Red Sox 9, Dodgers 4

 

In-fucking-credible! The 15-game win streak may have ended, but the season turnaround of all season turnarounds continues.  The mighty Boston Red Sox have gone 26-5 since June 25, the start of the homestand against the Yankees, and 21-4 in the month of July, the winningest month in 125 years of Red Sox baseball. Their .840 winning percentage in July passed the franchise record of .800 set in August 1950 and June 1901. 

Their 21-4 July record is the fifth best in MLB history for the month. The record, if you're curious, is the 20-3 run (.870) by the 2017 L.A. Dodgers, and last night, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers, 9-4, to end the month of July with one big fat exclamation point.  

This is a truly historic run - no hyperbole or fan-boy overstatement - and if you've still got your head up your ass and ignoring it, that's on you, boo. You're not likely to see a team this on fire again in your lifetime.    

What a game! The scoring started in the second inning when Jarren Duran, yes, Jarren Duran, hit an RBI single, scoring Caleb Durbin. For the haters out there, Duran also had another RBI in the seventh when be brought Durbin home again with a ground out.

But everyone knows you don't beat the Dodgers in L.A, with a single run, and the Dodgers helped us out by allowing two more runs in the third inning when meme player Freddie Freeman bobbled a Masataka Yoshida hit up the first-base line and allowed Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard to score.

But everyone also knows you don't even beat the Dodgers in L.A. with three early-inning runs, and Freeman reminded us of that in the fourth, when he (partially) atoned for his error by hitting a single that brought Shohei Ohtoni home from third. The Dodgers made it 3-2 in the fifth inning with another RBI single, and then Ohtoni gave L.A. a 4-3 lead with a two-run homer in the Dodgers' very next at-bat.

At that point, I was already consoling myself with "You can't win 'em all" and "At least we played them tough," but then Rafaela stepped to the plate in the seventh and crushed a two-run homer 411 feet into deep left center. But the Red Sox weren't done that inning, far from it, and Andruw Monasterio hit a double, scoring Yoshida and Wilyer Abreu to make it 7-4, Boston. And that set the stage for Duran's second RBI of the night, the groundout that scored Durbin a second time.

And here's the real shocker: Brayan Bello was near perfect in four innings of shutout relief, striking out three, including the last batter in the ninth inning, and giving up only three hits. Bello, who has the worst ERA (10.35) in baseball among starting pitchers, now has the best ERA among relievers (0.69). Overall, Boston pitchers now have the third-best team ERA (3.54), in all of baseball, even including Bello's numbers, better than the Dodgers' 3.61. 

Where was Willson Contreras in all this?, you ask. On the bench, in concussion protocol. He got beaned in the third inning - hit in the head by a speeding fastball thrown by L.A. starter Cole Irvin. Now, you could give Irvin the benefit of the doubt - Contreras is known for crowding the plate, and sometimes pitches go a foot or two off target, it happens. But the pitch was the second up-and-inside of the at-bat, and Contreras had to hit the dirt two pitches earlier, so it doesn't look completely accidental. The Dodgers pulled Irvin after the errant pitch, but I'm not impressed - Irvin's throw proves the Dodgers are a bunch of dirty, low-life, cheating motherfuckers (except for Mookie, of course), who think nothing of injuring an opposing player, even ending a career, if it burnishes their statistics even in the slightest. It's no coincidence that Dirty Don Drysdale, their legendary hero, still holds the NL record for hit batsmen (154). They can all rot in hell for all I care.  

The Red Sox are now 58-51, and with Tampa Bay losing last night, are now only six games out of first in the AL East, 3½ back from the second-place Yankees in both the division and Wild Card standings. Last night's win was the fourth of this seven-game road trip, guaranteeing they'll return to Fenway with a winning record for this West Coast trip. 

Tonight's game starts at 9:10, the last game that Boston will start after 9:00 pm this season. Payton Tolle (6-6, 3.32) gets the start for Boston, his first game in Dodgers Stadium and first time facing the team. The Dodgers will start Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-6, 2.72), who despite three years in L.A., has not faced the Red Sox yet. So we'll have two teams getting their first looks at two pitchers.  

Exciting, isn't it?

Red Sox 5, A's 4

 

The Boston Red Sox let the A's jump out to a 3-0 lead after four innings in last night's game, but then tied it up in the fifth, only to allow the A's to move out to another lead in the sixth. Then Abreu and Contreras rolled up their sleeves and hit back-to-back homers to start the 8th, and the Red Sox leave Sacramento with a 3-1 series win.

