McCain is not happy: Diamondbacks lose their 12th straight road game

There is still one more day before people start paying attention to the Red Sox, or maybe a few more weeks if you count the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but they're playing well at the moment.

Boston (39-28) beat Arizona (26-40) 6-2 last night at Fenway, handing the Diamondbacks their franchise record 12th straight loss.

Jon Lester (8-2) won his eight consecutive start. Since losing his first two games of the season, he's 8-0 with a 2.01 ERA. He went seven innings, giving up two earned runs on four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.

Dustin Pedroia (2 runs, 2 hits, steal) has been heating up and he continued to swing the bat well, notching a two-run homer in the first which scored Marco Scutaro (2 hits).

Justin Upton (2 hits) tied it up with a two-run bomb of his own in the second inning but you knew it wouldn't hold with Rodrigo Lopez (2-6) on the mound for Arizona.

He went seven innings but gave up six earned runs on 10 hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

J.D. Drew had an RBI double in the third (scoring Pedroia) and the next batter, Adrian Beltre (2 hits), drove in David Ortiz with an infield single.

Finally, Kevin Youkilis crushed a two-run homer in the seventh off Lopez which scored Ortiz.

Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless eighth and Ramon Ramirez started the ninth with the 6-2 lead. He got two outs but after throwing only 10 of 19 pitches for strikes, he allowed a hit and walk which made Jonathan Papelbon come in for one out.

Paps got the out and his 15th save.

Boston goes for the sweep with John Lackey taking on ace Dan Haren, an hour earlier (6:10 start to accommodate the NBA Finals). Haren has a 7-4 record and 4.61 ERA so he hasn't been up to his usual level but he can always spin a gem.

Lakers stomp Celtics, force Game 7

Conventional wisdom was that the Lakers would win Game 6 back at the Staples Center and make the 2010 NBA Finals go the full seven games like David Stern and his lackeys want.

Still, nobody could have expected the complete no show from the Celtics as they scored the second lowest total in Finals history in a 89-67 loss.

Making matters worse, Boston center Kendrick Perkins left early with what looked like a fairly serious knee injury. He's getting an MRI today but even if he suits up for tomorrow night, he'll be no better than Andrew Bynum (2 points, 4 rebounds in 16 minutes).

Kobe Bryant led the way with 26 points, 11 rebounds and four steals. Pau Gasol almost had a triple-double with 17 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Even Ron Artest was hitting 3-pointers (two) on his way to 15 points and six rebounds.

It didn't take long to realize this wasn't the Celtics' night. Between Artest hitting shots for once, Gasol running a fastbreak and finishing it and scrubs like Jordan Farmer, Sasha Vujacic (8 points) and Lamar Odom (8 points, 10 rebounds) making plays, well it wasn't meant to be.

Ray Allen was the only Celtic on offensively, he had 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Paul Pierce had 13 points, Kevin Garnett scored 12 and Rajon Rondo had 10.

LA was up 28-18 after the first quarter and 51-31 at the half, game over.

Game 7 is great for the NBA since this highly watched series will get one more monster rating. I honestly don't know what to expect; it should be close either way, hopefully the C's have one more good game left in them.

Wonder who Big Schill is rooting for?

With the Celtics and Lakers playing Game 7 on Thursday, it's guaranteed that nobody outside of Pink Hats and old people will pay attention to the Red Sox for at least two more days.

Boston (38-28) started off a three-game interleague series last night at Fenway with the Diamondbacks (26-39) and won 6-3 behind Clay Buchholz's (9-4) eight strikeouts.

Buchholz wasn't economical with his pitches, throwing 113 in 5.2 innings but he was mostly effective. He gave up three earned runs on seven hits with a walk.

Former Sox great Adam LaRoche gave Arizona the early 1-0 lead in the first with an RBI single which scored Stephen Drew (J.D.'s brother).

The Red Sox answered with two in the first on David Ortiz's two-run shot to right center. Dustin Pedroia (3 runs, 2 hits) had an RBI double in the third which scored Mike Cameron, Daniel Nava scored on Ian Kennedy's wild pitch and Pedroia came around on Victor Martinez's infield single.

