To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Women’s Basketball links

WNBA All-Star balloting [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Meet Shabazz Napier [UConn Huskies Basketball]

Boston Red Sox @ Philadelphia Phillies 1:35 p.m Citizens Bank Park SP: Tim Wakefield vs Roy Halladay TV: NESN, TBS, MLB.tv Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Late Morning Red Sox Delight – 5/23 [SOX & Dawgs]

After a masterpiece from Daisuke Matsuzaka on Saturday night, the Boston Red Sox will look to take the rubber game against the Philadelphia Phillies this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

This afternoon’s game will start at 1:35 p.m. and will be shown on NESN in the Red Sox television market. You can catch the game in the Philadelphia area on Myphl17. And if you don’t live in either market, you are in luck as the game will be shown nationally with the exception of those two markets on  TBS. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

Tim Wakefield will fill in for the injured Josh Beckett this afternoon. Wake has appeared in nine games this season with five starts and is 0-2 with a 5.31 ERA. He didn’t face the Phillies in 2009 and his last appearance against them came in June of 2006. He’s appeared in nine games (seven starts) against the Phillies and is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA. In three road starts against the Phillies, Wake is 1-1 with a 3.20 ERA.

Charlie Manuel will call on his doctor today as Roy Halladay will go against his former AL East rivals. In nine starts for the Phillies this season, Halladay is 6-2 with a 1.64 ERA. He made four starts in 2009 against the Red Sox as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays and was 2-2 with a 2.79 ERA and two complete games. Overall in his career, he’s made 41 appearances (38 starts) and is 14-14 with a 4.28 ERA.

Lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, and links after the jump.

And here is the how hitters have fared against this afternoon’s starting pitchers:

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

Getaway day against the good Doctor [Brownie Points]

Drew will play today [Clubhouse Insider]

Drew still sore, but playing [ESPN Boston]

Pregame notes from Philly [Extra Bases]

The Boston Red Sox rolled the dice on Saturday night with Daisuke Matsuzaka and instead of coming up snake eyes, he rolled a seven (well 7 2/3) for them. It took the Philadelphia Phillies 7 2/3 innings to get a hit off of him and it came from a little blooper off the bat of Juan Castro just over the outstretched arms of Marco Scutaro at shortstop.

That would turn out to be the only hit of the game for the Phillies and besides the three walks, Dice-K was almost perfect.

This was the Dice-K we heard about when the Red Sox first signed him. This was the Dice-K who was named MVP of the World Baseball Classic as he led Japan to back-to-back titles. This was the Dice-K we’ve seen glimpses of in a Red Sox uniform but we’ve never seen the whole enchilada.

Two starts ago, Matsuzaka was pretty dominant against the Toronto Blue Jays. In his last start, the Yankees roughed him up. So of course with him taking the mound last night against of the best hitting teams in the National League and maybe all of baseball, you weren’t really sure of what you were going to get.

He set the tone early for himself as he was attacking the strike zone. We’re used to seeing him nibble at the strike zone but he didn’t do that. With Jason Varitek behind the plate, Dice-K was in charge last night. He hit his spots and had good life on his fastball as well as his secondary pitches. The pair mixed his pitches perfectly to keep the Phillies hitters at bay. Rarely did we see him shake off Varitek.

Ironically enough, both of his good starts this season have come with Tek behind the dish. After his last start with Victor Martinez behind the plate, the two exchanged words. With Dice-K pitching well with Tek catching, you have to wonder if Terry Francona will use the pair together again going forward. Tek usually catches Josh Beckett but with Commander Kickass on the disabled list right now, I would think Tek will be catching Dice-K unless the matchup dicates otherwise.

This was the good pitching and defense that was promised by Theo Epstein before the season. The Red Sox made four outstanding plays on defense including one by Matsuzaka that he snared off the bat of Jayson Werth in the 7th inning.

The Red Sox will look to take the series this afternoon when they’ll take on old AL East foe Roy Halladay. Tim Wakefield, filling in for the injured Beckett, will take the ball for Francona.

We’ll be back in just a short while with today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and any news and links but for now enjoy the overnight links after the jump.