During the game, Jarren Duran threw a much publicized temper tantrum in the dugout, but I'm not talking about that here but you can read all about it to your heart's content elsewhere. Knock yourself out.

Sonny Gray went seven full innings, striking out five while giving up all four of the A's runs on seven hits. 

After 108 games, the Red Sox are 57-51. After 108 games last year, they were 57-51, and in 2024, they were 57-51 after 108. In 2023, after 108 games, they were, you guessed it, 57-51. We just arrived there in very different ways each year.

New York lost their second straight to the White Sox last night, so now the third-place Red Sox are only 3½ behind them. The Yankees (61-48) are staying in Chicago for the weekend for four games against the Cubs (62-47), so more losses by the slumping Yankees can be expected. 

Unfortunately, the Sox move on to L.A. (69-40) to visit our old friend Mookie Betts and check in on Shohei Ohtani. Realistically, I'm not expecting much from Boston in this series, and if we win even a single game against the Dodgers, I'll be happy. On the other hand, this Red Sox team has played its best against top-level opponents - they swept both Tampa Bay and the Yankees recently. I'm not predicting another sweep here, but like I said, one out of three isn't inconceivable.

The first game will see Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.02) making his second start since returning from the IL. Suarez is a career 3-2 against the Dodgers in five starts, with 30 strikeouts and only three runs. Last year, in the playoff division series, he got the Dodgers to strike out four times and gave up only one run in long relief (five innings) for the Phillies.

The Dodgeballs will start Edgardo Henriquez (4-1, 2.79). In three years in the majors, Henriquez has thrown all of one pitch to the Sox, a July 26, 2025 relief appearance where he got Romy Gonzalez to ground out in Fenway. So, other than that, he's pretty much an unknown commodity to the Red Sox.

Red Sox 4, A's 2 (10)

 

This game had everything. Sure, the obvious - an extra inning and a come-from-behind Red Sox win. But the game also had a fifth inning Jahmai Jones homer to tie the game up at one each, only to then have him pulled from the lineup for pinch-hitter Jarren Duran (.197), who went 0-3 in his plate appearances, with a ground out, a fly out, and a line out. It had Nick Sogard, back in the majors for his first game since May 30, tie the game up again in the sixth inning with an RBI single. And it had pitcher Patrick Sandoval hit an A's batter in the wrist with a pitch, two days after an A's pitcher hit the Sox' Curtis Mead with a pitch, fracturing his wrist and putting him on the IL for an estimated six weeks.     

That last part was just a coincidence, I'm sure.

But the best part of all, after Sogard tied the game up and forced an extra inning, Andruw Monasterio hit a two-run homer into deep left center in the tenth inning to win the game.  

Oh, and the Yankees lost last night, 6-5, in 12 innings in Chicago to the White Sox. Since June 25, when the Yankees came to Fenway for a four-game series, the Red Sox have gone 24-5 and are currently 7-3 in their last ten games. At 56-51 (.523) on the season, they are quite literally the best third-place team in baseball.  

The Red Sox wrap up this road series with a fourth and final game in Sacramento tonight. Sonny Gray (12-2, 2.78) starts tonight, although I really wish that his rotation came up tomorrow instead to pitch against the Dodgers, when we could really use him. The A's will start with righty Mason Barnett (1-1, 4.74). In two starts last year, Barnett gave up six runs on 12 hits to Boston, including a Rob Refsnyder home run, and didn't see the fifth inning in either game. 

A's 4, Red Sox 3

 

A Connor Wong two-run homer in the ninth wasn't enough to win the game, or even to force extra innings. Boston takes a 4-3 road loss in Sacramento.

 

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Curtis Mead has a fractured wrist and is on the 10-day injured list, at least for now. If he needs surgery, he'll be out even longer. We traded young Connelly Early for Mead, and got all of one at-bat from him (a strikeout) before he got hit by a pitch. Not his fault, but just our luck. 

A sweep of  the A's would have been nice, but Tampa Bay lost last night, too, so at least there wasn't that much damage to last night's loss, other than a missed opportunity to move up a game in the standings. The Red Sox (55-51) are still in third place and still seven back from the Rays, but now are 5½ back from New York in both the AL East and Wild Card standings.

Tonight, it's Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 3.21) against Jacob Lopez (5.4, 6.12). In 11 games over seven seasons, Sandoval is 4-4 against the A's. Lopez has been in the majors for four years now, but has somehow missed the chance to pitch to the Sox before this evening. 

