Back on Saturday, UCONN football head coach Randy Edsall said there was no timetable as to naming a starting quarterback for this season.

“If there’s a time when we can make a decision, we’ll make a decision,” Edsall said Saturday. “Whether that’s next week or it’s the week before [the first game] or whatever, that’s when it will be. There’s no hurry to it. There’s a lot of evaluation that has to take place and I want to make sure that we’re giving it the justice that it deserves.”

Well on Tuesday, Edsall named JUCO transfer Tyler Lorenzen his starting QB.

“We have decided to name Tyler as our starter for the 2007 season,” Edsall said. “We feel that it was a good competition between Tyler and Dennis but that Tyler has clearly solidified himself as the number one quarterback at this point. Dennis will be a more than capable backup. I am confident in his abilities. I know that he will be a solid number two and will give us a great performance if needs be. I feel like it is time to go forward from here with Tyler as the number one and have the whole offensive unit working together.”

I guess a lot of evaluation happened in three days. Should be interesting to see how the Huskies do with a lefty quarterback. Hopefully we can get to 7 wins and be bowl eligible.

The Red Sox got just what they needed last night. A big W. Tim Wakefield continued with his mastery of the Devil Rays last night throwing 6 no-hit innings before finally allowing a hit to Carl Crawford in the 7th. Jonathan Papelbon came in for Wake in the 9th and finished off the game. The win for Wakefield gave him a decision in all of his starts this season. Jon Lester will make his first Fenway start tonight since last season but before he does, let’s take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Tampa area media.

Pitching machine [Boston Globe]

Wakefield Holds Rays Under His Spell Again [Tampa Tribune]

Wake, Sox right at home: Devil Rays arrive at a good time. [Boston Herald]

A nightmare greets sleep-deprived Rays [St. Petersburg Times]

Calming Influence [Hartford Courant]

Wake makes waste of Rays [Pro Jo]

Kazmir Rolling Since Break [Tampa Tribune]

Coast-to-coast bashing [Boston Globe]

Everything’s clicking for Kazmir [St. Petersburg Times]

Lester looks forward to return to Fenway mound [Boston Herald]

No Panic Button Yet [Hartford Courant]

Rays still having devil of a time hitting Wakefield [Pro Jo]

Crisp in sick bay: CF sits, waits for test results [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune websites.

 

There has certainly been nothing wrong with the Boston starting pitching the last four games. After brilliant efforts in Baltimore by mound mates, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling, tonight was Tim Wakefield’s turn against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Fenway Park. Wakefield (14-10) was masterful all night as he pitched 8 shut out innings allowing only two hits, two walks, while striking out 6 to lead the Red Sox to a 3-0 win.

With Devil Ray slayer Wakefield on the mound it was the perfect night to jump out to a lead and that the Red Sox did. Julio Lugo got things started when he lined a 3-2 pitch up the middle and off the shoulder or upper right arm of Tampa starter James Shields. The ball deflected into shallow rightfield for a single. After a few warm up tosses Shields stayed in the game as able to get Kevin Youkilis to fly out to right for the first out. David Ortiz gave the home town team a 1-0 lead when he crushed a ball to dead centerfield that hit high off the wall at the 420-foot mark for a double. B.J. Upton made a nice bare handed stab on the ball off the wall and the Rays executed a great relay and would have had Lugo at the plate by a lot if Dioner Navarro held onto the ball. Manny Ramirez grounded out to Brendan Harris at short moving Ortiz to third but J.D. Drew would ground out to Carlos Pena with Shields covering to end the inning.

Wakefield, who is 18-2 all-time against Tampa Bay, started out really strong against the Rays reeling in the first nine-in-a-row before he issued a lead off walk to Akinori Iwamura in the fourth. Wake worked around that walk, getting a pair of fly outs and an unassisted ground out to Youkilis to end the fourth.

Heading into the fifth Wakefield had thrown 49 pitches 37 for strikes and through five innings he absolutely continued to kill the Rays. He had set down the last six Tampa hitters, one courtesy of a gold glove stop by Mike Lowell, on a Harris smash down the 3^rd base line for the second out of the fifth. Through five Wake was one batter over the minimum and retired 15 of 16 hitters.

Shields (9-8) battled too even though he allowed at least one hit through the first four innings he had given up only the one run. His change up was devastating and he had 5 whiffs through five innings with a few coming off of the change. He struck out 3 straight to end the fourth and start the fifth before Youkilis grounded out to short. He had set down the last five Sox hitters and it was the first inning he didn’t allow a hit.

After striking out Josh Wilson to start the sixth, Wakefield gave up his second free pass this one to Navarro and it ended a streak of 7 Rays retired in a row. But, Doug Mirabelli erased Navarro when he tried to steal with Iwamura at bat. Iwamura would then fly out to Drew in center to end the sixth as Wakefield had retired 17 of 19 hitters he has faced.

