Last night started off with the Boston Red Sox honoring the 2008 NBA Champion Boston Celtics and the night ended with the St. Louis Cardinals walking off the field with a 5-4 win. The game got off to a late start due to an 1 hour 14 minute rain delay that started just as the Celtics pulled onto the field in the duck boats.

The game itself was a good one as Tim Wakefield and Kyle Lohse found themselves in a pitcher’s duel, that was until the 7th inning when Skip Schumaker hit a 2-run homer into the Red Sox bullpen. Ryan Franklin came in and closed the door on the Red Sox despite a little blip in the 9th inning. The loss for the Red Sox was just their 8th at home on the season.

Manny Ramirez had a tough night at the plate as he came to the plate twice with the bases loaded and both times left 3 men on base. As a team the Red Sox left 21 men on base and 11 of those in scoring position. For them, it was night of failed opportunities.

Obviously the big news of yesterday was the news from Curt Schilling about his season-ending and quite possibly career-ending surgery on Monday. For his teammates, it was a time of sadness.

“It stinks for him that it comes to this for this season. It stinks for our team, too,” Varitek said. “I kept the level of hope that all the work and rehab that he and our training staff has been doing was going to result in us having a usable, healthy Curt Schilling at the end of the year because he’s so reliable.

“His influence on me and his teammates has been tremendous, his preparation and work. I can’t explain it more than he knows what it means to have a championship pitching staff.”

“We could definitely have used him come the postseason, in October and in the playoff race towards the end of the season,” closer Jonathan Papelbon said. “We’re going to have to have another guy step it up.”

The good thing for the Red Sox is that they have pitching depth but they will definitely miss his competitive fire come playoff time.

Cardinals rookie reliever Kyle McClellan is the man in charge of the motorized bullpen cooler.

Yadier Molina returned the Cardinals lineup after missing their last series with the Royals.

The Red Sox got some good news about David Ortiz and his injured wrist.

“David is doing real well, he’s doing his strength and conditioning, he’s doing mobility with his wrist. I think there’s a hope that he may be a week to 10 days from picking up a bat,” manager Terry Francona said before last night’s game. “He has very, very limited. When I say pain, he’s doing OK. He still knows it’s there but he seems to be getting better every day and he’s doing more and more. He’s being pushed pretty hard, he was running today.”

The Red Sox have done pretty well in his absence but on a night like tonight where they left 11 runners in scoring position, you have to wonder if his bat would have made a big difference. I think it would have.

Nick Cafardo asks if Schilling is Hall-worthy. I think he is but I don’t have a vote.

A big thank you to everyone who supported me in my quest to become governor of Red Sox Nation Connecticut.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy paper is saying you can check out the St. Louis Dispatch website.