Carl Pavano probably never wanted to pitch at Fenway Park ever again because of his career numbers there.

But tonight he looked pretty good as he went 6 strong innings, allowing just 2 runs and he got 4 RBIs from Victor Martinez as the Cleveland Indians went on to beat the Boston Red Sox 9-2 in front of 37,888 at the Fens.

The loss for the Red Sox ended a 9-game home winning streak as they fall to 17-11. The Indians improve to 11-17 on the season.

Justin Masterson had been perfect at Fenway Park (7-0) in his career but tonight just wasn’t his night. Once he got through the Indians order a few times, they started to figure him out and that was the difference. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6.

Hunter Jones worked 1 2/3 innings allowing a run on a hit and 2 walks with a strikeout. The deadweight in the Red Sox bullpen, Javier Lopez, went the final inning, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and should be seeing the door from the Red Sox real soon.

In the 6 innings Pavano pitched, he allowed just the 2 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4. Aaron Laffey went the final three innings, giving up 2 hits and added a strikeout to pick up his first career save.

Jonathan Van Every, filling in for the hobbled Jacoby Ellsbury, led the Red Sox with 2 hits and the only RBI while Jason Varitek had two hits as well.  J.D. Drew, David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and Julio Lugo had the other hits.

Pavano walked Jason Bay to start the 2nd inning  and he went to third on a Mike Lowell double. A walk to Varitek loaded up the bases for Jeff Bailey. He ended up grounding into a double play that scored Bay to put the Red Sox up 1-0. Van Every followed with a single to score Lowell and make it 2-0 Red Sox.

The Indians got a run back in the 3rd.

Continue reading →

We’ve all been wondering and speculating as to what’s been wrong with NESN announcer Jerry Remy and now we know. He had cancer surgery during the offseason.

“I want to focus on completing my recovery so that I can return to work without distractions or interruptions.”

“I hope that disclosing my bout with cancer will reinforce the dangers of smoking to every member of Red Sox Nation, especially children.”

Dennis Eckersley will finish out the homestand in the booth for RemDawg and then Dave Roberts will join Don Orsillo in the NESN booth during the upcoming west coast road trip. It’s not known who’ll take over when they return from the trip.

We’ll miss you RemDawg but we understand. Best wishes for a speedy and healthy recovery.

Here is a full statement from Jerry Remy on his battle with cancer and recovery.

Jerry Remy takes leave to recover from cancer surgery [NESN.com]

Here is a press release from the UConn Huskies department of athletics about women’s head basketball coach Geno Auriemma being honored with the Winged Foot Award tonight.

STORRS, Conn. – University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma will receive the Winged Foot Award for the fifth time in his career on Thursday, May 7 at the New York Athletic Club.

The prestigious Winged Foot Award is presented annually to the winning coaches of the NCAA Women’s and Men’s Division I Basketball championships. North Carolina’s Roy Williams will also be honored Thursday evening.

Connecticut’s 76-54 rout of Louisville in the 2009 NCAA National Championship Game placed an exclamation point on an undefeated season for the Huskies. They finished the season an incredible 39-0 – the third perfect season in the program’s history and quite possibly its most dominant – as the Huskies became the first program in NCAA Division I history (men’s or women’s) to win each of its games by a margin of 10 points or more.

For his career, Auriemma has coached three undefeated teams (1995, 2002, 2009), won six national championships, garnered a total of 24 National Coach of the Year honors and was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He also will coach the U.S. Women’s National Team at the 2010 World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

WINNERS OF THE WOMEN’S WINGED FOOT AWARD: Carolyn Peck, Purdue (1999), Geno Auriemma, Connecticut (2000, 2002-04), Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame (2001), Kim Mulkey-Robertson, Baylor (2005), Brenda Frese, Maryland (2006) and Pat Summit, Tennessee (2007-2008), Geno Auriemma (2009)

WINNERS OF THE MEN’S WINGED FOOT AWARD: Rick Pitino, Kentucky (1996), Tubby Smith, Kentucky (1997), Jim Calhoun, Connecticut (1999 and 2004), Tom Izzo, Michigan State (2000), Mike Krzyzewski, Duke (2001), Gary Williams, Maryland (2002), Jim Boeheim, Syracuse (2003), Roy Williams, North Carolina (2005) and Billy Donavan, Florida (2006 and 2007).Bill Self (2008), Roy Williams (2009)

Pretty funny typo by Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer talking about UConn women’s  basketball head coach Gene Geno Auriemma.

Click on photo to see original.

Just wondering who Jaba is?

Here is a press release from the New England Patriots about individual tickets going on sale for the 8 home games during the 2009 season:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Patriots fans who wish to purchase tickets to individual games in 2009 will have the opportunity on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. The New England Patriots annually cap their season ticket sales, leaving a limited number in reserve for Patriots fans who wish to attend just a couple of games each season. Those tickets will be released for sale through Ticketmaster. Visa, a proud sponsor of the National Football League and the New England Patriots, will once again be the only form of payment accepted.

