Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 10/6

Paw Prints Daily Roundup

UConn Huskies defensive lineman Rob Lunn checks in with his thoughts after the game at Thoughts From a Fat White Guy.

Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register has some notes from Randy Edsall’s teleconference yesterday as does Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post.

Randy Edsall and his staff spent most of Sunday morning dissecting the game film trying to figure out what went wrong.

Randy Edsall was none too pleased after the loss on Saturday night.

The UConn Huskies are still having trouble winning big games in hostile environments.

The good news is that the mistakes the UConn Huskies made on Saturday night can be fixed.

Running back Donald Brown picked up another helmet sticker from Brian Bennett of ESPN.com.

David Borges of the New Haven Register has some musings on the Nate Miles situation.

David Gillett has video of Ben Gordon’s meeting with the Chicago media.

The UConn women’s soccer team fell to Cincinnati 2-1.

Boston Red Sox ALDS News & Notes – 10/6

Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ALDS

For those of you who didn’t stay up until 12:50 AM last night, you missed a pretty good game even though the Boston Red Sox lost. It came down to the bullpens for both teams and obviously the Angels bullpen was just 1 run better.

The starters for both teams were out after the 5th inning or during the inning in the Angels case. After that, the bullpens held strong despite both teams having numerous chances to score. In the end, it was Javier Lopez who gave up two bloops hits, the second one off the bat of Erick Aybar that scored Mike Napoli from second with the winning run for the Angels.

It’s definitely a frustrating loss especially when you look at all the chances the Red Sox had. Yes they probably shouldn’t have even been that close as some miscommunication in the Angels outfield in the 2nd inning and the ball Jacoby Ellsbury hit went off the glove of Garrett Anderson which eventually led to the tying run for the Red Sox in the 5th.

Normally when you see Josh Beckett on the mound in the postseason, you can expect to see a great outing and a win. He was far from the October Beckett that we are used too and it seemed to me as though the long layoff between starts (13 days) left him a wee bit rusty. Despite having 6 strikeouts, he left some pitches up in the zone, none no bigger than the hanging curveball that Napoli put into the Cask’n Flagon outdoor deck on Brookline Ave.

Links and all that good stuff after the jump

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Angels Live To See Another Day

Erick Aybar knocks in the winning run for the Angels to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Erick Aybar’s single in the 12th inning scored Mike Napoli from second base to give the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 39,067 at Fenway Park to keep their postseason hopes alive.

With the win the Angels ended an 11-game losing to streak to the Red Sox and postseason and cut the lead to 2-1 in the best-of-5 ALDS.

Javier Lopez took over for Jonathan Papelbon in the top of the 12th and gave up a leadoff single to Napoli. Howie Kendrick sacrificed Napoli over to second and Aybar followed with a single to easily score Napoli from second to put the Angels up 5-4.

Jered Weaver was out for his second inning of relief in the bottom of the 12th and walked David Ortiz. He then settled in though as he got Kevin Youkilis to fly out to center, struck out Jason Bay and got Alex Cora to ground out to give the Angels another day of baseball in Boston.

Despite 6 strikeouts, Josh Beckett wasn't his usual October self.

Despite 6 strikeouts, Josh Beckett wasn't his usual October self.

Josh Beckett wasn’t his normal October self. He struggled with his command and location early on and while he showed flashes of brilliance, he just didn’t have it tonight. He went 5 innings, allowing 4 runs on 9 hits and 4 walks while fanning 6 on 106 pitches.

Despite Lopez giving up the winning run, the Red Sox bullpen was outstanding. Actually both bullpens were great. Manny Delcarmen went 1 2/3 innings, allowing a hit and had strikeout while Hideki Okajima allowed a hit in his inning of work. Justin Masterson gave up a hit and had a strikeout in his 1 1/3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon gave the Red Sox 2 innings out of the pen, allowing 1 hit and a walk while striking out 3.  Lopez went an inning, giving up 3 hits and a run while striking out 1.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Youk led the Red Sox offense with 2 hits each. Ellsbury knocked in 3 runs and Youk had the other RBI. Big Papi was 0-for-3 but was walked 3 times. Jed Lowrie, Jason Varitek and Coco Crisp had the other hits for the Red Sox. Coco added a stolen base as well.

Chone Figgins took the first pitch he saw from Beckett and laced a ground rule double down the right field line. Beckett came back to strike out Garrett Anderson and Mark Teixeira but then issued a walk to Vladimir Guerrero. Torii Hunter followed with an infield single to load up the bases. Beckett then forced in a run as he walked Juan Rivera to put the Halos up 1-0. The inning ended as Napoli grounded into a fielder’s choice.

The Red Sox went quietly in the bottom half of the 1st with only Dustin Pedroia reaching when he was hit by a Joe Saunders pitch.

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Patriots Win On The Road, Beat Niners 30-21

Randy Moss points to the fans after hauling in a 66-yard TD pass in the first quarter. Getty Photo.

The Result
Last year I told you in the second week that the team was something special.  This year the team is going to be harder to pin down on exactly who and what they are.  Basically in a nutshell they won a game on the road they should have won, which is a good thing.  Big picture wise I still can’t make any type of declaration on this squad.  Some weeks they do certain things well and other things not so well, the next week things they did well they don’t do well and they improve on their weaknesses.

