Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rando was the big story in Boston yesterday while Oakland A's pitcher Dallas Braden was the story in New York after throwing a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Of course all of this came before the Boston Red Sox were looking to avoid a sweep at the hands of the hated rival in the New York Yankees.

The Red Sox had the right guy on the mound in Jon Lester to prevent the sweep and the Yankees were hoping A.J. Burnett's 4-0 start this season was good enough to put his Fenway troubles behind him. In his four previous starts at Fenway, Burnett had an ERA of 11.72.

And last night the Red Sox added to that as they scored nine runs in 4 1/3 innings against him. It was a much-needed win for the Red Sox as right now, they are just looking for a way to get back on track after the slow start to this season.

Other than two little bumps in the road in the 4th, Lester was outstanding again. He's now picked up wins in his last three starts and is definitely on his way to erasing his bad month of April with the exception of his April 30th start. He mixed his pitches well and moved the ball around the plate. On the monstrous blast he gave up to Nick Swisher, he left a fastball out over the plate. The one Alex Rodriguez hit came on a inside fastball.

Now the Red Sox must turn their focus to moving up out of fourth place. They'll have a chance to do that as the Toronto Blue Jays come to town for a 3-game set before Thursday's off day. The Red Sox currently trail the Jays by 2½ games in the AL East for third place and the last time they faced each other a few weeks ago, the Red Sox swept them in Toronto.

While a sweep will go a long way against them, the Red Sox need to continue to get good starting pitching. John Lackey should deliver that tonight but you can only hope and pray you get that from Daisuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett in the next two games.

Don't forget tonight's Red Sox game is on NESN Plus.

We'll be back later with tonight's lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day but for now, enjoy the overnight links.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Football links

Geno Auriemma's First Commencement Speech: 'A Plus' [Desmond Conner - Hartford Courant]

Marcus Easley: An NFL Rookie And Now UConn Graduate [Desmond Conner - Hartford Courant]

Donald Brown: He's Earned The Trophy That Means The Most [Desmond Conner - Hartford Courant]

Commencement Weekend At UConn [UConnHuskies.com]

Donald Brown Returns For UConn Degree [BigEast.org]

Brown Returns For UConn Degree [Hartford Courant]

Buffalo Bills eager to discover potential of Marcus Easley [Rochester Democrat and Chronicle]

UConn Women's Basketball links

Engeln shines in all-star game [Jim Fuller - New Haven Register]

Jacquie To Join Tonya At Temple [Rich Elliott - CT Post]

Duke Renews Contract with Connecticut Through 2014-15 [GoDuke.com]

UConn Men's Basketball links

Calhoun hopeful after UConn's frustrating year [Norwich Bulletin]

Other UConn related links

Softball: Huskies Drop Senior Day Matinee 7-3 To Louisville [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Cincinnati Edges Huskies 3-2 in Series' Finale [UConnHuskies.com]

Women's Ice Hockey Acknowledges 2009-10 Team at Banquet [UConnHuskies.com]

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.

Monday, May 10^th @ 7:10 PM

Brandon Morrow, RHP (2-2, 5.40) vs John Lackey, RHP (3-1, 3.89)

TV: NESN Plus, MLB.tv

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

Tuesday, May 11^th @ 7:10 PM

Dana Eveland, LHP (3-1, 3.82) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (1-1, 9.90)

TV: NESN, MLB.tv

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

Wednesday, May 12^th @ 1:35 PM

Shaun Marcum, RHP (1-1, 3.19) vs Tim Wakefield, RHP (0-1, 6.03)

TV: NESN, MLB.tv

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

Jon Lester may have had a bad month of April for the Boston Red Sox but boy has he turned around things quickly. And it couldn't have come at a better time with his buddy Josh Beckett struggling still.

Lester was strong over seven innings as helped the Red Sox to a 9-3 Mother's Day win over the New York Yankees in front of 37,618 at Fenway Park.

The win gets the Red Sox back to .500 at 16-16 but still remain 2½ games behind their next opponent in the Toronto Blue Jays for third place in the AL East. The Yankees (21-9)  had a chance to overtake the Tampa Bay Rays, who were no-hit by Dallas Braden and the Oakland A's, for first place.

Other than two little hiccups of the bat of Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez in the 4th inning, Lester was pretty dominant. He had all of his pitches working and kept pounding the strike zone. He allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

Manny Delcarmen allowed just his second run since April 16th. The run came on three hits and he also struck out two. Tim Wakefield cleaned up in the 9th and had one strikeout.

Ever since A.J. Burnett came over to the Yankees, he's had a rough time against the Red Sox at Fenway Park and on Sunday night it was no different. The Red Sox battered him for nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits and three walks. Burnett did record four strikeouts.

Jeremy Hermida had two hits, including a 2-run homer, and knocked in three runs. Adrian Beltre continues to swing a hot stick at the dish as he had two hits and two RBIs while J.D. Drew had two hits and an RBI. Both David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis added RBI doubles.

