Cubs 6, Red Sox 2

 

Season's over, folks, at least the regular season. 162 games in the books, and the Boston Red Sox won 87 of them (.540).  Third place finish in the AL East, clinched the second Wild Card seed. Oorah.

What a long, strange trip it's been! The season started out with a spectacularly, even historically, bad start. By June 24, they were dead last in the AL East, 14 games under .500 (.410), and 15½ back from then first place New York. And then the Yankees came to Fenway for a four-game series and everything turned around. 

The Red Sox swept the Yankees in that series - four straight wins for the first time all season. They even won their next game against the Nationals - five straight wins. They lost the next two games but then won 15 straight and completed a 27-3 run for a spectacular July before falling back to earth and playing .500-baseball the rest of the way - respectable, but not nearly as thrilling as that 27-3 run. 

And now here we are, one day off between the regular season and a three-game Wild Card series played entirely in the Bronx. Lose more than one game and the season's over; win two and face Tampa Bay in the ALDS.

The Yankees will start their pitching ace, Adolf Shitler, because of course they will. The motherfucker's got a 14-6 record and a 1.95 ERA, and in his last start against the Sox, struck out eight enroute to a 1-0 Yankees victory. He's 2-0 against Boston this season in three starts, but notably did not pitch during the Sox' four-game sweep of New York in June. Pro tip: do not listen to the announcers of the televised coverage of tomorrow's game - their already-scripted narrative of the Yankee's supposed superiority and Shitler's dominance will be almost as nauseating as their gooning over Aaron Judge. The Yankees suck, so listen to the local coverage on WEEI radio (via SiriusFM or any other means accessible to you) instead during the broadcast.  

The Sox have not yet announced their pitching for the series, but it will most likely be either Sonny Gray (18-5, 2.72) or Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.03), with either a healthy and rejuvenated Garrett Crochet or Tanner Houck in Game 3. Expect long relief by Brayan Bello, and Whitlock and Chapman as the closers.

The pitching is looking fairly solid for the Wild Card, but the Boston batting has been pretty anemic the entire month of September. The Red Sox scored only 11 runs in the last week of the season (six games, 1.8 runs per game). The batters better wake the fuck up by tomorrow for there to be even a chance of anything beyond the Wild Card series in the post-season. 

Red Sox Nation once again finds itself standing on a precipice, not quite sure what to make of the season. Were they a good team that just got off to a bad start? Were they a bad team that just got a lucky, mid-season break? Both? Neither? No one knows. Do they have a chance to win two out of three in New York? Sure, statistically, anything's possible. Ignore those Calvinistic cloud of self-doubt - we're 6-7 vs. the Yankees this season and are certainly capable of taking two more. Maybe. 

Oh, yesterday afternoon. Almost forgot. In the first inning, catcher Adley Rutschman homered, his 13th of the season and fifth for the Red Sox, and Andruw Monasterio brought Nick Sogard home from third with an infield hit in the second. The score was 3-2, Cubbies, going into the ninth, but then reliever Patrick Sandoval, after 4⅓ innings of three-hit, shut-out relief, gave up three runs and put the game out of reach. The 2026 Red Sox ended the regular season with a loss.

Update: It's Tolle. Payton is 1-0 against New York in two starts, and has struck out 18 Yankees over 13 career innings pitched against them, with only one run.  His last start against the Yankees was in that four-game Fenway sweep last June, when he went seven shutout innings with only one hit but seven K's. We can use some of that kind of pitching tomorrow. 

Yankees suck.