Rodney Harrison snagged one of three INTs on the day for the Patriots defense. It was the 36th of his career. Getty Photo. Two weeks ago they were awful on both sides of the ball.  This week there was improvement but this isn’t the Tom Brady Patriots that’s for sure.  They gave up a slew of sacks, five in all, some you can pin on the offensive line, some you can pin on Matt Cassel’s inexperience.  At times they ran the ball well, most of the game they seemed to do well in the passing game, that is when Cassel wasn’t on his back or running for his life.  On defense their pass coverage was porous at best as twice Isaac Bruce had TD’s with little or no opposing coverage.  They also gave up wide open pass plays out over the middle of the field much like they did against Miami only not to that extent.  But yet they picked off J.T. O’Sullivan three times but sacked him only once and this was against a team that had yielded 19 sacks in the first four weeks.

Special teams didn’t have their best performance especially in the punting department.  I’d really like to see a different punter as they just fail to execute when they need to.

But don’t get me wrong it wasn’t all gloom and doom and it shouldn’t be as Cassel did open up a bit throwing a long 66-yard TD pass to Randy Moss and tried to go long another time to Moss but got picked when  he underthrew the ball.  Wes Welker as well as Kevin Faulk and Sammy Morris all had good games as well and you can even throw Jabar Gaffney in that category.

They also dominated the time of possession just shy of 2:1 by having the ball a whopping 39:52 of the 60:00 minutes.  They had more than twice as many first downs (25 to 12) and nearly twice as many total yards (377 to 199).

I saw some good things today and now they need to build on that, also a win is a win so they’re 3-1 and off to San Diego to face the Chargers next Sunday.

Scoring Plays

PATRIOTS 7 10 7 6 30
49ERS 14 0 0 7 21

1st Quarter

  • SF – O’Sullivan 15 yard TD pass to Gore – Nedney PAT
  • NE – Cassel 66 yard TD pass to Moss – Gostkowski PAT
  • SF – O’Sullivan 7 yard TD pass to Bruce – Nedney PAT

2nd Quarter

  • NE – Gostkowski 35 yard FG
  • NE – Faulk 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT

3rd Quarter

  • NE – Faulk 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT

4th Quarter

  • NE – Gostkowski 40 yard FG
  • SF – O’Sullivan 5 yard TD pass to Bruce – Nedney PAT
  • NE – Gostkowski 49 yard FG

Offensive Player of the Game

New England WR Randy Moss had 5 catches for 111 yards and 1 TD.

Niners LB Patrick Willis notches one of the five San Francisco sacks on the day. Getty Photo. Defensive Player of the Game

San Francisco LB Patrick Willis had 18 tackles (14 of them solo) and 1 sack.

Turning Point(s) of the Game

  1. Bill Belichick challenging the spot of the ball for a better measurement that resulted in a first down late in the game instead of 3rd and inches.
  2. Matt Cassel throws to Jabar Gaffney for 14 yards on 3rd and 20 to get Stephen Gostkowski in range for 49 yard FGA.
  3. Deltha O’Neal’s interception in final minutes off of Rodney Harrison deflection of a J.T. O’Sullivan pass.

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Red Sox vs Angels ALDS Game 3 Notes & Lineups

Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ALDS

Tonight the Boston Red Sox look to head to the ALCS for the second straight season and ironically enough, the opponent once again is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This year though the situation is reversed in a way as the Red Sox will look to close out the Angels out in the friendly confines of Fenway Park.

With Josh Beckett getting scratched in the first game of the ALDS, Terry Francona moved up Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka to start the first two games. It couldn’t have worked out any better for Francona and the Red Sox as they now have their ace going with the chance to move forward in the playoffs.

October is the month where Beckett shines. In his postseason career, he is 6-2 with a 1.73 ERA in 10 appearances (9 starts, 1 relief). His ERA in 2 League Division series appearances, 1 with Florida and 1 with Boston, is a minuscule .56. In the postseason last year for the Red Sox, Beckett was 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA. And opponents are hitting just .159 against him in the postseason. He has a rough going of things this season against the Angels as he is 0-2 with a 7.43 ERA in 2 starts. In his regular season career against the Angels, he is 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA and is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in the postseason in 1 start (2007 ALDS).

Mike Scioscia will put the Angels fate on the left arm of Joe Saunders. He will be making his first career postseason start as he didn’t appear in last year’s ALDS against the Red Sox. He has had great success against the Red Sox in his career as he is 4-0 with a 2.89 ERA in 6 starts. In 2008 against the Red Sox, Saunders went 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in 3 starts.

Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe looks at the Red Sox in the closing games of a playoff series since 2004.

Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe has a video preview tonight’s Game 3.

As expected, J.D. Drew is getting the night off and Coco Crisp will start in center. Drew will be available to pinch-hit.

Dustin Pedroia isn’t concerned about his slow start to the playoffs.

Don’t write off Manny Delcarmen in this series.

