Guardians 3, Red Sox 2

 

"It takes more than one run to win  baseball game." The Red Sox apparently heard me and scored not one, but two, runs yesterday but still found a way to lose the game. 

Top of the ninth, scored tied 2-2, Erik Miller takes the mound and hits the first batter with a pitch, putting him on base. A single advances him to third, and a sac fly brings him home to give the Guardians a 3-2 lead. The Sox go scoreless in the bottom of the inning, of course they do, and lose the game. 

Third straight loss. Fifth loss in the last seven games. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your September swoon. 

Cleveland hasn't yet clinched and is highly motivated as they're clinging to a one-game lead ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central. They're going to play their hearts out this series. The Sox have clinched a playoff spot, but it's more important in these final games of the season to stay healthy and to get the team fine-tuned for the playoffs, but the lack of offense is alarming. Plus a "losing mentality" can be hard to shake after a multi-game skid. 

The Rays clinched the AL East and the top seed in the league last night if anyone cares. I don't. These Red Sox won't be seeing the Rays again until 2027. 

Sonny Gray (17-5, 2.82) pitches tonight. To keep him well rested, they'll probably pull him early, especially if Boston gets ahead of Cleveland's Foster Griffin (15-5, 3.67) early in the game.

Rays 5, Red Sox 1

 

Okay, Red Sox, big fan here. This post's for y'all, so I'm going to take you by the hand, look directly into your eyes, and say this slowly so that I'm sure you'll understand - it takes more than one run to win a baseball game. 

Yeah, sure, sometimes (rarely) there are 1-0 wins. It happens. But you can't count on it. A team that expects to consistently win with 1-0 scores is going to finish a 162-game season with a record of, like, 2-160. 

It was great that yesterday Trevor Story hit a 9th inning solo home run. I cheered. But you were already down, 5-0, at that point. I also loved Roman Anthony's RBI double the day before that, but that was another one-run game. Single runs don't win games. 

Tampa Bay's a good team, sure, but it's not like you're playing against the 1995 Atlanta Braves here. You can score more than one run. It's allowed. It's okay.

Look Red Sox, you had me there for a minute. You won the first game of this series on Friday, and I thought that the old 27-3 Sox of mid-summer might have returned. But then the bats went quiet again, and two one-run games later, I see that you're 4-6 in the last ten games, 5-7 since you swept the Orioles in Baltimore.

How does it feel that you finally clinched a playoff appearance not with a win but because the Braves beat the Astros? That Mike Yastrzemski, of all people, clinched the post-season for you?

You're off today. Terrific. Head back to Fenway for the final half dozen of the season. Cleveland (81-75) and then the Cubs (87-69). 

Both teams will probably kick your ass. And after that, two more losses in the Bronx and then this will all be over. It won't hurt. You won't feel a thing. After that, nothing. No more pain, no more men left in scoring position, no more watching opposing batters knock it out of the park. Sweet, empty nothingness, and it will last until next April, when we can do this all again. 

Sleep well, gentlemen.

Patriots 20, Steelers 3

 

There are two kinds of people: those who dislike Aaron Rodgers and those who hate Aaron Rodgers. Today's 20-3 win by the New England Patriots over Rodgers' Pittsburgh Steelers satisfied both groups.

Two plays stand out in particular. Third and 7 on the New England 22. The Patriots' Christian Ellis sacks Rodgers and he fumbles the ball. Player after player, Patriot and Steeler alike, tries to grab the loose ball, but it just keeps on bounding back further and further from the goal line (cue the Benny Hill music) until Pittsburgh finally recovers it all the way back on their own 42, forcing a fourth and 47. Good times. 

But wait, there's more! Rodgers fumbled again in the fourth quarter on his own 30, and the ball was recovered by New England's Elijah Ponder for a scoop 'n' score. 

TreVeyon Henderson made his season debut in the game after a Week 1 ankle injury and immediately made his presence felt with a  39-yard TD run in the first quarter. He finished the day with 76 yards on 16 carries. Injured receiver AJ Brown is still out and will miss next week as well.  