All ticket orders will be processed through Ticketmaster. Tickets will NOT be sold at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. Ticket orders can be completed online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone by calling 800-745-3000. Once again, all phone and online orders must be made exclusively with a Visa credit or debit card.

If recent years are any indication, fans can expect all regular season games to sell out within minutes. If that occurs again this year, 2009 will be the 16th consecutive season that the Patriots have announced a complete sellout prior to the start of the regular season. The Patriots’ streak of consecutive sellouts is currently 159 games and began in 1994, the year that Robert Kraft purchased the franchise. The streak includes all preseason, regular season and postseason games since Sept. 4, 1994. If the Patriots sell out every game again this season, the streak will extend to 169 consecutive games by the end of the regular season. The Patriots’ season ticket waiting list remains in excess of 50,000 fans.

The on-sale information for purchasing individual game tickets to Patriots games in 2009 is listed below:

• Sale Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009
• Time: 10:00 a.m.
• Where: All ticket orders will be processed by Ticketmaster. Order online or call Ticketmaster by calling toll free, 800-745-3000. Tickets will NOT be sold at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. For wheelchair accessible seating, please call 508-384-9191.
• Limits: To extend the opportunity to fans throughout the region, the Patriots have once again set limits to the number of tickets fans can buy. Those limits have been set at eight regular season tickets per person, with no more than four tickets to any one game.

At the end of last season, Tonya Cardoza left the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team for a job with the Temple Owls. Now, Geno Auriemma is about to lose another assistant.

According to John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant, Jamelle Elliott will be named the new head basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati.

Elliott has been with the Huskies as an assistant coach under Auriemma for the past 12 years and also played at UConn for four years. She has been a part of all six UConn championships (1 as a player, 5 as a coach).

A press conference will be held tomorrow at 4 PM to make the announcement official.

This should be interesting with her leaving for a Big East school as now she’ll get to face to the Huskies next season. As long as Cincinnati believes in her, she’ll turn around that program and get them to national prominence.

Best of luck Jamelle, you’ll be missed here.

UConn’s Jamelle Elliott To Be Named Cincinnati Coach [Hartford Courant]

Matt Garza was perfect for 6 innings and allowed one hit in 7 2/3 innings and the Tampa Bay Rays offense backed him up in a 13-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 20,341 at Tropicana Field.

The Red Sox fall to 14-8 on the season but stay in a virtual tie for first since the Blue Jays lost tonight as well. The Rays improve their record to 9-14.

Things were so bad for the Red Sox tonight that Jonathan Van Every had to come in from right field to pitch and bail out Javier Lopez, who went to right field, in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Josh Beckett started for the Red Sox tonight and looked strong through the first two innings as he allowed just a single to Pat Burrell and had 4 strikeouts. Then it went south for him. He went 4 2/3 innings, allowing 7 runs on 10 hits and 3 walks and finished with 8 strikeouts.

Hunter Jones allowed a run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings while Takashi Saito allowed a hit and had a strikeout in a inning of work. Lopez could find himself out of a job after tonight’s performance that saw him allow 5 runs on 4 hits and a walk. Van Every finished the final 2/3 of an inning by allowing a hit and a strikeout. Van Every’s fastball registered 76-79 MPH on the gun.

The lone hit for the Red Sox tonight came from Jacoby Ellsbury who led off the 7th with an infield single.

I’m not sure if Beckett felt comfortable with George Kottaras behind the plate tonight but it sure did seem that way in the first two innings. The first two hits he gave up in the 3rd inning weren’t exactly hard hit balls. But after that inning, Beckett was never the same.

Tonight he resembled 2006 Beckett. We need him to be 2007 Beckett or it could turn into a long season.

Justin Masterson will look to turn things around for the Red Sox tomorrow night at the Trop. He’ll be opposed by Andy Sonnanstine.

Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays 4.30.09 box score

Since SOX & Dawgs wasn’t one of the four finalists for best Red Sox blog, I’ve decided to throw my support behind our friends over at Surviving Grady in the New England Sports Blog Awards.

Please take a moment and vote for them as best Red Sox blog and best New England Sports Blog.

Red and Denton do an awesome job over there and it’d be a shame not to see them rewarded for their efforts.

New England Sports Blog Awards [TruFan]

After taking some time to deal with some personal issues, we’re back in business here at SOX & Dawgs. I do apologize for not giving any notice but sometimes life just happens and you can’t control things. I’ll do my best to play catchup on certain things. So if you see a few posts that come up that weren’t there under this, that just means I put timestamped them for their original day.

Thanks for understanding. And to let you know, there will be a scheduled break from blogging coming up on Memorial Day Weekend as I’ll be flying to North Carolina for my cousin’s wedding.