Padres 5, Red Sox 4

 

We should have won this game.

The idiot Manny Machado gifted Boston a run in the third inning when be broke a 1-1 tie by attempting the old schoolyard "hidden ball" trick to tag out Jarren Duran at third. But the pitcher was on the mound when Machado pulled his stunt and was called for a balk, so instead of getting Duran out, he was awarded a base, which since he was on third, was home plate. 2-1, Boston lead thanks to Machado. A Yoshida RBI later that inning made it 3-1, Boston.

Former Red Sox Xander Bogaerts was finally heard from this game, homering in the second and scoring an RBI in the third. But with the Padres leading 4-3 in the ninth, Roman Anthony doubled into deep right center, scoring a run and tying up the game. The reliable Aroldis Chapman needed only 10 pitches to shut out the Padres in the bottom of the ninth, so the game went into extra innings.

In a perfect world (well, perfect for me), the Sox would have rode the momentum of Anthony's come-back RBI and Machado's third-inning goof, but that was not to be. The Sox went hitless in the 10th and then the Padres won the game with a walk-off RBI single scoring (guess who?) Xander Bogaerts from second. 

The series is now tied, 1-1, with the rubber game at 4:00 this afternoon. Brayan Bello (8-5, 3.03) will take the mound against some guy named Dylan Cease with a 4-10 record and a 4.60 ERA.  The Red Sox will leave Southern California with a 2-1 series win.

New England 48, Washington 18

 

Look, I had no intention of covering NFL preseason football. Especially after the turds that were the last couple of Patriots' seasons.

But when . . .  

New England scores 48 points in the first preseason game . . . 

The opening play of the game is a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown . . . 

Drake Maye rushes for five yards for the game's second touchdown . . . 

Four different players in addition to Maye score rushing touchdowns . . . 

Even backup QB Ben Wooldridge throws a touchdown pass . . . 

. . . You have to at least acknowledge the game.  

Look, don't give us false hope, New England. We're still pinching ourselves scarcely believing the Red Sox are finally playing well. We're still getting over a disappointing Bruins season and the Celtics playoff loss. Don't build me up, buttercup, just to let me down again.

Yeva, Progressing

 

The Yeva has left Bylot Island and is now sailing west through Lancaster Sound.

In a news-filled v-log update, Ella Hibbert has revealed the route she plans to take through the maze of islands and channels that make up the Northwest Passage. She will continue west through Lancaster Sound around Baffin Island's Brodeur Peninsula, turn south through the Gulf of Boothia, and then ride the tides through Bellot Strait, a narrow passage that separates the Canadian mainland to the south from Somerset Island to the north. From there, she will most likely pass south below Victoria Island and into the Beaufort Sea and the North Slope of Alaska. If so, she may currently be at one of the most northerly latitudes of her trip, 74°15' N.

There's more. In Tay Bay on Bylot Island, she saw her first two polar bears. I would be terrified, but Hibbert responded with awe and appreciation, although to be sure she allowed them her preferred anchorage near the beach and dropped anchor elsewhere in the bay. In any event, despite the bears, she had to spend 24 hours in Tay Bay due to wind, rain and snow blowing down Lancaster Sound before more favorable conditions allowed her to finally leave. 

More still. She's made a friend up there. In addition to polar bear sightings, while in Tay, Ella met Tamara on the Sardinia 2, who is also attempting a solo trip of her own through the Northwest Passage. Tamara apparently spent last winter on board her ship in Greenland; unlike the Yeva, the Sardinia 2 is not attempting a single-season circumnavigation of the entire Arctic Ocean. This year, the Sardinia 2 was sailing the Passage tandem with a French crew on another boat, but unfortunately the latter is stuck in Pond Inlet with engine trouble. 

It's pretty remarkable that to date, only 12 people have made solo voyages through the Northwest Passage, the same number (as Hibbert points out) that have walked on the moon, and this year, two separate 28-year-old women are both attempting the feat. That, and they ran into each other in the same bay in the vast Canadian wilderness. Ella and Tamara will sail tandem in their separate vessels, still solo sailing but with some company within radio chat range and assistance, if needed, in case of emergency, before going their separate ways in the Beaufort Sea.   

Today is Day 60 of the Yeva's voyage. 3,021 nautical miles of 8,850 completed.  