Justin Upton cut it to 5-3 in the fourth with a two-run double but that's as close as the Diamondbacks would get. Kevin Youkilis added an RBI double in the fifth for Boston and some fine bullpen work drew the curtains on the game.

Kennedy (3-4) was knocked around for six earned runs on nine hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out six.

Hideki Okajima (2 outs), Manny Delcarmen (2 outs), Daniel Bard (1 inning) and Jonathan Papelbon (1 inning) only gave up one hit combined, no walks and two strikeouts. Papelbon got a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save.

Jon Lester faces former Oriole Rodrigo Lopez tonight.

Celtics withstand Kobe's 38 points, one win away from Banner 18

Throughout the 2008 NBA Finals and now the 2010 Finals, everyone has always waited with baited breath saying "well Kobe is going to go off in one of these games."

Last time I checked 38 points is a huge game but still the Celtics were able to pull off their second straight must-win, this time in Game 5 last night at the Garden, 92-86.

Boston takes a 3-2 lead back to the West Coast where they can close out the Lakers either tomorrow night in Game 6 or (fingers crossed) Thursday in Game 7.

It was a classic Kobe game-from one of the years the Lakers didn't win a title. He made ridiculous shots and was 13-of-27 from the floor but he had as many assists (4) as turnovers with five rebounds.

The only other Laker to score in double figures was Pau Gasol (12 points, 12 rebounds) but he's not nearly the threat he was early in the series with Andrew Bynum (6 points, 1 rebound) working on one leg.

After two stinkers in a row, Paul Pierce (the MVP of the 2008 Finals) was on with 27 points. The difference for the C's was it wasn't all about him. Kevin Garnett (18 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals) and Rajon Rondo (18 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds) were great. Ray Allen added 12 points.

This series is not over by any means, especially since the Lakers will host the next two games (if necessary) and you know the NBA wants this going seven.

Boston led 22-20 after the first quarter and 45-39 at the half. Even with Kobe dropping 19 in the third quarter, the C's outscored LA 28-26. The Lakers won the fourth 21-19 but it wasn't enough.

It's probably my bias but it seemed like the Celts made all the winning, hustle plays. None better than the inbounds from KG to Pierce who found Rondo for a ridiculous layup.

For the game Boston shot 56.3% to LA's 39.7%. Los Angeles made four 3-pointers and eight more free throws (17-9). Just like in Game 4, the Celtics had way more assists (21-12), 11 more fastbreak points (14-3) and 14 more points in the paint (46-32).

Oh right, our bench is better too

Another thing that the national media completely overlooked or ignored when forecasting the 2010 NBA Finals, was the fact that the Celtics' bench is about 10 times better than the Lakers.

Game 4, the biggest game of Boston's season, was all you needed to see for that to be proven for once and for all.

Glen Davis scored 18 points and Nate Robinson had 12 points off the bench as the energetic duo sparked Boston's bench (36-18) which doubled LA's output. The Celts won 96-89 in a game it had to win at the TD Garden.

Game 5 is Sunday night at the TD Garden, the final one there in the series.

Kobe Bryant had a game-high 33 points and six rebounds (with six 3-pointers) but seven turnovers proved how much he tried to take over single-handedly (sound familiar?) but couldn't do it against Boston's great team defense.

Pau Gasol added 21 points but without a healthy Andrew Bynum (2 points in 12 minutes), the Lakers are in Kenny Smith's words "the 2008 Lakers." And we all remember how that one ended.

Four of the five Celtics starters scored in double figures: Paul Pierce finally got untracked with 19 points with six rebounds and five assists, Kevin Garnett had 13 points, Ray Allen scored 12 and Rajon Rondo was held to 10 points.

Lamar Odom, off the bench, was the only other Laker in double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds. I like our chances if he gets even more minutes, him and Ron Artest (9 points, 7 rebounds) are completely useless.

Boston was up 19-16 after the first quarter but Los Angeles recovered to go up 45-42 at the half despite Garnett's buzzer beating jumper.

