Red Sox 5, Pirates 2

 

If it takes a Jarren Duran three-run, inside-the-park home run to snap the Sox out of their recent losing streak, so be it. Truth be told, it's never a bad time for a Jarren Duran three-run, inside-the-park home run. Today, Boston finally figured out a way to beat Pittsburgh and avoid an embarrassing sweep at home by the worst team in the NL Central (fun fact: I had a Pirates season ticket in 1993, so I have a pass to say things like "worst team in the NL Central"). 

Giolito went six full innings with one run and six hits and six strikeouts. Bregman finally snapped out of his hitless streak with a single in the 4th.  

Now things will get interesting. If we struggled with Pittsburgh, going 1-2, we're really going to have fun with Cleveland (68-67), who arrive in Fenway tomorrow for a three-game series. Brayan Bello (10-6, 2.99) will start against rookie Parker Messick (1-0, 0.66), making his third major-league start. 

After Cleveland, we have Arizona (68-69) and the A's (63-74). The Yankees lost today, so the Sox now trail them by a half game. New York has a three-game road series at Houston (75-62), and then will host AL East-leading Toronto followed by AL Central-leading Detroit. Hopefully, Boston can capitalize on some probable upcoming Yankee losses while we play a trio of .500-ish teams, and take back second place in the AL East, setting things up for a final showdown with New York in Fenway, October 12-14.

Yeva, Storm Tossed

It's been quite the day in Tuktoyaktuk for the Yeva and Sardinha 2. A major windstorm blew through yesterday with winds hitting 50 knots and associated coastal flooding. Locals say it's one of the worst storms they’ve seen in 40 years. The trip from Summer Harbor to Tuk last Friday was basically a race against time, trying to get to safe harbor before the winds arrived. Both ships made it in time, arriving at Tuk within an hour of each other, with enough time to get some provisions and find the most secure mooring they could before the storm hit.  

As it turned out, the low terrain of the Tuk Peninsula offered little protection from the wind, and water in the open, shallow bays rose with the storm. Ella Hibbert had to relocate the Yeva numerous times during the storm and was forced to cut rather than untie one of her mooring lines to make a quick escape when the pier to which the Yeva was attached became submerged in the floodwater. She tried anchoring the boat but the anchor wouldn’t hold, and the Yeva very nearly ran aground.

To top it all off, the alternator bolts rattled loose right when Ella needed the engine the most, but she managed to fix it with time and sheer determination and somehow managed to muscle the Yeva over to a large barge during the very height of the storm.

By late last night, the wind finally subsided and the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 were tied alongside each other, Ella and Tamara both utterly exhausted but safe.

The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the global average, amplifying storms and contributing to sea-ice loss, shifts in atmospheric patterns, and changes to the jet stream. Warming also leads to more moisture in the air and generates more powerful storms that can deliver wind, rain, and heavy snow.

It's ironic that the same global warming that is melting the ice, making Arctic navigation easier, is also generating storms of such ferociousness that navigation is all but impossible, delaying boats with no choice but to hide from it. 

Ella notes that storms like that test every ounce of resilience, but also remind one of the raw, unfiltered reality of solo Arctic sailing.

Update: As of 3:00 pm EDT, Ella and Tamara are both on the move again, having pulled out of their mooring in Tuk. Also, it may be quite a long while until this is possible again, but here's a Google maps street view of the harbor they were moored in this morning (it's that blue spot of water on the horizon near the center of the photo). Imagine facing 50-knot winds with that little protection!

Georgia 45, Marshall 7

 

Fist and foremost, we have to say this: any doubts we might have had about Gunner Stockton were laid to rest in the first quarter alone. He drove the Dawgs down the field for two touchdowns on the first two possessions, scoring the second TD himself with a 13-yard run. He scored another rushing TD in the second with an 11-yard run and finished the game with a team-leading 73 total rushing yards. In addition, he threw for 190 yards on 14-for-24 passing and threw for two TDs in the third.

Backup QB Ryan Pugliosi threw for 59 yards and one TD in the fourth quarter and rushed for 13. In summary, it looks like this season's Bulldogs have a pair of dual-threat QBs. 

Nate Frazier rushed for 47 yerds on 11 carries, while Dwight Phillips, Jr. got 60 yards on five carries. The o-line wasn't everything a championship-caliber line should be, but it was just the first game of the season and they played well enough that there were no sacks and managed to open some holes for all those Stockton runs.   

Georgia missed covering the 38½-points spread by a mere half point.

Meanwhile, as predicted here, No. 3 Ohio State knocked off No. 1 Texas, 14-7, limiting Peyton Eli Archie Arch Manning to a single TD. No. 2 Penn State easily won, 46-11, over unranked Nevada, so it remains to be seen if the Nittany Lions take the No. 1 spot or if the great Buckeye hype machine gets OSU elevated to No. 1. 

The other question is how far Texas will fall in the rankings and if Georgia will get a chance to move up from their current No.5 spot. Friendly reminder that Georgia beat Texas twice last season, in Austin and in the SEC title game. Assuming No. 4 Clemson isn't upset by No. 9 LSU tonight (a big "if"), I would rank the Top 5 Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, and Georgia, followed by Texas at No. 5, but what do I know?

Also, another bonus: No. 8 Alabama was upset, 31-17, by unranked Florida State, the laughing stock of the 2024 season. Who's laughing now, Crimson Tide? It makes no immediate difference to the Bulldogs, but it's always nice to see Alabama lose.   

Georgia's next opponent will be the Austin Peay Governors of Clarksville, Tennessee, who are leading Middle Tennessee State, 21-0, at the moment.

Pirates 10, Red Sox 3

 

Dude, WTF? Back-to-back home losses to Pittsburgh? Double-you the literal eff, dude?

Dustin May gave up seven runs in 5⅓ innings. Bregman went 0-for-5 for the third straight game, 18 consecutive plate appearances without a hit. Do you guys want to make the playoff or not? Snap out of it!

Is this the start of the stereotypical Red Sox September swoon?

Giolito (9-2, 3.47) takes the mound tomorrow to try and avoid the indignity of getting swept at home by the worst team in the NL Central.   

Pirates 4, Red Sox 2

 

The second-place Red Sox, fifteen games above .500,  fell to the fifth-place Pittsburgh Pirates. seventeen games under .500. 

For whom the blame Tolles . . . New guy Payton Tolle pitched pretty well. He want 5⅓ innings in his major-league debut giving up only two runs on three hits and striking out eight, but the bullpen let him down. Tolle got pulled in the sixth with no outs, two on, and a 2-0 lead, but reliever Greg Weissert gave up a pair of doubles making it 3-2 Pittsburgh. Jordan Hicks gave up another run in the eighth. Boston lost, but you can't blame Tolle.

If we're going to point fingers and assign blame, Bregman hasn't had a base hit since Tuesday in Baltimore, going 0-for-4 in the last two games, and he and Story both went 0-for-4 last night. So did catcher Conner Wong, but you expect that of Wong (he's ninth in the lineup for a reason). 