First pitch is at 9:40. 

North Arctic Run Down

 

Matt Rutherford is now north of Svalbard, all the way up at latitude 80° 58' N. He's going to try and reach 81°, but he needs to advance some 80 miles further east before the polar ice cap allows him that far north. 

After rounding Svalbard, he will head back south across the Barents Sea toward Russia. It's unclear whether he intends to cross over the northern tip of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (or if that's even possible with the ice), or sail closer to the Russian mainland south of the islands.

Tamara Klink has been harbored in Nome for the past week. She hasn't said if she's just enjoying the Alaskan hospitality, or repairing something on her ship, or waiting for the ice to clean on whichever arctic route she intends to take home to Brazil - an eastward passage over Canada through the Northwest passage or a westward passage over Russia through the Northeast Passage.

Ella Hibbert is still counting the days in Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea before she's cleared to sail in Russian water through the Northeast Passage.        

Red Sox 4, A's 2

 

Trailing by one run, Conner Wong doubled to open up the sixth inning. Yoshida and Seigler both grounded out, advancing Wong to third but, well, two outs. A's starting pitcher Jack Perkins walked Contreras and was replaced by reliever José Suarez, who walked Abreu. Bases loaded, two outs.

Ceddanne Rafaela comes to the plate. He doesn't swing at a changeup or a fastball, 0-2, and then Suarez throws an 82-mph slider right across the plate.

Grand-slam home run, Rafaela's first, 402 feet into deep left center. The game-winning hit and Boston's only score of the game, but the Sox take the lead and win the game, 4-2.

But wait a minute. Did I say Seigler back there? What was he even doing in the game? New-guy Curtis Mead started at second, but in his second at-bat, A's starter Jack Perkins hit Mead in the hand with a pitch. Mead left the game in obvious pain and the extent of his injury is not yet known. Fuck Perkins, fuck the A's, and fuck Sacramento, California. 

Red Sox starting pitcher Payton Tolle went 5⅓ innings, striking out seven but giving up two runs on two solo homers. The bullpen was perfect - no runs, no hits, no walks - until Chapman gave up a bullshit little single to start the ninth, but he struck out the next three batters to end the inning and win the game.

Everyone in the AL East won their game today, so the Red Sox (55-50) are still seven games back from Tampa Bay in the division and 4½ back from the Yankees in both the AL East and the Wild Card standings. Three of the six teams currently eligible for the playoffs in the American League are from the AL East, just saying.

Big Jake Bennett (6-3, 2.58) starts for the Sox tonight. The rookie hasn't pitched in Sacramento yet and hasn't faced the A's before, so he should be padding his stats with a win tonight (9:40). The A's will counter a rookie named Gage Jump (if an action movie starred a character named "Gage Jump," it would get changed to something more believable), who's 3-6 and has a 4.42 ERA.  

The Red Sox, 8-2 in the last 10 games and still officially the hottest team in MLB, are on a two-game win streak, with three more games to go against the A's. With the Dodgers on the horizon, I don't see another 15-run streak in the immediate future, but it Mead's injury isn't severe, anything's still possible.

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 1

 

The Red Sox (8-2 in their last ten starts and still the hottest team in baseball right now) end their historic home stand with a W and win the series against the Toronto Blue Jays, two games to one.

Yesterday, the Sox won, 6-1, without any home runs or grandstanding heroics but with a relentless series of RBI base hits and a solid bullpen. Suarez, coming off the IL, had a deliberately short outing, throwing only 64 pitches over four innings but still racking up six strikeouts and not allowing any runs. 

The third-place Red Sox are 7½ games back from first-place Tampa Bay. The Yankees got blown out, 11-4, by Philly yesterday, so Boston now trails New York by 4½ in both the AL East and the Wild Card standings, where the Sox still hold the second berth.   

The Red Sox begin a West Coast road trip with four games in Sacramento (sure, why not?) against the A's (44-61). Tolle (5-6, 3.31) pitches the first game tonight (9:40). He faced the A's twice last season, starting one and relieving in the other, both without a decision. However, he lasted only two innings in his last start in, um, Sacramento, giving up two homers, but the Boston batters bailed him out and Chapman wound up taking the loss. Hey, it was Tolle's third MLB appearance, gimme a break. The A's will start Jack Perkins (2-5, 6.75). This won't end well for Jack. 

A sweep of the A's would be nice, because next the Sox play three in L.A. against Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and the Dodgers (67-39). A sweep of the A's and winning at least one against the Dodgers would result in a 5-2 road  trip, and I'd be happy with that outcome.

Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 0

 

Toronto's Dylan Cease went all nine innings, gave up only one hit and no runs, and struck out a dozen. The Red Sox didn't stand a chance. The Jays won, 6-0.

Boston (53-50) is still in third place in the AL East and still holds the second Wild Card spot, and can still win the home series against Toronto with a victory today. 

But not with young Connelly Early. Yesterday, the Sox traded the injured lefty (and SDW favorite) to Washington for third baseman Curtis Mead (.254). The Sox had plenty of lefties on their roster but needed more hitting, as yesterday's game showed, so the deal makes sense. Third baseman Caleb Durbin is batting .233, but several of his 10 home runs have been in clutch situations, and I hope Boston's long-term plans are to keep both third basement aboard.  

Ranger Saurez (4-3, 3.15) is finally being reactivated from the IL to start today. He's been out since July 9 with a groin pull. Ranger's a lifetime 2-0 against the Jays, and last year, in his last start against Toronto, went seven complete shutout innings, striking out six.  

The Jays will start Kevin Gausman (4-9, 4.51), who's a career 8-11 against Boston.  He last started against Boston back last September, when the Sox tagged him for four earned runs.  

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4

 

Last night, Anthony Seigler went 4-of-5 at bat, including a leadoff home run in the first inning and an RBI double in the eighth. He hit a single in the third and then Rafaela brought him home with a homer to deep left center. A Monasterio sac fly brought Yoshida home from third in the sixth to make the score 4-0 before Toronto even scored their first run. 

Back on February 9, the Red Sox got Seigler, Monasterio, Durbin, and a draft pick from the Milwaukee Brewers for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drohan. I think it's now safe to say Boston came out ahead in that deal. Boston is 24-14 since Seigler's June 4 MLB debut in a Red Sox uniform, which along with Durbin and Monasterio's contributions, may account for the Sox' midseason turnaround as much as anything. Also, Seigler is the second Navajo to ever play in MLB, as if there weren't already reasons to cheer for him.

The 15-game streak now in the record books, the Sox are back to winning again. Last night, the Jays challenged Boston's 4-0, sixth-inning lead, scoring three in the seventh and another in the eighth. But rather than give up and collapse like the first-half Red Sox might have, the new, improved team came back in the bottom of the eighth. Gonzalez doubled to left field, scoring Durran, and then Seigler hit his RBI  double to bring Gonzalez home. The Sox won, 6-4.

In only his third start since 2024, Patrick Sandoval went 4⅔ shutout innings, striking out three and giving up five base hits. Weissert and Whitlock gave up the Blue Jay runs in the seventh and eighth, but Guerrero was perfect in the sixth and Chapman gave up a walk in the ninth because of course he did, but also ended the game with a Toronto K.

Boston (53-49) is now 6½ games back from first place Tampa Bay and 4½ back from New York. With last night's win, they move up in the Wild Card standings and now control the second berth, a half game ahead of Cleveland.    

Tonight, both teams will throw their pitching aces onto the mound. The Red Sox will start their 20-win contender, Sonny Gray (12-1, 2.48), and the Jays will start Dylan Cease (6-5, 2.67). In his last start against Toronto, Gray went seven innings and gave up three runs in a 4-3 defeat, although Chapman took the loss, while Cease last went five innings in a 6-1 Jays win, so the Sox have their work cut out for them.

Meanwhile, Down in Philly

 

Life just got a whole lot harder in the NBA's Atlantic Division. 

The Knicks won the NBA Finals in five, and marched undefeated through the playoffs before that single-loss series. They're now officially a power to be reckoned with in the division, the conference, and the whole NBA.

To further the agony, the Sixers, who last season came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Celtics from the first round of the playoffs in seven, still have Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe to support their championship hopes. Then to add insult to injury, they acquired Jaylen Brown from Boston, breaking the heart of many a Celtics fan. And today, it was announced that they won the bidding war and will sign LeBron James to a two-year contract.  

Sure, James is now 41 and his best playing days are behind him. But he's still the league’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time NBA champion, and four-time MVP. His basketball knowledge, combined with Embiid's shooting, Brown's athleticism, and Maxey and Edgecombe's skills, are going to be a challenge for the Celtics, the Knicks, and any other NBA team playing them. 

But at least we picked up Paul George, lol.

Meanwhile, Up In the Arctic

 

With the Red Sox off last night, our attention naturally turns once again to the Arctic Ocean. 

