The UConn Huskies defense took a little bit of a hit on Thursday as head coach Randy Edsall announced that senior linebacker/defensive end Greg Lloyd, Jr. will miss the 2010 season and will be redshirted. Edsall also stated that Lloyd will move to middle linebacker for the 2011 season.

Lloyd tore his ACL & MCL in UConn’s win over Syracuse on November 28, 2009. Edsall had said if Lloyd wasn’t going to be 100% for the season then he would be redshirted.

It makes sense to me. He came in and played as a true freshman and in college football you have five years to play four seasons. Obviously they feel it’s in his best interests to take the year off.

While it’s a blow up front to the Huskies, the defensive line and linebacking corp should be just fine this year. Lawrence Wilson, Scott Lutrus return to anchor the linebackers while Kendall Reyes and Twyon Martin will be two of the key players up front for the Huskies.

Lloyd is probably best remembered from last year when he had took off of the helmet of Notre Dame running back Armando Allen.

Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox 7:10 p.m. Fenway Park – Boston, MA SP: Josh Tomlin vs Daisuke Matsuzaka TV: NESN, MLB Network, MLB.tv Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 8/5 [SOX & Dawgs]

After learning they’ll be without the services of their first baseman Kevin Youkilis for the rest of the season, the Boston Red Sox will look to salvage a split of their four-game set with the Cleveland Indians tonight at Fenway Park.

This evening’s game will start at 7:10 p.m. and will be shown on NESN in the Red Sox television market. If you live in the Indians television market, you can catch the game on STO. And if you don’t live in either market, you’re in luck as tonight’s game will be broadcast on the MLB Network. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

After taking a no decision his last time toeing the rubber, Daisuke Matsuzaka will look to get back in the win column in his 16th start of the season. In his previous 15 outings, Dice-K is 7-3 with a 4.22 ERA. One of his wins this season is against the Indians, coming back on June 7th when he threw eight shutout innings in the 4-1 win by the Red Sox. Overall in his career, he’s made four starts against the Indians and is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA.

Josh Tomlin will just his third major league start and his first against the Red Sox. In his two previous outings, he is 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA.

Keep reading for lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and pregame links.

Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

Here’s how the hitters have fared against this evening’s starting pitchers in their careers:

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

Bowden throwing hitters for a curve [Clubhouse Insider]

Thumb surgery for Youkilis looms; Red Sox looking for lefty-hitting 1B [Clubhouse Insider]

Sox to work out Delgado [Clubhouse Insider]

Youkilis to have surgery, out for year [CSN New England]

Theo on losing Youkilis [ESPN Boston]

New York Yankees’ weekend series with Boston Red Sox could be very revealing [ESPN Boston]

Kevin Youkilis to have season-ending thumb surgery on Friday [ESPN Boston]

Is it next year yet? [Extra Bases]

MLB disciplines Red Sox, Indians [Extra Bases]

Welcome to the wonderful world of waivers [Extra Bases]

Surgery on Youkilis set for tomorrow [Extra Bases]

Pregame notes from Fenway [Extra Bases]

Nearly a Red Sox, LaPorta’s case a familiar one [Full Count]

Youkilis to undergo season-ending surgery [Full Count]

Ricciardi on The Big Show: Saltamacchia ‘a smart move’ [Full Count]

Ortiz on Youkilis: ‘A major hit’ [Full Count]

Ortiz Reaction to Youkilis Surgery [Hit and Run with Dan Roche]

Josh Beckett, Four Other Red Sox Players Fined for Bench-Clearing Incident Against Indians [NESN.com]

Kevin Youkilis Out for Remainder of 2010, Will Undergo Season-Ending Surgery Friday [NESN.com]

Dugouts and Batting Cages Flooded at Fenway During Rainstorm [NESN.com]

Youkilis need surgery, is lost for season [Projo Sox Blog]

Anderson not likely to get a call-up [Projo Sox Blog]

MLB doles out penalties to Indians, Red Sox [RedSox.com]

Red Sox lose Youkilis for rest of season [RedSox.com]

Photo credits: Reuters Pictures, Retuers Pictures

The grave has been dug and it’s up to the Boston Red Sox whether they want the rest of their season to be buried six feet under after the latest news involving the thumb of their first baseman Kevin Youkilis.

