Twins 8, Red Sox 6

 

Heading into the seventh inning with a 6-3 lead last night, it looked like the Red Sox were really going to do it - win their first four-game streak of the season. They had just swept the Royals and were back home against a team, Minnesota, only a mere half-game ahead of them in the Wild Card standings. They were nine outs away from their fourth straight win, and after striking out the Twins' Alex Jackson, eight outs away. 

That's when Justin Slayton gave up a pair of home runs, both with runners on first. Four quick runs, and the Twins lead, 7-6. 

A Boston throwing error, a Minnesota single, and a hit-by-pitch loaded up the bases in the ninth, and then reliever Tyron Guerrero walked in the Twins' eighth run. The Sox were hitless in the bottom of the ninth, although Jarren Duran did get on base on a wild pitch, but a Minnesota double play ended his chances to advance and ended the game and ended the winning streak. 

Sadly, the bullpen wiped out a great start by Payton Tolle. He gave up three runs in the second inning, but otherwise struck out nine and gave up only four hits over six innings. 

So the Sox now find themselves out of their former tie for third place with Toronto and all alone in fourth, 1½ back from the Jays and 12½ back from the first place Rays. They're still two back in the Wild Card standings, though - it seems like nothing can change that. 

This afternoon (4:10 pm), the Sox will use Jovani Morán (0-1, 2.81) as a short-game opener for Brayan Bello (2-5, 7.16). They'll be facing the Twins Taj Bradley (4-1, 2.07), who's a career 4-1 against the Sox with 42 Ks over 26 innings. Today will be the first time this season either Bello or Bradley face their opposing teams, although Morán shut out the Twins over 2⅓ innings in relief on April 13 following a disastrous, 11-run start by Crochet (remember that game?).  

I don't understand the logic of  a short reliever opening a game. On the one hand, if the starter can go only so many innings, it doesn't matter if it's the first innings or middle innings. But if the problem is that a starter tends to be a little wild in the first inning before settling down, it's the start that throws him off, not the skill of the first-inning batters, and delaying that wild start by one inning shouldn't make any difference.

But what do I know? I'm not managing a 22-28 MLB baseball team.

Red Sox 4, Royals 3

 

Sweet! A sweep! The lowly Boston Red Sox entered this three-game road series a half-game back from the Royals in the Wild Card standings, and leave Kansas City 2½ games ahead of them. 

Nick Sogard, back up from the minors to replace an injured Roman Anthony, hit an RBI single in the first inning, and Carlos Narváez hit into a double play that same inning but still managed to score Ceddanne Rafaela. 

Jarren Duran, who hit a two-run homer in the ninth on Tuesday night, hit another two-run homer last night in the seventh, launching the ball 383 feet into deep left center. Duran has a double, a triple, and two homers in this series, and also stole a base, becoming the 11th player to reach 35 career triples and 100 stolen bases in Red Sox history, and the first to do so since Carl Yastrzemski. He also singlehandedly saved the game last night with an incredible leaping catch in foul territory in the bottom of that same seventh inning in which he hit the home run. 

Young Connelly Early picked up his fourth win of the season. He went 6⅓ innings with five K's and three runs on six hits and only one walk. The bullpen shut out the Royals with three more K's and Chapman got his 12th save of the season. 

This is a miserable season but it's hard not to feel good right now. The Sox improve to 22-27 with three straight wins and the second series sweep of the season. The Rays and the Jays both won last night so Boston is still tied with Toronto for third place in the AL East, 11½  back from Tampa Bay (but at least the Yankees lost last night). Texas, the latest team to cling to the third and final Wild Card spot, also won, so the Sox are still tied with the Jays at two games back in the Wild Card standings.

More reasons to be cheerful: the Sox are off today, but their next series is back home in Fenway against the Minnesota Twins (23-27), another team like Kansas City entering the series a mere half game ahead of them in the standings. This is another fortunate matchup, one we can win, even though the Sox are 1-2 against the Twins so far this season. Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.05) will start tomorrow against rookie Connor Prielipp (1-2, 2.88). Neither pitcher played in last month's series in Minneapolis and neither has ever faced tomorrow's opposing teams. 