The damage is done. The Yankees easily won  their game in Chicago, 10-2, and move into second. The Sox trail New York by a half game Fortunately, Toronto lost last night, so Boston's still only 3½ back from first.

Game two of the series is this afternoon at 4:30 (I'll be watching the Georgia Bulldogs football game at that time). Dustin May (7-10, 4.79) will face someone named Johan Oviedo (1-0, 3.60) making his third start of the season. Let's get the momentum back, Dustin! 

    

Yeva, Tukked

Both Ella Hibbert and Tamara Klink have completed the approximately 230-mile journey from Summer Harbor on Booth Island, around the Bathurst Peninsula, and on to the Inuit village of Tuktoyaktuk along the Beaufort Sea. It's not a race, but the Yeva arrived there about an hour or so before the Sardinha 2.  

Tuk is located near the base of an elongated peninsula extending from the Canadian mainland to the west and between the Beaufort Sea to the north the Eskimo Lakes complex to the south. During the Pleistocene, glaciers left a thick layers of sediments and permafrost in the area. The glaciers are responsible for the irregular topography of the area, including the many remnant lakes, marshy hollows, and small hummocks. The peninsula is particularly noted for having the greatest concentration (nearly 1,350) of pingos, conical ice-cored hills, on Earth.  

Near the end of the Pleistocene, glacial ice advanced over most of the area. The long, finger-like ridges that divide the Eskimo Lakes into four separate water bodies likely formed as tunnels beneath the ice. A large glacial lake formed at the ice front in the region, leaving an extensive layer of fine-grained lake-bottom sediments across the area. The numerous pingos were formed by ground ice trapped in the sediments as the glaciers retreated. 

The melting glaciers also caused global sea levels to rise, drowning the valleys that had been carved into the mainland and filling them with thick deposits of fine-grained sediment. The Mackenzie Delta to the west of Tuk formed during this time. 

Global warming is causing Arctic temperatures to rapidly rise, allowing ships like the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 to sail through water that less than a generation ago could only be crossed by ice-breakers. The warming is also causing the permafrost to thaw. Around Tuk, land subsidence due to melting permafrost is causing the disappearance of permafrost islands and the rapid erosion of the coastline. Pingos are particularly vulnerable, as abrupt permafrost thaw can cause the ice within the pingos to melt, resulting in increased pingo collapse and the formation of remnant lakes.

From Tuk, it is about 90 miles to the Yukon border as the crow flies (125 miles along the coastline around the Mackenzie Delta), and less than 200 straight-line miles to the Alaska border, less than the distance just completed from Summer Harbor.  The current sea-ice charts generally show open ice-free water across the Alaskan coast, other than some minor congestion around Prudhoe Bay. 

For Ella, now with about 4,300 or so nautical miles under her belt, completing her circumnavigation of the Arctic requires sailing "only" about another 5,000 or so miles from Alaska across the north of Russia and Scandinavia to the finish line in the Norwegian Sea. 

Red Sox 3, Orioles 2

 

The Sox sweep the Orioles in Baltimore and win their fourth straight game. Boston returns to Fenway after a 7-1 road trip going back to the series in New York.

Last night, Story homered in the first, Refsnyder homered in the fourth, and González hit an RBI single in the eighth. Crochet got seven strike outs over six innings but gave up two runs and didn't get the win (it went to reliever Jordan Hicks), so his total is still at 14 with 26 games left to the season. He could still get six more starts this season to try and reach 20 wins, but he'll have to win every game started.

The Blue Jays were idle last night, so Boston snuck up to 3½ games back from first place.

Tonight, the Sox start a three-game home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (59-76). With starting pitchers Dick Fitts and Hunter Dobbins both on the Injured List, Cora will give rookie pitcher Payton Tolle his first start in his major-league debut. Good luck, man. The Pirates will start Paul Skenes (8-9. 2.07). This series is the first (and only) time this season the two teams have faced each other  

First-place Toronto starts a weekend series at home against the Milwaukee Brewers (83-52), so this series against Pittsburgh is a chance for the Red Sox to gain some ground in the standings before things get crazy next month. The third-place Yankees (damn, I love saying that) have it far easier with a series at the Chicago White Sox (48-86), so the pressure from behind will continue as New York continues to nip at Boston's heels.    

Cape Bathurst

 

The Bathurst Peninsula is one of the weirdest places I've seen on a map. Its prominent feature is Cape Bathurst on its northern tip, but it's equally distinguished by the meandering Horton River, with its many curves and oxbows. What's weird about it, though, is unlike most rivers and nearly every meandering stream, it doesn't flow directly toward the sea but instead runs for some 50 miles parallel to the coast. 

The low Smoking Hills along the cape's eastern shore may be preventing the river from reaching Franklin Bay to the east, but they're not all that big, and the river has even broken through at one point and created a delta into the bay, but the meander loops and oxbows continue to the north. 

My guess is that the river first formed on the mainland after the glaciers retreated but before Franklin Bay was formed. As the Horton River flowed north across the flat, newly ice-free mainland west of the low Smoking Hills, it developed its meander loops and oxbows  Sediment from the river was deposited into the Beaufort Sea to the north, where the currents swept the sediment to the west, forming Cape Bathurst. The mainland east of the Smoking Hills must have been at a slightly lower elevation, because at some later time, as the glaciers continued to melt and sea levels rose, that part of the mainland was flooded, forming Franklin Bay. In other words, Franklin Bay didn't exist when the river formed the oxbows and the cape. At some point after the Bay formed, one of the meander loops broke through the Smoking Hills and formed that delta that's now bulging out into Franklin Bay. 

And that, my friends, is the difference between a normal person and a geologist. Most people see a map of a minor feature of the Northwest Territories; I see a whole entire story.

Anyway, the reason I was looking at the map of the Bathurst Peninsula is because, after a day's rest riding out Wednesday's winds, making blueberry pancakes and even taking a cold polar plunge in the icy glacial waters, both Ella Hibbert and Tamara Klink have left snug Summer Harbor on Booth Island and have rounded Observatory Point on the northernmost tip of Cape Bathurst. In so doing, they have completed the Northwest Passage through the Canadian archipelago - friendly reminder that to date only 12 sailors have ever sailed the Passage solo, and now these two have just brought that number to 14. 

Both sailors are currently sailing tandem through the (relatively) ice-free Beaufort Sea west of Cape Bathurst. It's not a race, but right now Ella is about 15 miles ahead of Tamara. They are about 200 miles from the Yukon border and about 280 miles from the Alaska border, and in about 100 miles will pass the Inuit village of Tuktoyaktuk, where they might stop to pick up some supplies (I would). Tuk is forecast to reach a summer-like high temperature of 68° F tomorrow, with rain arriving on Saturday. The rain may be heavy, as there are coastal flood warnings in effect for the Yukon coast.

Anyway, congratulations to Ella and Tamara on making it through the Passage and on into the Beaufort Sea!

Red Sox 3, Orioles 2

As I've said before, the O's always play us tough. But we're even tougher and the Sox are now up 3-0 in this four-game series in Baltimore.