During his daily press briefing with the assembled media, skipper Terry Francona let them know that Youk will undergo season-ending surgery on his thumb on Friday. He had hurt the thumb in Monday’s loss to the Cleveland Indians.

“He’ll be immobilized for approximately six weeks and then be reevaluated from there,” Francona said. “I think Youkilis was pretty resolved to the fact that this was probably going to happen.”

With Youkilis one of the main catalysts of the Red Sox offense, this is a major blow. It’s not easy to replace someone hitting .307/.411/.564 with 19 home runs and 62 RBIs this late in the season. Even with Jacoby Ellsbury back from the disabled and the return of Dustin Pedroia in a few weeks, it may not be enough to overcome the loss of Youk in the Red Sox lineup.

And it couldn’t have come at worse time for the Red Sox with three games coming up against the New York Yankees who they are chasing in the AL East and AL wild card standings. Lose three in New York and the season is certainly over.

But the game of baseball is a funny game and you never know what can happen. Maybe the loss of Youk gives this team a little spark going forward. We can only hope that’s the case.

Photo credit: AP Photo

The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team will be spending the Thanksgiving week in Maui participating in the 2010 EA Sports Maui Invitational. The last time the Huskies were in Maui back in 2005, they won the tournament.

But if they are going to do that again in 2010, their road to another EA Sports Maui Invitational title won’t be easy.

This year they will join host Chaminade, the Kentucky Wildcats, Michigan State Spartans, Oklahoma Sooners, Virginia Cavaliers, Washington Huskies and the Wichita State Shockers.

The Huskies will open up the tournament with Wichita State in the first round on Monday, November 22 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. If the Huskies can win that game, they would advance to take on the winner of the Michigan State/Chaminade game on November 23rd.

Wichita State went 25-10 as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and went to the NIT Tournament where they lost to Nevada in the first round.

This should be a tough test for the Huskies while they enjoy their time in Maui.

To see the full bracket, head over to the Maui Invitational website.

Former UConn defensive end Lindsey Witten was hoping for a shot in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers but that dream came to an end on Wednesday as he was released by the club.

Witten was one of three players released by the Steelers to make room on their roster for two of their draft picks and the free agent signing of Flozell Adams.

The good news though for Witten is that he’s been added to the roster of the UFL’s Hartford Colonials according to Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant. Connor reports that Witten will report for training camp on August 16th.

Witten will join former Huskies Dahna Deleston, Andre Dixon, Keith Gray, Mike Hicks and Danny Lansanah on the Colonials roster.

Photo credit: Hartford Courant

According to a tweet from one of Lindsay Clubine’s friends, she and Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz are the proud parents of a baby girl, Colbi Dawn Buchholz. Colbi was born yesterday at 5:15 p.m. and weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz.

And as we learned over the weekend, Jon Lester and his wife Farrah gave birth to a baby boy named Hudson.

Congratulations to both families on the birth of their children.

As we learned yesterday, SNY was going to be partnering up with the UConn Huskies men’s basketball and football programs. And while the details have been released, a good portion of the state will still be in the dark.

One of my problems with the deal is that Cox Cable and Charter Communications don’t carry SNY. Comcast only carried SNY in parts of the state but as we’ve learned from the details of the deal, Comcast will be rolling out SNY to the rest of the state.

But where does that leave the folks who have Cox Cable and Charter as their cable tv providers. Well, it’s quite simple. We are out in the dark right now.

Unless something changes, we have very little choices.

We can switch to DirecTV or the Dish Network or even AT&T U-Verse. Or we can go to a friend’s house or a local watering hole to watch the games.

As I pointed out yesterday, even HuskyVision on the Storrs campus doesn’t offer SNY.

