With most of the press locked in on the US Open, let's recognize the other 5 biggest sporting events of the week. We have 70 innings of baseball, 112 minutes of hockey, and 144 minutes of basketball.
We also have four games of the NBA Finals completed, with the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat tied at 2 wins a piece in the 7 game series. Game 5 is on Sunday.
Well, anyway, here are this week's games:

5. June 10: Boston Red Sox 10, Tampa Bay Rays 8 (F/14)
Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida

No players were harmed in the shooting of this picture.

The Red Sox jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first off of Rays starter Alex Cobb, but that's all they would get for a few hours. The Rays slowly chipped away off of Red Sox starter John Lackey, guided by 3 home runs, two of which came in the first to cut the Red Sox lead to 6-2. The Rays then proceeded to score single runs in the 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th to tie the game. In the 10th, Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a two run single to give the Sox a 8-6 lead. After Jose Lobaton homered to cut the lead to 1 in the bottom of the 10th, Kelly Johnson drew a bases loaded, game tying walk. No one would score again (you will see that phrase a lot in this post) until the 14th when Daniel Nava and Saltalamacchia had RBI singles to lead the Red Sox to a 10-8 win.

4. June 8: Toronto Blue Jays 4, Texas Rangers 3 (F/18)
Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada


Colby Rasmus started things off with a 3 run triple in the third to put the Jays on top 3-0. That would be the only time they would score for the next 5 hours or so. After the Rangers came back with 2 runs in the ninth(they had gotten one in the 7th) to tie it at 3, the teams went to extra innings. Each team had more than their fair share of opportunities to take the lead, but no one could until the 18th. In the 18th, Rajai Davis hit an RBi single a little bit less than 6 hours after first pitch to give the Blue Jays a marathon 4-3 win.
While sitting at Fenway Park, I was also watching another late extra inning game on the Green Monster scoreboard (see game #2).

3. June 13: Oakland Athletics 3, New York Yankees 2 (F/18)
O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California


Robinson Cano hit a 2 run home run in the top of the first to give the Yankees their only runs of the game. The A's tied it on a close play at the plate in the third. Oakland DH John Jaso seemed to avoid the tag applied by Yankees catcher Chris Stewart, after Stewart had him in position to be out easily. The next batch of excitement would come in the bottom of the 15th when Coco Crisp singled to left fielder Vernon Wells. Brandon Moss was on second to begin the play, and was waved home. The throw from Wells was perfect. Moss slammed into Stewart, who tumbled backwards... but held on to the ball. Moss was out, and the game continued. In the 18th with the bases loaded, A's second baseman hit a single, again to left, but this time, there wasn't anything Wells could do. Jaso had scored, and the A's had won their second 18 inning game of the season to complete a 3 game sweep of the Yankees.

2. June 8: Miami Marlins 2, New York Mets 1 (F/20)
Citi Field, Queens, New York


Jose Fernandez and young Mets sensation Matt Harvey both allowed only 1 run in their starts after game 1 of the series was washed out. Shawn Marcum pitched 8 innings of relief for the Mets, marking the firs time a team has had two pitchers pitch at least 7 inning since the Tigers in 1988. This one was full of missed opportunities, some so big they aren't worth repeating. But it all ended in the 20th when Adeiny Hechavarria poked an RBI single to center, bringing home Placido Polanco. Steve Cishek kept the lead and got the save for the Marlins in the bottom of the 20th for a 2-1 win at the site of this year's MLB All Star Game.

1. June 12: Stanley Cup Finals Game 1: Chicago Blackhawks 4, Boston Bruins 3 (F/3OT)
United Center, Chicago, Illinois


A minute into the second period, the Bruins had a 2-0 lead off of two goals by Milan Lucic. 2 minutes later, Brandon Saad scored to cut it to 2-1. In the third, Patrice Bergeron got one in for the Bruins to extend their lead to 3-1. Once again, 2 minutes later, the Blackhawks had cut it to 1, this time done by Dave Bolland. A little bit after that, the Blackhawks got the equalizer past star Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask, scored by Johnny Oduya. 2 and a half overtimes later, the Blackhawks finally sent their fans home happy when Andrew Shaw beat Rask, giving the Hawks a 4-3 win and 1-0 series lead.