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.

Red Sox 5, Royals 1

 

The Sox end their losing streak and set themselves up to possibly win the home series against the last-place Royals. Doesn't change a thing - this team is still going nowhere in the post-season.

Rutschman, Abreu, Durbin, and Sogard each had a one-run-or-more RBI base hit in the game, which was a refreshing change from the last week or so. Suarez pitched well, getting eight strikeouts and giving up but one run in seven complete innings. Even though the game wasn't on the line, the Sox gave Chapman a chance to throw a little in the ninth, and he didn't allow one single hit. Nice effort, but there's a reason Kansas City is 66-83.

The Yankees lost yesterday bit the Sox are still 4½ games back in the Wild Card standings and aren't catching up. Cleveland lost, too, and are six games behind Boston and won't be catching up to the Sox and giving Boston an easier path through the first-round of playoffs.

The rubber game of this weekend homestand series in this afternoon (3:05, delayed because of rain). Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.15) will pitch for the Sox against the Royals' Noah Cameron (9-8, 3.93). 

I don't care any more what happens in the game.       

Georgia 70, Western Kentucky 20

 

Another week, another laugher against an unranked opponent. This game had it all, including a fumbled kickoff recovery that resulted in Georgia's first TD, a Bulldog pick-six, and a 70-yard TD run by Georgia backup QB Ryan Puglisi 

The Bulldogs actually showed some restraint in this game. After scoring 49 points in the first half, they eased up and scored "only" 14 in the third quarter and 7 in the fourth. Starting QB Gunner Stockton finished the day with 234 passing yards (13 of 16) and five TDs. Puglisi had only 19 passing yards but can boast a total of 79 rushing yards, the most of any Bulldog today, with that 70-yard TD. Running back Nate Frasier finished with 55 yards and one TD, and sophomore wide receiver Landon Roldan had a rushing TD in the second quarter.

The Bulldogs scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions and didn't punt the ball until the third quarter. To be honest, the game stopped being interesting even before the half, and one almost pitied the Hilltoppers. Fourteen of their 20 points came in the fourth quarter, and it was hard to begrudge them the points. 

The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs are 2-0 with a composite score of 133-23 in their first two games. The team's in a good position to move up in the standings if No. 1 Ohio State loses to No. 4 Texas tonight. 

Enough with the cream-puffs already. The Dawgs begin their SEC schedule next week with a game in Arkansas against the unranked Razorbacks. The Hogs are 1-0 and play No. 20 Utah in SLC late tonight (10:15 pm). 

Today, unranked Michigan beat No. 11 Oklahoma, Georgia's Week 4 opponent, 17-10. No. 23 Missouri, Georgia's Week 11 opponent, beat unranked Kansas, 38-21. But all eyes tonight, including mine, are going to be on Texas to see how the Longhorns fare against the top-ranked Buckeyes.        

Royals 3, Red Sox 2

 

Even Sonny Gray can't save the Sox at this point. He gave up three runs by the end of the third, and the Red Sox limp-dick offense continued to make mediocre pitchers on basement-dwelling teams look like Greg Maddox. 

Mickey Gasper homered in the fifth, so the Sox put Jahmai Jones (.216) in to pinch hit for him in the seventh. He flied out after two taking two strikes. 

This is the third straight loss in a late-season home stand against the teams with the lowest win-loss records in the AL. Unacceptable. The Yankees, who are currently playing against the worst teams in the NL, have won four straight and the Sox are now 5½ games back in the Wild Card standings with 14 games to play, including three against the Rays in Tampa Bay. 

With a five-game lead over Cleveland, the third Wild Card team, the Red Sox seem nearly assured of winning the second seed and playing the Yankees in a three-game series, all in the Bronx. They will lose that series and this most unusual of seasons will end on the sourest of notes.

I don't mean to sound like a gloomer and the Red Sox are still and always will be my team - I'm a fan - but I'm also realistic. Too many injuries, too little offense, inconsistent pitching. At what point does one throw in the towel for mental health reasons, and kick back and watch the Patriots and the Georgia Bulldogs until the start of the NBA and NHL season?

The only solace I can find, the only glimmer of hope, is the cynical thought that as the Sox continue to fold, they might drop below Cleveland in the Wild Card standings (they have three games against the Guardians in two weeks) and instead of playing three in New York, they play three against either the White Sox or the Astros, two teams just barely above the .500 mark. They would still have to wake the fuck up and start hitting the ball, but you have to like our chances in Chicago or Houston more than in New York.

