Clay Buchholz has had some tough-luck his last two times out having to face the other teams’ ace. Wednesday night at Rogers Centre was no different as he squared off with Toronto Blue Jays all-everything Roy Halladay.

Buchholz allowed one run over six innings of work while David Ortiz, Jason Bay and Victor Martinez homered as the Boston Red Sox went on to a 6-1 win in front of 25,925.

With the win, the Red Sox improve to 68-51 and will at the very least remain tied with the Texas Rangers for the wild card lead. At the time of this post, the Rangers were losing 5-4 in the 6th to Twins. The Jays falls to 55-63.

Buchholz continues to show improvement over each outing and on Wednesday night it was no different. He had life on his fastball and his changeup was once again nasty. He allowed the one run on 6 hits and a walk with 4 strikeouts.

The bullpen was solid behind him as Ramon Ramirez, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito allowed no hits over three innings. Ramirez had a walk and two strikeouts, Okajima had a strikeout and Saito struck out the side in the 9th.

Halladay wasn’t as effective on the mound as he’s been all season long. The Red Sox were able to get his pitch count up and force him out after 5 innings. He allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 8 hits and 2 walks with 7 strikeouts.

Josh Roenicke walked one in three innings while Brandon League allowed a run on 2 hits and 2 strikeouts. He also nailed Kevin Youkilis in the ribs with a pitch.

Besides their homers, Ortiz and V-Mart both had 2 hits on the night. Bay’s homer was of the 2-run variety and Alex Gonzalez also had 2 hits and an RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury had a triple and an RBI. Nick Green and J.D. Drew were the only members of the starting nine without hits.

The Red Sox will look for the sweep on Thursday night behind the left arm of Jon Lester. He’ll be opposed by rookie Brett Cecil.

As Boston Red Sox fans who enjoy watching the games on NESN, we’ve been through countless color analysts since Jerry Remy took time off to recover from his bout with cancer. Some of those replacements have been good, some have been awful.

But on Friday evening with the New York Yankees in town, the RemDawg will be back in the booth.

Per his post at Sawxheads:

I’m excited to announce that I will be back in the NESN booth again starting this Friday night. You think I would miss another series with the Yankees!?

I will be easing back into things so don’t be surprised if I am not on the road trips. That said, I am excited to be back in the booth with D.O. on Friday. I will bring Wally, his Adirondack chair and hopefully a little luck for the Sox.

While I think all of us will miss Dennis Eckersley in the booth, I think it’s safe to say that we will all be happy with the RemDawg back in the booth.

After a wild and crazy game last night at the Rogers Centre, the Boston Red Sox look to make it 2 in-a-row over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The game tonight will start at 7:07 PM EDT and will be televised in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Blue Jays television market, you can catch the game on SportsNet. If you don’t live in either market and want to watch the game, it will be on ESPN tonight. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Clay Buchholz looks for some run support tonight as he’s been a tough-luck loser his last two times out. Buchholz has made 6 starts in 2009 and is 1-3 with a 4.45 ERA. He faced the Blue Jays in his Red Sox 2009 debut and came away with the win after allowing one run in 5 2/3 innings. He’s made 4 appearances (3 starts) in his career against the Jays and is 1-2 with a 3.31 ERA. He’s made 3 career starts at Rogers Centre and is 1-2 with a 2.93 ERA.

Just about everyone thought the Red Sox wouldn’t see Roy Halladay in Jays uniform this season but we were all wrong. He’s made 23 starts this season and is 13-5 with a 2.65 ERA. He’s faced the Red Sox once this season getting the win after allowing one run in a complete game effort. He’s appeared in 38 games (35 starts) in his career against the Red Sox and is 13-12 with a 4.33 ERA. He’s faced them 20 times (17 starts) at Rogers Centre and is 8-4 with a 4.38 ERA.

For Ortiz, simple is best [Extra Bases]

Francona: Pedroia won’t play tonight [Extra Bases]

Tough draw [Extra Bases]

Smoltz signs with Cardinals [Extra Bases]

Farrell returns to Sox [Extra Bases]

Pedroia back tomorrow [Extra Bases]

Injury updates all around [Extra Bases]

Francona: Pedroia will not be back Wednesday [Full Count]

Victor or Varitek? [Full Count]

Byrd excited to face first real test tonight [Full Count]

Sox need Byrd to fly high [Full Count]

Pedroia remains in Boston with wife, new baby [Projo Sox Blog]

Varitek out again with stiff neck [Projo Sox Blog]

Onetime top prospect Kris Johnson demoted to Double-A Portland [Projo Sox Blog]

Dice-K to begin a string of rehab starts [Projo Sox Blog]

Wakefield will start for PawSox on Friday [Projo Sox Blog]

And here is how the hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers:

UConn Huskies men’s basketball senior guard Jerome Dyson and sophomore guard Kemba Walker have been named to the 2009-10 Preseason Wooden Award. They join 8 other pairs of teammates to be named to the list.

The only member of the list who was John R. Wooden All-American last season is Luke Harangody of Notre Dame (Is he like 50? Seems like he’s been at ND for 15 years).

