on base.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays lost yesterday, too, so Boston is still in fourth place in the AL East, one game ahead of Toronto and four back from first-place Tampa Bay.

But it's Crochet Day and Boston can retake the lead in this four-game home series with a win today. Despite a 2-2 start and getting banged up in a 13-6 loss last week that ballooned his ERA to 7.58, Crochet is still the Red Sox' great shining hope. 

Against Detroit, Crochet is 0-1 but has struck out 27 batters and allowed only four earned runs in 20 innings pitched with no homers. Today, he's up against former Astro ace Frambler Valdez (1-1, 3.75). In six games, Valdez is 3-2 against the Sox, also striking out 27. The Red Sox have yet to get their first home run off Valdez, although they have managed to score a total of ten earned runs off him.

The Game starts at 4:35, after the smoke has cleared from Game 1 of the Celtics' first-round playoff game, and should end before the start of Game 1 of the Bruins' first-round playoff game, so you know what I'll be doing all day today.  

Red Sox 1, Tigers 0 (10)

 

Fenway, baby! The Sox are back, both back at home and back in the swing of things!

The Boston Red Sox win a second straight game, the third time this season they put together back-to-back victories. They're 6-3 in their last nine starts. The bats are finally coming alive and the pitchers are locking down. We're going to the World Series, baby!

Last night was a pitcher's duel - nine scoreless innings before Boston finally broke through in the 10th. Ranger Suarez went 8 full innings with no runs and only two hits, the same number of hits as Aroldis Chapman got in his 9th inning relief. Garrett Whitlock went three up and three down in the top of the 10th.

Finally, in the bottom of the 10th, with one out and Jarren Duran on third on a wild pitch, pinch-hitter Macho Man Masataka Yoshida knocked a single into right center, bringing Duran home. Red Sox win, 1-0, in 10 innings.  

Shout it from the mountaintop: THE RED SOX ARE NO LONGER IN LAST PLACE IN THE AL EAST! Not only are they not the worst team in MLB any longer, they aren't even the worst team in their division. That would be the Blue Jays, but that's another matter. Right now, the Red Sox are 8-11, one ahead of Toronto and three back from first-place Tampa Bay. The Red Sox have a better record than the White Sox and the Royals, than Houston and Seattle, then the Mets, the Giants, and the Rockies. 

Can they make it three in a row for the first time this season? This afternoon (4:10 pm), Brayan Bello (1-1, 6.14) takes the mound to face Detroit's Tarik Skubal (2-2, 2.22). Speaking of twos, the Sox are 2-2 against Skuball in five starts with 29 hits, including four home runs. Skubal's career ERA versus Boston is 4.91, tied with the Dodgers for the fourth highest of any team.  Unfortunately, Bello has yet to beat the Tigers in three attempts, with one loss, an ERA of 5.74, and 14 strikeouts.

Shadows

 

The Red Sox comeback was on pause yesterday and the Bruins and Celtics aren't starting their playoff series until Sunday, so the Gaming Desk gets a word in today. Because video games are e-sports, right? 

We finally finished Assassins Creed: Shadows! It took me 250 hours, but I finally got to the end credits. That's the longest, by far, I spent in a single playthrough of any video game. I spent nearly 99 hours on Assassins Creed: Valhalla, a notoriously bloated game, and 100 hours on God of War. I completed Death Stranding in 150. On the other end of the scale, completing BioShock Infinite took me 15 hours, and I knocked off the indie game Everyone's Gone to the Rapture in 10 hours.  The closest I've spent to 250 hours in any video game was The Witcher 3 (274 hours), which I've played more times than I can recall.      

According to the Google AI bot, it should take approximately 35–40 hours to complete the Shadows main story, while side quests can add 15 to 30 hours. Significant time can be consumed customizing gear and clearing map content, with some players logging over 100 hours and those aiming for 100% can spend over 100–140 hours exploring the open world. 

So it took me over 100 hours more than most OCD completionists need to complete every main and side quest and to check off every achievement, and I haven't even downloaded the DLC. I'm not sure why it took me so long, as I didn't even complete everything. There are some "search" quests where you're supposed to find certain objects across the map, and I never fully completed some of those searches. For example, Mayu's Offering requires you to find 69 randomly located statues. I found a lot of them, most of them even, but not all 69. Even more frustrating, another quest requires you to find 10 assorted "valuable objects" - I found nine, and the effort it would take to retrace my route through the entire game to find the one object I missed is incalculable.   