Matsuzaka flirts with no-hitter [Boston Globe]

Change of battery provides a needed spark [Boston Globe]

This glove story ends happily [Boston Globe]

McDonald answered the call [Boston Globe]

Daisuke Matsuzaka loses no-hitter in eighth [Boston Herald]

Mates help Daisuke Matsuzaka construct a gem [Boston Herald]

Red Sox rekindle David Ortiz glove affair [Boston Herald]

No shortage of key plays in near no-no [Boston Herald]

Raul Ibanez’ painful reminder [Boston Herald]

Triple-header of mind games amazing [Boston Herald]

Homeland defense lapse [Boston Herald]

Walk this way [Boston Herald]

Dice-K nearly no-hits Phils in Sox’ 5-0 win [CSN New England]

Varitek won’t be Dice-K’s personal catcher [CSN New England]

Lowell: Thomas is in good hands [ESPN Boston]

Varitek not ready to replace Martinez [ESPN Boston]

Closing Time: Red Sox 5, Phillies 0 [Full Count]

Reaction to Daisuke’s almost no-no [Full Count]

Matsuzaka and Defense [Hit and Run with Dan Roche]

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Near No-Hitter Was Hard to Predict [NESN.com]

Red Sox Are Much Better Than a Fourth-Place Club [NESN.com]

Are Blue Jays Better Off Without Roy Halladay? [NESN.com]

Bloop single is only blemish in Matsuzaka’s one-hit masterpiece [Providence Journal]

Red Sox Journal: While Cameron remains out, Ellsbury takes center stage [Providence Journal]

Facing Halladay, now a Phillie, is never an easy task [Providence Journal]

Red Sox put Ellsbury in center for now [RedSox.com]

Big Papi dusts off glove to play first base [RedSox.com]

An unlikely spoiler, Castro breaks up bid [RedSox.com]

Buchholz, Lester were rooting for Dice-K [RedSox.com]

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

And if you must check out the enemy papers, head over to the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer websites.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Football links

Dixon hopes wait is over [CT Post]

Colonials, Dixon a good match [New Haven Register]

Former UConn Players Participate in Open Tryouts for Hartford Colonials [UFL.com]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Calipari could make UConn’s Knight [New Haven Register]

Other UConn related links

Baseball: Huskies Edged by Seton Hall 3-2 [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Huskies Earn No. 2 Seed in BIG EAST Baseball Championship [UConnHuskies.com]

For the 10% of the country that got to see Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch on Saturday night, they saw a Dice-K we’ve only seen in the WBC. He’s had an up-and-down season so far but it was all on the up-and-up at Citizens Bank Park.

Dice-K went 7 2/3 innings before giving up a hit as the Boston Red Sox went on to a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in front of 45,310 crazy Phillies fans.

It’s the fourth win in five games for the visiting nine from Boston as they improve to 23-21. The NL East-leading Phillies fall to 26-16.

This was a better version of the Dice-K we saw two outings ago. You know the one who attacked the strike zone and didn’t nibble. Ironically enough, it also came with Jason Varitek behind the plate like that start.

The one hit he gave up with two outs in the 8th inning was almost caught by Marco Scutaro but Juan Castro’s flare fell over his outstretched arms to drop in. Other than the four walks he allowed, that was the only blemish on a great night for Dice-K. He also got some good defense behind him including a great diving stop by Adrian Beltre that turned into a double play. He even snared a line drive off the bat of Jayson Werth in the 7th.

Daniel Bard worked a perfect 9th inning to preserve the one-hitter for Matsuzaka, who also had his first MLB hit with a single.

Beltre had two hits and two RBIs while Jeremy Hermida added a hit and an RBI. J.D. Drew, who is battling a sore hip flexor, added two hits and an  RBI. David Ortiz had a hit and an RBI and Jacoby Ellsbury was 0-for-4 with a walk and run scored in his return to the Red Sox lineup.

The Red Sox got on the board in the 4th inning off of Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick.

Drew led off with a single but was retired on a fielder’s choice by Big Papi. Beltre followed with a double to put runners on second and third with one hit. Hermida then hit a shallow fly ball to left field and Big Papi decided to tag up and barely beat the throw home to make 1-0 Red Sox.

Besides Dice-K shutting them down, the big blow to the Phillies and Kendrick came in the 5th inning.

Scutaro led off with a double and went to third on a sac bunt by Dice-K. After a walk to Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia popped out to second. Drew then added a single to score Scutaro and Big Papi followed that with a double to score Ellsbury to make it 3-0. Beltre knocked out Kendrick from the game with by clearing the bases with a 2-run double.