Can the Sox make it four straight for the first time this season? They will be returning to Fenway on a three-game winning streak in front of a friendly (hopefully) home crowd to play a team almost as pathetic as they are, and are starting the series with one of their best pitchers. They have a chance, and while it may not be all "field of dreams," highlight-reel material, we should still be excited.

Red Sox 7, Royals 1

 

Two in a row! The Red Sox beat the Royals a second straight time in a 7-1 rout in Kansas City. 

Starter Ranger Suarez gave up one run and struck out three in 4⅓ innings and lowered his ERA to 2.40. However, disregarding a rough start to the season, his ERA over his last seven starts is 1.12, the best for a Red Sox starter over a seven-game span within a single season since Chris Sale in 2018 and Luis Tiant in 1972. 

The bullpen gave up only two hits in the remaining 4⅔ innings while striking out seven. Whitlock got outs on the three straight batters he faced in the eighth with only seven pitches and picked up the win.  

But the real hero last night was Willson Contreras, who went 2-5 at bat, getting an RBI on each of his hits. He even scored a run on a groundout in the eighth, bringing Rafaela home from third. Durbin hit an RBI in the second and Durran launched a two-run homer to deep right in the ninth.

The pitching seems to be coming into focus for this year's sorry-ass Red Sox, and it's nice to see the offense come alive last night, although Boston still has the second fewest runs this year (177) in MLB. 

Winning has benefits - after two straight wins, the Sox (21-27) move out of the AL East basement and are now tied for third with Toronto. However, while the Sox were going 2-0, the Rays have been 3-0, and Boston is still 11½ out of first place. On the other hand, Boston is still only two games back from qualifying for a Wild Card berth. 

Lefty Connelly Early (3-2, 3.21) pitches tonight versus righty Michael Wacha (4-2, 2.83). It will be the young Early's first time facing the Royals. His last start was May 15 against the hard-hitting Braves, the team with the highest batting average (.263) in MLB, yet he managed to strike out six but also gave up two solo homers. Wacha is a career 3-1 against Boston. In his last start against the Sox back on August 6 of last year, Romy Gonzalez hit a double to deep right center in the first for two runs, but Wacha gave up only two more hits and no runs over the next five innings.

Can the Sox complete their second series sweep of the season? Can they break the tie in the standings with Toronto and take sole possession of third? And will Early be able to take advantage of the Royals low batting average (.238), or will Wacha exploit Boston's .239? Stay tuned and see!    

Everest Update

 

Bartek Ziemski of Poland summited Everest today without bottled oxygen, the first no-oxygen ascent of Everest this season. Despite the crowds, he then completed only the second nonstop ski descent all the way back to Base Camp, including through the Khumbu Icefall, without O₂. Amazingly, he accomplished all this without any Sherpa or other support, carrying his own equipment, tent, and supplies up and down the mountain. 

One week ago, Ziemski performed the same feat on Lhotse and his descent of Everest today completed the first double ski descent of Lhotse and Everest in the same season. On both mountains, he carried up and retrieved his own gear and didn’t rely on supplemental oxygen or anyone else to accompany him. 

Incidentally, his climb to the summit today was the first no-oxygen ascent of Everest this season and his climb last week was the first no-oxygen ascent of the season on Lhotse. The ski descent of Lhotse was the first from the summit all the way down to Base Camp, and the first ever without oxygen.

Everest, on the other hand, was climbed without oxygen and skied down completely once before. In the fall of 2025, Andrzej Bargiel accomplished that feat, but he had a team fixing the route, setting the camps, and breaking trail. Ziemski had no support except for the packed trail and fixed ropes established by the commercial outfitters for their clients. He didn't rely on Sherpas or anyone else to carry his equipment, had no drones, and no support team. Bargiel had a team to film the climb and the descent.  Ziemski had to ask another climber to take a photo of him while on the summit of Everest. Finally, Bargiel hadn't accomplished the same feat the week before on Lhotse. 

Meanwhile, it's full tourist client season on Everest. Several small groups outfitted by Nepalese outfitters summitted on Sunday and the numbers multiplied on Monday. The peak summit days could be today and tomorrow, the day chosen for summit attempts by many of the groups that left Base Camp on Sunday. The Lhotse Face is reportedly a traffic jam from top to bottom in an endless line of climbers intending to summit tomorrow.

