I have to apologize for not posting this last night but my the ac adapter on my laptop decided to die on me and I just got a new one. That means I will be playing catch up today.

Seven strong innings by Curt Schilling and a breakdown by Baltimore’s $42 million bullpen that allowed the Red Sox to score five unanswered runs was the difference as the Sox went on to defeat the O’s by a final score of 6-1.

The Sox got on the board first with a home run by Alex Cora. Miguel Tejada hit a home run to tie the game at 1 in the 6th inning. It was the 7th inning when things started to fall apart for the Orioles. Daniel Cabrera, who had pitched well to this point, walked Wily Mo Peña. Cora then sacrificed Peña to second base and then Cabrera got Julio Lugo on a fly out to right. He then proceeded to walk Kevin Youkilis. This ended the night for Cabrera.

Jaime Walker came into face Big Papi and allowed a single that scored Peña. Chad Bradford then relieved Walker and allowed a run scoring single to Manny Ramirez. He then walked J.D. Drew to load the bases. Mike Lowell came to the plate and was walked allowing the third running of the inning to score.

Jim Johnson came in for the 8th inning and retired the Sox in order. He got into trouble in the 9th inning though. Youk and Big Papi both singled, then Manny crushed one to deep center field that was caught by Corey Patterson but it allowed Youk to score from third base. Drew walked and then Mike Lowell hit a single to score the final run of the night.

Schilling was stellar during the game. He went 7 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 run. He struck out 3 and walked 2. Only one O’s batter besides Tejada got past 2nd base. Hideki “Darkman” Okajima continued his strong pitching by striking out 2 O’s batters in the 8th. Brendan Donnelly then finished off the O’s in the 9th.

Josh Beckett takes the hill for the Sox tonight as they try to complete the two game sweep of the O’s.

A reader, Austin, left me a comment to check out this site called Townie News. It is absolutely hysterical and has been added to the blogroll on the right. Here is Fitzy’s recap of the Sox-Yanks series. Very NSFW.

[revver 245822 nolink]

With Julian Tavarez struggling mightily on the mound right now, is it time for Jon Lester to return to the Red Sox. As I write this, he is currently getting prepared to make his first minor league start for the Pawtucket Red Sox (The game was just postponed). Tavarez has not been spectacular at all and is probably hurting the Red Sox. Lester has shown he is just about ready to return to Boston for good. Hopefully, his doctor’s visit tomorrow goes great and he remains cancer free.

Jason Varitek got a nice call from the Hall of Fame asking for his bat. The funny thing is that they only wanted his bat and not the any of the others from the historical four consecutive homers.

Hideki “Darkman” Okajima and Daisuke Matsuzaka received some special gifts from a Boston area school on Tuesday. They both received a Senbazuru (A similar Senbazuru is pictured on the right of this post). A Senbazuru “is a colorful display that is made of 1,000 paper cranes that are tied together. They are used in Japan for several purposes, one of which is to wish sports teams well.”

“Daisuke and I feel a responsibility to do well for these students who spent so much time making these.”

Since the Sox don’t have space to display them in the dugout, Okajima plans to take his home. No word on where Matsuzaka plans to put his.

I think the impact they are having is a great one for the Red Sox. Red Sox Nation is already big but what these two have done is make fans out of people who may not normally root for the Red Sox. And we welcome them all with big open arms to RSN.

I know it’s only April and there were better things than watching the Red Sox on TV last night, but if you caught the game I feel for you. You saw the Red Sox make four errors and not play like the team we saw this weekend against the Yankees. Julian Tavarez was as bad as the defense around behind him.

Behind four hits by Vernon Wells and some solid pitching by Doc Halladay, the Blue Jays thrashed the Red Sox by a final score of 10-3. Wells got it going for the Jays in the first when he crushed a ball over the Green Monster. The Sox got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on a Big Papi single that scored Julio Lugo from third base.

The Blue Jays went ahead for good in the 3rd inning when they put up a three spot on the board. Alex Rios singled, Adam Lind walked, then Wells singled to load the bases. Frank Thomas then hit 2 run double to make it 3-1. Wells then scored when Eric Hinske made an error on a ground ball from Lyle Overbay.

After that it was pretty ugly for the Sox. Tavarez was just brutal. He threw 4 2/3 innings, gave up 7 hits, and 6 runs. He only walked one batter and struck out 2 Jays. His counterpart was much better. Halladay threw 8 innings, gave up 5 hits and 3 runs. He didn’t walk anyone and he struck out 10 Sox batters, three of which were by the Captain, Jason Varitek.

The Sox will now rest their hopes behind the arm of 38pitches.com as they look to put an end to this 2 game skid in Baltimore. The Orioles also come into the game having lost their past two games. So needless to say after tomorrow night’s game, a Red Sox or an Orioles fan will be happy because one of them has to win. We all know it will be the Sox.

According to the Andy Katz over at ESPN.com, Hasheem Thabeet will be spending another year at UCONN wearing the National Flag blue and white. The official announcement should come as late as Thursday from the UCONN athletic department.

Coach Jim Calhoun has been pleased so far by what Thabeet has done in the off-season so far.

“He’s gotten better since the season ended,” Calhoun said. “He can now score three or four baskets in a row in a pickup game. He wasn’t an offensive factor for us but he should be next year and his rebounding will increase too. He can score points. He has a good touch. He is one player who needed to play pickup games.”

The reason it’s taken so long for a decision to be made is because of the financial situation of his family. Being from Tanzania, his family isn’t exactly rich. While he would probably be taken as a lottery pick due to his potential, he is better off spending another year at UCONN getting bigger and better. To me after watching him get pushed around in the last regular season game by the boys at Georgetown, he’d be better of honing his skills under the tutelage of Calhoun. I am sure that there will be some sort of insurance policy taken out in case he gets injured.

Calhoun also stated that one more player may leave the team because of his academics. He wouldn’t name the player and I’m not going to speculate.

[The link is to an Insider article at ESPN. You have to have access to read it. Or you can get it right here.]

What is it with collegiate athletes and not avoiding the law? You would have to think that they are aware they are a little more in the public eye and would be smart enough to stay out of trouble.

According to a press release issued by the University of Connecticut, WR Brandon McLean was given a 3 game suspension for the 2007 season after being arrested two times last week. He is also prohibited from participating in any football related activities until May 29th at the earliest.

He was first arrested last week (Wednesday) during a domestic dispute on campus. He had been asked “to leave a dorm room and refused to do so.” He was then arrested again on Saturday night during spring weekend at UCONN on breach of peace charges for his role in an altercation outside the UCONN Police Department.

I have said this before and I am sure it will happen again. He will go to court and ask for accelerated rehabilitation just like every other collegiate athlete does at UCONN when they get into trouble. I think it’s time for a judge to refuse this and let him face the charges like any other person would have to. It’s time to make a statement.