Judging by the way the first three innings went for Clay Buchholz last night, it looked like it might be a long night for him and the Boston Red Sox. But as the game continued, he got stronger and with the help of the bat of David Ortiz, Buchholz picked up his 11th win of the season in the 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

He still looked a little rusty early on, especially during the 2nd inning when he had to do his impression of Houdini-K to get out of a bases loaded no-out jam.

Buchholz started the inning by walking Hideki Matsui and allowing a single to Alberto Callapso. He followed that up by plunking Mike Napoli to load up the bases. But young Clay beared down and got Juan Rivera and Jeff Mathis to pop out to Kevin Youkilis at first and retired Erick Aybar on a fly out to left.

That inning seemed to give Buchholz the confidence he needed going forward. In the 3rd inning, he allowed two hits with his pitch count nearing 70.  From that point forward though, he was virtually unhittable. He struck out the side in the 4th on his way to retiring eleven straight batters before a Rivera single in the 7th. He got out of that inning and handed over the game to the bullpen with a 2-1 lead and we all know how's that has gone lately.

Buchholz had good life on his fastball but it was his curveball and change up that really made the difference for him. You can see how he's matured over the last year as he probably wouldn't have been able to escape that bases loaded jam. But this is a new year and a new Clay who finally won't have to hear his name brought up in trade rumors.

Scott Atchison has been gaining the confidence of skipper Terry Francona over the past few months and it was shown last night as Tito brought him in for the 8th. Normally Daniel Bard would have been in but he had pitched the day before in Seattle and has been used a lot lately.

The move almost paid off but Atchison left a fastball out over the plate that Matsui cranked out of the ballpark to make it 4-3. Jonathan Papelbon finished it off with a four-out save.

Nonetheless though, it was a good win for the Red Sox last night, one they needed to keep pace with the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. They got contributions from David Ortiz (two homers), J.D. Drew and Victor Martinez in his return to the lineup.

Now they'll hope John Lackey can pitch them to another win in his return to Anaheim tonight. We'll be back later with tonight's lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, any news and links from the day but for now enjoy the overnight links by hitting the read more button below.

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men's basketball and women's basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below.

Thank you for stopping and by making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story and box score links as well as links to team rosters, team stats and league standings are after the jump.

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If you're an UConn Huskies fan and you're not doing anything on Thursday, you might want to check out the ESPN family of networks.

If you do decide to tune in, there's a pretty good chance that you'll catch UConn head football coach Randy Edsall as he'll be making numerous appearances on ESPN's various shows throughout the day.

Here's the schedule of Edsall's appearances (appearances and times subject to change):

• 10:50 a.m. - Appear on First Take with Jay Crawford, Dana Jacobson and Reischea Canidate
• 11:05 a.m. - Interview with SportsCenter.com
• 11:20 a.m. - Interview With ESPN Rise
• 11:40 a.m. - Appear on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio, ESPNU and ESPN.com
• 1:00 p.m. - ESPN.com chat
• 1:20 p.m. - Interview with ESPNW
• 1:40 p.m. - Appear on ESPNU
• 2:10 p.m. - Appear on ESPNews
• 2:40 p.m. - Radio interview on 1250 ESPN Radio in Pittsburgh
• 3:10 p.m. - Appear on the The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio, ESPN2 and ESPN.com
• 3:30 p.m. - Appear on College Football Live with multiple airings on ESPN and ESPNU

Photo credit: AP Photo

Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 10:05 p.m Angel Stadium of Anaheim SP: Clay Buchholz vs Dan Haren TV: NESN, MLB.tv Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Evening Red Sox Delight - 7/26 [SOX & Dawgs]

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The Boston Red Sox are hoping that Anaheim is a little nicer to them than Seattle was as they finish up a 10-game road trip with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Tonight's game will start at 10:05 p.m. and will be shown on NESN in the Red Sox television market. The game can be seen in the Angels television market on Fox Sports West. If you can't catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

Clay Buchholz looks to shake off the rust in his second start since returning from the disabled list. He's made 16 starts for the Red Sox and is 10-5 with a 2.81 ERA. He's faced the Angels once this year back on May 3rd, picking up the win after allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings. Buchholz has made four career starts against the Angels and is 2-2 with a 6.35 ERA.  He's made one career start at Angel Stadium of Anaheim and took the loss after allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings back in 2008. Ironically enough, that start and loss came against John Lackey.

Fresh off his trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, Dan Haren gets thrown into the fire tonight for the Angels. Haren made 21 starts for the Diamondbacks and was 7-8 with a 5.60 ERA. He faced the Red Sox back on June 17th with the D'backs taking the loss after allowing six runs (four earned) in 5 2/3 innings. Haren has made seven starts in his career against the Red Sox and is 2-4 with a 3.14 ERA.

Lineups, batter/pitcher matchups, and links after the jump.

Before I went on vacation last week, I asked Matt from Fenway West and Rob from The Bottom Line to answer a question about whether or not the Boston Red Sox needed to do anything at the trade deadline.

Of course I asked the question before yesterday's implosion by Hideki Okajima but reached out again to see if anyone needed to change their answers. That was not the case.

You can find their answers plus mine after the jump.

We were away for the weekend on a mini-vacation and it seems like Boston Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima may have been on one as well yesterday. While his countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka wasn't spectacular but rather solid for six innings, it was Okajima who imploded during the 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon.

Daniel Bard worked an easy 7th inning for the Red Sox and allowed a leadoff single in the 8th. Bard gave way to Okajima who promptly allowed a single to Justin Smoak. With the Red Sox leading 2-1, former Red Sox backup first baseman Casey Kotchman laid down a bunt which was fielded by Okajima, who double clutched his throw to Adrian Beltre at third twice and then failed to get Kotchman at first.

This proved costly as Michael Saunders followed with a 2-run single to put the Mariners out front 3-2. Milton Bradley pinch-hit for Rob Johnson and put a bunt that went between Okajima and Kevin Youkilis that allowed the final run to score.

Okajima didn't talk to reporters after the game but the loss was clearly his fault. In my opinion, he should have stated what happened instead of letting his teammates speak for what they might have thought happened.

Against a team that they should have clearly beaten, the Red Sox were simply outdone by the bullpen of a last place team. If they want to compete in the AL East and for a playoff spot, the bullpen needs to be improved and quickly.

Dice-K might not have been great on Sunday but he gave the Red Sox a chance to win. Unfortunately the Mariners made him throw a lot of pitches and he only last six innings. Had he been able to go another inning, maybe the result is different if Bard is able to pitch the 8th.

But that didn't happen and now we are watching the chances of our team making the plays slip away quickly. The Red Sox find themselves eight games out of first place behind the New York Yankees and five games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for second place and the AL Wild Card.

The trade deadline is looming large for the Red Sox and they'll definitely need to make a move to bolster their chances of a postseason spot.

Speaking of the trade deadline and what the Red Sox need to do, we'll have something coming up shortly with The Bottom Line and Fenway West as to what we think the Red Sox need to do. But for now, enjoy the overnight links after the jump.

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men's basketball and women's basketball teams as well as some of the other sports. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a daily basis. As always, links can be found by clicking on the read more button below.

Thank you for stopping and by making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story and box score links as well as links to team rosters, team stats and league standings are after the jump.

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