Red Sox 3, Royals 1

 

Finally, the Red Sox faced a matchup they could win: Sonny Gray entered last night's game 9-0 against the Royals, who started Seth Lugo, who was 0-4 against Boston. The Sox entered the game a mere half-game back from K.C. 

Now, after a 3-1 Boston victory, Gray is 10-0 against the Royals, Lugo is 0-5 against the Sox, and Boston is a half-game ahead of Kansas City.

Contreras hit a two-run homer in the sixth and Duran brought Wong home with a sac fly in the seventh. Gray continued to own the Royals and went a masterful six innings with nine K's and only one run on five hits. Chapman closed out the game, earning his 378th career save. Chapman passed Joe Nathan to move into 10th place on the all-time saves list and is now closing in on Dennis Eckersley, who is 12 saves ahead of him for the ninth most saves in MLB history. We'll cheer for whatever we can in this sorry-ass season. 

With the win, the Sox move past the Royals in the Wild Card standings and are now two games back from Seattle for a qualifying spot. They're still 11½ back in the AL East, however. 

We have another favorable pitching lineup scheduled for today: Ranger Suarez (2-2, 2.44) versus Bailey Falter (0-0, 10.13). Suarez has limited experience against K.C. (six innings in one start) but got six strikeouts against only one earned run. Falter is 1-2 against the Sox with 12 earned runs, including one HR, and nine Ks.

Braves 8, Red Sox 1

 

What'd ya expect? The 2026 Red Sox were lucky to get out of Truist Park with one win in this series.

For five innings yesterday, starter Brayan Bello was giving out runs like an Atlanta traffic cop issuing parking tickets. By the time he was relieved in the bottom of the sixth, the score was already 7-0 and the Braves had two home runs off him. They got another run in the eighth without a single hit on a combination of walks, a fielder's choice, and a sac fly. It wasn't until the ninth inning that Nick Sogard, called back up again from the minors to replace an injured Trevor Story, hit an RBI double scoring catcher Conner Wong.

Tampa Bay won last night, so the Sox (19-27) are back to 11½ out from first place in the AL East. Hilariously, they're still only three back in the AL Wild Card race.

The Red Sox are off to Kansas City for a three-game series against the Royals (20-27), a team only a half-game ahead of them in the Wild Card standings. Sonny Gray (4-1, 3.18) starts for Boston against Seth Lugo (1-3, 3.76). Gray has basically owned the Royals up to now, going 9-0 in 11 starts, striking out 63 and giving up only one home run in 68 innings. Lugo, on the other hand, is 0-4 against the Sox and has given up five homers to Boston. 

We might actually have a chance in this game.      

Red Sox 3, Braves 2

 

Well, will you look at that. The last-place Boston Red Sox drag their sorry, losing asses into Truist Park, the home of the Braves and the team with the most wins in MLB, and won a game. Who'd a thunk it?

It wasn't easy. Payton Tolle pitched an outstanding game - eight innings (a career long for him) with only four hits, but one of those hits was a solo homer in the first inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead in their home park.

Macho Man Masataka Yoshida tied it up in the fourth with an RBI single that scored Mickey Glasper from third, but the Braves took the lead back with an RBI single of their own in the fifth. Then, late in the eighth inning with two already out, Willson Contreras homered 436 feet into deep left center, bringing Wilyer Abreu home from second and giving the Sox a 3-2 lead with one-and-a-half innings left.

Tolle made short work of the Braves in the bottom of the eighth, getting all three batters to fly out. The Sox didn't add any insurance in the ninth, and the reliable Aroldis Chapman came on in the bottom of the ninth to close out the game.

But damn, did he ever make it unnecessarily interesting! After getting two quick fly outs, the Braves got a runner on base on a Boston fielding error. And then Chapman loaded up the bases with two walks on eight straight pitches outside the zone. The Sox were still technically one out away from winning, but now the tying run was on third and the winning run was on second, our pitcher appeared to be melting down, and the home crowd was going wild.