Roman Anthony had another lead-off homer, the second of his career, and Rafaella hit a two-run homer in the ninth. In between those two HRs, Bello gave up only two runs in 6⅔ innings, striking out six, and the bullpen threw three hitless pitch-perfect innings, with Wilson, Weissert, and Chapman each facing only three batters.

Toronto and New York both won last night, so the standings remain the same - Boston still in second place, four back from the Blue Jays and a half-game ahead of the Yankees. 

Notice a certain something in the air, a little spring in your step today? It's Crochet Day, and our hero, Garrett Crochet (14-5, 2.38) takes the mound as the Sox go for the sweep this afternoon. There's 27 games left to this season, and should he remain healthy, Crochet's still on track to win 20 this year. His opponent this afternoon will be Cade Povich (2-7, 5.13). Cade's in for a rough day.

 

College Football Previews

 

The consensus question mark about Georgia's upcoming season is QB Gunner Stockton. The Bulldogs won 11 games last season under previous QB Carson Beck and have enjoyed double-digit wins in each of the last four seasons. They are entering their tenth year under head coach Kirby Smart and are the reigning SEC Champions. Yet The Athletic, the sports propaganda division of the Times' media empire, still predicts a disappointing season for the Dawgs this year, and puts the blame squarely on Stockton. Their ranking of potential FBS starters lists Stockton at No. 48 of 136, just below Alabama's Ty Simpson and above Notre Dame's CJ Carr. However, they note:     

There’s no questioning Stockton’s toughness — it’s hard to forget the hit he endured in overtime of Georgia’s SEC title win over Texas — and even in his first career start in the CFP against Notre Dame, Stockton showed poise under constant pressure and uncorked some impressive downfield throws. His physical gifts aren’t quite those of his predecessor, Carson Beck [inexpiably No. 12 in their ranking], so his preseason ranking is very much a wait-and-see approach.

It’s understandable why some look at the relatively untested Stockton as the main question about the Bulldogs, but it also misses the point. Georgia doesn’t need a Heisman candidate at quarterback to win. The great Nate Frazier is back after leading Georgia in rushing last season and eight touchdowns, while receiver Zachariah Branch transfers from USC and Noah Thomas comes over from Texas A&M. 

The biggest worries revolve around the offensive line. When Georgia lost to Notre Dame in the CFP, it wasn't because of Stockton but because the Irish were able to freely push the line around. On top of that, the Dawgs lost four of their o-line starters after last season. However, if the line can be rebuilt back to Georgia standards, The Athletic points out, the Bulldogs could win another national title. If not, then Smart will make the necessary changes.

Defensively, the Dawgs are loaded. CJ Allen returns after 76 tackles sand four pass deflections, while KJ Bolden had 59 tackles and 1 interception. Daylen Everette had 58 tackles and 3 interceptions, while Raylen Wilson had 47 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Georgia also snagged highly recruited players in Isaiah Gibson and Elijah Griffin.

The Bulldogs will destroy their first two opponents this season, although the 39½ point spread over Marshall on Saturday is a bit ridiculous for an opening weekend and probably has more to do with Georgia fans' enthusiasm than actual on-field performance. I'm predicting Georgia will win but not guessing by how many points, other than more than 10. Some other predictions: 

Saturday: No. 1 Texas at No. 3 Ohio State: The Buckeyes will win on their home field, because overrated Texas sucks. OSU fans will be insufferable until at least November when they have to play Penn State and their kryptonite team, Michigan.  

Sunday: No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami: Carson Beck gets to finally play the team he would have played against with Georgia if not for his injury in the previous SEC Championship Game against Texas. He will lose, throwing at least one INT to an Irish defender during a crucial play. Notre Dame fans will be insufferable, but is that anything new?

Monday: TCU at Bill Belichick: Both teams are unranked and no one gives a shit about the Tarheels outside of North Carolina, but everyone's anxious to see how Belichick fares in the NCAA. This game won't be the litmus test for his collegiate career, but North Carolina will win at home because Texas teams suck. Bill will be even more insufferable, if you can believe that's even possible.   

Boston 5, Baltimore 0

 

Now that's more like it! Giolito went eight innings, striking out eight and only giving up four hits and one walk. Story and Hamilton homered in the second and third innings, respectively. Narváez got an RBI in the eighth and Hamilton scored some more runs with a two-run double in the ninth. 

Meanwhile, Toronto let the game get away from them last night, giving up four runs to the lowly Twins  in the ninth and losing the game. So the Sox are now four back in the AL East, still a half-game ahead of the third-place Yankees.

Tonight, the mighty Brayan Bello (10-6, 3.07) pitches for Boston. The Orioles will start Dietrich Enns (1-2, 4.97), a pitcher they picked up from Detroit at the August 1 trade deadline. Enns pitched one inning of relief in Fenway back on August 18 but other than that, the Sox haven't had much of a chance to get a good look at him yet.  

Yeva, in Summer Harbor

After leaving Pierce Bay, Ella Hibbert and the Yeva sailed about 70 miles around Cape Parry to Summer Harbor on Booth Island, the same safe haven Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 used to ride out Sunday's gale-force storm. The Sardinha 2 had left Summer Harbor on Monday morning, but when Ella arrived there, she found . . . the Sardinha 2.

Tracking maps show Tamara sailed about a dozen miles due west toward Cape Bathurst, but abruptly turned around and sailed right back to Booth Island. Ella reports that Tamara had become concerned about the stiff winds she faced, even though the Yeva had to use her engine to cross the windless waters between Pierce Bay and Cape Parry.

The two sailors, who at times were separated in the Passage by as many as 100 miles, rafted together overnight in Summer Harbor. Both boats are still there Tuesday evening, presumably waiting for the winds to die down.

The Canadian ice charts are still showing open, ice-free water all along the coast on the other side of Cape Bathurst.       

Red Sox 4, Orioles 3

 

Man, Baltimore always plays us tough!

Roman Anthony homered to deep right center in the first inning, the first lead-off home run of his career, while Jarren Duran hit a three-run homer in the fifth. Duran has now reached base in 19 straight games, tying his career high in the longest current streak in the majors. But Bregman, Story, Lowe, Rafaella, and Hamilton all went 0-for-4 at bat yesterday.

The four runs were enough for a win, fortunately. Bernardino left the game after only 14 pitches, to be replaced by Dick Fitts, who left the game after four innings due to right biceps tightness. He will be evaluated today, but said he was feeling pretty good after the game.

It was an essential win for the Sox because both New York and Toronto also won last night. Don't want to fall back down to third, do we boys?   

Giolito (8-2, 3.72) pitches tonight against the O's Kyle Bradish (2-0, 2.75). 

Bulldog Predictions

 

The Athletic, the sports propaganda arm of the NY Times, predicts that Alabama will beat Georgia in Athens this season, and that the Bulldogs will lose to Texas in the SEC championship game and to Ohio State in the CFP semifinals. They pin the blame for the losses on Georgia QB Gunner Stockton. 

