Quicke Sports Chowdah Update For October 21st- Elvis Hasn't Left the Building Yet- Series Heads Back to Texas Tied 1-1; B's Offense Blows Leafs Away

Dilip Vishwanat- Getty Images

WORLD SERIES- And just like that, the Texas Rangers are back in this thing.

Two games into the 2010 World Series, I'm pleased to report there have been no blowouts so far. In Game one, the Cardinals broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single from pinch hitter Allen Craig in the bottom of the 6th- and that would be the final on Wednesday night.

Thursday was a slightly different story as the Cards Jaime Garcia went 7 shutout innings, striking out 7 while giving up all of three hits. Colby Lewis went 6 and ⅔ innings for the Rangers, but once again, Allen Craig got the Cards on the board in a pinch-hit situation- this time in the bottom of the 7th- to give the Cards the 1-0 lead. The way Garcia and the Cards bullpen was keeping the Rangers bats quiet, it looked like that lone tally would be enough.

However, Ian Kinsler would lead off the Rangers half of the inning with a single off Jason Motte. Then, in a move that was almost as predictable as Dave Roberts stealing 2nd off of Mariano Rivera in the top of the 9th of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, Ian Kinsler took off for second and slid in barely ahead of a throw from catcher Yadier Molina and tag by Rafael Furcal.

Elvis Andrus the followed that up with a single, that put Kinsler on 3rd and Andrus reached on 2nd thanks to a Pujols botching a cutoff throw from right field.

The Texas bats had been quiet for most of the World Series so far, but with runners on second and third with nobody out, outfielder Josh Hamilton stepped into the batter's box. Hamilton gave it a ride to right field for a long flyout, but deep enough to plate Kinsler to tie the game and advance Andrus to 3rd base. Next up in the batter's box was 1B Michael Young, who would also fly out to deep right, but still deep enough for Andrus to make it home and put Texas up by 2-1. Adrian Beltre would go onto ground out to end the inning.

Nefatli Feliz would take the mound in the bottom of the 9th and allow a leadoff walk to Yadier Molina before getting the next three batters out for the 2-1 win. So Texas rallies to bring the World Series back to Arlington tied 1-1 not because of the big bats of Hamilton or Cruz, but thanks to aggressive baserunning and small ball.

Game 3 will be played Saturday night in Arlington, TX with first pitch scheduled for 8:05 PM ET. Kyle Lohse (14-8; 3.39 ERA in the regular season) gets the start for the Cards while Matt Harrison (sporting eerily similar regular season stats of 14-9 with a 3.39 ERA) takes to the bump for the Rangers. The game will be televised on FOX.

RED SOX: Not too surprisingly, both players and front office personnel from the Red Sox deny the rumors of players drinking beer, playing video games and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse between innings during games. DH David Ortiz made some noise about joining the Yankees as a free agent, but seemed to walk back those comments in the last few days and expressed a preference for staying with Boston.

On Friday, the Oakalnd A's announced that former Red Sox pitching coach Curt Young was leaving Boston to join manager Bob Melvin.

Meanwhile, a deal that would see Epstein head off to the Cubs is still considered likely, but the proceedings have slowed down noticeably this week.

Elsa/Getty Images

BOSTON BRUINS: At long last, the Bruins offense was showing some signs of life, handing the Toronto Maple Leafs their first regulation loss of the season.

The Leafs had gotten off to a scalding 4-0-1 start on the regular season heading into Thursday night's game at the Garden. Meanwhile, this would be the Bruins first divisional matchup of the season after hosting the Carolina Hurricanes in a 4-1 loss on Tuesday.

Toronto would draw first blood with a Dave Steckel tally at the 7:29 mark in the first period, but that would be just about it for the Leafs. The Bruins would get two separate power play goals starting with Nathan Horton's game tying goal three minutes later (with assists from Chara and Ference) before Zdeno Chara's power play goal at the 16:05 mark (with assists from Andrew Ference and Tyler Seguin).

With just under 3 minutes to go in the 1st, Chris Kelly would put Boston up by a 3-1 score on what would turn out to be the game winner. After a scoreless 2nd period, the Bruins got plenty of insurance thanks to goals from Lucic, Bergeron and Seguin (all even-strength) before Toronto notched their second goal of the evening.