I lost some time because I'm apparently a dumb ass with slow reflexes who kept getting myself  killed and had to start some castle sieges and battles over and over again, but I'm pretty damn confident I didn't spend 100 hours repeating those quests. 

I think the lost hours were most likely spent in just slowing down and enjoying the game's world. I spent a lot of time travelling, traversing the countryside on horse or on foot, rather than fast-travel teleporting across the map. A lot of time taking selfies in photo mode. Many hours fidgeting with equipment, trying out new armor or weapons, and upgrading said equipment. 

So, after two calendar months in real time and 250 hours of playtime, I finally got to the end, and what did I do? Why. immediately start a New Game Plus, of course! Now that I know what I'm doing and fully powered up (I finished the first game and started the new game at Level 61), let's see how long it takes to actually complete all of the game, including those missing statues and objects and all.

Red Sox 9, Twins 5

 

Yeah, baby! The Boston Red Sox are so BACK! A rough start to the season, but yesterday, on an April afternoon, the team turned things around, avoided a sweep, and started a comeback of historic proportions. 

We're going to the World Series, and that's a guarantee!

It was Trevor Story, fittingly, who sparked the fire that lit the comeback. In the third inning, following a Yoshida two-RBI fielders' choice, Story hit a three-run homer 428 feet into deep left center. 5-1, Boston. Then in the sixth inning, Story hit a two-RBI double to deep right center. 7-1, Boston. 

And Story wasn't alone. In addition to Yoshida's RBIs, Andruw Monasterio got an RBI double in the fifth (8-1, Boston), and then came home on a Connor Wong sac fly. 9-1, Boston.

And then, the pitching! The pitching! Connelly Early lived up to his potential by going six full innings with one run on only two hits, striking out five and walking only two. Danny Coulombe was excellent in the seventh - three up and three down - while Garrett Whitlock got two K's in the eighth. Ryan Watson apparently didn't get the memo as he made things unnecessarily interesting in the ninth by giving up five runs on three hits, including a three-run homer, but worked his way out of it with a pair of fly balls to end the game. 

The Red Sox (7-11) are still in last place in the AL East - FOR NOW - but only 3½ back from . . . (looks at the current standings) . . . Tampa Bay. The Sox are no longer the worst team in MLB - they're a game ahead of the White Sox in the AL and the Rockies and the Giants in the NL. They're even a half-game ahead of the Mets.

One team at a time. Boston trails Toronto by a half game in the AL East - we need to catch them first, then Baltimore, then the stinkin' Yankees, and then Tampa Bay. And then the pennant and then the World Series.

The Red Sox are off today to travel back home and then will play a four-game home series starting Friday against the Tigers (9-9). Ranger Suarez (1-1, 5.02) will start the first game against Casey Mize (1-1, 3.94). 

Not to look too far ahead, but after the Detroit series, the Sox have a three-game home stand against da Jankees (10-8), and then a road trip to Baltimore and Toronto. One game at a time. When the smoke finally clears in May, we'll see the Sox at the top of the AL East where they belong.       

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.

Red Sox 5, Brewers 0

 

OMG! OMG! OMG! The Red Sox won another game! We are SO back, baby! We're not only going to the World Series, we're gonna win it!

The embattled Boston Red Sox won their fourth game of the season today, their first back-to-back win this year and first shutout, and in so doing, won their first series of 2026.

Sonny Gray pitched 6⅓ innings with no runs, five hits, two K's, and only two walks. The relief was outstanding again, with Weissert, Samaniego, and Watson giving up no runs, only one hit, and one walk.

Offensively, Trevor Story was the hero again, hitting a sac fly for a run in the 3rd and an RBI single in the 7th. Wilyer Abreu remained hot (.383), going two-for-four with an RBI single of his own, and later  crossing the plate on a Carlos Narváez grounder.

The Red Sox improve to 4-8 (.333), still dead last in the AL East, but no longer the worst team in the League. They've passed Seattle (.308) and Oakland (.300) and are tied with the White Sox and, over in the National League, the Washington Nationals. 

The Red Sox are off tomorrow - enjoy your rest, boyos, you deserve it - and then start a six-game road trip in St. Louis (7-5). Probable pitchers for game one are Connelly Early (0-0. 2.89) and our old "friend," Dustin May (0-2, 15.89). May went 1-4 for us early last year, which is why "friend" is in quotation marks. And no, that ERA is not a typo.

Three straight, anyone?