The I Ching advises the Georgia coaching staff to maintain serenity and dignity in the face of both success and adversity, but allows that's it's okay for us fans to get excited and emotional. So in response to the Times' provocations, I'm now cheering double hard for Stockton to stuff it to The Athletic and prove them wrong by having a record game against the Tide on September 27 and then dominating Texas all season, both in Athens on November 15 and in the SEC championship, should the Horns go that far. As for Ohio State in the semifinals - don't make me f-ing laugh. 

GO DAWGS!     

Yeva, Underway Again

Good news: the gale has blown over and both the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 have left harbor and are both sailing once again. 

The ice apparently didn't manage to block Pierce Bay, and Ella Hibbert was able to sail the Yeva out of the inlet early this morning and is currently sailing northwest toward Cape Parry.

In just the last hour or so (it's noon, Eastern daylight time), Tamara Klink sailed the Sardinha 2 out of the harbor she found on Booth Island and is sailing due west toward Cape Bathurst.

After the storm, the tongue of old, year-round sea ice blocking the Amundsen Gulf is about 20 miles off the coast of Cape Bathurst. There's still partial coverage of floes of new ice in the channel between the cape and the old sea ice, but close to the coast there's only about 20% ice coverage. Skilled sailors like Hibbert and Klink should be able to find a path through that, and with her lead, Klink will probably be running point for Hibbert, scouting out the best route. 

After rounding the Cape, there's currently open water all the way to Alaska and beyond to the Chukchi Sea between North America and Russia.     

Yankees 7, Red Sox 2

 

Big deal. The Yankees salvage a shred of dignity and avoid a four-game sweep at home. New York is still in third place in the AL East, a half game behind Boston and a half game above the cutoff line in the Wild Card standings.   

The Yankees seem to have figured out Dustin May, jumping on him for two homers and a total of five runs in 4.1 innings. The Sox had a harder time figuring out New York's Carlos Rodón until he finally tired out in the sixth inning and loaded the bases with walks. Buehler gave up two more runs in the eighth and that was that for the game. 

Boston leaves the Bronx with a .542 average (71-60) and in second place, a half game ahead of New York and five back from Toronto. They lead in the Wild Card standings, three games above the bubble. 

The Sox head to the "out of control, crime ridden" city of Baltimore ("the 4th WORST CITY IN THE NATION IN CRIME & MURDER") for a four-game road series. While not otherwise getting jacked, mugged, raped, and robbed, Brennan Bernardino (4-2, 2.93), who pitched 1.1 innings of relief last night, will start against the last-place Orioles (60-70). Bernie's only pitched 2.2 innings of relief against the O's so far this season, giving up one run for a 3.38 ERA versus the Birds. He will face Baltimore pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, who held the Sox to one run on five hits through five innings in Fenway last week. 

The Sox need to focus of sweeping this series, because the Yankees have nothing but cupcakes for the next seven games - the Nationals (53-77) and the White Sox (47-83), while first-place Toronto has three against the Twins (59-71). Don't squander the momentum, guys! Keep on with the winning and let's take advantage of them Birds before we start the tough September schedule.   

Yeva, in Peril

It's getting blustery up in the Arctic as gale force winds of 34 to 47 knots are blowing from the northwest across the Amundsen Gulf. The wind is expected to diminish to 15 knots near midnight tonight and lighter winds are forecast by early Monday morning. The current open-water waves of 3 to 6 feet are expected to subside to three feet or less by tomorrow morning. 

The winds will shift to the south by Monday evening and increase to 30 knots Tuesday afternoon. Late in the day, the winds will shift again and westerly winds of 20 knots are forecast.  

On top of all that, a special ice warning is in effect for the area due to the unusual presence of old, year-round sea ice continuing through at least Monday. It's a problem. 

Currently, both Ella Hibbert and Tamara Klink are safely anchored in protective bays along the Gulf's south shore to ride out the storm. The Teva is in Pierce Bay on the Canadian mainland while the Sardinha 2 is sixty miles to the west-northwest on Booth Island near Cape Parry.

Unfortunately, Pierce Bay is open to the north, and the northwesterly winds of the current gale could blow the sea ice into the Bay or block the Yeva's exit after the storm passes. If so, Monday night's southerly winds may open the Bay back up. On the other hand, the harbor on Booth Island is open to the southeast and is less likely to get blocked today, although Monday night's winds, the Yeva's potential salvation, could be the Sardinha's undoing.  

In any event, there's no telling whether the route out of the Gulf around Cape Bathurst to the west will be clear of ice after the storms, even if the boats can escape their harbors. In a worst-case scenario, both sailors may have to wait until Wednesday or later for the winds to finally subside and see where the ice lies before they can head west toward Alaska.

Red Sox 12, Yankees 1

 

Is this even a contest anymore? Boston's leading this four-game road series, 3-0, by a cumulative score of 19-4. They've won eight of the nine games against the Yankees this season. I don't want to gloat and put a jinx on tonight's game, but Boston superiority has clearly been established. 

The ninth inning alone was ridiculous. The Sox entered the final inning with a healthy 5-1 lead, and then scored seven more runs (seven!) on a whole bunch of RBI singles and a balk, capped off with a two-run Carlos Narváez homer. The Yankees, admitting defeat, didn't bother going to the bullpen and burn another reliever in a losing effort, instead choosing to let pitcher Paul Blackburn get absolutely roasted, his ERA skyrocketing to 8.83 in  his Yankees debut since getting traded from the Mets. Welcome to the Bronx, Blackburn. Those guys don't care about you.   

In Crochet we trust: starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (14-5, 2.38) went seven innings, striking out 11 and giving up only one run ( a fourth inning homer) on five hits. Yankee batters went 7-for-33 (.212) against Crochet in the game.

The Sox go for the sweep tonight. Dustin May (7-9, 4.49) takes the mound against the Yankees' Carlos Rodón (13-7, 3.24). The Sox are 2-0 against Rodón this season, while May, making his fourth Boston start since getting traded from the Dodgers, hasn't yet faced the Yankees this season.

Iowa State 24, Kansas State 21

I'm not particularly interested in Big 12 football or early-season games among lower-ranked teams, but this year's college football season began with a match-up between No. 17 Kansas State and No. 22 Iowa State. Since the game was played in Dublin, Ireland, and since I just finished reading Ulysses, I'm going to review the game in the style of James Joyce.

O'er and across the great snot-green, testicle-tightening ocean, far from the shores of North Armorica where the River Oconee permits the doubling of Laurens County, brave young men competed in a contest pitting their athletic strength for the meticulous scrutiny of older timekeepers at the old Landsdowne Rugby Grounds, known today among the sporting cognoscenti as Aviva Stadium.