Boston moves to a game under .500 with this dramatic 6-2 win over the previously surging Leafs, making them undefeated (1-0) in matchups against teams in the Northeastern Division.

The 3-4-0 Bruins will next host a homecoming of sorts for Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks (1-3-0) at the Garden on Saturday at 7PM ET. The game will be televised on NESN.

Yet Another All Star Sports Chowdah Update: Wheeler and Dealing- Busy B's Snap Skid; BC Helps Themselves to Another Beanpot; Little Rhody's Home Plate

NHL: The Boston Bruins acquired defenseman Tomas Kaberle from Toronto on Thursday in exchange for prospect Joe Colborne and a pair of draft picks (1st round in 2011 and 2nd round in 2012). This comes around the same time Boston sent RW Blake Wheeler and defenseman Marc Stuart to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for C Rich Peverly and defenseman Boris Valabik.

On the ice, there was bound to be something of a letdown after that Montreal game last week- and that was evident when the Bruins went on a 3 game skid, getting swept in the home & away series against the Red Wings and losing to before beating the Islanders 6-3 at Nassau County Colosseum on Thursday night. Not a bad way to start off your 6-game, 2-nation road trip, right?


On Firday night, the B's travelled to the Canadian capital to take on the Mr Carrie Underwood-less Ottawa Senators, with somewhat predictable results. No Tim Thomas in net for the games against the Islanders and Senators- giving Tukka Rask back to back wins.

Bobby Butler got the Sens out to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd, but Boston came right back with four goals- 2 from Brad Marchand, one from Dennis Seidenberg and one from Nathan Horton to put them up for good and give them the 4-2 win over the struggling Sens on Friday.
The Bruins next game will be on Tuesday night, 9 PM ET against at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary against the Flames.

NCAA HOCKEY: Just like round one of the Beanpot, Boston College would ultimately prevail, but it would require OT to do so.

This was a wild one at the Garden on Monday night, with Northeastern tallying the game-tying goal with 1:46 to go in the 3rd to make it a 6-6 game. 6 minutes into the OT, BC's Jimmy Hayes scored to give the Eagles the 7-6 OT win, good for Boston College's 16th Beanpot title.

NBA: To hardly anybody's surprise, the C's easily handled the NJ Nets in their last game before the All Star break on Wednesday. Paul Pierce had an impressive 31 points in the 94-80 win over the Nets, leaving the Celtics and Miami Heat in a virtual tie headed into the All Star break.

Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen spent the weekend in Los Angeles for the 60th NBA All Star game (which the West downed the East by a final of 148-143). The rest of the team will make their way out for the West Coast in time for Tuesday night's game against the Golden State Warriors.

MLB: OK....so most of you I'm sure are no doubt looking around and can't help but feel that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

But fear not! Pitchers and catchers have reported to their respctive MLB training camps in Florida and Arizona, and with the rest of the team to follow, that can only mean Spring Training is around the corner!

There? See...that should put all those riots in the Middle East into perspective.

RED SOX: A Rhode Island state representative has submitted legislation that would authorize the Rhode Island DMV to issue Boston Red Sox liscence plates.

Representative Brian Kennedy (D- Hopkinton) has once again submitted legislation that would allow the liscense plates to bear the trademark Red Sox logo. Similar legislation was stalled in the RI State general assembly over concerns that the funds raised ($40 on top of the normal registration fees) were being directed out-of-state. However, in 2009 the General Assembly approved of special New England Patriots plates with the teams logo, with the proceeds going to Rhode Island chapters of charitable organizations like Meals on Wheels.

[hat tip: Providence Journal]

Sports Chowdah w/Sugar On Top- Sooners Pound Puppies; Cry TimberWolf!; Soggy Classic; B's Skid Stopped by Leafs; Pats Go (1st Round) Bye Bye

NCAA HOOPS: I blame myself- almost as soon as I pointed out UConn's record breaking performance in women's hoops, they lose on the road to the #8 ranked Stanford Cardinals by a 71-59 final last week. I blame myself for jinxing them and take full responsibility- my apologies.