Into the bottom of the sixth inning this officially became a pitchers duel. Shields and Ortiz battled in a 12-pitch at bat to lead off the sixth with Shields eventually getting the best of Ortiz as he flew out to Delmon Young in right. Ramirez then smoked a ball right at Harris at short for the second out and as Shields looked like he might be starting to tire Drew grounded out to Pena with the pitcher covering. It was the 8^th consecutive Sox hitter Shields retired.

Carl Crawford, who hits Wakefield the best, broke up the no-hitter to lead off the 7^th with a clean single to rightfield. Crawford then stole second, his 38^th of the year, and seemed to have turned his ankle a bit on the slide into second but he stayed in the game. A very alert Wakefield, along with Alex Cora, almost picked Crawford off when he wandered off the bag ala Manny with his head down. Upton flew out to Ramirez for the first out, Pena flew out to Drew in center and that moved Crawford to third with two outs. With Young at the dish, Mirabelli made a nice backhanded stop of a knuckleball to keep Crawford and the trying run at third. Wakefield then got his 6^th strikeout of the game to get Young ending the inning and leaving the tying run at third.

The Sox, looking to pad the lead, got into the Rays bullpen in the 7^th and after reliever Gary Glover got the first two hitters out Mirabelli ended the streak of 9-in-arow retired by Tampa pitchers with a walk. Eric Hinske followed with a free pass of his own to put two on with two out, Lugo followed with his third hit of the night, a single to center, that scored Mirabelli to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. Glover came back to whiff Youkilis to end the thought of any more runs.

Wakefield surrendered his second hit of the night in the second a one-out single by Jonny Gomes off the leftfield wall. But once again Wake was able to work out of it getting a pair of fly outs to end the 8^th. Wakefield left to a nice ovation as the fans knew he was done for the night and he would turn the game over to closer Jonathan Papelbon for the ninth.

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Starting safety Dahna Deleston almost wasn’t a part of the team this year. He became academically ineligible after the fall semester and was thrown out of school for his academic woes. After going to school in the spring on his own dime and also summer school, Deleston worked his way back into school.

“My first thought was that I had to get myself back,” he said. “I came back here and took some classes; I earned A’s and B’s in those. I took another summer class and I had to get a C+ in that to get back, and I ended up getting a B in that one.”

“He learned a lesson,” Edsall said. “It was a [mistake] that I hope he won’t make again. I think he’s grown up a lot through all of this. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to prove that it was important to him. He did that. We were always there for him. … He held up to his end and we held up to our end. Sometimes kids have to fail to move ahead. He had to fail a little bit to learn just how important his education and how important playing football was to him.”

Head Coach Randy Edsall wasn’t happy with the effort his team put forth during Saturday’s practice and even called out of the one of the defensive leaders, Dan Davis.

“One thing we try to do is that we don’t want it to get to the point where the coaches are the ones pointing it out to us,” Davis said. “We want to be able to police and govern ourselves before they get to us. One thing we have to try to do as captains and leaders is govern ourselves. The coaches shouldn’t have to tell us we’re not pulling our weight. It shouldn’t get to that point. That’s a wake-up call for us.

Edsall is also in no rush to make a decision as to who will be the starting quarterback for the season opener at Duke on September 1st. Dennis Brown, Tyler Lorenzen and Cody Endres are all competing for the job with Endres on the outside looking in.

“If there’s a time when we can make a decision, we’ll make a decision,” Edsall said Saturday. “Whether that’s next week or it’s the week before [the first game] or whatever, that’s when it will be. There’s no hurry to it. There’s a lot of evaluation that has to take place and I want to make sure that we’re giving it the justice that it deserves.”

It should be an interesting race as Brown has played in a few games already while Lorenzen comes in as much heralded JUCO transfer.

Anthony from the Oriole Post was kind enough to share these pictures of Sunday’s Red Sox vs Orioles game from Camden Yards.

Boston Red Sox va. Baltimore Orioles; August 12th, 2007 A big thanks to Anthony for sharing these with everyone.Also check out this post from Anthony as well. He has pictures of Baltimore turned into Red Sox Nation over the weekend.

 

Crushing blows [Boston Globe]

Millar, Tejada power O’s past Red Sox [Baltimore Sun]

O’s no! Gagne torched again [Pro Jo]

Millar’s Heroics Lift O’s [AP via Washington Post]

Gagne blown away [Boston Herald]

And On The 7th Fastball [Hartford Courant]

Mora, Trembley say team isn’t stealing signs [Baltimore Sun]

Clay’s on way? Buchholz may start on Friday [Boston Herald]

Cowboy up to challenge [Boston Globe]

Batters should also take a hit for this one [Pro Jo]

Effective Schilling Encouraged [Hartford Courant]

Dustin roarin’ rookie [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun, and Washington Post websites.