Red Sox 10, Padres 2

 

So the Red Sox have to fly out to San Diego to play the Padres (64-51) on the road? So former Boston slugger Xander Bogaerts is now batting .269 for San Diego, with nine home runs? So former Boston pitcher Nick Pivetta is starting the first game of this series with an 11-3 record and 2.94 ERA? 

No problem. The Sox scored five runs on five hits against Pivetta, including a Wilyer Abreu homer run, and Bogaerts went 0-3 as Boston wins the game, 10-2. The Padres' Manny Machado went 1-for-3 at bat as Buehler pitched six scoreless innings, fanning four, and Yoshida hit his second home run of the season en route to a three-RBI night. Buehler gets the win, his seventh, and Pivetta takes the loss, his fourth. There's no stopping these Red Sox!

To make things even sweeter, Toronto lost to the Dodgers in L.A. and the Astros beat the Yankees in the Bronx, so Boston is now only three games back from first, and 3½ ahead of third-place New York. Even the New York Fucking Times is predicting the Yankees don't make the playoffs this year, speculating "Aaron Boone probably gets fired and the team wastes another elite year of Aaron Judge. Womp." 

But no time to count unhatched chickens. Tonight, Giolito (8-2, 3.57) faces off against Michael King (4-2, 2.59). The last time King faced the Sox, a June 29, 2024, 11-1, San Diego romp, he held Boston to one run on five hits over six innings, although that one run was a Jarren Duran homer. Let's see if Duran has another home run up his sleeve for tonight.

Yeva, in Bylot

 

Ella Hibbert and the Yeva left Pond Inlet on Baffin Island around 10:00 am yesterday and sailed north through Navy Board Inlet toward Lancaster Sound on the Northwest Passage. 

The route was somewhat doubtful as high winds the previous day could well have blown floating sea ice into the inlet, resulting in an ice jam blocking the way. The forecast, however, showed clear conditions along the route, and she went a little over 100 miles north and pulled into a fjord on the west coast of Bylot Island for the night. 

Her current latitude is 73° 29', the furthest north her trip has taken her so far, and she's only proceeding further north from there.       

Bylot is technically an island, surrounded by Baffin Bay to the east, Lancaster Sound to the north, Pond Inlet to the south, and Navy Board Inlet to the west. But geologically, it's really the northeastern part of Baffin Island (fifth-largest island on Earth), separated from the rest of the massive island by the two inlets. In fact, the entirety of Nunavut, Canada is really one big, partially submerged land mass, a subsiding continental craton further carved up by glaciers. The fjord in which the Yeva is currently sheltering was carved by glacial ice, and as an indication of post-Pleistocene climate change, the glacier that carved the fjord has retreated nearly five miles up the valley, leaving behind two miles of open water and three miles of a braided alluvial fan. Some classic, textbook glacial geology right there.

No one lives on Bylot - it's reportedly one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. However, it appears there's a man-made jetty at the mouth of the fjord the Yeva's currently anchored in, and aerial photos show what might be a single, uninhabited building nearby. The island is used by the Inuit for hunting and the north shore is a polar bear maternity den area, so be careful out there, Ella.   

Anyhow, this apparently is Day 57 of the Yeva's voyage, which has covered 2,888 nautical miles of the roughly 8,800 anticipated. That's an average of about 50 nautical miles per day, meaning at the current pace there's still 118 days left. Although that would put completion of the trip well into the Arctic winter, many, many days were lost with virtually no mileage per day in Greenland repairing the Yeva and waiting on equipment to arrive, affecting the daily average. Arctic ice usually doesn't reach its seasonal minimum until September, so to complete the trip by mid October, the Yeva would need to average at least 80 nautical miles per day from here on out. 

Royals 7, Red Sox 3

 

It had to happen sooner or later. The Red Sox' seven-game winning streak finally came to an end and the Royals head back to Kansas City or wherever their schedule has them going next (frankly, I don't give a damn) with a 1-2 series split with Boston. 

New guy Dustin May started out strong, striking out four in the first three innings, but struggled in the third and had to be relieved in the fourth with three earned runs after throwing 91 pitches. Roman Anthony celebrated his $130 million contract extension through 2033 by going 0-4, as did DH Masataka Yoshida. When your pitchers aren't getting outs and your batters aren't getting hits, well, you do the math.

No worries. The Sox are on an 8-2 tear, are currently the hottest team in the American League, and have moved into second place in the AL East, four back from Toronto and 2½ ahead of the slumping Yankees.