Again, the C's eeked out the third quarter (18-17) but the fourth, thanks to their bench, was one of the best of the first four games (36-27).

Its hard to quantify hustle sometimes but not in Game 4. LA made four more 3-pointers (7-3) but the Celts had eight more offensive rebounds (16-8) and rebounds (41-34). Boston also had more assists (15-13) and steals (12-6). Finally, they had 13 more fastbreak points (15-2) and twenty more points in the paint (54-34).

The teams know they're going back to the Staples Center for Game 6 but Boston needs to win Game 5 regardless. They can definitely win one more in LA but two more, down 3-2, would be a very tough task.

Sox choke away game in Cleveland

Up 5-0 and with Jon Lester on the mound, the Red Sox were in perfect position to take three out of four in Cleveland.

For some reason, Lester didn't have it (6 innings, 6 earned runs, 9 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts) and the Indians (23-36) won 8-7 on a walk-off two-run single by Russell Branyan.

Boston (35-27) had gone up 7-6 in the top of the ninth when Adrian Beltre (2 hits) crushed a two-run homer off Indians closer Kerry Wood. Yes, he's still alive, barely. J.D. Drew was hit by a pitch and he scored on the bomb to left center, Beltre's eighth homer of the season.

The Sox scored four runs in the first, on a Dustin Pedroia (2 hits) RBI single, Victor Martinez's sacrifice fly and two runs scored on a Andy Marte error. The former Sox prospect had three errors in the inning, tying a MLB record.

Martinez's RBI double in the second, which scored Marco Scutaro (2 hits, 2 runs), made it 5-0 and it looked like it would be a happy late-night flight back home for the Red Sox.

The Indians scored three in the third on Trevor Crowe's RBI double, Shin-Soo Choo's (2 hits) sacrifice fly and Austin Kearns' RBI single.

Cleveland went ahead for the first time with three more runs in the sixth on Marte's RBI single and a two-run single by Lou Marson.

With Jonathan Papelbon unavailable for one more day (on the bereavement list), closer in waiting Daniel Bard proved that he's not quite ready for primetime. He loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth before striking out one and getting a popout before Branyan came through with the bloop single to right just over Pedroia's glove.

Interleague play starts back up this weekend with the Philadelphia Phillies invading Fenway Park for three games. The Sox won two of three at Citizen's Bank Park a few weeks back.

Jamie Moyer, a former Sox pitcher, takes on John Lackey tonight.

Old friend completely shuts down Sox

If the Sox are going to lose, and in such one-sided fashion, it might as well be to a former teammate.

Justin Masterson was the main part of the trade to get Victor Martinez last summer and nobody can second-guess that lopsided deal. Still, Masterson was a likable young guy that was just started to find his way in the major leagues (see: 2007 playoffs).

Going to the wasteland that is the Cleveland Indians, he has not surprisingly fallen by the wayside and seen his career go off the tracks.

For one night, all that was forgotten as he pitched the best game of his career: a two-hit shutout, his first in MLB.

Cleveland (22-36) won 11-0 last night at Progressive Field as Masterson outdueled Clay Buchholz and the Indians tacked on eight runs in the eighth off Boof Bonser and Joe Nelson who would never be confused with Ramiro Mendoz and Mariano Rivera in their prime.

Buchholz (8-4) pitched decently: seven innings, three earned runs, three hits, four walks, one strikeout.

Boston (35-26) didn't have an answer for Masterson (2-5): two walks and six strikeouts.

The Indians got the three off Buchholz with a sacrifice fly by Jhonny Peralta in the first, a run that scored on a double play ball in the third and Peralta scored on a wild pitch in the fourth.

The shit truly hit the fan in the eighth as Bonser (4 earned runs, 2 hits, 2 walks) was miserable in his return to the big leagues. Nelson wasn't any better (1 inning, 4 earned runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, 1 strikeout) and he gave up a grand slam to Travis Hafner.

Order should be restored to the universe tonight as Jon Lester opposes Mitch Talbot, another talented lefty.