Still, it will be interesting to see if any men's or women's team can come close to threatening the UConn Women's record and Stanford might end up usurping Tennessee as the lady Huskies main rival.


NCAA FOOTBALL: Let's face it- it simply hasn't been that good a week for UConn on the hardwood or gridiron. The men's hoops (currently ranked #8) lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday night.

But out in the desert on the first night of 2011, the UConn football team demonstrated that mammals were capable of oviparity when the Huskies went out and laid an egg against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl.

Three years after getting blown out by another Big East team (West Virginia) and four years after Boise State's shocking upset over the Sooners in the very same Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma started strong and finished strong against the UConn Huskies, taking a 20-10 lead into halftime.

Oklahoma got out the the early 14-0 lead when UConn CB Dwayne Gratz intercepted Sooners QB Landry Jones and returned it 46 yards for paydirt. Dave Teggart would follow that up with a 37 yard FG towards the end of the first half.

As tenacious as UConn was in the first half, they were pretty much completely absent (aside from a 95 yard kickoff return from Robbie Frey) in the second as the Sooners got two pick-6s from Huskies QB Zach Frasier for the 48-20 Sooners win.

Keep in mind that UConn still hasn't scored an offensive touchdown since the 4th quarter of their Nov 27th game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. So that didn't really bode well for a UConn team that made it to a BCS game on the basis of tie-breakers and Big East rivals screwing the proverbial pooch. While they no doubt had their moments, by and large UConn had this 'not-quite-ready-for-prime-time' feel to their lackluster performance in the Fiesta Bowl.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: As lacking as UConn's performance in the Fiesta Bowl might've been, imagine a whole conference faring worse than the Huskies did as a team on New Year's Day. You don't have to, since there was the Big Ten's woeful results from the various Bowl games on New Year's Day:

Ticket City Bowl:
Northwestern 38- Texas Tech 45

Outback Bowl:
Florida 37- Penn State 24

Capital One Bowl:
#15 Alabama 49- #7 Michigan State 7

Gator Bowl
#21 Mississippi State 52- Michigan 14

Rose Bowl
#4 Wisconsin 19- #3 Texas Christian 21

Actually, the Outback Bowl was a little closer than the score would indicate if not for a late Penn State drive that ended in an interception being run back for a TD with just over a minute remaining in the 4th. As you might suspect, the Rose Bowl actually made for some fine viewing even for those who didn't have a stake in the outcome. Still, that's 0-4 in one day for the Big 10.


ORANGE BOWL: The Orange Bowl on Monday night featured a matchup between #5 Stanford and #12 Virginia Tech amid speculation this could be head coach Jim Harbaugh's last game as a number of NFL teams expressed an interest in his services.

In the first half, things didn't quite seem to be going the Cardinals way, with a missed PAT by kicker Nate Whittaker (one of two missed on the night), a fluky play that would've resulted in a safety no matter what and Hokies QB Tyrod Taylor making an 11 yard TD pass when it looked for all the world like he was being chased backwards and out of bounds. Still, the Cardinals would head into the locker room at the half with a 13-12 lead after Virginia Tech got a FG with 7 seconds remaining in the half.

But that would be the last time the Hokies would find the end zone or uprights. Stanford would score 27 unanswered points to take down Virginia Tech by a final of 40-12.

SUGAR BOWL: Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a Big 10 sighting! The 2011 Sugar Bowl pitted #6 Ohio State against #8 Arkansas on Tuesday night, and the Buckeyes fared much better than the rest of the Big 10 on New Year's Day. Granted that's not saying much....

Although the Buckeyes got out to a pretty commanding 28-10 lead at halftime, the Razorbacks held them to just 3 points in the 2nd half as Arkansas clawed back to make it a 26-31 game in the 4th. After attempting to bleed the clock late in the 4th, the Buckeyes decided to punt on 4th and 3 from their own 38 yard line. However, the punt was blocked, giving the Razorbacks the ball with good field position and very little time.