Mike Scioscia says the Angels will not be eliminated tonight.

The ProJo SoxBlog has the full transcripts of the press conferences of Terry Francona and Mike Scioscia.

The ProJo SoxBlog also has some pregame photos.

While this isn’t Red Sox related, it is pretty dang funny. An October-rest for the Yankees. Thanks to Danielle for the link.

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Patriots Tailgating Tidbits – Week 5

WR Randy Moss speaks with reporters. Patriots.com photo

With kickoff only being a short time away it’s time to get ready for some football for another week.  I am so glad the team had an early bye this year as I’d rather miss a game while baseball is still going on than late in the season like last year and end up lost with nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon like you do in February and March.

In case you missed it here is the official Sox & Dawgs Week 5 Patriots-49ers Game Preview.  It has all your game information, including the rosters for both teams, injury report, odds, a look at the past history between the clubs and all the broadcast information for radio and television.

New England WR Randy Moss met with the media on Wednesday in front of his locker.  It’s not something Moss has done a lot of in his time in Foxboro so when he does speak he draws a crowd.  He touched on being a team captain, going back to the Bay Area, Matt Cassel and was even asked what he thought of Al Davis’ comments about the Patriots tampering with him. 

Did you know the Patriots are 8-0 since 2003 after suffering a loss of 10 points or more?

And that in the same period they have only lost back-to-back games once and that was in Week 9 and Week 10 of the 2006 season when they lost consecutive home games to Indianpolis and the New York Jets.

The Patriots are undefeated in their last nine road games dating back to the 2006 AFC Championship Game loss to Indianapolis.  They are 12-1 on the road (including playoffs) since their last regular season road loss to Miami in Week 14 of 2006.

WR Wes Welker practiced Friday before the team left for San Francisco after being limited on Thursday with a groin injury.

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Brad Ausmus: Beyond The Glory

With Connecticut native Brad Ausmus ending his Houston Astros playing days (he does hope to play for a west coast team next year), the Astros gave him a humorous yet appropriate sendoff as they made fun of some moments during his career as well as his love of surfing.

Tina Fey Mocks Sarah Palin Again on SNL

While Sarah Palin didn’t screw up during Thursday’s Vice Presidential Debate, the comedic geniuses at Saturday Night Live found a way to make fun of Palin along with Senator Joe Biden and host Gwen Ifill.

Tina Fey once again returned to play Palin while Jason Sudeikis portrayed Biden. The role of Ifill was played by none other then Queen Latifah.

Here is the opening skit from the episode of Saturday Night Live that aired last night, October 4th.

Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 10/5

Paw Prints Daily Roundup

Yesterday was game day for the UConn Huskies football team and today is let’s forgot about what happened day. If only it was that simple.

Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register has his postgame notes while Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post has his UConn football notebook. John Silver of the Journal Inquirer has his postgame notes as well.

Ostrout also has his report card for last night’s game while Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant looks at what went right and wrong for the Huskies last night.

WTIC-1080 AM has a podcast of yesterday’s loss to North Carolina. It includes comments from Randy Edsall and Darius Butler along with highlights of the game.

The Huskies made a mess of things last night.

The mistakes UConn made were costly in the loss.

UConn had it’s bubble burst against the Tar Heels last night.

Bruce Carter held his own block party against the Huskies last night.

The Tar Heels did more on defense this week.

Dave Solomon of the New Haven Register says UConn made the right decision in expelling Nate Miles.

David Gillett ponders what path Nate Miles will take next.

A.J. Price is healthy and ready for more this season.

UConn women’s head coach Geno Auriemma will continue to push Tina Charles this season.

Boston Red Sox ALDS News & Notes – 10/5

Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ALDS

After an off day on Saturday, the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will get set to do battle tonight as the Angels will be fighting for their postseason life. Things haven’t gone their way and if you’re a Red Sox fan, things are looking pretty good with Josh Beckett on the bump tonight.

“I think first we hope he’s healthy, but second it’s a great opportunity to have basically the guy we would have hoped to throw Game 1 throw Game 3,” Mike Lowell said. “There’s no better way to script it than to finish off the series with him on the mound.”

The Red Sox have owned the Angels in the postseason having won a MLB-record 11 straight postseason games. But the Angels don’t look like a team that has won a 100 games and could be sent packing by the Red Sox for the second straight year.

J.D. Drew could get the night off with the lefty Joe Saunders out there for the Angels but one thing’s for sure, Drew’s been clutch in the postseason for the Red Sox. If he does sit, expect Coco Crisp to play center and for Jacoby Ellsbury to move over to right field.

Angels skipper Mike Scioscia plans to make some changes at the bottom of his lineup as they have struggled throughout the series.

Kevin Youkilis is a special player for the Red Sox due to his versatility to be able play either corner infield position.

One LA writer says that the Angels fans should be worried about tonight’s game while Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal tells the Angels it’s over.

Dustin Pedroia isn’t worried about his 0-for in the postseason so far as he says “It’s all about winning now.”

Howie Kendrick has failed in the clutch for the Angels this postseason.

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 papers are saying you can check out the LA Times, Orange County Register and LA Daily News websites.