Bering, Chukchi & Laptev

 

Bering Sea: Ella Hibbert and the Yeva are back at sea. After leaving Saint Paul Island last week, she sailed due north into Komsomolskaya Bay on the south side of Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point in Russia. I incorrectly presumed she was there to check in with the authorities at the administrative center of Providensky before sailing further through Russian territorial waters, but it appears that she never docked in the harbor, just anchored for the night in the middle of the bay. It seems more likely she was just looking for a safe harbor to grab some rest away from the ice and arctic winds before proceeding rather than showing her papers, but we can only guess because she hasn't been updating her social media. In any event, she left the Bay this morning and is currently rounding Cape Dezhnev on her way to cross the Arctic Circle and enter the Chukchi Sea.

Chukchi Sea: Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 are already up in the Chukchi, but what she's doing up there is anyone's guess. Unlike Hibbert, she has been posting updates to social media, but generally about a week after the fact. She was still posting updates about her sea voyage from Homer, Alaska to Nome even after she had been in Nome for a week. and if you only followed her on Instagram and not the Sardinha's tracking page, you'd think that she was still in Nome. However, since leaving Nome, she's crossed the Arctic Circle headed for either the Northwest Passage over Alaska and Canada or the Northeast Passage over Russia and Scandinavia. She initially headed northwest over Russia, but generally stayed a good 100 miles plus beyond the coast of Siberia, as if trying to stay out of Russian waters, although at one point she was a mere dozen or so miles off the coast of Cape Dez. But since Sunday, she's been headed even further north and then northeast, either heading back toward Alaska and the Northwest Passage or else setting herself up to sail around the north side of Wrangel Island, giving the mainland a wide berth. 

Laptev Sea: Meanwhile, as Hibbert is sailing west and Klink is sailing north/northeast, Matt Rutherford is sailing through the Northeast Passage in the opposite direction. He's currently in the Laptev Sea heading due north in order to pass above Komsomolets, the northernmost island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. He's already sailed north over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, but passing the Severnaya will take him all the way up to the 81st latitude or beyond. He's already up at 80° 38' N and still heading due north. Earlier this month, he set a personal record at 81° 14' N while crossing over Norway's Svalbard Islands, but he should break that record above Komsomolets. I need to point out that there's a big, wide Vilkitsky Strait between the archipelago and the Siberian mainland down around the 77th parallel. According to Google AI, it's possible but extremely difficult to sail through the heavily restricted Vilkitsky, which connects the Laptev and Kara Seas. The passage is normally locked in thick ice fields and requires specialized ice-class vessels or nuclear icebreaker escorts, but even that's apparently too easy for Rutherford, the total madman.  It will be interesting to see if Hibbert and possibly Klink sails north of the archipelago like Rutherford, or south through the Strait. 

Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 1

 

Nobody cares about last night's Red Sox game in Toronto or the final score. All anyone is talking about is that mindfuck of a play in the top of the seventh inning. It's quite possibly the most confusing play I've ever seen in 50 years of watching professional baseball and I'm still not completely sure I understand what happened even now. 

In the top of the seventh, Nick Sogard was on first and Anthony Seigler on third with one out, a fielders choice on Connor Wong as he advanced from first to second. However, the scoreboard incorrectly said there were two outs, apparently because someone in the stadium was confused as to whether the fielders choice was ruled a double play or not (it wasn't). 

However, thinking there were two outs, Seigler and Sogard both took leads off third and first, respectively, when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a curve ball into dead center. At the crack of the bat, both Seigler and Sogard took off running without first tagging up and Seigler came home. Toronto got Rafaela out at first base on a force out and Sogard was left standing on second. The Jays threw the ball back to first, catching Soggy off base to record the third out on a double play. However, since Seigler had crossed home plate after the force out on Rafaela (out number two) but before they caught Sogard off base and made the third out, the run counted. 

That's all fairly straightforward, but Seigler hadn't tagged either and could have been called out on appeal, nullifying the run. But the Jays had already left the field before appealing the run and the rules state that an appeal has to be made while the defense is still on the field and in fair territory. 