So while this deal may be good for the University of Connecticut and it’s athletic programs, right now it’s currently alienating a good portion of UConn fans. And that’s not a good thing.

A full look at the press release after the jump.

NEW YORK – SNY, the television home of the New York Mets, Jets and Big East Conference, in conjunction with The University of Connecticut today announced a comprehensive, multi-year partnership that makes SNY “the official television home of the UConn Huskies football and men’s basketball programs”. Beginning this September, SNY will annually feature 300 hours of UConn programming – including 120 hours of Huskies game coverage – with unprecedented access to UConn coaches and players. Additionally, SNY will significantly expand its UConn sports coverage throughout its sports news and entertainment programming, including its critically acclaimed SportsNite show – which airs Monday-Sunday at 10pm, 1am and throughout the morning. SNY will also create a UConn Huskies sports section on the network’s website – www.SNY.tv – which will feature original content, including video and a dedicated UConn Huskies blog.

As the exclusive TV home of UConn football, SNY is planning to air approximately five live games in 2010 – which will be wrapped by in-depth post-game shows – produced by SNY. In addition to the network’s live game coverage, SNY will carry the following UConn Huskies football programming:

• Comprehensive UConn Huskies Football Season Preview Show
• Randy Edsall’s Weekly Press Conference
• In-Depth Post-Game Shows
• UConn Huskies Season-in-Review/Bowl Preview Special
• UConn’s “Football Signing Day” Press Conference
• Re-airs of every UConn Huskies Football Game [subject to availability]
• Huskies Power Hour: A 60-minute cut-down version of that week’s game.
• SNY Spotlight with Head Coach Randy Edsall. SNY Spotlight is an exclusive signature series – created by SNY’s Original Entertainment Division – that features in-depth interviews with New York’s most influential leaders in sports and entertainment

When the college basketball season tips off, SNY’s all-access pass will feature at least 13 UConn Men’s basketball contests and a minimum of one Women’s basketball contest each season. In addition to the network’s live basketball games – and SNY’s expanded coverage throughout its sports news and entertainment programming – UConn fans will also receive the following SNY programming dedicated to the UConn basketball program:

• Comprehensive UConn Huskies Men’s basketball Season Preview Show
• In-Depth Pre-Game Shows Prior to Select SNY-Televised UConn Basketball Games
• UConn Huskies Season-in-Review Special
• Re-airs of Every UConn Huskies basketball Game Shown on SNY
• SNY Spotlight with Men’s Head Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun and Women’s Head Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma

“We’re excited to have this landmark partnership with the University of Connecticut, one of the preeminent schools in the Big East Conference and in the nation,” said Steve Raab, President of SNY. “SNY will provide UConn fans with an unprecedented level of in-depth coverage and original programming dedicated to the Huskies.”

“This comprehensive partnership with SNY will provide the University with a historic level of coverage dedicated to our athletics program, our coaches and student athletes,” said Jeff Hathaway, Director of Athletics for UConn. “Beyond the games, UConn fans will be able to enjoy many hours of additional and original programming produced by SNY about the Huskies. We’re excited that the official TV home of the Big East Conference is now the home of UConn football and Men’s basketball.”

On-air talent and additional programming details regarding SNY’s UConn football and basketball coverage will be announced at a later date.

In addition, Comcast plans to expand SNY carriage for its customers throughout the Nutmeg State, launching it before the first UConn football game in areas of the state serviced by Comcast where SNY hasn’t before been available, including the Middletown, Clinton, Groton, Norwich, Old Lyme and Vernon areas.

When the Boston Red Sox traded for Victor Martinez from the Cleveland Indians last year, they were reluctant to give up Justin Masterson in the deal. But in the business of baseball, you usually have to give up something good to get something good. The Red Sox even tried to reacquire him from the Indians before the non-waiver trade deadline this season.

And for the second time this season, we’ve seen why the Red Sox were hesitant to part with him.