Elle Hibbert is still on St. Paul Island (57° N) in the Bering Sea. She took her ship, the Yeva, on its first test run and everything checked out fine. Now it's just a waiting game for the weather and the Russian authorities to align so she can make her trip through the Northeast Passage over Asia and Europe and complete her clockwise Arctic Ocean circumnavigation.

Mike Rutherford is currently at sea working on his counter-clockwise, single-season Arctic circumnavigation. He's currently west of the Svalbard Islands at latitude 78.7°, and is hoping to reach the 80th parallel, the northernmost point of his voyage. There's currently a storm brewing northeast of Svalbard, so he has to decide whether to try to pass north over the islands or to cross the 80th and turn back south and pass below the islands. It's all up to the weather.

Tamara Kling is in Nome, Alaska (64.5° N), where she's been in harbor for the past couple of days. Still no word on whether she's planning to bring her ship, the Sardinha 2, home to Brazil by way of the Northeast or the Northwest Passage - either route would be epic and record setting.

Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources announced that three research icebreakers, the Xuelong, Xuelong 2, and Jidi, set sail from the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian to conduct an Arctic  mission. Another research vessel, the Tansuo 3, is expected to join the expedition later. 

As the research ships pass through the Bering Sea, the U.S. Coast Guard is carefully monitoring their activities. Per international law, countries enjoy sovereign rights over natural resources and economic activities within their exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from shore, but they do not possess full authority over the space. The Coast Guard said that while the foreign vessels were permitted to operate within the zone and shelf, they remain vigilant to ensure thar activities comply with international law.

As climate change has opened new shipping routes, exposed untapped resources, and raised the Arctic's strategic value, China’s interest in the region has grown, as has the U.S.'s and others'. China lacks an Arctic coastline, but described itself as a “near-Arctic state” in a 2018 policy paper. It's northernmost point is at latitude 53.5° N, roughly the same latitude as Unalaska Island in the Aleutians, but also as Dublin and Hamburg, although it's recognized that with its subarctic climate, Mohe, the northernmost city in China, has more in common with Siberia than Liverpool. 

Orioles 5, Red Sox 1

 

The streak is over at 15 games. Northing lasts forever and impermanence is swift. Even Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr couldn't win sixteen in a row.   

Last night, in the second half of a double header, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, who hadn't tasted defeat since July 1. Like the first game of the DH, there was little question of the outcome, but in the opposite direction - this time, it was the Orioles who scored four runs in the first inning. Rookie starter Eduardo Rivera, making only his fourth MLB appearance, didn't even last a full inning. 

Brayan Bello came on with two outs and the score, 4-0, and quickly forced a ground out to end the painful opening inning. Bello pitched pretty well thereafter, with five K's over 5⅓ innings and no runs on four hits. But the problem was the old, familiar lack of offense - the Sox didn't get a base hit until a Monasterio single in the third inning, and their lone run came in the fourth when a Yoshida single brought Contreras home from second. 

I can't speak for Red Sox Nation as a whole, but at least this fan kept thinking a miracle, some supernatural event, was going to descend upon Fenway Park any inning now. Just as the Sox had been able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in previous games during this streak, it felt like something was going to happen to get win number sixteen. But it wasn't to be and Boston is now the proud owner of a shiny, spanking-new 15-game win streak.

Before the streak started, the Red Sox were 37-48, last place in the AL East, and 14½ back from first. Now, they're 52-49, in third place, and seven games back from first. Even more importantly, they now hold the third and final Wild Card berth, two games up on the nearest contender. Boston's path to the World Series - and we're still going to the World Series, baby! - doesn't run through an AL East championship but runs through the Wild Card. 

The Red Sox have played 101 games this season and have 61 left to play. Already, this back half of the season has a distinctly different flavor than the horrendous first half. Instead of trying to claw up from behind in the standings, their mission for the next two months is simply to defend their Wild Card spot, continue to improve on offense, and keep the pitching healthy (young Connelly Early, Garrett Crochet, Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford, and Tanner Houck are all on the IL, and Ranger Suarez is still a question mark). 

Boston's off today. Take a breath and relax, the pressure's off. Friday, they start a three-game homestand against the Blue Jays (46-56), and then start another West Coast road trip where they'll face the A's (43-59) for four and the Dodgers (65-38) for three. Sweep the pesky Jays and the woeful A's, and try to salvage at least one win in L.A., and if they can go 8-2 or even 7-3 over the next ten, it should be clear sailing for the rest of the season.

Go, Red Sox! Love you guys!