But wait a minute. How, you ask, can an out be called at home after a third out had already been made at first base? It seems a little-known rule in MLB baseball states an umpire may recognize an apparent “fourth out” if a third out has already been made while an appeal is in progress on another runner. In that case, the appeal play decision takes precedence in determining the out. 

In other words, a "fourth out" is a legal out made by the defense after three outs have already been made. If the fielders make another out after the third that prevents a run from scoring, the third out does not cause the ball to become dead and the "fourth out" can then supersede the apparent third out to become the third out of record. However, an appeal for the "fourth out" has to be made by the fielding team while the ball is still live, and the pitcher and all infielders are still in fair territory.

The Jays tried to invoke the "fourth out" and get the run overturned, but since they had already left the field, the appeal was denied. Toronto argued that the home-plate umpire had waived them off the field before allowing them a chance to appeal, but that argument didn't fly either. 

If you find all that confusing, don't feel bad. It's the first time I ever heard of a "fourth out" and the teams on the field had trouble understanding it. I can assure you the broadcast announcers didn't understands it and were having a hard time explaining it, and even the on-field umpires had to call MLB headquarters in New York for an explanation. Still, it took headquarters some 15 minutes to provide a ruling. When it was all said and done, the double-play at first was confirmed as the second and third outs, and Boston was credited with the run. 

The score was 2-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, which turned out to be the final score. Boston's only run in the game was on Tony Seagull's un-appealed,  no-tag run. Still, the Sox are 7-3 in their last 10 games, even if all three of those losses came in the last three games. 

Rinse and repeat - they play again tonight. Hopefully, we won't need an attorney to litigate the winner.

Meanwhile, In Russia

 

After a mere 24 hours in Russian territorial waters, Matt Rutherford's Chimera was boarded by the Russian Coast Guard. His papers and permits were all in order and after two hours they released him to continue his trip over the top of Siberia, but as he put it, "they're not playing around." 

Remember, Russia is at war, and against a Ukranian army employing unconventional, asymmetric tactics, such as drone attacks. They're not about to let some random sail boat into their waters, even if that boat is at latitude 79° N, 100 miles north of the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

Ella Hibbert isn't taking any chances. She and the Yeva left the U.S.'s Saint Paul Island on August 6 and she's sailed straight into harbor at Komsomolskaya Bay and the administrative center of the Providensky District in the northeastern part of Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point in Russia, presumably to check in with the authorities there and present her papers before sailing through the Northeast Passage. "Presumably," I say, because she hasn't updated her social media since leaving St. Paul, so her motives to this point are still a mystery, at least to me.    

Even more mysterious (to me) are the motives of Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2. After leaving Homer, Alaska, where the Sardinha was dry-docked over the winter, she spent some two weeks in Nome before setting sail again. She's currently some 110 miles north of the former town of Iultin in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District. Right now, she's tacking even further north and may be trying to stay out of Russian territorial waters, but Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea is west of her, and sea ice (actually, the polar ice cap) probably won't let her pass 100 miles north of Wrangel and will force her to sail through Russian waters between the island and the mainland. But I don't know. She's been posting to the 'Gram, but mostly promoting her book (it's in Portuguese so I haven't read it) and not about her itinerary or intentions.

It's possible that Hibbert and Klink aren't posting specifics about their trip to social media in order to be discreet and avoid drawing unnecessary attention from the Russian security apparatus, although that hasn't stopped Rutherford (but look what just happened to him). It's also possible that they don't have an internet link - Rutherford posted that he expects to be offline through at least some portion of his trip through the Northeast Passage. 

They're not playing around. Be careful out there. 

A's 4, Red Sox 3

 

For the first time in ten sets, the Red Sox failed to win the series. They suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since July 1. Doesn't mean a thing - they're still going to the World Series and they're still winning the damn thing.

Some so-called "fans," wagon-hoppers who only started following the team during the 15-game win streak, don't understand how baseball words. The Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the best record, 74-44 (.627), in baseball right now, have lost three of their last ten games. They lost back-to-back games in Fenway this season, suffered a five-game losing streak, and got swept in Pittsburgh last month. Losses happen. The mighty Boston Red Sox are 8-2 (.800) in their last 10 games, and 27-5 (.844) since the last time they suffered a second consecutive loss back on July 2. They lost yesterday afternoon, 4-3. So what? Get over it. 