The first pass attempt from Arkansas' Ryan Mallet was incomplete- the second was picked off and the Buckeyes absolutely dodged a bullet there. Ohio State hangs on to win by the final of 31-26.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: Here are some finals from what some would refer to as the 'lesser' Bowl games [not me, tho'- NANESB!] prior to New Year's Day:

December 30:
Music City Bowl:
North Carolina 30- Tennessee 27 (2 OT)

Holiday Bowl
#17 Nebraska 7- Washington 19

December 31:
Meineke Bowl
South Florida 31- Clemson 26

Sun Bowl
Notre Dame 33- Miami (FL) 17

Liberty Bowl
Central Florida 10- Georgia 6

Chick-Fil-A Bowl
#19 South Carolina 17- #23 Florida State 26

NFL: Not that much to report as far as the Pats are concerned. Some of the starters got some rest on Sunday's 38-7 rout of the Miami Dolphins in South Florida, sweeping the season series. This is the 8th straight win for New England and also the 8th straight game where they scored more than 30 points, finishing with a 14-2 regular season record.

Now all that's left is to wait and see who New England gets after Wild Card weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: Speaking of- here's the Wild Card weekend schedule:

Saturday- 1/8
New Orleans Saints @ Seattle Seahawks- 4:30 PM ET
NY Jets @ Indianapolis Colts- 8:00 PM ET

Sunday- 1/9
Baltimore Ravens @ Kansas City Chiefs- 1:00 PM ET
Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles- 4:30 PM ET

NBA: Well....while I was watching all this football, it seemed to escape my attention that Rajon Rondo is back. He had a fairly low-key return in Sunday night's 93-79 win over the Toronto Raptors with 8 assists, a rebound and 4 points (8? Maybe not that low-key, then).

Getty images

On Monday night's game at the Garden, they got some unexpectedly stiff competiton from the Minnesota Timberwolves as Kevin Love had 24 points for the visiting T'Wolves. After trailing at halftime 47-43, Paul Pierce scored 15 of his 23 points in the 3rd quarter to help close what was once a double-digit gap before the C's went ahead and held on to win by the final on 96-93.

Interestingly, the Celtics have never lost to the Timberwolves since the acquisition of Kevin Garnett in 2007 (KG is still on the disabled list however, and did not play against his former team).

The C's have a tough one coming up Wednesday night at the garden as they'll play host to the San Antionio Spurs as they come to Beantown with the NBA's best record.



NHL: After back-to-back shootout losses against Atlanta and Buffalo (where they at least got a point for their trouble) the Bruins went north of the border to take on the Maple Leafs.

Tim Thomas had the night off and the elusive Tukka Rask got the start between the pipes for the B's instead. Although Toronto got on the board first with a Mikhail Grabovski goal, Rask turned aside 36 shots on goal- many of them coming from former Bruins teammate Phil Kessel.

Nathaniel Horton and Marc Savard would score in the second to put the Bruins up for good by a final of 2-1, snapping their 2-game slide.

The B's will next take on the Minnesota Wild at the Garden on Thursday night, 7 PM ET.

Justin K. Aller/ Getty

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: The 2011 Winter Classic belatedly got underway Saturday night between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals amid intermittent rain showers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA.

The original start time of 1 PM Eastern was pushed back to 8 PM ET [might this be a sign of things to come for future Winter Classics? -NANESB!] in the hopes that the rain would clear by then. But it was a very wet Winter Classic indeed as the Penguins got out to a 1-0 lead on a Evgeni Malkin goal in the 2nd. However, the Caps would come right back with a power play goal from Mike Knuble and follow that one up with a tally from Caps RW Eric Fehr to take the 2-1 lead in the second. Fehr would provide Washington with some insurance in the 3rd with another tally to make it 3-1 Washington- the final score.

Washington's Semyon Varlamov turned aside 32 of the 33 shots he faced while Pens netminder Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 of 32 shots faced.

IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: Jeez- I had no idea that these were underway until Monday night when the Maple Leafs announcers were updating the score of the USA/Canada game.....which alas, the USA lost 4-1. This means that the host USA will play Sweden in the Bronze medal game on Wednesday afternoon while Canada will take on Russia in the Gold medal game at Buffalo's HSBC Arena on Wednesday night.

MLB: Free agent and former Red Sox and Mariners 3B Adrian Beltre and the Texas Rangers have reached a preliminary agreement on a six-year, $96 million contract pending a physical late on Tuesday.

