Thursday night’s first base umpire in Anaheim, C.B. Bucknor, can expect a vintage New England greeting when he is introduced before Game 3 at Fenway Park on Sunday. Having turned in a wretched performance in Game 1- replays on high-def TV gave him two clearly blown calls - Bucknor lived up to his reputation as [...]

 Maybe they’ll begin to right themselves tonight when they open a four-game series at Fenway against the Tigers. Maybe the sight of The Wall and the sounds of the faithful will have them all hitting like it was May. Maybe a flock of pigs will do a flyover during the seventh-inning stretch.
What NESN dubbed “Rivalry [...]

This just in: Bronson Arroyo mysteriously disappeared from the probable starting pitchers listed for Tuesday’s games. Could he and his guitar soon be headed back to Boston? The Bronx? Philadelphia?
By Friday afternoon at 4, thankfully, the tidal wave of speculation will end. The deals will be done or put off until winter  . . well, [...]

 
Clearly, Adam LaRoche may just be a pre-trade deadline appetizer. Or, as one baseball pundit suggests, insurance in case the Red Sox fail to land one of the much larger fish they have been pursing, most notably Indians catcher Victor Martinez.
At any rate, as summarized at boston.com, Theo Epstein fully grasps the reality that the [...]