Drake Maye finished the game with 208 passing yards and 17 rushing yards. He threw another INT after last week's three and was sacked three times, all things the Pats need to work on. Also of concern is that the team scored only one offensive TD all game, all the other points coming on field goals and Aaron's fumble.

The Pats are now 1-1, so let's not look at the half-empty part of the beer bottle. Buffalo beat Detroit on Thursday night and are 2-0, leading the division, and the Jets lost to the Packers and are 1-1, tied with New England.  The Dolphins are 0-1 and are playing the Niners in San Francisco. 

Next up for New England are Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars (1-0) in Jacksonville. The Jags are playing the Broncos (0-1) in Denver this afternoon. This could be a tough test for New England, as Jacksonville is tied with three other teams (Kansas City, Seattle and the Jets) for the second-lowest points given up per game (10). The Niners lead the league with seven. Meanwhile, Lawrence leads the NFL in QB rating at 150.6, is second in yards per attempt (9.7), and third in total TDs (four). The only stat that Drake leads the league in is interceptions (four). 

The early line favors the Jags by 2½. Kickoff is at 1:00 pm.

We're (Still) No. 2

 

Another meaningless, early season AP Poll came out today and the Georgia Bulldogs are still No. 2, while Texas remains at No. 1. Three AP voters picked the Dawgs as No. 1, probably the same three voters who picked Georgia as the top team last week. No. 3 Notre Dame didn't get any No. 1 votes (lol), and No. 4 Ole Miss got three, No. 5 Indiana got four, and No. 6 Miami got one. 

Ole Miss was the big story of the week, moving up from No. 8 to fourth place after beating No. 7 LSU, 32-24, in the Lane Kiffin Bowl. Kiffin's LSU fell down to No. 10 with the loss. The other big news was Texas A&M falling from No. 9 all the way down to No. 23 after losing to unranked Kentucky, 31-21. With those moves, Indiana, Miami, and Ohio State all moved down one spot to five, six, and seven to make room for new No. 4 Ole Miss, and Alabama and BYU moved up two places to Numbers 8 and 9 with LSU and A&M out of the way.

Five SEC teams are in the Top 10. and ten are in the Top 25. SEC - it just means more.

The Aggies losing to the Kentucky Wildcats isn't surprising as Texas football fundamentally sucks. They just play an inferior, low-athleticism form of the game. Texas teams spend the first weeks of the football season beating other half-assed Texas teams and think they're kings of the hill, strutting around like cocks of the walk, but eventually they have to cross the Red River and play out-of-state teams and lose. The only reason Oklahoma even exists is to put Texas teams back in their place.

As evidence, I offer No. 1 Texas going all Matthew McConaughey because they beat unranked UTSA, 30-6, yesterday, and No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 22 Houston going at it in a meaningless game with Tech winning, 28-26. But then, in interstate play, No. 9 Texas ATM lost to unranked Kentucky, 31-21, No. 16 SMU was upset by No. 23 Louisville, 41-31, and unranked UTEP lost to No. 19 Michigan, 52-17. Spoiler alert: the Longhorns aren't finishing the season at No. 1.

Georgia's opponent next week, Oklahoma, beat unranked New Mexico, 14-6, yesterday, but nonetheless fell from No. 24 out of the Top 25. No. 10 Alabama, our Week 6 opponent,  beat unranked Florida State, 50-36. As previously mentioned, No. 4 Ole Miss (Week 10) beat No. 10 LSU, 32-24, and No. 19 Missouri (Week 11) beat unranked Troy, 27-17.

Go, Dawgs!

Rays 2, Red Sox 1

 

You don't win games by scoring only one run. 

Bottom of the ninth, two out, two on, score tied at one, the Red Sox learned that it's batting that wins games when the Rays won the the game with a walk-off, RBI single off reliever Whitlock. The Sox squander what was certainly Bello's finest pitching performance this season (eight innings, 11 K's, and one run).

The rubber match of this series is this afternoon (1:40). For the final game, the Red Sox will start lefty Patrick Sandoval (1-6, 4.99) . . . oh fuck, we're gonna lose again, aren't we? 