Championship Chowdah To Go Update- Red Sox Go Gonzo; Huskies Go to a Fiesta; B's Go to Shootout; C's Go For 7 Straight; Colonial Goes for FCS Monopoly

MLB: The Padres and Red Sox Have agreed to a trade that would send San Diego's All Star 1st Baseman Adrian Gonzalez to Boston in exchange for prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes as well as a player to be named later. The two clubs are expected to formally announce the deal on Monday.

During the 2010 season, Gonzalez hit for a .298 BA and 31 homers in San Diego's pitcher-friendly PetCo Park. On the road, Gonzalez was batting .315 with 20 HR and .279 with 11 HR at San Diego. Defensively, Gonzalez won two Gold Gloves with the Padres.

The Red Sox are also reportedly working on extending Gonzalez's contract beyond 2011 due to the high-level prospects Boston is giving up as part of the trade. The first baseman was entering the final year of a 5 year $15 million contract with San Diego. Although no formal agreement to an extension had been reached with Gonzalez, his agent and the Red Sox had exchanged parameters and were hoping to work out a deal from there. There's also the matter of some minor surgery Gonzalez had on his shoulder this fall, but he is expected to be ready by Spring training, whether it's in the Grapefruit or Cactus League.

Boston had previously tried to acquire Gonzalez in the 2009 offseason, but instead signed Adrian Beltre from the Mariners. It was considered likely that the Padres would deal Gonzalez at the trade deadline in the middle of the 2010 season, but the team remained atop the NL East and were in need of his services for the whole year.

For those of you who remember back to the Beltre deal last winter and were somewhat alarmed by his .266 BA in 2009, supporters of the deal pointed out that Beltre spent at least half the season in a pitcher-friendly park such as Safeco.

Now....apply that same line of thinking to Gonzalez and his .298 average at cavernous PetCo Park. Or better yet, take a look at his spray chart for home games in San Diego.

Then take a look at his spray chart overlaid with Fenway Park's dimensions.

Umm...yeah. I'm just a little bit giddy right now.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The UConn Huskies managed to get by the South Florida Bulls on Saturday night to win their final regular season game of 2010 and be guaranteed the Big East's automatic BCS Bowl by virtue of their tie-breaker over West Virgina. The only touchdown UConn scored in the game came late in the 2nd period as LB Lawrence Wilson intercepted a pass from South Florida QB Bobby Eveld and ran it back 55 yards to paydirt. The pick 6 put UConn up 10-3 heading into the half.

Connecticut and South Florida traded field goals in the 3rd quarter, and while the 4th quarter opened up on a Dave Teggart FG for UConn to make it 16-6 the Bulls would come storming right back thanks to a 28 yard TD reception from Eveld to WR Dontavia Bogan and a game tying FG from the 22 off the leg of USF's Maikon Bonani to make it a 16-16 game with 1:19 left in the 4th.

After a good kickoff return that gave UConn starting position on their own 40, Huskies QB Zach Frasier was able to drive the ball as far as the USF 35 yard line, setting up Dave Teggart for his game-winning 52 yard FG with only 23 seconds left in regulation.

The win means that UConn will now face the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan 1st in Tempe, AZ. This will be UConn's first ever BCS appearence since transitioning from Division I-AA in 2002.

BIG 12: The #13 Nebraska Cornhuskers and #10 Oklahoma Sooners met in Arlington, TX for what would be the last time they'd match up as members of the Big 12- as well as the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday night.

The Sooners held on to win by a final of 23-20, guaranteeing them a berth in the BCS (against UConn, as it was revaled a day later). The Cornhuskers, meanwhile, would be joining the Big East conference at the start of the 2011 Football season.

ACC: No Boston College Football this week. Instead, the ACC Championship game took place on Saturday night at Charlotte, NC pitting #20 Florida State against #12 Virgina Tech. The Hokies won this one handily by a final of 44-33, giving them a berth in the Orange Bowl on January 3rd against the Stanford Cardinals.

