Red Sox Give Up Lead in AL East, Sign Adam LaRoche

By Melissa in Featured, Opinion ⋅ July 23, 2009 at 6:30pm ⋅ Post a comment

Here’s a weekly a column taking a look at the top five sports events this past week that left us all asking the question “Did that just happen?”

In no particular order…

Tim Wakefield placed on 15-day DL

Biggest surprise of the week? It was to me – I certainly didn’t see this coming. But Wakefield was indeed placed on the DL because of a lower back strain. With Wakefield out of the line-up, the Red Sox have called Clay Bucholz back up, who picked up a win against the Blue Jays when he pitched his first major league game of the season last Friday.

The Red Sox have given up their lead in the AL East standings

They’ve hit a four-game losing streak, their first of the season, with silent bats making games tough to watch. The Sox dropped two out of three against the Blue Jays and so far are 2-3 against Texas. As if the lack in offense wasn’t enough, those damned Yankees have been winning and are now first in the AL East standings, making it the first time since June 8 that the Sox are not on top.

Marquis Daniels signs with Celtics

As a free agent, Daniels has signed with the Celtics for a $1.9 million bi-annual exception contract, although the team is still in the process of ironing out a sign-and-trade deal. Daniels is expected to be the backup for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

Ex-Celtic Antoine Walker is arrested for amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling debt

That’s $822,500, to be exact, of which he has only paid off $178,000. Walker racked up all the debt while gambling at Caesar’s Palace, Planet Hollywood, and the Red Rock Resort casinos in Las Vegas. The arrest came after Walker had written $1 million worth of bad checks and his bail was set at $87,000. All of this is coming from a guy who made almost $100 million throughout his career? Oh, the life of a celebrity.

Pirates first basement Adam LaRoche traded to the Red Sox

In another unexpected move, LaRoche added some power to the line-up facing right-handed pitchers, something that the current Red Sox line-up is struggling with. The trade had the Pirates sending LaRoche to Boston in exchange for Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland. Does this mean that there’s potential for Kevin Youkilis to move to third base permanently, to replace the previously struggling Mike Lowell? Only time will tell…

Tags: Adam LaRoche, Antoine Walker, Celtics, Did That Just Happen?, Marquis Daniels, Red Sox, Tim Wakefield