Yesterday, White, Sogard, and Abreu all had RBIs. Brayan Bello came on in the second and pitched four innings of "relief," striking out four and giving up one run on three hits. The Sox had a 3-2 lead through seven innings and entered the ninth tied, 3-3, but Chapman blew the save with an RBI double and took the loss. Boston ends their home stand with a 4-2 record.

The Red Sox are 64-53 on the season, seven back from Tampa Bay and 1½ back from second-place New York (who lost in extra innings to the Atlanta Braves last night). They're 5½ up in the Wild Card standings. Like a lot of teams in a lot of different sports, they tend to play well against quality opponents and poorly against lesser competitors.  

Overall, despite the streak, they're still only 29-31 at home. So it's off to Canada to play four against the Toronto Blue Jays (56-53). Tonight, Boston ace Sonny Gray (14-2, 2.78) takes the mound against Jameson Taillon (2-6, 5.96). The veteran Taillon, recently acquired by the Jays from the Cubs, hasn't faced the Red Sox since 2022, when he was with the Yankees (NY won the game in the tenth inning).   

Gray is 0-1 against Toronto in two starts this season. The last time he faced the Jay's, Toronto's Dylan Cease pitched a complete-game masterpiece, a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts, while Gray had an off night (three Ks with five runs, including one HR). Back in June, he went seven innings against the Jays with four Ks and three runs, two on homers, but Chapman blew the save and took the loss (sound familiar?). So Gray's overdue for a win against Toronto.

First pitch is at 7:07.

A's 7, Red Sox 3

 

Of all the improbable things in this most improbable of comeback seasons, the most improbable might possibly be that the Red Sox are 26-4 in the last 30 games and half of those losses are to the last place Athletics (46-72), and even more specifically at the hands of starting pitcher Gage Jump (5-7, 4.46).

On July 28, Jump and the A's beat Boston, 3-4. Big Jake Bennett took the loss. Since that game, the Sox won nine straight while the A's suffered nine back0to-back losses. The two teams met again yesterday in another Jump-Bennett match, and the two teams' opposing streaks ended.  

Personally, I think the loss was due more to the inevitable sugar crash after Thursday night's epic, 13-inning win than it was to Athletic excellence. Payton Tolle energized the team on Friday night with his 14-K performance, but the team paid the price yesterday with sluggish batting and an exhausted, sleep-deprived bullpen. 

Yesterday, Jump struck out 11 while allowing only two runs on six hits. Big Jake Bennet struck out five, but also gave up four runs on five hits. Slaten gave up a run in the fifth, and Raymond Burgos another three in the sixth and seventh, but Burgos' real job yesterday was to go the distance for the final three innings and give the rest of the bullpen some much-needed rest, which he did.

And thus ended Boston's second epic win streak of the summer at nine straight. Whatever. You don't win 'em all. We won't face Jump and the A's again this season (news flash: the A's aren't making the playoffs), so it's time to start the third streak of summer.

Game 3, the rubber match, is this afternoon. Erik Miller (2-0, 2.57) makes his first start in Fenway against J.T. Ginn (8-6, 3.51). Time to start winning some more games.

Red Sox 13, A's 1

 

Nine straight wins. Twenty-seven of the last 30. The mighty Boston Red Sox winning machine just keeps on rolling.

Last night's victims were the Oakland Sacramento someday-Vegas A's, tied with the Angels and Rockies for the worst record in MLB. Last night, the Sox beat the A's 13-1 behind Payton Tolle's 14-K performance. Collectively, the A's pitchers - starter Jack Perkins and the bullpen - only had five K's.

New guy Raymond Burgos, who has pitched only one inning in the majors prior to last night, a June 24, 2024 game for the Giants, pitched three hitless innings last night, striking out two. That has got to build your confidence.   