It had better be stated here and now at the outset that the perverted purple wildcats of the fair agrarian state of Kansas, where the sunflowers Bloom and where Dorothea dreamt of roads of yellow brick, were the favorites to win the game some saying by as many as three points although to be sure that was a point of great contention over which much argument ensued and vast sums of money had been wagered. That having been said as has just been done above Dorothea was again undone by a cyclone as the lesser ranked Cyclops, coming as they tend to do from the wholesome corn-fed state of IOU with rose from the prairie with its grassley fields of ernst. Late in the game which from all accounts and reports was played honestly and in complete accordance with the rules however arcane set forth among the learned universities and colleges participating in such events as these, the Cyclops elected not to kick the inflated pigskin (13 psi) a distance of 17 yards or as known in all of Ireland as 15 meters but the whistle blew and, huuh!, off they went deciding instead to undergo a conversion of sorts by taking the pigskin into their hands which strangely is allowed in a game that is called in most circles football while handball is a game of a completely different nature and ran off while holding that selfsame ball in those very hands to very nearly close to the ultimate destination in what is called in those selfsame certain circles the end zone. Inwit of agenbite among the wildcats not expecting a maneuver such as that, but great merriment ensued on the other slide and although it was generally agreed that the cyclonic Cyclops of IOU were not to win the game they were in the end when all was said and done and the points all tallied and accounted for indeed emerging as vocrorious over the wildcats by the very same number of points which is say three by which they were expected to lose. Huzzah! All hearts were a-beat. Cyclops, they cried, we are undone. Wildcat eyes were sad anemones and a tear fell: one only. The jubilant Cyclops jeered, pulling down their britches to taunt the cats with the mellow, yellow, smellow globes of their overmuscled big black butts. Succubitus felix. 

The results of this athletic contest of strengthspeedstrategyandvirility require that the cyclone Cyclops of IOU be fed to the coyotes of south dakota while Dorothea's wily wildcats will fight the hawks of the dakota of the north. 

The Georgia Bulldogs play the Marshall Thundering Herd next Saturday. The Dawgs are 39.5-point favorites.        

Arctic Update

 

Quick geography lesson: Canada's Amundsen Gulf is the western end of the Northwest Passage through Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The north shore of the Gulf consists of Victoria Island to the east and Banks Island to the west. The south shore is the northernmost coast of the Canadian mainland and contains two prominent peninsulas: the Parry Peninsula with Cape Parry at its northern tip and, to the west, the Bathurst Peninsula with Cape Bathurst at its tip. The part of the Gulf between the two peninsulas is called Franklin Bay.     

The reason I bring this up is there's a big slab of year-round sea ice extending from west of Banks Island down into Franklin Bay, blocking off the western end of the Gulf and preventing exit of the Northwest Passage toward Alaska. It appears that the best route around it - probably the only route around it - is to hug the shore of Franklin Bay, down the west coast of the Parry Peninsula and then up the east coast of the Bathurst.   

To be clear, the waters in the Gulf not occupied by that big slab of sea ice aren't ice free. Until one clears Cape Bathurst, 20 to 50% of the water between the sea ice and the mainland is covered by floes of new ice. To make things even more interesting, there's a gale warning in effect. Winds will increase up to 20 knots near midnight tonight and to 35 knots near noon Sunday, returning to 20 knots by Sunday evening. To quote Penelope Cruz in the film, Vanilla Sky:

Ella Hibbert has taken the Yeva through 100 miles of icy water partially covered by thin to thick floes, hugging the northernmost coast of the Canadian mainland. Today, she arrived in Pierce Point, a natural harbor east of the Parry Peninsula. She intends to ride out the gale there, double-anchored in the harbor.  Pierce Point looks small on the map compared to the vastness of the surrounding Canadian wilderness, but the harbor is nearly 1½ square miles, more than enough to make water conditions in gale-force winds interesting.   

Tamara Klink and the Sardhina 2 have taken a different route. She sailed along the north side of the Amundsen Gulf, away from the mainland, and it looked like she was going to take refuge on the south end of Banks Island. But instead, she turned toward the southwest and sailed through over 100 miles of that floe-infested water across the Gulf toward Cape Parry. About 15 miles north of the cape, she may have seen what appeared to be an open channel of water leading toward the Bathurst Peninsula, as she abruptly turned to the west. The channel was apparently a dead end, as after a couple of miles, she turned back around and tacked back toward the east and her point of departure. Once back on her original route, she headed southwest again. As of this afternoon, she's cleared the northern tip of Cape Perry and hopefully will soon find a snug harbor somewhere to ride out tomorrow's gale.

It's also worth noting that the two have finally left the Canadian province of Nunavut and are now in the Northwest Territories. "Only" 425 more miles to Alaska.   

Since leaving Fort Ross on Somerset Island together, the two explorers were up to 100 miles apart at times, but right now the Sardhina 2 is only about 50 miles west-northwest of the Yeva. It's not a race, but assuming the winds die down by Monday morning, Klink will still have a sizable head start on Hibbert to get around Cape Bathurst and complete the Passage.

Update: Sardhina 2 has found safe harbor on Booth Island just west of Cape Parry. 

Red Sox 1, Yankees 0

 

Talk about a pitcher's duel! I'm loving these Bello/Fried matchups!

Brayan Bello pitched seven shutout innings, giving up only three hits and walking only one while striking out five. Max Fried pitched six shutout innings, giving up four hits and walking three while striking out seven. The Boston bullpen kept the pressure on, striking out four over two hitless innings, but Yankee reliever Mark Leiter Jr. gave up a one-run double to Connor Wong (.189) of all players. It was all Boston would need to win the game.

The stinkin' Yankees just dropped two in a row to a team that just got swept at home by the Orioles. The Sox (70-59) are now 7-1 against New York this season, guaranteeing a winning season record versus the Yankees, and take over second place in the AL East, five back from Toronto and a half game ahead of New York. 

And it get's better - it's Crochet Day! Left-handed Boston starter Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.43) will face Will Warren (7-5, 4.25) this afternoon. Let's make it 8-1 over the Yankees this season! Let's sweep the Yankees in the Bronx! Let's knock them out of Wild Card eligibility!

Yankees suck, man! The Yankees fucking suck!

Yeva vs. the Sea Ice

Things are getting a little dicey up in the Amundsen Gulf between the Canadian mainland and Victoria and Banks Islands. The marine forecast indicates southeast winds increasing to 20 knots by tomorrow afternoon, with patches of fog forming in the morning and hopefully dissipating by noon. There is also an ice warning for the region, with old ice blocking the exit west toward Alaska, which is unusual for this time of year. 

Obviously, high winds in ice-packed water under foggy conditions is less than an ideal situation for sailing. Ella Hibbert is currently in the Amundsen Gulf near the delta of the Croker River and heading west, and reports that she's taking the Yeva to some place called Pierce Point (which I can't find on any maps) to ride out the storm. I'm pretty sure it's not the large (and ice-filled) Darnley Bay between the Parry Peninsula and the Melville Hill headlands. If it's where I think it is (where I would head in those conditions) it's a small harbor along the Melville Hills coast just to the left of the arrow in the Canadian Ice Chart up above. She'll drop two anchors there for the first time on this trip to make sure the ship doesn't drift off into the ice field. 

Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 are about 100 or so miles to the north-northwest of the Yeva. Klink posted about playing a chess game with the ice, trying to anticipate the best route as the ice moves and hopefully a passage opens up. She's currently close to the south coast of Banks Island and should hopefully be able to find a snug harbor somewhere on Banks tomorrow. 

Man, these Canadian Ice Charts are difficult to read! It's my first time seeing one, so I may be interpreting it completely wrong, but I believe the purple areas labelled A and B are thick accumulations of "old ice," sea ice which has survived at least one summer’s melt. As explained in the "egg codes" at the bottom of the chart, the A area is about 90% covered by old ice, while the B area is 70% covered. The ice in both area occurs in big to vast floes from ½ to 6 miles across. In other words, unpassable unless you happen to be a reinforced icebreaker vessel. 

But if you squint, it looks like there might be a narrow channel to the west of both ships between the old ice of the purple B area and the Parry Peninsula. But to get to that area, they will have to sail through D, E, and F areas with 20 to 50% coverage of first-year ice. Fortunately for the Yeva (unfortunately for the Sardinha 2) the floes of first-year ice are drifting to the north (I think that's what the arrow is indicating), so wider, more frequent channels may be available to the Yeva, while the Sardinha might encounter more congestion. 

I may be completely wrong. These charts were not designed for landlubber sports bloggers like me. But I'm pretty sure that if nothing else, one needs to avoid the purple A and B areas, and exercise extreme caution through the yellow and green D, E, and F areas. The good news is that once they get past this bottleneck where the sea ice is up against the mainland, there's a fairly clear channel of open water along the coast all the way west to and across Alaska.   

It's anyone's guess where the ice may drift to after the wind blows through this weekend. I wish both Hibbert and Klink all the best.

Red Sox 6, Yankees 3

 

Rookie phenom Roman Anthony, who earlier hit a game-tying RBI single in the 6th, homered 387 feet into deep right in the top of the ninth, propelling the Boston Red Sox to a 6-3 win over the Yankees in New York. Aroldis Chapman pitched the bottom of the inning, getting Judge, Bellinger and Stanton out, 1, 2, 3, on a pop fly and two grounders.  

Giolito gave up the three Yankee runs, lasting only 4.2 innings. Reliever Greg Weissert got the win.

Boston holds a 6-1 record against New York  this season. The Yankees suck. 

Tonight, Brayan Bello (9-6, 3.23) takes the mound for Boston against the Yankees' Max Fried (13-5, 3.26). These two pitchers went head to head back on June 15, with Boston wining in a 3-0 shutout that completed a three-game sweep in Fenway. Bello went seven innings, striking out eight, while Fried also went seven, striking out nine but giving up two runs, including a home run by Rafael Devers (remember him?).

10 More Days Until College Football

Actually, it all depends on when you consider the "start" to be. The University of Georgia Bulldogs play their first game of the 2025 season in ten days on August 30, but No. 17 Kansas State will play No. 22 Iowa State this Saturday, August 23 - and for some reason in Dublin, Ireland at that. And there's also games on Thursday and Friday before next Saturday's Georgia kickoff. So maybe there's 10 more days until college football or maybe three more days, or maybe nobody knows. 

I've seen all manners of previews and predictions of the 2025 NCAA season. My inbox is stuffed with preseason analyses and betting advice, all considering strengths of schedule, player ratings, team traditions, statistics, luck, and superstition. Here at Sweat Dissolves Water, we're going to do things a bit differently. We're going to preview the 2025 Georgia Bulldogs season by throwing the I Ching.

We meditate, light a stick of incense, align our chakras, and toss the coins. The first three throws yield three consecutive yin lines, the trigram for Earth. The next throw gives another yin, followed by two yang lines, the trigram for Wind. The Earth below, wind above: Kuan, Hexagram 20 (Contemplation). The Earth beneath our feet, nothing but wind above - the hexagram implies a rising to great heights. Sounds pretty auspicious. 

This hexagram is also known as the Watchtower because, with four open lines beneath two solid lines, it's shaped sort of like the guard posts manned by soldiers. Those towers are placed on mountaintops to give the soldiers a better vantage point but to those below, they also served as landmarks to help them find their way. The hexagram may be implying a rise to great heights, but as one climbs higher, one becomes more conspicuous to those below. The hexagram is warning that Georgia's quest for the top of the rankings will also make them the target of others. 

That's pretty obvious. Every team in the Top 10 becomes the target of every other team's ambitions. Knock off No. 1 (or 2, 3, or 5), and move up the rankings yourself. The route to the championship goes through the top-ranked teams.

But the text advises, "The hands are clean, but a sacrifice has not yet been made. Be sincere and dignified in appearance."   The reading also comes with a warning - the first line is a moving yin line, saying, "You look at things in a childlike way. This is pardonable for lesser persons, but a fatal flaw in those of higher caliber." In other words, clear sight can be obscured by an element of fantasy. This can be troublesome to those who must lead.

Georgia is starting the season ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll. The first two games are at home against unranked Marshall and Austin Peay. Barring the unthinkable, Georgia will start the season 2-0. And with No. 1 Texas playing No. 3 Ohio State in the first week of the season and No. 4 Clemson hosting No. 9 LSU,  there may be room for Georgia to move up to No 4, maybe even No. 3, by Week 3. 

That's when the warning about childish fantasies comes in. It's alright for us "lesser persons" - we fans and bloggers, etc. - to start fantasizing about a No. 1 ranking or a National Championship after two easy wins, but it would be a fatal flaw for the Bulldog players and coaches to think that the same effort that won home games against Marshall and Austin Peay will be enough to succeed on the road in Week 3 against Tennessee. Or, back home after a bye week, against No. 8 Alabama. 

After Week 2, we're undefeated, immaculate, our hands are clean, but a sacrifice has not yet been made. The I Ching is not predicting defeat after that, but advising those in charge to avoid fantasy and to maintain their sincerity and dignity. The "sacrifice" may be the loss of a game, or it may be giving up swaggering, bragging, and overconfidence.

It's up to Head Coach Kirby Smart (as much a paragon of sincerity and dignity as anyone in college football), Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo, and QB Gunnar Stockton to decide which sacrifice Georgia will make.

Yeva Update

It's Day 72 of Ella Hibbert's five-month trip around the Arctic Ocean. As of yesterday, the Yeva has completed 3,837 of approximately 9,928 planned miles. The actual length will be dependent of the actual route taken through the rest of the Northwest Passage and around those islands north of Siberia in the Kara and Laptev Seas.    

The Yeva is currently in the Lambert Channel just to the north of the Canadian mainland and south of Lambert Island, Nunavut. Once it emerges from the Channel, it will be entering Dolphin & Union Strait between the mainland and the massive Victoria Island. 

Tamara Klink is currently some 80 or so miles ahead of Hibbert in the NWP.  The Sardinha 2 is nearing the mouth of the Amundsen Gulf between the mainland, Banks Island, and the westernmost parts of Victoria Island.