But as I said, it's finally football season, so let the Sox play but it's not advisable to be emotionally invested in the outcome from here on in.

Seahawks 13, Patriots 10

 

The 2026 NFL season opened last night with a repeat of last winter's Super Bowl LX: the New England Patriots versus the Seattle Seahawks. Like last year's Super Bowl LX, Seattle won.

Seattle starting QB Sam Darnold left the game early in the Seahawk's very first drive, and the Pats took a 10-0 lead on a second-quarter passing TD to rookie receiver Eli Raridon and a third-quarter FG. The Patriots' defense held Seattle scoreless in the first half, and then forced them to settle for a FG late in the third despite four plays inside the New England red zone. 

Patriot receiver A.J. Brown, the biggest acquisition by New England in the offseason, had to leave the game in the third with an ankle injury and did not return. The timeline for his return is still up in the air. New England teams, incidentally, seem to have the worst luck with new players getting injured in their first game, from Curtis Mead getting hit by a pitch on the wrist in his first game as a Red Sox to Gordon Hayward breaking his leg in his first Celtics' game, not to mention the tragedy of Len Bias.   

But the fourth quarter was when last night's catastrophe occurred. New England QB Drake Maye, who finished the game with 23 completions on 33 attempts for 178 passing yards and 47 rushing yards, threw an interception in the opening minute of the fourth that led to a Seattle TD and a 10-10 tie. Another Drake interception that quarter led to a Seattle FG for a 13-10 Seahawk lead. 

But no worries. New England got the ball back with 5:50 left to play. The drive started inauspiciously with a 10-yard holding penalty and a sack, but Maye then started a Brady-esque drive from his own 17 to the Seattle 16 in fourteen plays and 5:24 minutes. It was looking like New England was either going to score or at the very least tie the game up with a FG and force OT. 

And then Maye committed his third interception of the quarter, throwing it to a Seattle defender in the end zone with 0:26 left to play. The Seahawks took possession and after one short play, the game was over, 13-10.  Maye called the INT "unacceptable," and vowed to be better, but the Patriots start the season 0-1. Seattle fans couldn't help but remember Malcolm Butler's 2015 interception of Russell Wilson at the goal line with 0:20 left to play to seal New England's win in Super Bowl XLIX. 

One down, but sixteen more games to go. You can rationalize the loss by saying the Pats led most of the way, and losing to the defending Super Bowl champion by only a field goal isn't so bad. But the Patriots were also in that same Super Bowl, and were playing against Seattle's backup QB. The game revealed the weaknesses New England has to work on, from Maye's rashness in the fourth, to the health of receiver A.J. Brown, to a Romeo Doubs' drop of a pin-point accurate pass, to a poor overall rushing performance, and to the o-line's inability to adjust to the Seahawks' blitzes.

The good news is that since they were in the season's earliest premiere game, the Patriots have 10 days for Brown to recover and work on those identified weaknesses. They play the Pittsburgh Steelers back home in Foxborough on Sunday, September 20. The Steelers will host the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday before visiting New England, and should give the Pats a preview of what Pittsburgh's 42-year-old starting QB Aaron Rogers has left in him, if anything. 

But mostly, they should be looking at themselves, shore up their o-line, work of their ground game, and nurse Brown back to health.     

Angels 6, Red Sox 4

So it goes.

The Red Sox lose a home series, 1-2, to the team with the worst record in the American League. If the team isn't interested in winning, why should I care if they win or lose?

The Sox fall to 80-67 and four back from the Yankees in the Wild Card standings with 15 games left to the season. It's looking increasingly likely that the season will end with two losses in the Bronx in the Wild Card round.  

Meanwhile, this easy, late-season homestand against AL basement dwellers, this scheduling gift from above, resumes tomorrow with three games against Kansas City (65-82). Sonny Grey (17-4, 2.69) is scheduled to start against Seth Lugo (6-8, 5.04). If ever there's a time to seize the moment and win the top Wild Card spot, it's now.

Make it so.        

Angels 6, Red Sox 1

 

By the end of the third inning, Patrick Sandoval had already given up six hits and three runs, but Chad Tracy kept him in the game. Sandy gave up two more hits and another run in the fifth, and still stayed in the game through the sixth inning. Meanwhile, the Red Sox scored all of zero runs during those six innings.