Boston jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning behind a two-run homer by Jarren Duran, and RBI doubles by new guy Jake Rogers and Wilyer Abreu. The Sox made it 9-0 in the fourth with another Abreu RBI, and base hits by Masataka Yoshida and Andruw Monasterio. The A's caught a break when Tolle slipped up and Tyler Soderstrom managed a  solo homer, ruining the potential no-hitter, but no big deal. Caleb Durbin and Yoshida brought in two more runs in the sixth, and Durbin and Ceddanne Rafaela brought in two more in the seventh.

It wasn't exactly a nail-bitter, but after Thursday night's 13-inning master class in Hitchcockian suspense, a laugher was more than welcome.

The Yankees squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves last night in ten innings, so the Sox are still a half-game back from New York in the AL East and the Wild Card standings. They trail Tampa Bay in the division by five.

This afternoon (4:10 pm), big Jake Bennett (7-4, 2.90) takes the Fenway mound for Boston against Gage Jump (4-7, 4.59). The matchup is a repeat of the very last game that the Red Sox lost, the 4-3 defeat in Sacramento back on July 28. Jump struck out seven while allowing no runs and only two hits in that game, while Big Jake gave up three runs in six hits while striking out four. I'm sure Bennett and the Sox want to atone for that loss and continue their current win streak to 10.   

Red Sox 12, White Sox 11 (13 Innings)

 

Last night, I watched (actually, listened to - the WEEI broadcast over SiriusXM) one of the greatest games of baseball I've ever experienced. Quite possibly the greatest game since Game 4 of the 2004 ACLS, when the Red Sox, down three games to none, beat the Yankees, 6-4, in twelve innings (and went on to win the World Series).

The sheer intensity of last night's game is almost impossible to describe. The White Sox jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but Connor Wong homered in the third, Monasterio and Seigler both hit RBI doubles in the fourth, and Yoshida scored Durbin in the sixth. Starter Ranger Suarez didn't have his best stuff last night, giving up three earned runs on three hits and walking two, and only lasted three innings. Relievers Weissert and Slaten weren't much better, and after 8½ innings, Chicago led, 7-6.

In the bottom of the ninth, Wong reached base on a double. Sogard advanced the runner with a sac fly, but then Rafaela struck out. Abreu came to the plate with two outs, down by one, and fell behind in the count, 2-1. The Red Sox were one strike away from losing the game when Abreu singled to shallow center, scoring the baserunner and tying the game. Abreu got caught stealing and the game went into extra innings.

And that's when things got interesting. In the 10th inning, Chicago's Chase Meidroth hit a two-run homer off reliever Aroldis Chapman, and the game seemed all but over. Boston hadn't led at any point in the game, and a two-run, 10th-inning lead seemed like an insurmoutable obstacle. But the Red Sox refused to roll over and die, and in the bottom of the inning, Monasterio hit a double, scoring the ghost runner (Abreu) and then Seigler hit a sac fly to score a second run and tie the game back up.

In the 11th, reliever Garrett Whitlock advanced the ghost runner to third on a wild pitch, and the White Sox brought him home on a sac fly to regain the lead. But Boston came right back and Abreu hit a sac fly of his own to score ghost runner Sogard from second and tie the game up a third time. Much the same thing happened in the 12th - reliever Brayan Bello gave up a run on three hits and a walk, giving Chicago another one-run lead, but then new guy Jake Rogers, in his first Red Sox appearance, brought ghost runner Duran home with a sac fly.

By this point, both teams had gone through their entire bullpens and benches. There were no more substitute players for either team, on the mound, in the field, or at the plate. Everyone on both teams was exhausted, but neither team was about to quit or concede the game to the other. 

Fortunately, Brayan Bello, who was a little wild in the 12th inning, settled down in the 13th and retired the White Sox in three. And then, bottom of the 13th, with one out and after four hours and 23 minutes of baseball, Caleb Durbin hit a single to center field and scored Nick Sogard from third. The Red Sox finally got their first lead of the entire night and won, 12-11, after 13 innings.

The Red Sox had to rally from behind five times to win the game, and baseball statisticians claim it was the first time any team has scored five times in the ninth inning or later since 1900. It's Boston's eighth straight win and 26th in their last 29 games. It's their second straight sweep of a team in first place of their division and earlier this season they swept AL East leaders Tampa Bay (it's also their second sweep of the White Sox this season). 