But it's not a race. Both sailors are on different missions with different itineraries. Hibbert and the Yeva are attempting the first-ever solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean in a single season, while Klink and the Sardinha 2 are on a long-term mission of self-sufficiency alone in the Arctic (she spent last winter alone in her boat in Greenland). It's just a mere coincidence that they're both in the Northwest Passage at the same time.

Orioles 4, Red Sox 3

 

My dudes, you got swept by Baltimore? At home? WTF, dudes? Seriously, WTF?

The Red Sox offense, virtually non-existent on Monday, was AWOL most of last night's game, too. No scoring, other than a single run on a balk, until the 9th and that only managed to tie up the game. The weak-ass offense continued through two extra innings. We had to squander Aroldis Chapman in the 10th, only to have Whitlock give up the game-winning run in the 11th. The Sox went down 1-2-3 in the 11th, and lowly Baltimore left Fenway with a two-game road sweep of the Red Sox.

Unacceptable.

That's three losses in a row, 3-2 on this short homestand. Boston falls to third place in the AL East, one game back from the Yankees. The Sox are off today (thank the gods) and then off to the Bronx for a four-game series. Giolito (8-2, 3.63) will start the first game against Luis Gil (1-1, 5.14).  

The Sox enter Yankee Stadium on a 3-7 run, while New York is currently 7-3. I've been a Boston fan since 1975, and these late season collapses are all too familiar to me. I've seen far too many "September Swoons" in my lifetime than I care to remember and they almost always seem to reach their nadir in the Bronx. I'm bored of this tired old script. Let's write a new, different ending for the 2025 season!   

Orioles 6, Red Sox 3

 

Dude, you lost to the Orioles! The fucking, 57-67 Orioles! Get it together, man!

Yeva, Back in the Passage Again

 

Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 (I finally learned the correct spelling of the ship's name) took the long route around Victoria Strait, hugging the west coast of the Boothia Peninsula and sailing south of King William Island. She has entered the Dease Strait between Victoria Island and the Canadian mainland and is currently sailing west, blowing right past Cambridge Bay. 

Ella Hibbert and the Yeva sailed straight through the icy waters of Victoria Strait, arriving at Cambridge Bay on Saturday night. She made a short VIP guest appearance on a National Geographic cruise ship there and has just (like, literally in the past 15 minutes) left the harbor. It's still not a race, but this is a sports blog and Hibbert's now some 75 miles behind Klink and the Sardinha 2. 

There's still some 375 miles or so left to the waters between the massive Victoria Island and the mainland. The water goes by various names - Dease Strait, Coronation Gulf, and Dolphin & Union Strait - and from there the Northwest Passage runs about another 1,200 miles along the coast of the Arctic Ocean north of Canada and Alaska.          

Marlins 5, Red Sox 3

 

Blame this one on the Boston bullpen. Hell, jump on the bandwagon and blame it specifically on Isaiah Campbell (who didn't even pitch in this game).

The Sox entered the ninth with a 3-2 lead (3-1 entering the eighth). Aroldis Chapman time, right? Bring in your bullpen ace to get three sure outs, win the game, and complete the sweep of Miami. But no, Chapman wasn't available because, the day before, Campbell couldn't protect a 7-2 lead and after giving up three runs they had to bring in Chapman to nail down what should have been an easy win.

So yesterday, with a precarious 3-2 lead hanging in the balance, instead of Chapman the Sox had to bring in Greg Weissert, who promptly gave up a game-tying home run to the first batter he faced. With one out and one on, the Sox relieved Weissert with Steven Matz, one of those trade-deadline pitchers we picked up August 1 from St. Louis, who promptly gave up a two-run homer to his first batter. 5-3, Miami, and with Boston unable to generate any offense in the 9th - the whole game really - they lose the game, blow the sweep, rob Garrett Crochet of a potential win, and give up what seemed like a sure win against a sub-.500 team.

Statistically, the Sox have one of the best bullpens in the AL, at least based on ERA. It sure doesn't feel like that, though. And then Wilyer Abreu had to leave the game early with calf tightness, so we have that to worry about now, too. 

The Red Sox are 68-57, second in the AL East - five back from first-place Toronto and a mere half-game ahead of the suddenly-resurgent Yankees. They're tied with Seattle in the Wild Card race.

Dustin May, another of those trade-deadline pitching acquisitions, starts tonight in a two-game homestand against Baltimore (57-67). May's 1-1 with the Sox so far, but his last start was an eight-K, six-inning shutout of the Astros, so that's promising. Tonight, he goes up against the Oriole's Trevor Rogers (5-2, 1.43), probably the best pitcher in Baltimore's rotation, so this should be an interesting game.

Yeva Completes Heroic Passage through Victoria Strait

 

Sunset on Victoria Strait, photograph by Ella Hibbert

It's easy to underestimate the risks of sailing through the Northwest Passage. You look at a map and see plenty of blue, suggesting multiple open-water routes around the various Nunavut islands, and it appears that there are a variety of options for intrepid sailors willing to brave the cold. Unfortunately, the maps don't show the seasonal pack ice and bergs clogging that straits and passageways, or depict the fickle weather conditions in the Arctic. To date, only 12 sailors have completed solo voyages through the NWP, the same number of people as have walked on the moon. 

In 1848, the English ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, after having successfully explored Antarctica,  became trapped in Victoria Strait. Ice-bound, both ships were abandoned by their crews, and all 130 men died from a variety of causes, including hypothermia, scurvy, and starvation while trying to hike overland to the south. No survivors. Inuit report that some of the men even resorted to cannibalism and forensic evidence of cut marks on the skeletal remains of crew members found on King William Island support the Inuit claims. 

Despite the intense efforts in the 19th Century to find a navigable path through the NWP, the first passage through Victoria Strait wasn't completed until 1967, when the icebreaker CCGS John A. Macdonald broke through. The Macdonald crossed again in 1975, and in 1976, the Canadian icebreakers Louis S. St-Laurent and J.E. Bernier also made it through the strait.

Late last night, Ella Hibbert pulled into Cambridge Bay aboard the Yeva, having successfully sailed from Fort Ross on Somerset Island, westward through the Bellot Strait, and then southward through the Larsen Sound and into Victoria Strait. In the strait, she managed to find an open channel of water between pack ice on both her port and starboard sides, which forced her considerably to the east of her intended route through the strait. Fortunately, visibility was good and the wind was manageable, and she eventually made it south through the strait, and then west through the Icebreaker Strait between Victoria and Jenny Lind Islands, and finally into Cambridge Bay, the first passage through Victoria Strait this year. In total, it was a journey of over 400 miles from Fort Ross in three continuous days of nerve-wracking, around-the-clock sailing amidst all that ice.