The Red Sox are off today, traveling to San Diego for a weekend series against the Padres (64-51). From there, it's on to Houston, where the Astros (also 64-51) are primed for revenge after getting swept in Fenway last weekend. 

It never gets easy.      

Red Sox 6, Royals 2

 

The Red Sox keep their win streak alive at seven games and, at 9-1 over the last 10, are currently the hottest team in MLB. 

Garrett Crochet picks up his 13th win, well on his way toward a 20-win season. He gave up two runs on four hits through seven innings, striking out eight and walking only one. 

No homers yesterday - the Red Sox scored all their runs on a Duran double, a pair of Story singles, and one Abreu single.  

The Dodgers' Dustin May was the losing pitcher in the July 27 Boston win over L.A., giving up a triple to Roman Anthony and a home run to Alex Bregman. But the Sox said, "That's our man!" anyway and picked him up on trades, and tonight he will make his first start for Boston. He enters the game with a 6-7 record and a 4.85 ERA, and will face veteran pitcher Michael Wacha (5-9, 3.38) who, incidentally, pitched for Boston back in 2022, going 11-2 that season despite the team finishing in last place with a 78-84 record.

Let's end this homestand with a sweep of those Royals and make it eight in a row!   

Yeva, in Pond Inlet

 

Ella Hibbert and the Yeva are waaaay above the Arctic Circle (latitude 66°33′45) now and are currently docked near the northern end of Baffin Island in the tiny, blink-and-you-miss-it Inuit village of Pond Inlet (72°42′). They left Greenland back on July 28, sailed across the Davis Strait to Baffin Island, Canada, and pulled into Pond Inlet earlier today.  

Pond Inlet, the village, is located on the south shore of a narrow strait, also called Pond Inlet, that separates Baffin Island from Bylot Island to the north. The strait that separates the west side of Bylot from Baffin Island is called Navy Board Inlet.

The Pond Inlet village (or Mittimatalik to the Inuit) may be tiny, but it does have a few shops, an airstrip, and, most importantly, a couple of docks. No word yet on how long they'll stay in Pond Inlet before sailing across Canada via the Northwest Passage, but I suspect at least 24 hours for Hibbert to get some quality sleep after a week of navigating through the fog banks and between the icebergs in the Strait.  

Depending on sea ice and whether or not it's passable, one imagines that after leaving Pond Inlet, they'll sail north through Navy Board Inlet and then west through Lancaster Sound (Northwest Passage) south of Devon Island. The forecast for Pond Inlet has highs in the mid 40s and lows around freezing, with rain and possible snow coming in later this week.  

Red Sox 8, Royals 5

 

Boston wins it's sixth consecutive game with an 8-5 victory over Kansas City. 

That new guy, Bailey Falter, that the Royals got from Pittsburgh? He gave up five runs on two homers in the first inning, one to Refsnyder and the other to Duran. Bet Royals fans are wishing they could send him back to the Pirates. In any event, he lasted only four innings but still gave up seven of the eight Red Sox runs.

K.C. put a scare in Fenway fans in the 8th, though, scoring five runs off the Boston bullpen, including a back-to-back pair of solo home runs. Still, we were finally able to get out of that hellhole of an inning and held on for the win, thank you very much, Aroldis Chapman.

The Blue Jays appear to be cruising over the pitiful Rockies, so Boston will most likely remain three games back in the AL East.

It's Crochet Day tomorrow!  Garrett Crochet (12-4, 2.23) will takes the mound for Boston against Ryan Bergert, who, like Falter today, is another recent trade acquisition by the Royals. With 11 starts this season for the Padres (62-50), it's a little bewildering how he could have such a low ERA (2.78) but such a poor win-loss record (1-0). I mean, he must have been pitching well for that low ERA, and his team has generally been winning, so why only one win? Perhaps we'll know a little more after tomorrow's game.

Red Sox 6, Astros 1

 

The Red Sox sweep Houston! 

All the action happened in the fourth inning, when all nine Boston batters got to the plate. Roman Anthony led off with a double to deep left center, and then Romy González walked. Trevor Story singled to right center, scoring Anthony and advancing González to third. Rafaela then singled to left center, scoring González and advancing Story to third. Then Astro's pitcher Framber Valdez (11-4, 2.62 going into the game) balked, scoring Story and advancing Rafaela to second. Rafaela then took third on a wild pitch. Toro singled to shallow center and then Abreu sacrificed, scoring Rafaela and advancing Toro to second, but on the throw to first, Valdez threw the ball wide and Abreu was safe at first and Toro took third. 