But don't dismiss the Pale Hose. They put up one hell of a fight, and like Boston, refused to roll over and die, reclaiming the lead over and over again. It was a gut check for both teams and both were pushed to their absolute limits, but Boston came out ahead and if you still have any doubts about this Red Sox team at this point, you're either an idiot or a Yankees fan (and there's a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of those two demographics). 

Speaking of idiots, the Yankees lost last night and the Red Sox (63-51) now trail New York by a paper-thin half game. And the Yankees will be hosting the Atlanta Braves (70-45) for the next three games, while the Red Sox will entertain the hapless A's (45-70) this weekend. I think the Yankee fans are hearing footsteps up in the Bronx.

The Red Sox are still five games back in the AL East from the first-place Rays. But there's still 48 more games to play, including three down in Tampa Bay.

It's going to be hard coming off last night's high to play the lowly A's, and the Sox players must still be exhausted. But fortunately, Payton Tolle's still fresh, and he'll be putting his 6-6 record and 3.30 ERA up against the A's Jack Perkins (2-7, 6.72). The two pitchers faced each other last week in Sacramento and Tolle and the Red Sox won, 4-2, with Tolle getting seven K's and only one walk, while Perkins stuck out four and walked three.  Incidentally, that win marked the start of Boston's current eight game win streak, and a sweep of the A's would extend the streak to 11.   

But, wow, last night's game was pretty spectacular!

Red Sox 4, White Sox 0

The mighty Boston Red Sox have clinched the win in their ninth straight series, earning them another of the highly coveted (lol) Sweat Dissolves Water trophies. The last time the Sox won nine consecutive series was between August 4 and September 15, 1912. That year, they finished with a record of 105-47 and won the World Series, defeating the New York Giants.

Last night, Boston won the second of the three-game homestand against the White Sox in a 4-0 shutout for their seventh back-to-back win. They're now 9-1 in their last ten games and officially once again the hottest team in baseball.  Wilyer Abreu homered in the third inning, his 20th home run of the season. Willson Contreras, Andruw Monasterio, and Caleb Durbin all had RBI base hits too. Sonny Gray went six innings, striking out eight and giving up only three hits and no runs. The bullpen (Guerrero, Whitlock, and  Morán) struck out another six over the final three innings.

Contreras' .288 batting average is fifth highest in the American League, and Rafaela's .287 is sixth. Gray's 2.78 ERA is fifth best in the AL among qualified starters. Seven straight wins, nine in the last ten games. Nine series wins. Eleven games over .500. And to make it all the sweeter, the Yankees lost last night, so the Red Sox are now only one game back from second-place New York. They're up by six games in the Wild Card standings. 

Tonight, Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15) faces off against Chicago's Luis Castillo (3-9, 5.06). The Red Sox will win and complete their second straight series sweep. And with the anemic A's (45-69) on the schedule next, it could well be three sweeps and 11 consecutive wins. 

Way back on April 16, after the Red Sox beat the Twins, 9-5, I said, and I quote, "We're going to the World Series, and that's a guarantee!" And friendly reminder that I called it correctly on June 26, after the first game of the sweep of the Yankees, when I said, "The greatest comeback in sports history began last evening. We're going to the World Series, baby!" And of course I said it throughout the epic 15-game win streak as that greatest of all comebacks did, in fact, materialize. 

So I'll repeat it now: World Series, baby. We're going to the World Series!

At Sea, At Last

 

Conditions have lifted in the Bering Sea to allow Ella Hibbert and the Yeva to finally leave St. Paul Island this morning and set sail for the Northeast Passage over Siberia and Scandinavia. Hopefully, by this fall, Hibbert will have completed the first solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean. For the first time this year, all three sailors we've been tracking - Ella Hibbert, Tamara Klink, and Matt Rutherford - are all at sea at the same time. 