There's only seven games left to the regular season and Boston leads the White Sox by five games in the Wild Card standings. Apparently, Chad Tracy is resting his starters for the playoffs (Tolle was originally scheduled to start yesterday instead of Bello) and is conceding games to teams like Tampa Bay. He has apparently accepted what I'm having a hard time with, that the Red Sox will be the second Wild Card team and will play a three-game (probably only two) playoff series in New York and that will be the end of this improbable and strange season. 

Georgia 45, Arkansas 17

 

The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs start the season 3-0 for the 12th straight year, the longest 3-0 starting streak in the FBS in the modern era.. Today, they beat the Arkansas Razorbacks, 45-17, in Little Rock. 

QB Gunner Stockton passed for 147 yards and one TD, and led Georgia rushers with 97 yards on the ground, including one epic 62-yard run. Backup QB Ryan Puglisi came on in the fourth quarter and had a passing TD as well and finished with 63 yards. 

Running back Nate Frazier had 75 yards, but left the game with a limp in the third quarter. Red-zone specialist Chauncey Bowens rushed for three TDs on 39 yards. Receivers Craig Dandridge (74 yards) and Lawson Luckie (59 yards) both caught TDs. 

The bad news is that the Georgia o-line allowed Stockton to get sacked three times, while the defense gave up two fourth quarter TDs. 

The No. 2 Bulldogs lead the FBS with an average 66.5 points per game and are fourth in total yards per game (576.5). Those rankings may change as more games are played today. 

Meanwhile, No. 1 Texas plays a laugher tonight against unranked UTSA (2-0). The Longhorns are 29½-point favorites and will remain No. 1. No. 3 Notre Dame is favored by the same number of points over unranked Michigan State (2-0).  

The next game for Georgia is No. 24 Oklahoma (1-1), who are favored by "only" 21½ points today over unranked New Mexico (2-0) and will come to next week's game with a 2-1 record. Oklahoma's loss was a 17-10 decision in Michigan, which vaulted the then-unranked Wolverines to No. 19. Oklahoma has been averaging only 20.5 points per game (72nd in the FBS) and 345 yards per game (105th). 

Defensive is a different story, as the Sooners give up only 8.5 points per game (12th in the FBS)  and 98.5 passing yards per game (3rd), Gunner will more than have his hands full against their passing D. However, Oklahoma's given up 132 yards rushing (86th), so we better hope that Nate Frazier is okay by next week if we want to score against them. Also, this is where Gunner's 97 rushing yards will prove advantageous.

Go, Dawgs! Sic them Sooners!

Red Sox 4, Rays 2

Well, I'll be! They still got it in them, don't they? The mighty Boston Red Sox went all the way down south to the swampy backwaters of Tampa Bay, Florida to face the first-place Rays and they won the first game of the series. Friendly reminder to give a little bit of context: last June, before their historic turnaround, the Sox got swept in three games down in Tampa, but in July, during their epic, 15-game winning streak, the Sox swept a four-game series against the Rays in Fenway. Now, back in the dismal swamp that is west-central Florida, which Sox team are they now?

They're opening game winners - we know at least that much. Last night, Ranger Suarez pitched a gem of a game - one run in 5⅔ innings with five strikeouts. Roman Anthony homered in the first and scored two more runs with a single in the second. Jahmai Jones made it 4-1, Boston, with a homer in the third. Reliever Erik Miller got in some trouble in the ninth inning and gave up a run to the Rays, but ultimately pitched his way out of the jam with a strikeout and a ground out.

The win was an inadvertent gift to the Yankees, who won last night and are now four games back from Tampa Bay in the AL East. Not to look too far ahead, but should the Sox sweep the Rays in this series and New York sweeps Arizona this weekend, the Yankees will find themselves one game back from the Rays as they start a four-game series in Tampa Bay next week. Not to look too far ahead, but should the Yankees take over first place in the AL East, the Sox would then play three games in Tampa Bay in the Wild Card series rather than three in New York. I like the Sox' chances on the Bay more than in the Bronx.

The White Sox lost last night, so with eight games remaining, the Sox are now six games ahead of Chicago in the Wild Card standings.

Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.02) starts this afternoon (4:10). The Sox are 11-1 in Tolle's last twelve starts. He missed a start against Tampa Bay during the July sweep in Fenway and got roughed up for four runs during the June fiasco in Tampa. He'll be out for revenge today. The Rays will start former Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta (9-11, 4.67), who gave up a two-run homer to Andruw Monasterio in New York on July 11. 

 

The Red Sox seem to rise to the occasion and generally play their best baseball against first-place teams and other teams well over .500. Let's hope that trend leads to a sweep of the Rays this weekend!        

 

Red Sox 4, Rangers 3

 

Alright! That's how you do it! The Boston Red Sox, mired in a late-season, low-effort, .500 run, came back from a 3-0 deficit last night with some late-inning offense and won the game. See? You can do it! I knew you had it in you!

Not that the Rangers didn't give us a little boost. In the top of the seventh, Texas walked Eaton and Durbin with no outs, and then Sogard advanced Eaton to third on a sacrifice fly. Roman hit into a fielder's choice but brought Eaton home as the Sox managed to score a run in the inning without a single base hit. Thanks, Texas!

With the score 3-1 in the top of the eighth, the Rangers again gifted Boston. With no outs, they walked Abreu and put Contreras on base with a hit-by-pitch, putting on two more base runners without a hit. And then, Trevor Story stepped up to the plate and hit a game-winning home run 420 feet into deep left center. 4-3, Boston for the dub after Gamboa and Whitlock nailed down the save.

Sonny Gray uncharacteristically gave up three runs in the first two innings, but settled down for the next four to finish with six K's.

Good things happen when you win, and last night the Yankees lost, so Boston is back to "merely" 5½ back from the Yankees and remains five ahead of Cleveland in the Wild Card standings.

The Tampa Bay Rays remain in first place in the AL East, where they've been almost all of this season, and lead Boston by 10½ games. Tonight, the Sox head down to the humid, swampy backwaters of Florida for a three-game weekend series in Tampa and will probably get swept. 

But we can hope. We can dream. Tonight, Ranger Suarez (7-4, 3.33) will start against the Ray's Ian Seymour (9-6, 4.27).  Ranger hasn't yet faced the Rays in a Red Sox uniform and in two career starts against them has yet to get a decision, either win or lose. In 12⅓ innings, he's struck out nine and hasn't given up a single homer. Seymour has a 1-0 record against the Sox in two starts, but last July, in the 12th win of Boston's delicious 15-game winning streak, gave up homers to Jahmai Jones and Wilyer Abreu before getting yanked in the third inning without a decision. 

So you're telling me there's a chance?

Rangers 7, Red Sox 3

 

The Red Sox lost. Again. Second straight and fifth in their last ten games. "It doesn't matter," and "the Wild Card matchups are already set," and all, which are valid points, but my god, if they don't start hitting the ball soon, the question isn't whether or not they'll get swept in the first round, it's how embarrassing the losses will be.   

Speaking of sweeps, Sonny Gray (17-5, 2.76) will try to prevent one tonight when he starts the final game of this series against Texas' Tyler Alexander (5-2, 3.38). With only ten games left to the season over the next eleven days, Sonny probably won't get 20 wins with this Red Sox team this season, but no reason not to cheer for him tonight, right? 

Right?

Texans 4, Red Sox 2

 

You can have Patrick Sandoval pitching, or you can have a lack of offense, but you can't have both. The Sox tried to have it both ways last night and failed, 4-2, way down Texas way. 

Nick Sogard hit a two-run homer in the third inning but that was it offensively - Boston went hitless five of the other eight innings and although five other players also had hits in the game, they were all singles and the Sox left nine runners on base in the game. 

Meanwhile, Sandoval gave up four runs on four hits in his meager 2⅔ innings, forcing Boston to go deep into the bullpen (Bello, Gamboa, Olds, and Moran) in the first game of a three-game series. The bullpen performed well, no runs and only three hits with five K's over the remaining 5⅓ innings, showing how poor the Texas batting really is, and hence how much worse Sandoval's pitching is (his ERA is now 4.99).

Sandoval better be nowhere near the mound in a three-game Wild Card series on the road.