The Red Sox got a break in the second when Yanks left fielder Marcus Thames had a ball that came off the bat of Hermida go off his glove. The error allowed Drew to score and make it 1-0 Red Sox.

They would bat around in the 3rd inning when they scored five runs to push the lead to 6-0.

Marco Scutaro led off with a walk and went to third on a Dustin Pedroia double. After Victor Martinez grounded back to Burnett, Youk worked a walk and then Drew brought in Scutaro with a sac fly. Ortiz followed with a ground rule double to score Pedroia and then Beltre cleared the bases. Hermida brought him home with a single.

Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez added solo home runs in the 4th but those were the only blips in Lester's fine night. Hermida added a two-run homer in the 5th to end Burnett's nightmare at the Fens.

The Red Sox will now try to chase down the Blue Jays and move north in the AL East standings in a three-game set at the Fens.  John Lackey will look to build off his last performance as he'll be opposed by Brandon Morrow. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m and the game will be shown on NESN Plus in the Red Sox television market.

New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox 5.9.10 box score

New York Yankees @ Red Sox 8:05 p.m. Fenway Park – Boston, MA SP: A.J. Burnett vs Jon Lester TV: ESPN, ESPN3.com Radio: Red Sox Radio Network

Evening Red Sox Delight - 5/9 [SOX & Dawgs]

After being blown out by the New York Yankees in the first two games, the Boston Red Sox will look to salvage the final game of the series.

Today's game will start at 8:05 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN. You can also catch the game online at ESPN3.com. If you can't catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2010 Red Sox radio network.

Jon Lester makes his seventh start of 2010 and has pitched much better as of late. He's faced the Yanks once this season and picked up a no decision after allowing four runs in five innings. He's made nine starts against the Yankees in his career and is 3-1 with a 4.19 ERA.

A.J. Burnett also makes his seventh start of 2010 and has a 4-0 record with a 1.99 ERA. He's also faced the Red Sox once this season and he received a no decision after allowing four runs (three earned) in five innings. He's had relatively good success in his career against the Red Sox as he is 5-2 with a 4.30 ERA in 13 starts. He's made seven career starts at the Fens and is 3-2 with a 5.36 ERA.

Keep reading for lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and pregame links.

Given the up-and-down season the Boston Red Sox are having, you never know which team is going to show up. Is it going to be the team that swept the Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays? Or is it going to be the team that got swept by the Baltimore Orioles?

It appears the team that showed up last weekend in Baltimore is the one that showed up at Fenway Park in the series against the New York Yankees so far. Things were so bad for the Red Sox in yesterday's 14-3 loss that Jonathan Van Every made his second relief appearance in a Red Sox uniform in two seasons.

I'm pretty sure when the Red Sox reacquired JVE from the Pirates, they really weren't getting him to provide depth in the bullpen. But his appearance just sums up how this season has gone for the Red Sox.

Now a season isn't made in five weeks but given the way the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays are playing so far, the Red Sox are digging themselves a deep hole which they could find hard to get out of. They currently find themselves 7½ games behind the Rays for first place and seven games behind the Yankees for second. It's so bad right now that the team they swept last week in Toronto is 2½ games ahead of them for third place.

We were all promised a season of run prevention and great defense but we haven't seen that yet. In their first 31 games, the Red Sox have given up 174 runs and have scored 156. It's not the offense, it's the pitching and defense. Sure the starting pitching had been good for about a week before the Yankees showed up but now we've had two straight bad starts.

The Red Sox thought they were getting a Gold Glove third baseman in Adrian Beltre but he's been far from that. He made his seventh error of 2010 and also did the ol' Roger Dorn ole. Maybe Tito needs to go 'Lou Brown' on him.

This video is not NSFW unless BS is tolerated.

And by the way, can we just release Scott Schoeneweis now? While we don't know what Alan Embree would have brought to the table since we didn't get a chance to see him pitch, it sure seems like boy wonder Theo Epstein made a mistake.

Something needs to change and change quickly, otherwise the Red Sox will be making vacation plans and tee times for October.

We'll be back later with the lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.

And to take a look at what the enemy papers are saying, head over to the ESPN New York, NY Post,  NY Daily News, NY Times and Journal News websites. You can also check out what our Bloguin brother NYY Stadium Insider has to say.

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UConn Football links

UConn Women's Basketball links

Needing motivation, Flyers coach chases down kindred spirit in Geno [Dayton Daily News]

UConn Men's Basketball links

Jim Calhoun Ready For Final Rounds [Hartford Courant]

Burrell a man for all seasons [New Haven Register]

APR clause should apply to all UConn coaches [New Haven Register]

Major sports at UConn keep others afloat [The Republican-American]

Other UConn related links

Baseball: Matt Barnes named to the College Baseball Foundation Watch List [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Three Huskies Homer as UConn Cruises to a 14-2 Win Over Cincinnati [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Barnes Throws a Two Hit Shutout in Huskies' 14-0 Win Over Cincinnati [UConnHuskies.com]

Softball: Huskies Swept By Louisville On Rainy Saturday [UConnHuskies.com]