A Bard Blowup...The Latest On Ellsbury

Bad news on two fronts for the Boston Red Sox. Let's start with Thursday night's game in Cleveland. Jon Lester looked great for the first two innings but after that it was highly evident he was way off his game. Here he is...

“That was probably the best I felt all year and I just overthrew some balls, didn’t locate within the zone. They didn’t square a lot of balls up, but I’ve got to do a better job. I gave up six runs, had an early 5-0 lead, didn’t get the job done.”

He's right but his team came back twice and scored two runs in the top of the 9th to go ahead 7-6. But then everything fell to pieces. Bigtime. Daniel Bard, pitching in Jonathon Papelbon's place (he'll be activated today), was wild and ended up with the bases loaded. After two great outs, Cleveland's Russell Branyan blooped a winning two run single JUST over the head of second baseman Pedey Pedroia and the Boston Red Sox left the playing field with their tails between their collective legs, losers by a score of 8-7. Here's Pedey...

"That’s a tough way to lose, but we did some good things. We’ll move on."

I've turned the page that second and reveled in the Celtic's magical mystery win over the Lakers to even the 7 game series at 2. Game 5, the last NBA game in Boston this season no matter what, will be Sunday night. Be there! ABC and ABC HD.

I have one more tidbit of bad, bad news. After Jacoby Ellsbury's latest complete examination, the doctors found out that he has a FIFTH broken rib. It's in a different region than his original four fractured ribs. My goodness! Here's Dr. Thomas Gill...

“Based on the location of new pain Jacoby was reporting, it was in a different area than the original pain. We believe that the new injury to the back of the ribs was sustained in Philadelphia. This one is similar to what he had in the front - a contusion and a small, non-displaced fracture.”

I remember his tumbling fall in the cheese-steak capitol of the world. It is said that we won't see him until the All Star break...or later. BOO. He's a very necessary part of Boston baseball.

So the team we love is right now back in Boston to start a 3 game series with those same tough Phillies. Here are the weekend pitching match-ups...

6/11/2010 Phi 7:10 PM ET CSN/NESN **Lackey (6-3) vs. Moyer (6-5)
6/12/2010 Phi 4:10 PM ET FOX** Matsuzaka (5-2 vs. ) vs. Blanton (1-4)
6/13/2010 Phi 1:35 PM ET TBS/NESN** Wakefield (2-4) vs. Hamels (5-5)

I woke up early on this Friday morning after a bad dream. It was in color, which is a rare occurence. It was very upsetting, too. I don't want to give anyone (except Nadia) any details but it involved a "death in my immediate family." That's why I started writing this post just after 5AM. I'm almost over that nightmare (just) and, thank goodness, I'm back in the real world with the sun just peeking its yellow big warm and beautiful eye over the eastern horizon. What a sight!!

Have a great day and an unbelievable upcoming weekend. You can click on this post's title for more about Thursday night's Boston Celtic basketball victory. Again, GO GREEN! As always, BE WELL.