2009-10 John R. Wooden Award
Preseason Top 50 List

• Solomon Alabi, 7-1, So., C, Florida State
• Cole Aldrich, 6-11, Jr., C, Kansas
• Al-Farouq Aminu, 6-9, So., F, Wake Forest
• Luke Babbit, 6-9, So., F, Nevada
• Talor Battle, 5-11, Jr., G, Penn State
• Trevor Booker, 6-7, Sr., F, Clemson
• Matt Bouldin, 6-5, Sr., G, Gonzaga
• Craig Brackins, 6-10, Jr., F, Iowa State
• Da’Sean Butler, 6-7, Sr., F, West Virginia
• Sherron Collins, 5-11, Sr., G, Kansas
• Ed Davis, 6-10, So., F, North Carolina
• Devan Downey, 5-9, Sr., G, South Carolina
• Jerome Dyson, 6-3, Sr., G, Connecticut
• Devin Ebanks, 6-9, So., F, West Virginia
• Corey Fisher, 6-1, Jr., G, Villanova
• Luke Harangody, 6-8, Sr., F, Notre Dame
• Manny Harris, 6-5, Jr., G, Michigan
• Gordon Hayward, 6-8, So., G/F, Butler
• Jeremy Hazell, 6-5, Jr., G, Seton Hall
• Robbie Hummel, 6-8, Jr., F, Purdue
• Damion James, 6-7, Sr., G/F, Texas
• Sylven Landesberg, 6-6, So., G, Virginia
• Gani Lawal, 6-9, Jr., F, Georgia Tech
• Kalin Lucas, 6-0, Jr., G, Michigan State
• Tasmin Mitchell, 6-7, Sr., F, Louisiana State
• Greg Monroe, 6-11, So., C, Georgetown
• E’Twaun Moore, 6-3, Jr., G, Purdue
• Raymar Morgan, 6-8, Sr., F, Michigan State
• A.J. Ogilvy, 6-11, Jr., C, Vanderbilt
• Patrick Patterson, 6-9, Jr., F, Kentucky
• Jerome Randle, 5-10, Sr., G, California
• Scottie Reynolds, 6-2, Jr., G, Villanova
• Samardo Samuels, 6-8, So., F, Louisville
• Larry Sanders, 6-11, Jr., F, VCU
• Jon Scheyer, 6-5, Sr., G, Duke
• DeShawn Sims, 6-8, Sr., F, Michigan
• Kyle Singler, 6-8, Jr., F, Duke
• Tyler Smith, 6-7, Sr., G/F, Tennessee
• Isaiah Thomas, 5-8, So., G, Washington
• Deon Thompson, 6-8, Sr., F, North Carolina
• J.T. Tiller, 6-3, Sr., G, Missouri
• Evan Turner, 6-7, Jr., G/F, Ohio State
• Jarvis Varnado, 6-9, Sr., F/C, Mississippi State
• Greivis Vasquez, 6-6, Sr., G, Maryland
• Deonta Vaughn, 6-1, Sr., G, Cincinnati
• Kemba Walker, 6-1, So., G, Connecticut
• Willie Warren, 6-4, So., G, Oklahoma
• Terrico White, 6-5, So., G, Mississippi
• Nic Wise, 5-10, Sr., G, Arizona
• Chris Wright, 6-8, Jr., F, Dayton

For the past two months, Josh Beckett has been totally dominant on the mound for the Boston Red Sox. You expected that trend to continue last night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Well Beckett was far from vintage Beckett last night as he really had no command of his pitches last night. We could argue the fact that this was the first time Victor Martinez caught him but sometimes pitchers just have those kind of nights.

Normally when you give Beckett the lead, he holds it. Last night, he had trouble doing that and eventually left the game trailing 7-6. Fortunately for Beckett, David Ortiz had a great game at the plate last night as he went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs, including a double and solo home run. Jason Bay also added a solo shot.

The Red Sox did bounce back off of the Blue Jays bullpen to take the lead. As we are too far accustomed to, Jonathan Papelbon made things interesting again last night as he allowed two runs to score in the 8th inning to cut the lead to 1. He was able to work around a hit in the 9th to finish off the game.

It was a much needed win for the Red Sox last night who came into the game finding themselves trailing the Texas Rangers by 1 game in the wild card standings. When they walked off the field, they found themselves back in a tie for the lead in the wild card standings. They still the New York Yankees by 7 games in the AL East.

It was great to see the Red Sox fight back last night. Maybe it was the return of Kevin Youkilis, maybe it wasn’t. But whatever it was, it was jsut nice to see the fight back in them. Maybe they’ve realized they just need to play good baseball and the wins will come.

Congratulations are in order for Dustin Pedroia and his wife Kelli, who gave birth yesterday to their first child, a son. Dylan Pedroia was welcomed to the world yesterday, weighing in at 7 lbs, 20 1/2 inches.

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UConn Football links

BC Or UMass In UConn’s Future? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Checking In Real Quick With Coach Hughes [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

WIll Backs Be Consistent? Can Difton Start? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

How Are The Tight Ends Fitting In? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Frazer firmly in control of UConn quarterback spot [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

BIG EAST Reaches Agreement With Champs Sports Bowl [BigEast.org]

UConn football notebook [Connecticut Post]

Easley has earned UConn scholarship, but he wants much more [Connecticut Post]

Husky Tracks: Looking Back And Ahead At UConn Football Practice [Hartford Courant]

UConn Defense Must Prove Itself [Hartford Courant]

UConn, Michigan agree to meet twice [Norwich Bulletin]

Champ Sports replaces Gator in Big East bowl lineup [Waterbury Republican-American]

Notebook: Rodriguez explains the decision to schedule Connecticut … [Michigan Daily]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Big shoes to fill [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

First-Ever ESPN WBB GameDay Set For UConn-Notre Dame BIG EAST Conference Matchup [BigEast.org]

Auriemma Excited About Olympic Roster [Hartford Courant]

UConn, Notre Dame slated for Primetime [New Haven Register]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

First Look: Doron Lamb [UConn Huskies Basketball]