I'll break it down for you: a Sandoval start + recent Red Sox offense = another team loss.

"You can' win 'em all," "shit happens," and all, and I wouldn't be as upset if the loss weren't so indicative of the problems emerging on this team as they head down the final stretch of the season. There's a reason Sandoval is 1-5 and 4.58, and it's not because of bad breaks and unlucky outings. Can we just admit the rehab experiment isn't working out and send him down to the minors to complete his comeback, or give him back to the Angels and let him leave Boston with the team tomorrow? And the Red Sox offense has been dogshit of late, scoring in only seven of the last 45 innings over the past five games. They've been relying on one big play each game and then the bullpen to bail them out in order to win, and if the pitching lets them down or they need a second big play, well . . .    

It gets worse. Shitler and the Yankees beat Colorado because of course they did, so the Sox fall back to three games behind New York in the Wild Card standings.

Game Three of the home stand against the last-place Angels is tonight. Big Jake Bennett (9-6, 3.34) goes up against L.A. loser Ryan Johnson (3-8, 5.17).  

I would like to offer some free strategic advice to Chad Tracy and the Red Sox - WIN THE EASY FUCKING GAMES! This six-game home stand against AL basement dwellers was a gift from the MLB front office, wrapped up with a bow on top, a chance to extend your four-game wining streak and sweep of Baltimore into a ten-win run, and here you go starting it off, 1-1! God damn, wake the fuck up and start playing baseball!

Don't make me come up there . . .  

We're No. 2!

 

Despite the fact that we played a cupcake in Week One (almost everyone did), Georgia moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 in this week's AP poll. Oregon, who struggled to beat their cupcake, Boise State, by a TD, fell from the preseason No. 2 all the way down to No. 6.

Georgia earned 1,532 points in the poll, but didn't get a single first-place vote, even though No. 3 Notre Dame got four, No. 4 Texas got two, and No. 5 Indiana got eight. Even No. 6 Oregon got three first-place votes. But the Dawgs? None. Not one.

Rounding out the Top 10 are No. 7 Miami (one first-place vote), and No. 8 LSU (five votes for first). Ole Miss was No. 9 and Texas A&M, No. 10, both without any first-place votes. Other SEC teams in the Top 25 are No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 12 Alabama, No. 18 Tennessee, and No. 23 Missouri. That's a total of nine SEC teams in the Top 25.

This weekend, Georgia plays another unranked team, Conference USA's Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (0-1), who lost to Nevada last weekend, 49-14. The Bulldogs are 40½-point favorites, and will probably still cover the spread. 

But the big game on Saturday will be No. 1 Ohio State against No. 4 Texas. The Longhorns are 1½-point favorites. Arguably, Georgia would benefit from a Buckeye loss, making the No. 1 spot available if the AP voters don't decide to award it to Texas (or Oregon, for that matter). On the other hand, early season AP polls are meaningless, and a loss to an SEC rival could provide more advantages to the Dawgs in the long run. But we here at Sweat Dissolves Water despise both teams, and can only hope that the game goes into triple OT, depletes both benches, and knocks the two starting QBs out of the lineup for the rest of the season.

We're No. 2! Go, Dawgs, and beat them Hilltoppers!

Red Sox 5, Angels 2

 

Jarren Duran got a haircut. The mullet is gone and I doubt anyone misses it. He took his hair all the way down to a buzzcut and then on top of that, dyed it blond. He looks like Eminem now. 

Even more unrecognizably, he hit a solo homer in the second inning to kick off Boston's scoring in the game. Later, he hit a double to go 2-for-4 on the day. 

Adley Rutschman also hit a homer in the second, a three-run blast to deep right field to make the score 4-0. Eli White singled to right center in the third scoring Caleb Durbin from third to make it 5-0.

Brayan Bello didn't get a haircut but he surprised everybody by getting through a first inning without a hit or a run. He went five shutout innings with seven strikeouts and four hits. After 103 pitches with no runs, Wyatt Olds relieved him in the sixth and gave up a homer to the Angels on his very first pitch. But Wyatt settled down and went two innings without any further hits and struck out five. Alec Gamboa gave up another run in the eighth to make the game a tad more interesting, but Garrett Whitlock closed it out in the ninth, and the Red Sox won, 5-2, their fifth straight victory and 80th of the season. . 