Brazilian adventurer Tamara Klink is also sailing the NWP, although not as part of an Arctic Ocean circumnavigation like the Yeva. She and her boat, the Sardinia 2, were in Fort Ross with Hibbert, but Klink took the more traditional route, not sailing through the center of Victoria Strait like the Yeva, but following the west coast of the Boothia Peninsula down into James Ross Strait between the peninsula and King William Island, and then around the settlement of Gjoa Haven, making several stops at bays and inlets along the way. It's a longer route, and in a vlog update, Hibbert discussed the risk/benefit decisions that went into taking her chances that the open-water channel in Victoria Strait would lead all the way through and not force her to turn back. The risk paid off, as Hibbert is now safely in Cambridge Bay, while Klink is currently south of Jenny Lind, still some 100 miles from Cambridge Bay.

It's not a race, to be sure, but Hibbert still has some 6,000 miles left to sail to complete her voyage (900 more miles to Alaska!), and time is becoming a factor.

Red Sox 7, Marlins 5

 

Back-to-back wins for Boston, and the team's one win away from a home sweep of Miami. Trevor Story homered, his 19th of the season, and Bregman, Duran, and Yoshida all had RBIs. 

Brayan Bello shut the Marlins out over 4.2 innings before giving up homers late in the 5th and in the 7th. Reliever Isaiah Campbell gave up three more runs on three consecutive at-bats in the top of the 9th before Aroldis Chapman came on and got the final out to end the game.

It's Crochet Day! The Red Sox go for the sweep this afternoon with pitcher Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.48) taking the mound. Miami pitcher Janson Junk (6-2, 4.06) has the thankless task of opposing Crochet and avoiding the sweep, but we feel this isn't going to end well for Junk.    

Patriots 20, Vikings 12

 

The question all of New England is wondering this preseason: will the Patriots suck again this year?

Sweat Dissolves Water has the answer and is the one source brave enough to offer a definitive opinion: we don't know. Which is a stark improvement from the past couple of seasons - Bill Belichick's ignominious swan song and the Mac Jones years - when the answer was a definitive "yes." We actually might not suck this season, although no one can be sure of anything anymore.

So far, the Patriots are 2-0 this preseason, which is still only meaningless preseason play but is also a whole lot better than being 0-2. Yesterday, rookie TreVeyon Henderson (Ohio State) made an 8-yard rushing TD for a First Quarter touchdown, and backup QB Joshua Dobbs went 106 yards, going 11 for 16 and completing a 12-yard TD pass to rookie Efton Chism (Eastern Washington) in the Second. The New England defense kept the Vikings from scoring a touchdown, limiting them to four field goals.  That's certainly an improvement from prior preseasons.

Rays of hope to be sure, but no one's crowning this team champions yet. Next preseason game is against the Giants, who are also 2-0 this preseason.

Red Sox 2, Marlins 1

 

I'll be the first to admit I'd have liked to see Boston win this game by a bigger margin, and I'm more than a little concerned that Miami shut out the Sox through 6.2 innings, but a win's a win. And it's always fun to get a walk-off, RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, thank you very much, Mr. Story. It was Story's 10th walk-off win of the season, tops in MLB.

The lower-case "s" story of this game was a pitcher's duel. Giolito limited the Marlins to one run on seven hits with five strikeouts through 6.1 innings. Miami's Sandy Alcantara kept the Sox to one run on two hits with seven strikeouts through 6.0 innings.  Both bullpens were near-flawless until the Marlin's Josh Simpson fucked up and loaded the bases with two walks and a hit-by-pitch, and then reliever Calvin Faucher allowed Story's single and an unearned, game-winning run.

This afternoon, Brayan Bello (8-6, 3.25) goes up against the Marlins' Cal Quantrill (4-9, 5.09). Statistically, you gotta like the Sox' chances here.   

Yeva, Deep in the NWP

 

After a couple of days at the abandoned Fort Ross trading post on Somerset Island, Ella Hibbert and the Yeva have again set sail. They traveled westward through the Bellot Strait to the Franklin Strait between Prince of Wales Island and the west side of the Boothia Peninsula. As they proceeded south of Prince of Wales Island, Franklin Strait opened up to become Larsen Sound.  

Right now (3:00 pm EDT), the Yeva is deep in the Northwest Passage and is sailing south-southwest across the Larsen Sound. They're about halfway across, roughly 150 miles from Fort Ross, and at their present rate should pass sometime later today into Victoria Strait between the massive Victoria Island to the west and King William Island to the east (Prince of Wales Island, King William Island, Victoria Island . . .  you get the feeling this area was first explored by the English?).

Fun fact: Victoria Island is the eighth-largest island in the world (83,897 square miles), larger than Great Britain (80,823 mi²) and nearly twice the size of Newfoundland (43,010 mi²). Despite its size, the island has only about 2,000 residents, most of whom live in Cambridge Bay on the island's south coast.

The island is full of bays, coves, and inlets, and I imagine that Hibbert will anchor the Yeva somewhere along Victoria's coast for some well-deserved rest, possibly in the large and complex Albert Edward Bay on Victoria's east coast or down in Cambridge Bay, where she could get some supplies, fuel and water.

  

Astros 4, Red Sox 1

 

Texas sucks, man. I mean, is there any aspect of Texas - any of their shitty sports teams, their dumb-ass politics and stupid politicians, their corn-ball music, their abhorrent drawl - that doesn't suck? Give the whole thing back to Mexico and be done with it, I say.

The Red Sox (66-56) get to leave the gerrymandered Dumb Ass State today and return to Fenway. Tomorrow, Lucas Giolito (8-2, 3.77) will pitch against Miami (58-62). Sandy Alcantara (6-11, 6.55) will be the opening Marlins pitcher.       

The Sox don't have to go back to Texas this season unless they have to face the Astros in the ALC. 

Red Sox 14, Astros 1

 

Yeah, that's more like it! The Red Sox break a three-game losing streak with a 14-run thumping of the Houston Astros as Dustin May more than redeems himself and justifies his trade to Boston.

Every batter in the Boston lineup got a hit except, ironically, for pinch-hitter Alí Sánchez. In fact, every batter in the Boston lineup scored at least one run, except for Sánchez and Abreu (who still managed to hit three RBIs even if he didn't cross home plate himself). 

Roman Anthony, despite getting walked four times, still scored four times, stole a base, and hit a home run. His on-base percentage is .406 -  since 1947, only three players (Willie McCovey, Albert Pujols, and Juan Soto) have had a higher on-base percentage than Anthony through 52 games.

The game broke open in the sixth inning, when Narváez hit a three-run homer and Bregman hit a two-run homer.

But as much as I like all the scoring, it's the pitching that's most encouraging. May, after a disappointing Boston debut,  kept the Astros scoreless through six innings, striking out eight and giving up only five hits.

The road series is tied, 1-1, and tonight, Walker Buehler (7-6, 5.40) will take the mound against the Astros' Hunter Brown (9-5, 2.51). Buehler gave up three runs on nine hits through 4.1 innings in his last start against the Astros, an August 2 game at Fenway, although the Sox held on and won the game (the win went to reliever Justin Wilson). The night before that, Brown held the Sox to one run on four hits, striking out six through seven innings, although Boston also managed to win that game, 2-1. 

After this game, the Sox have a day off to return back to Fenway, and the schedule will finally soften up a bit for the rest of the month.