Klink has passed the Diomede Islands (she sailed north of the islands this time, not between them like she did last year) and then headed west (!) toward Siberia and the Northeast Passage. It still isn't clear if she was going to reach the Atlantic via the Northeast or the Northwest Passage to return her ship, the Sardinha, to Brazil, but right now, she's less than 10 miles off of Russia's Cape Deshnev, the easternmost point of Asia. She may just be tacking west as she heads north towards Alaska's Hope Point, but right now she's right at the entry to the Northwest Passage.

Storm conditions have also settled down on the Barents Sea and Matt Rutherford is underway again. His present course has him crossing north of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The northernmost tip of the archipelago is at about 77° N, which is the same as his current latitude. If the sea ice allows him to maintain that latitude, it's a straight shot east across the Kara Sea from the tip of Novaya Zemlya to the Vilkitsky Strait between Siberia's Taimyr Peninsula and Bolshevik Island and on into the Laptev Sea. The shortest-distance, straight-line route to the Laptev is to stay on the 77th parallel, although clearing the top of the Taimyr will require him to go north to about the 78th. However, I wasn't sure if he was going to take that direct route or dip south closer to the mainland (less ice, closer to civilization in case of emergency). 

Hibbert and Klink (if she's heading that way) will also have to pass over the Taimyr, although in the opposite direction, as they complete their passages. Which brings up the question as to whether any of them will encounter the others in the great, wide Arctic as they take their separate voyages. 

Three separate sailors in the Northeast Passage at the same time! That has got to be a historical first.       

Beyond Nome

 

After nearly two weeks harbored in Nome, Alaska, Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 are finally at sea once again, heading north. It's still not clear whether she's planning on taking the Northeast or the Northwest Passage to reach the Atlantic, but her long stay in Nome makes me suspect that she may be Northeast bound. The Northwest Passage should have been clear of ice by this point in the season, but perhaps she was waiting for the ice over Siberia in the Northeast Passage to finally melt. Also, the red tape for Russian permits and entry visas may have taken some time to clear. But we probably won't know which way she's heading until she passes through the Bering Strait and past the Diomede Islands.

Speaking of the Northeast Passage, Matt Rutherford and the Chimera have passed over the Svalbard Islands. Rutherford got as far north as latitude 81° 14' before heading back south again, but his approach toward Russian waters has been interrupted by a major storm in the Barents Sea. He's currently tacking east and west at around the 78th degree latitude to kill some time until the storm plays itself out.

A separate storm in the Bering Sea has Ella Hibbert and the Yeva pinned down on Saint Paul Island, where she's been since May. She's ready to go on her trip over Siberia and across the Northeast Passage, but there's no point (or wisdom) in starting the trip under the torrential rainfall, high seas, winds, and low visibility currently in the Bering. Another day or two and she should finally be on her way.         

Red Sox 14, White Sox 2

 

What do you do after you swept the Dodgers in L.A. and return home on a five-game winning streak to face the Chicago White Sox, the first-place team in the AL Central?  

Score six runs in the first inning, including a Caleb Durbin home run and a Jarren Duran solo homer in the next at-bat, and go on to win the game, 14-2, of course. 

The Red Sox scored six more runs in the sixth inning, and Wilyer Abreu hit solo homers in the fifth and eighth innings. Starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval went five innings with five K's and two runs, and the bullpen kept Chicago hitless through four, including Eric Miller in his Red Sox debut and Brayan Bello closing the game with three hitless innings. Outfielder Eli White made his first Boston appearance, too, pinch hitting for Rafaela in the eighth (he grounded out on the first pitch to him). 

For most of this season, it seemed like five consecutive wins were something beyond this team's pay grade. Now, after the 15-game win streak, they've just won a sixth straight for the second time this year. 

The Red Sox are now 61-51, ten game over .500. Just last June, they were 14 point underwater at one point. They trail the Rays by 5½ games and the Yankees by two, and in any other division of the American League, their .545 record would put them in first place. The AL East is a tough neighborhood.  

Sonny Gray (13-2, 2.93) starts tonight. His ERA is the sixth lowest in the American League and his thirteen wins are the most of any pitcher in the AL, and tied for second over in the NL. Gray has a 7-2 lifetime record against the White Sox. 