Boston College did manage to secure a bowl bid and will be heading back out to AT&T Park in San Francisco just like last year for the Emerald Bowl- Except this year it's being called the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. and will take place the second weekend in January. The Boston College Eagles are expected to go up against the #14 Nevada Wolfpack. [I should have a comprehensive list of Bowls and matchups in the next couple of days- NANESB!]

COLONIAL/FCS: Although William & Mary Tribe finished the regular season atop the Colonial Athletic Association, their season is over now that they were upended by the Georgia Southern Eagles on Saturday by a final of 15-31.

That said, three of the remaining four teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision hail from the CAA and will play to advance to the FCS Finals in Frisco, TX on January 7th, 2011 [remember what I said about the Colonial Athletic Association last year?- NANESB!].

The Delaware Blue Hens, who finished 2nd in the CAA this season, took down Lehigh by a 42-20 final on Saturday while the Villanova Wildcats downed Stephen F Austin by a 54-24 margin.

The sole remaining New England team in the FCS is the New Hampshire Wildcats, who finished tied for 3rd with Villanova to end the regular season. They brought down Beth-Cook by a 45-20 final and will go on to face Delaware on Friday night, Dec 10th.

Defending FCS Champions Villanova will take on 3 time Champion Appalachian State on Saturday.


NHL: The Boston Bruins got out to the early lead on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, but the Maple Leafs rallied to tie the game with less than a mintue left in the 3rd period and force overtime and then a shootout. And if you really savor irony, it was former Bruin Phil Kessel who netted the game winner in the shootout.

Nathan Horton got the first goal of the game unassisted in the first period, although the Leafs would manage to tie it by the time the 1st intermission rolled around. Boston would take a 2-1 lead on a goal from Gregory Campbell early in the 3rd before Toronto rallies late in regulation to tie the game. Out of the three shooters for Boston in the shootout, only Tyler Seguin was able to get the puck past Jean-Sebastian Guigere while Nazem Kadri and Kessel both got the puck past Thomas in the shootout.

The win halts the Leaf's 4 game skid and is Boston's first loss in the last three games. Toronto wins by the final of 3-2, although Boston was able to get a single point before leaving Toronto. Thomas stopped 38 of 40 shots faced in regulation and OT while Guigere stopped 25 of 27 faced.
The Bruins head back to the Garden to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night at 7:30PM ET. The game is scheduled to be broadcast on Versus.

NBA: Seemingly in the blink of an eye, the Celtics have put together a pretty impressive 7 game winning streak. Game #6 of the current strak took place in Friday night with their 104-92 home win over the Chicago Bulls.

Sunday night, the C's made a fairly quick road trip to New Jersey and made pretty quick work of the Nets (Nate Robinson led scoring for the C's with 21 points) and cut New Jersey down by the curiously-divisible-by-25 margin of 100-75.

The next game for the C's will be at the Garden against Carmello Anthony and the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, with a tipoff at 7PM ET. ESPN is scheduled to be carrying the game that night.

Hearty San Francisco Sports Chowdah Update- Giant Gains By the Bay; Leafs Shut Out; Celtics Turn Down Heat; Ponder-ous Florida State Loss in Raliegh

I was flipping around between the World Series, the Bruins and the NC State/Florida State games last night, so instead of being able to tune in to all three games, it was more like trying to get caught up on all three games.

WORLD SERIES: And just like that, the San Francisco Giants are out to a 2-0 lead in the 2010 World Series. I'm not really surprised by that as much as I am the margin of San Francisco's victories.

They jumped all over Cliff Lee in Wednesday night's 11-7 win- the Ranger's starter didn't even make it through the 5th inning, getting yanked with two away after giving up an RBI double to Freddy Sanchez and RBI singles to Aubrey Huff and Cody Ross. It got even worse for the Ranger (who did lead 2-0 early in the game) when Darren O'Day came on and gave up a homerun to deep left off the bat of Juan Uribe to make it 8-2 by the time the 5th inning was finished. Despite that, the Rangers were able to cut into the lead on a Bengie Molina RBI double and a David Murphy single to make it an 8-4 game. However, the Texas bullpen would continue to self immolate, giving up three more runs in the bottom of the 8th, and while the Rangers were able to score 3 more runs in the bottom of the 9th, it was too little too late.