Once fourteen games under .500 earlier this season, the Red Sox are now fifteen games over .500 at 80-65. They trail New York, who was idle today, by two games in the Wild Card standings. The Yankees will face the woeful Rockies (55-88) and then the Mets (66-78) this week, so it's imperative that Boston keeps its steak going against the Angels (54-90) and the Royals (64-81) so as not to lose any ground in the Wild Card race. 

Game two of the home series with the Halos is tonight (6:45) with Patrick Sandoval (1-4, 4.41) facing his former team for the very first time. Reid Detmers (4-8, 3.44) will start for the Angels. Back on July 2, Detmers gave up five runs to the Sox, including a home run to Durbin and two RBI sac flies to Duran. 

The Red Sox carried Sandoval on the IL for a year and a half  after acquiring him from the Angels. It's time for Big Sandy to pay back the favor with a big win over L.A. tonight.

Red Sox 3, Orioles 1

 

The Red Sox win their four straight and complete a sweep of the Orioles! 

Another pitching masterpiece by Tolle, who struck out 12 Baltimore batters in six innings and gave up only one run.  Eli White homered in the second to score the only three Boston runs of the game. While it's great that the Red Sox pitchers have held the Orioles  to one or no runs the last three games, we need a more consistent offense than one scoring play a game if we're going to be serious about the playoffs.

The Yankees lost yesterday because they suck, so Boston (79-65) is once again within 2½ games of the top Wild Card spot - so close, they can almost just reach out and grab it. Tampa Bay lost, too, and are now 6½ games ahead of the Sox in first place, but with only 18 games left to the season, Boston should forget about winning the AL East and focus on the Wild Card race instead. The Red Sox' path to the World Series does not run through a division championship but goes from the Wild Card series to the ALCS to the big show.

The Red Sox have two "easy" series left against teams below .500 (both at home, too), and then four "hard" series against teams over .500 with playoff aspirations of their own, and half of those are on the road. Fortunately, considering all of the players currently doing time on the 10-day IL, the next two series are the "easy" ones, starting with the L.A. Angels (54-89) this afternoon (1:35 pm) at Fenway.

Brayan Bello (5-7, 5.07) starts today without the prophylactic luxury of a separate starter for the first inning. Bello has been spectacular as a reliever, even if he comes on as early as the second inning, and a first-inning disaster as a starter. Psychiatrists will spend decades trying to figure out why. Bello is a career 1-2 against the Angels in four starts, and the last time he played them, back on June 3 of last year, he gave up three runs in the third inning in a 4-3 L.A. win.

The Angels will start righty Grayson Rodriguez (4-6, 6.03). The last time Rodriguez pitched to Boston (May 28, 2024), he was with Baltimore and Abreu homered off him, Duran hit an RBI double, and good ol' Rafael Devers hit a pair of RBI singles. 

It's essential that Boston wins or even sweeps these next two series to build as much of a cushion as possible for that final "hard" stretch to end the season.

Red Sox 5, Orioles 0

 

For once, Chris Bassett pitched a pretty good game against the Red Sox but it didn't matter - the Orioles lost anyway, 5-0, because Sonny Gray pitched an even better game. Sonny went seven complete innings with no runs and seven strikeouts, and the bullpen of Morán, Weissert, and Olds competed the shutout, 5-0 

Eli White singled in the sixth inning, scoring Sogie and Story, followed by a Connor Wong single that scored Duran. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled in the seventh, scoring two more (Story and Duran) to make it 5-0 and taking a 3-0 lead in the four-game series. The Sox go for the sweep this afternoon.

Caddanne Rafaela, who's been out of the lineup so far this entire series, was officially placed on the IL with a right quadriceps strain. With Yoshida and Contreras also on the IL, three of the team's top hitters are not available coming down the stretch. It's going to fall on the recently reactivated Story and Anthony to take up that deficit, as well as Sogie, IKF, Gasper, and Jones. Story and Anthony, as well as Gasper and Sogard, are all in today's starting lineup, but Monasterio will be DH'ing for Jones and White will be batting cleanup for Kiner-Falela.

But not to worry - Payton Tolle (8-6, 3.23) takes the mound today. Tolle struck out nine Orioles in his last start against them back on July 20th, and if anything he's gotten even better during the month of August since that game. He'll be opposed by Baltimore's Kyle Bradish (7-12, 4.01), who's a career 2-6 against Boston although he was the starting pitcher in the July 22nd game that ended Boston's 15-game winning streak. 

He'll pay for that today as the Sox complete their sweep of Baltimore.