Red Sox Nation felt an all-too-familiar sinking in their stomachs when the sixth Braves' batter of the inning hit an infield grounder and the baserunners were heading for home. Chapman, however, was able to field the ball and threw it to first just in time to get the batter out with mere nanoseconds to spare and won the game. It's the fastest I've ever seen Chapman move, and I've seen him throw 100-mph speedballs. A collective sigh of relief was heard around the world as the miracle win in Atlanta turned out not to be another painful loss in this nightmare of a season.

As if to congratulate the Sox for their unlikely win, both the Rays and the Yankees lost last night, so Boston (19-26) picks up a game in the AL East standings and are now "only" 10½ games out of first. Perhaps more importantly, Seattle lost last night, too, their second straight loss, so the Sox are now unbelievably a mere two games back from a potential Wild Card berth. Crazy, right?

It's a battle of the righties this afternoon (1:35). The Sox will relay on right-hander Brayan Bello (2-4, 6.46), and no Braves hitter has faced Bello more than nine times. He's a career 1-1 against Atlanta in three starts, striking out 12 while also giving up a dozen earned runs in 16⅓ innings. Seven of those earned runs were in his last start against the Braves, a 10-4 disaster in Fenway on May 18 last year. Let's hope he atones for that performance today.

The Braves will counter with righty Grant Holmes (2-1, 4.35), who hasn't yet beaten the Sox and took the loss in one of two games against Boston. The Sox beat the Braves, 5-1, in Truist last year (May 30) in Holmes' last start against Boston, so let's hope that streak continues.

Braves 3, Red Sox 2 (10)

 

Classic Red Sox: game's tied in the tenth inning, Yaz comes to the plate, and hits a game-winning double. The only problem is "Yaz" is Mike Yastrzemski,  Carl's son, and for some reason he's playing for the Braves.

In all, though, I'm not surprised the Red Sox lost, playing on the road against the team with the most wins in MLB. I'm surprised the game was that close and that the Boston offense, such as it is, came back from a 2-0 deficit to force extra innings.

Mickey Gasper singled in the sixth, bringing home Carlos Narváez, and Marcelo Mayer homered to deep right center in the seventh. After that, the bullpen held on, giving up only one hit while earning five K's., and then Yaz stepped to the plate in the tenth . . . 

For the record, young Connelly Early got more strikeouts (6) than hits (5) and lasted five innings, but both Atlanta runs were scored against him.

And with that, the Sox are unsurprisingly down 0-1 in this three-game road series in Smyrna, Georgia (the Braves don't play in the City of Atlanta, and for that this Atlanta urbanite will never be a fan).

We may be in last place, back 11½ from Tampa Bay, but we're still only three games back in the Wild Card chase (the Boston Red Sox: still better than the Houston Astros and L.A. Angels).

Tonight is Payton Tolle (1-2, 1.99) versus Bryce Elder (4-1, 1,81). Last year, the Sox got three runs off Elder on six hits, but three of the four batters who had hits are now gone, and no one is expecting Trevor Story to get two hits again off Elder tonight (not least because they just put him on the IL). Tolle will be facing the Braces for the first time tonight. 

How did we not acquire Yaz? 

Phillies 3, Red Sox 1

 

Sox lose again, Phillies take the series, 2-1, in Fenway, and Boston is 10½ back a quarter of the way through the 2026 season. Amazingly, they're only three games back from Seattle for the last wild-card slot, and wouldn't it be fitting to see them make the postseason just to get eliminated in the first round like the Celtics and the Bruins?. 

What can one say? Ranger Suarez had a no-hitter going against his old team through four innings, and between him and the bullpen, kept the Phillies scoreless through seven. But in the same old, sad song as the rest of the season, the Sox batters failed to score during that stretch, and when the Phillies finally broke through with three runs in the eighth, Boston could only answer with a Wilyer Abreu one-RBI single in the bottom of the inning. 

Oddly enough, the Red Sox have a higher team batting average (.235) than the Yankees (.234), but are second to last in MLB in slugging, total runs, and homers, and third from last in RBIs. Prognosis: they can hit, sometimes, but when they do it's usually weak-ass singles and they can't get the base runners home. I don't anticipate things getting better this long, hot summer.