The first time Masterson faced the Red Sox, he picked up his first complete game shutout. And last night at Fenway Park, he pitched five strong innings with the only run he allowed coming on a home run off the bat of David Ortiz. For Masterson, it was just his fourth win of the season with two of them coming against his former club.

For the fourth straight start, Jon Lester was on the losing end of the game for the first time in his career. He ended up having to leave the game with a hamstring cramp which was the by-product of the humidity in Boston last night as well as a lack of sleep from having a new baby in the house.

Even before the baby was born, Lester had been in a funk losing his last three starts before last night. This wasn’t the Lester we saw turn his bad month of April around into a great May and June which got him on to the American League All-Star team.

He didn’t help his own cause as his throwing error led to the Indians first run. He also had trouble locating his pitches later on that led to three Indians runs.

The defense wasn’t all that spectacular after Lester left as a Martinez error and a Marco Scutaro error led to five more runs.

While injuries may play a factor as to why the Red Sox don’t make the playoffs in 2010, it is really their inability to beat the bottom feeders as I said on Tuesday. They are now 15-15 against the likes of the Indians, Mariners, Orioles and Royals. That’s just not going to cut the mustard folks.

With 54 games left to go in the 2010 season, it’s slowly slipping away. The Red Sox find themselves trailing the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays by 6.5 games in the AL East and the wild card standings.

At this point, it’s going to take a miracle for the Red Sox to get to the postseason. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still rooting for them as I believe anything is possible but they need everything to start clicking on all cylinders now.

If not, we’ll be listening to the Yankees fans boast how our boys are on the golf course. And none of us wants that.

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

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

Thrown off stride [Boston Globe]

Ellsbury leads off — and defends [Boston Globe]

Masterson sure has mastered former team [Boston Globe]

Scutaro 2d in order, still a top contributor [Boston Globe]

Running start for Pedroia? [Boston Globe]

Sox recap: Jon Lester struggles in loss [Boston Herald]

Ups bring Red Sox down [Boston Herald]

Josh Beckett, John Lackey lead battle cry [Boston Herald]

Jacoby Ellsbury front, center [Boston Herald]

Ortiz: “We’re running out of time” [Clubhouse Insider]

Lester loses his fourth straight decision [CSN New England]

Ellsbury: ‘This place will always be home for me’ [CSN New England]

Notes: Red Sox not taking advantage [ESPN Boston]

Lester still not himself [ESPN Boston]

Not even Lester is immune [Extra Bases]

Closing Time: Indians 9, Red Sox 1 [Full Count]

Farrell: Lester is not hurting [Full Count]

Masterson-led Indians an unlikely thorn in Sox’ side [Full Count]

Red Sox Tried To Re-Acquire Justin Masterson [MLB Trade Rumors]

Does Kevin Youkilis’ Injury Signal New Curse for Red Sox? [NESN.com]

Report: AL Club Claims Jonathan Papelbon on Waivers, But Closer Unlikely to Leave Boston [NESN.com]

Yankees Fans Give Wardrobe Lesson to Red Sox Fans Heading to Yankee Stadium [NESN.com]

Frustrating Outing Adds to Jon Lester’s Second-Half Struggles [NESN.com]

New Baby, No Run Support Among Reasons for Jon Lester’s Second-Half Struggles [NESN.com]

Can Mike Lowell and Jacoby Ellsbury Make Up for Loss of Kevin Youkilis? [NESN.com]

Poor defense, lackluster pitching dooms Sox [Providence Journal]

Red Sox Journal: Ellsbury excited to be back [Providence Journal]

Pedroia’s next test comes Friday [RedSox.com]

Ellsbury returns, inserted in leadoff spot [RedSox.com]

Youk off to Cleveland for second opinion [RedSox.com]

Lester uncomfortable as Red Sox fall to Tribe [RedSox.com]

Red Sox Can’t Hit Mediocre Starting Pitchers, Leading to Must-Win Against Indians [Tom Caron – NESN.com]

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

And if you must read the enemy papers, check out the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

Photo credit: AP Photo