For Game 2, Branch Rickey's quote about baseball being a game of inches never seemed more accurate when Ian Kinsler led off the top of the 5th inning with a booming double off of Giants starter Matt Cain that bounced off the top of the wall and teetered back into play. Had it rolled the other way, it would've been a 1-0 Texas game. Instead, Kinsler was stranded at second and Edgar Renteria belted a solo homer that put San Francisco up 1-0. Texas' CJ Wilson went 6 decent innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits. But all of that would be forgotten when the Rangers bullpen once again took over and self-immolated, giving up 7 earned runs on fice hits and four walks to give San Francisco a 9-0 lead. The Giant's Matt Cain threw 7 and 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out two for the Giants' 9-0 win on Thursday night.

For Game 3, the series heads to Arlington, TX with Colby Lewis getting the start against Jonathan Sanchez on Saturday night. Lewis has gone from closing out the Yankees to being the last, best hope for the Rangers in this World Series. First pitch is at 6:57 PM Eastern Time.
NHL: Phil Kessel earned the gratitude of the crowd at TD Banknorth Garden Thursday night when the Bruins played host to the Maple Leafs after 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin tallied an insurance goal. Almost as soon as the red light went off behind Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson, the Bruins faithful broke out into a spontaneous, taunting chant of "Thank you, Kessel!".


Kessel's demands for a new, pricey contract or else be traded from Boston culminated in the September 2009 deal where he wound up in Toronto in exchange for Toronto's first overall draft pick in the 2010 NHL Draft as well as another one in the 2011 draft. Let us not forget that the Maple Leafs are responsible for giving us Tukka Rask as well....

But back to last night's game....Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring with his first goal of the season coming on a Bruins power play with less than a minute left in the first period. Seguin's goal- even strength- came in the second period with assists from Michael Ryder and Dennis Seidenberg and Tim Thomas faced on 20 shots from the Leafs in Boston's 2-0 shutout win. The Bruins head into Saturday night's game at Ottawa with a 5-2-0 record.

The Bruins had the option of sending Seguin down to Providence after nine games, but after the game, Claude Julien announced that they plan on keeping him in Boston for the rest of the year.

NBA: Can you believe the NBA season's here already? After beating Lebron James' new team pretty convincingly, the Celtics stumbled against a LeBron-less Cavs. In the 4th quarter, with the game tied 86-86, Cavs Guard Anthony Parker hit a 3 pointer that was subject to review over whether or not the shot clock had expired and if his toes were on the line. Doc Rivers, not surprisingly, objected- saying it was one of the longest seconds in NBA history.

So after beating the Miami Heat at home Tuesday night by a final of 88-80 (this coming despite a 31 point night by LeBron), the C's fall to Cleveland by a final of 87-95, giving them a .500 record. The C's will next host the Knicks on Friday night.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The North Carolina State Wolfpack managed to come back from a 21-7 halftime deficit against #16 Florida State on Thursday night. Facing a 4th and goal from the 1-foot line with 2:44 left, the Wolfpack decided to go for the go-ahead touchdown instead of the game tying field goal, and it paid dividends, putting NC State up 24-28. But Florida state would march right back down the field from their own 29 yard line on the next possession, and when it looked as though the Seminoles would score the go-ahead TD with less than a minute left. However, 'Noles QB Chris Ponder fumbled the ball inside the NC State 10 yard line, effectively putting away the game for the Wolfpack by the 28-24 final.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA: A 20-year old Notre Dame Student died Wednesday when a tower used to film the football team's practices collapsed. Declan Sullivan was filming the practice from a hydraulic scissors lift for ND's athletic department. Most of the Midwest had been experiencing harsh weather for the past few days and the National Weather Service reported that there was wind gusts of up to 51 MPH in the area at the time of the incident.

NFL: The Minnesota Vikings have listed QB Brett Favre as questionable for starting Sunday's game against the New England Patriots. Two fractures were discovered in Favre's ankle after the Viking's Sunday night game against Green Bay. The latest injury puts Favre's NFL-record of 291 consecutive starts in jeopardy. Head coach Brad Childress announced that it will likely be a gametime decision on his part.