To add injury to insult, the Sox (18-25) head down here to Atlanta for three games against the Braves, the team with the best record (30-14) in baseball. Tonight, young Connelly Early (3-2, 3.16), who's never pitched in Truist Park, takes the mound against Spencer Strider (1-0, 2.89). The Sox have faced Strider only once before - July 26, 2023 - and struck out 10 times but also got three homers, but those were by Devers, Duvall, and Casas, none of whom are in the Red Sox lineup now. Casas is on the IL, Duvall was traded - to the Braves - and we're still wondering WTF they were thinking when Devers got traded.

Devers, who was the lone remaining player from the team’s 2018 World Series team, was dealt to the Giants last season for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs, and Jose (not Brayan) Bello, none of whom are still with Boston this season. It's little consolation that Devers is underperforming for the woeful Giants (18-26), who are struggling to trade him away. I've always liked Rafi . . . and he was able to take Spencer Strider 409 feet into deep right in Fenway. 

Red Sox 3, Phillies 1

The wind must have been blowing out to left field last night. All four runs scored by both teams were on homers hit into deep left-center or center field. Trevor Story hit one in the second inning and the Phillies in the third. Rafaela hit a two-run homer into left center in the sixth. 

Three runs were enough for Boston to pick up a win with Sonny Grey going six full innings with only two hits (including that third-inning HR) and six Ks, and the "good" bullpen (Slaten, Whitlock, and Chapman) giving up only one hit and no runs. Chapman made it interesting by walking two, but ultimately struck the side out, getting his third K with runners on second and third.

Tampa Bay and New York both lost last night, so the Sox (18-23) move back to 10 games out of first.

Former Phillie Ranger Suarez (2-2, 2.77) pitches tonight against his old team. He'll be pitching against the Jesus Lizard, Jesús Luzardo, who struck out seven but gave up a grand slam home run to Romy Gonzalez in an 11-inning thriller on July 23 of last year.

First Everest Summit of 2026

 

Wednesday morning (10:25 am, Nepali time), a team of 10 to 15 Sherpas completed the first summit of Mount Everest this year. There is some disagreement about which team of the various trekking companies working the mountain made the first summit, so precisely who it was that first set foot on the mountaintop this year remains unclear, not that it matters (it's not a competition).

Hakon Andreas and Hanne Nicole Hyttedalen of Norway and Chinese national Li Yitong, clients of the outfitter Imagine Nepal, followed the Sherpas and were the first foreigners to summit this year. 

With the ropes now fixed all the way to the top, the route is now open for the hundreds of other climbers waiting at the lower camps.

Phillies 2, Red Sox 1

 

Off-fence, we need some off-fence, boyos. Do you know what I mean by the word, "offence"? Hit the ball. Get some runs. 

After an 18-run streak in three games earlier this month, the Red Sox have scored only four runs in the last three games. That's 0.15 runs per inning in the last three, incidentally all home at Fenway. Boston's slugging percentage (.351) is second lowest in MLB, on-base plus slugging (.664) is third lowest, and total runs on the season (157) is fourth lowest. The pitching isn't the problem - the team ERA is 3.95, 12th of 30 in MLB. But our hitting stinks.

Last night, the Sox only managed one run against the Phillies, an RBI single to right center by Raefela in the seventh inning. Other than that, bupkis.

Brayan Bello gave up one run over 6⅓ innings (opener Jovani Morán gave up the other run) and even Zach Kelly didn't allow any runs. But even the best pitching isn't going to win many games when the batting only gets one run, or 0.15 runs per inning.

The Sox are now 11 games out of first place, the furthest back in their division of any team in MLB except the Mets (12½). 

Sonny Gray (3-1, 3.54) pitches tonight, if it even matters. Gray is a career 2-2 against the Phillies, striking out 46 while allowing only five home runs over 40⅔ innings, although he did get roughed up in his last two starts against them with the Cardinals in 2025 and '24. He'll be pitching against rookie Andrew Painter (1-4, 6.89), who's given up 25 runs on 44 hits this season, including six homers.

Statistically, if pitching matters, the odds would favor the Red Sox, but unless the offence improves ("off-fence") a Little Leaguer could pitch for the Phillies and probably still win.