This was a solid outing for Matsuzaka on the bump. Hopefully he’ll sit back and watch the tape and learn from it and do it again in his next start.

Tim Wakefield will look to continue the string of good starts for Red Sox starting pitchers as he’ll square off tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 p.m. with Roy Halladay.

Boston Red Sox @ Philadelphia Phillies 5.22.10 box score

Boston Red Sox @ Philadelphia Phillies 7:10 p.m Citizens Bank Park SP: Daisuke Matsuzaka vs Kyle Kendrick TV: FOX (distribution map) Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 5/22 [SOX & Dawgs]

After a lackluster performance from John Lackey last night and the offense, the Boston Red Sox look to turn things around in game two of a three-game interleague set against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Tonight’s game will start at 7:10 p.m. and will be shown on FOX in select markets. To find out if which game you’re getting, click here. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

Daisuke Matsuzaka looks to return to form after struggling his last time out. He’s made four starts in 2010 and is 2-1 with a 7.89 ERA. He’s made one start against the Phillies and that came last year at Citizens Bank Park where he received a no decision after allowing four runs in four innings.

Kyle Kendrick make his ninth start of the season for Charlie Manuel and the Phillies. In his eight starts, he is 2-1 with a 5.24 ERA. He’s made two career appearances (one start) against the Red Sox in his career, both of them at Citizens Bank Park. In those two games, Kendrick is 0-2 with a 16.20 ERA (5 IP/9 ER).

Lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, and links after the jump.

And here is the how hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers:

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

Things We Learned: Lackey’s struggles have a familiar feeling [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]

The calmest man in the clubhouse [Boston Globe]

Who’s on first? It’s Big Papi [Clubhouse Insider]

Darnell McDonald and Roy Halladay: High school rivals [Clubhouse Insider]

Ortiz ready to flash leather [ESPN Boston]

Drew has sore hip flexor [ESPN Boston]

Pregame notes from Philly [ESPN Boston]

Bonser making progress in Pawtucket [Extra Bases]

Iannetta remains one who got away from Sox [Full Count]

For Ortiz, a symbolic moment of his turnaround [Full Count]

Rough Outing Doesn’t Knock Casey Kelly Out of Top Spot in Red Sox’ Prospect Rankings [NESN.com]

David Ortiz Not Stressing Over First Appearance at First Base Since June [NESN.com]

Van Every could be reunited with familiar face [Projo Sox Blog]

Iannetta, subject of trade rumors, not a complete stranger to Red Sox staff [Projo Sox Blog]

Ortiz has an ally as he makes first start at first base [Projo Sox Blog]

To sum up the title of this post, it’s easy. If you a Boston Red Sox fan and want to watch tonight’s interleague game against the Philadelphia Phillies and live in Connecticut, you can’t watch it on FOX.

Get the lube out because they are basically bending you over and giving it to you where the sun doesn’t shine as MLB on FOX has assigned the New York Yankees @ New York Mets game tonight at 7:10 p.m to the Connecticut market. FOX has three other games including the Red Sox/Phillies as well as the Detroit Tigers @ Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs @ Texas Rangers.

Map courtesy of The506.com

In case you wondering here’s how the map breaks down by market:

• Yankees/Mets (49%) – Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Fort Myers, Greensboro, Greenville, Hartford, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Orlando, Portland, Raleigh, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Washington, West Palm Beach
• Cubs/Rangers (23%) – Austin, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, St. Louis, Tulsa
• Tigers/Dodgers (17%) – Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego
• Red Sox/Phillies (10%) – Boston, Dayton, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh

Over the past two years, when The Quinnipiac Poll has done it’s annual favorite MLB team, both the Red Sox and Yankees have been the favorite team of Connecticut. It usually breaks down that western CT is for the Yankees while eastern CT is for the Red Sox. I’m guessing that when they do it this year, it will favor the Yankees since they won the World Series in 2009.

We are such a small state that we only have one FOX affiliate, FOX 61. But if you live in New Haven county or Fairfield county, the cable providers there also give you FOX 5 from NY so you would have a choice of games if FOX 61 was assigned the Red Sox/Phillies game.