Gray will be up against Chicago's Sean Burke (7-5, 3.04). In his last start against the Red Sox back on 4/20 of last year, he struck out five and gave up four runs (only one officially earned) in five innings.

At 8-2 over their last ten games, the Sox are tied with Houston and San Diego as the hottest team in MLB. It's time to make that record 9-1 and leave those Astros and Padres behind.

Red Sox 8, Dodgers 4

 

NOW do you believe? Since late June, the mighty Boston Red Sox have gone 28-5, sweeping, among others, the Yankees, the Rays, and now the Dodgers, won nine of ten series, and had a 15-game winning streak. Their current win streak is at five, and they're 60-51 on the season, nine games over .500, seventh-best in the majors.  

Being a Red Sox fan is about long periods of suffering interrupted by ecstatic bursts of pure joy. The suffering is necessary to make the joy feel more cathartic and the joy is necessary to make the suffering tolerable. Believe me, I know: I've been a fan for 50 years now and have seen it all - 86 years without a World Series win (I was only present for 28 of those years), Bucky Fucking Dent in 1977, and Bill Buckner in 1986. But then coming back in 2004 from 0-3 to win the ALCS against the Yankees, finally winning our first World Series that year since the days of Babe Ruth, and all the League and World Series championships since then.

So far, this season has been a microcosm of that whole suffering-and-joy cycle in one year. On June 24, this team was 32-46, 14 games underwater, and couldn't even win a series against the pathetic Colorado Rockies. Then, the next day after losing in Colorado, the Yankees came to Fenway, and we entered the ecstatic joy portion of the cycle. It's been (mostly) all winning ever since.

Last night, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in L.A., 8-4, completing a three-game sweep of the team. Two of the three wins were by four or more runs. The Sox beat L.A. like a bunch of red-headed stepchildren while Dodger fans and the media could only watch in speechless astonishment from the stands. Tarik Screwball was at yesterday's game in a brand-new Dodgers uniform for photo-ops and adoration by the fans, but the Red Sox spoiled his little quinceañera.

Boston opened the game with two runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Masataka Yoshida and Caleb Durbin. The Dodgers took the lead, 3-2, with some small-ball hitting of their own, but then the Red Sox took charge, opening the third inning with home runs by three of the first four batters to the plate. Ceddanne Rafaela hit a bomb 407 feet into deep left center, and Wilyer Abreu followed with another homer on the very next pitch. After Willson Contreras (back in the lineup from concussion protocol after getting beaned by a vicious fastball by the dirty, cheating Dodgers in the first game of the series) flied out, Yoshida homered 406 feet into deep right. Down 5-3, starting pitcher Ed Sheeran Emmet Sheehan hit Andruw Monasterio with a pitch because of course he did - it's all the dirty, cheating Dodgeballs know how to do. "If you can't beat 'em, bean 'em." They sat Sheehan after that, but I think it was more because of the three homers he just gave up than to protect opposing batters. 

Jarren Duran homered in the seventh to make it 6-3, Boston. In the eighth, the Dodgers pitchers reverted to hitting batters again, this time reliever Wyatt Mills hitting Caleb Durbin with a pitch. But the joke was on the Dodgeballs - Mills loaded the bases and then Durbin scored on a wild pitch. Mills sailed his next pitch past the catcher, allowing Monasterio to score from third. 8-4, Boston. L.A. literally threw the game away. 

Big Jake Bennett went 5⅔ innings with four K's and three runs on four hits. Unlike the Dodgers, he managed to make it through the game without wild pitches, passed balls, or hitting batters with pitches. 

The Rays lost last night, so the third-place Red Sox (60-51) are now five games back from first and 2½ back from second-place New York. They're currently second in the AL Wild Card standings, four games ahead of Cleveland.

The Sox are off today, traveling back to Fenway after completing their West Coast road trip with a 6-1 record.  On Tuesday, they start a three-game series with the White Sox (59-52), who they swept in Chicago during their epic, 15-game win streak, followed by a weekend series against the A's (45-67).

We're going to the World Series, baby, and if you don't think the team that has swept both the American League and the National League leaders is going to win the Series, then you don't know baseball (and probably live in New York or L.A.).