Of course the Yankees won last night and the Sox are now six games back with only eleven games remaining in the season. Any hopes of catching up to New York vanished when the Sox lost three straight games to last place teams in the home stand last week. Cleveland is 5½ games behind Boston in the Wild Card standings, so it's equally unlikely they will catch up and gift the Sox with the easier series in Chicago or Houston than the Bronx.All that being said, the remaining games are becoming increasingly meaningless - mere warm-up practice for the Wild Card series. 

Tonight, big Jake Bennett (9-7, 3.69) is up against the Texan's lefty Mackenzie Gore (8-11, 4.62). Expect a righty-heavy lineup for the Sox tonight.

Red Sox 4, Royals 1

 

Okay, we have some things to cheer about here: Willson Contreras returned to the lineup for the first time in two weeks and went 2 for 3, and Payton Tolle pitched an immaculate first inning: three outs on nine pitches, all strikes. And Caleb Durbin homered in the second, his 13th long ball of the season.  

Boston won the game, 4-1, for their second straight win and won the home series against last-place Kansas City. New York and Cleveland won, too, so the Sox remain 4½ back from the Yankees in the Wild Card standings and six ahead of Cleveland.

The Red Sox are off today as they travel to Arlington, Texas to play three against the Rangers (74-76). Sandoval (1-5, 4.58) is the probable started tomorrow, so good luck with that. The good news is that the Rangers are starting Cody Bradford (0-5, 4.72). 

 

 

We're (Still) No. 2!

 

Groupthink. Herd mentality. Cultlike behavior. Call it what you will, but 56 of the 68 voters in the AP Poll, whoever they may be, voted to make former No. 4 Texas the new No. 1 team, even though the Longhorns trailed former No. 1 Ohio State for three quarters last night, falling as many as 20 points behind. True, they came back and scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, but was that truly Longhorn prowess or just an epic collapse by the Buckeye defense? 

Three voters apparently thought the latter and voted for the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs (2-0) to be the new No. 1 team instead. That's three more first-place votes than the Dawgs got last week. Apparently, at least some of the other voters have loose screws in their head, as one voted for LSU to be No. 1, another one for Notre Dame, three voted for Indiana, and four voted for Miami. Don't ask me, I can't figure it out either. 

But anyway, if you haven't heard, Texas came back last night from a 23-3 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter and scored 21 unanswered points to beat Ohio State, 24-23. The obedient AP voters elected the Longhorns as the new No. 1 team, leapfrogging over Georgia and Notre Dame, and dropped Ohio State to No. 6. 

Georgia and Notre Dame remained at No. 2 and 3, and Indiana and Miami are the new No. 4 and 5. 

The SEC rounds out the rest of the top ten with No. 7 LSU and No. 8 Ole Miss, Georgia's Week 10 opponent. Texas A&M is No. 9 and Alabama, Georgia's Week 6 opponent, is No. 10 to make it six SEC teams in the top ten.

Hilariously, Oregon lost to unranked Oklahoma State yesterday and fell 15 places in the poll all the way down to No. 21. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, Georgia's Week 4 opponent, lost to unranked Michigan, 17-10, and fell from No 11 down to No. 24, while Michigan debuted in the poll at No. 19.  

The Missouri Tigers, who the Bulldogs play in Week 11, rose to No. 20 in the poll by beating Kansas (like that's hard?).

Although I don't agree, I'm not surprised that the AP made Texas No. 1 and kept Georgia at No. 2. Last week, Georgia didn't get a single first place vote, while then-No. 4 Texas, fresh off their triumph over unranked Texas State, got two first-place votes. That's a large part of the reason I hate Texas football - the teams mostly play other, generally unranked, Texas teams, and think they're hot shit until they cross the Red River and get the snot beat out of them by non-Texas teams (anyone remember TCU?). Next week, the Longhorns play another one of those unranked Texas teams, the UTSA Roadrunners, so their reign in first place is secure at last until they start their SEC schedule with the No. 18 Volunteers the following week in Tennessee. 

Georgia's next opponent are the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks (1-1) in Little Rock on Saturday (12:00). The Dawgs are 24½-point favorites.  After two games, Georgia leads the NCAA in points per game (66.5) and are fourth in yards per game (576.5), behind Miami, Mississippi State, and LSU. 

It's going to be a rough day for Arkansas.