So four runs, no outs, runners on second and third, and the pitcher already committed a balk, a wild pitch, and a throwing error, but the Astros left Valdez in anyway. Good.

Connor Wong hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Toro and advancing Abreu to third. Five runs, one out, and Valdez stays in the game. 

Refsnyder grounded out, scoring Abreu. Six runs, two outs, and Valdez stays in the game as former Astro star Alex Bregman comes to the plate.

In a perfect world, Bregman would have hit a home run, but unfortunately that's not the world we live in. He lined out, ending the inning, but nine batters and six runs ain't that bad at all. That six-run fourth inning gave us all the scoring the Sox needed, and they held on and won, 6-1, and improve to 62-51 (.549). Giolito got the win, his 8th of the season. 

But wait, there's more! The Yankees lost, again, and the Sox take a 1½ game lead over third-place New York. And Toronto gave up five runs to Kansas City in the 10th inning to lose, 7-4, at home, so Boston is now only three games back from first place.  Exciting times we're living in, kiddo. Exciting times.

Next, the Sox will host K.C. (55-56, including today's win over the Jays). Bailey Falter (7-5, 3.73) will make his first start for the Royals (they got him in a deadline trade from Pittsburgh) against Brayan Bello (7-5, 3.19), who went seven innings and won his last start, a 13-1 shellacking of Minnesota back on July 30.  

Red Sox 7, Astros 3

 

In his last start prior to yesterday's game, Astros' pitcher Colton Gordon gave up two first-inning home runs. Yesterday, facing Boston, he continued that trend and gave up another homer in the first, this time to  Romy González. As long as he was at it, he gave up another home run to Story in the third and to Toro in the fourth. Red Sox starter Buehler wasn't overpowering and we went through six relievers, but we managed to limit Houston's potent offense to three runs and won the game, 7-3. That's back-to-back wins over the mighty Astros, fourth straight win overall, and seven of the last ten. 

As a result, the Red Sox passed the Yankees in the AL East standings. We're now in second place, four back from those pesky Jays and a half game ahead of New York. We're also currently in the top spot in the Wild Card standings, two games over the cut-off line.  It's a great time to be alive, boys and girls.

Hot-headed Astros reliever Héctor Neris yelled at the Red Sox dugout and third-base coach Kyle Hudson at the end of the seventh for some reason. Both benches and bullpens cleared as everyone rushed the field but order was quickly restored. That was fun. Also, Neris gave up back-to-back doubles to Refsnyder and Story that inning and advanced Story on a balk, so the guy's obviously a hack (his ERA's .600). Houston's the third team he's pitched for this season alone, and the Astros previously traded him away twice before this current tour of duty.

The Sox will go for the sweep this afternoon, starting Giolito (7-2, 3.60) against Framber Valdez (11-4, 2.62). The game's already begun (I slept in late today) and the Sox already have a 6-1 lead.

Red Sox 2, Astros 1

 

The new guy, rookie phenom Roman Anthony, wins the game for the Sox with a walk-off single in the 10th.

What a day! For most of the game, we had a good, old-fashioned pitcher's duel between Cooper Criswell, making his first appearance on the mound since a relief appearance on July 2, and the Astros' Hunter Brown. They gave up only one run each over seven innings and the bullpens prevented either team from scoring again before extra innings. 

In the 10th, the teams tied at 1-1, the Astros advanced a base runner to third with only one out, but the Sox tagged him running for home on a fielders' choice and Weissert got Houston out without any runs.

Then, in the bottom of the 10th, Anthony hit a single into deep center field, scoring baserunner Wilyer Abreu and winning the game. Not bad, rook! Not bad at all!

The people rejoiced. Conveniently, every other team in the AL East lost last night, so the third-place Sox are now only four games out of first and a mere half game behind the Yankees. 

Walker Buehler (6-6, 5.72) starts this afternoon (4:10 pm) against the Astros' Colton Gordon (4-3, 4.74). Buehler hasn't gotten a win since July 5, although the Sox did win some of the games he started since then, while rookie Gordon lost his last start, giving up four runs, including two first-inning homers, in a  7-1 loss to Oakland.