But since they have the Yankees/Mets game, Red Sox fans are left out in the cold. The bars likely won’t have it unless they can pick up a FOX feed from one of the markets assigned to the Red Sox game. MLB Extra Innings package isn’t showing the game and MLB.tv probably won’t have it either since they never show FOX games. And even if they did have it, we’d be blacked out from it since we are in the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets television markets.

The only thing we can do is complain to FOX 61 by lighting up their phone lines at 860-727-0082, fill up their fax machine at 860-293-0178 or send them an email complaining.

The logical thing they could do is put the Red Sox/Phillies on the standard definition channel and put the Yankees/Mets on the HD channel. Or better yet, offer the game on F/X or their sister station in CT which is WTXX.

So unless something changes, I’ll be listening to the game with Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien on the Red Sox radio network.

John Lackey has shown at times this season why the Boston Red Sox signed him to a 5-year, $82.5 million contract. Unfortunately, last night wasn’t one of those times in the 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of interleague play in 2010.

Coming off of masterful performances by Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, the Red Sox and Lackey were hoping he could put the woes from his last two starts behind him. He didn’t though as he lost command of his fastball and ended up with five walks. We all know this isn’t normal for Lackey as he usually has pinpoint control.

In his last three seasons in Anaheim, he walked 52 batters in 33 starts in 2007, 40 batters in in 24 starts in 2008 and 47 batters in 27 starts in 2009. With his 26 walks in nine starts this season, he’s on pace to beat his career-high in walks allowed of 72 back in back in 2006. You would have to think that is purely a mechanical thing as he really didn’t get squeezed by the home plate umpire like he did his last time out.

And last night when he was able to get his fastball out over the plate, two of them were crushed by Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth. The worst part though was the fact that both home runs came after he had issued a free pass to first base.

Lackey’s a bulldog and hates to lose so you know he’ll work out any kinks with pitching guru John Farrell and be back to normal sooner rather than later. With Josh Beckett out and not knowing what you’re going to get from Daisuke Matsuzaka each time out, the Red Sox could really use some more quality starts from Lackey.

Tonight in Philadelphia we’ll see the return of Jacoby Ellsbury to the Red Sox lineup. Where he’ll hit is anyone’s guess. To make room for him on the 25-man roster, the Red Sox designated Jonathan Van Every for assignment. It’s likely that Van Every will clear waivers and my guess if he does that he’ll accept an assignment to Triple-A Pawtucket if that’s in the Red Sox’s plans.

Tonight’s 7:10 p.m. game is a FOX game and if you live in the following markets you’ll get to the see game, Boston, Dayton, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Click here for the distribution map.

We’ll be back later with tonight’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day but for now enjoy the over night links after the jump.

Walk on the wild side for Lackey [Boston Globe]

As a hitter, Martinez flipped the switch [Boston Globe]

Ortiz meets with Francona [Boston Globe]

In Boston, would it be Hanley being Manny? [Boston Globe]

Red Sox Lack right stuff [Boston Herald]

Mike Lowell had a chance to be a Phillie [Boston Herald]

Lack of K’s for John Lackey [Boston Herald]

David Ortiz first, foremost tonight [Boston Herald]

Lackey lacks ‘it’ again, Sox fall 5-1 [CSN New England]

Ellsbury on roster; Van Every designated [Extra Bases]

Phillies may be without Rollins [Extra Bases]

Gammons on The Big Show: ‘I can’t figure out Daisuke’ [Full Count]

Closing Time: Phillies 5, Red Sox 1 [Full Count]

Terry Francona Handling David Ortiz, Mike Lowell Drama With Care [NESN.com]

Should Major League Baseball Change its Interleague Schedule? [NESN.com]

Jonathan Van Every Designated For Assignment, Clearing Way for Jacoby Ellsbury’s Return [NESN.com]

Befuddled John Lackey Can’t Find Consistency Against Phillies [NESN.com]

Poor pitching by Lackey dooms Boston [Providence Journal]

Ellsbury says he’s ‘ready to go’ against Phillies [Providence Journal]

Red Sox Journal: Youkilis to stay at first in Philly [Providence Journal]

Papi, Francona privately discuss comments [RedSox.com]

Ellsbury ready to dive back in Saturday [RedSox.com]

Youkilis won’t play third this weekend [RedSox.com]

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

And if you must check out the enemy papers, head over to the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer websites.