"This is a nice spring/summer day sometimes where I'm from, so, you know, I enjoy this," said Jason Bay. Bay, as you probably know is from Trail, British Columbia, a collection of 7,000 hardy souls in the middle of a frigid, less-than-hospitable environment*. So the Bronx must have made him feel right at home last night.

Bay smacked a 3-run homer in the first off Joba Chamberlain (no doubt distracted by the news that his mom got arrested for selling meth to an undercover cop, which we maintain is the LAST person we'd want to try to sell meth to), then got hit with a pitch later on. Stay classy, Joba. Josh Beckett had some trouble on the mud-caked field, giving up a HR to Johnny Damon that pulled the Yankees back within one, but settled down and stuck around long enough for the win. The same can't be said for the Yankee crowd, which was announced at 46,810, and if you believe that, you probably believe MBTA schedules.

Good news for the Sox? David Ortiz got an RBI and has a two-game hitting streak. Bad news? Jacoby Ellsbury had to leave early with a sore hamstring. Funny news? Terry Francona said that Bay, as a Canadian, had to be the only guy on the field who enjoyed the crappy conditions. "He always busts my chops about that," said Bay. Best news of all? 5-0 against the Bombers.

The Sox play the Indians at Fenway tonight, but their ratings are likely to slip, since there's a double-dose of playoff action on the tube tonight. The Bruins/Canes series shifts to Raleigh, where the Bruins are publicly concerned about the noise and the energy Carolinians bring to hockey. We know; we had trouble believing it too, but it's for real. The Celtics and Orlando get back to work at the Garden, where the key will likely be whether Ray Allen can finally take advantage of his advantage over defender J.J. Redick. If you thought that Ray has had some craptacular Game Ones in the playoffs since he's been here, you're right.

And if the Celtics are concerned about the long wingspan of the Magic's Dwight Howard, rest assured it's nothing compared to the reach of Orlando writer Mike Bianchi, who thinks that Boston fans were stunned by the Game One loss (uh, no, we were actually surprised your guys yakked away most of a 28-point lead against a collection of walking cadavers) and rewrites "Paul Revere's Ride" to prove that Orlando is the better team and will win this series. He helpfull provides an email address at the end of the poem (if you make it that far) if you want to share any helpful literary criticism with him.

Photo by Kathy Willens/Associated Press.

*Trail actually looks incredibly pleasant. We just like playing up Canadian stereotypes.

Filed in Sports and tagged Bruins, Celtics, Jason Bay, Joba Chamberlain, Josh Beckett, NBA Playoffs, NHL Playoffs, Red Sox, sports redux, sportsredux, Yankees

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