The Red Sox gave their biggest bat and oldest player a night off for some rest, but even the absence of Big Papi in the lineup couldn't slow down the most prolific offense in the American League.
The Red Sox pounded out a season-high sixteen hits, Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez and Travis Shaw all went yard, and Boston cruised to a second consecutive blow-out win over the struggling Oakland A's in a 13-5 win at Fenway Park. Taking the spot start that's been shakily held by Henry Owens, journeyman pitcher Sean O'Sullivan, who signed a minor league contract with the Sox in the off-season, got the start and the win, going five innings of scoreless ball before he ran into trouble in the sixth, giving up four runs, but by then the offense had already put the game away. Shaw drove in five of the Boston runs and the longest current hitting streak in the major leagues continues, as Jackie Bradley Jr. extended it to sixteen games, going two for four with a run batted in. Rick Porcello gets the start for the Red Sox tonight as they go for the sweep against Oakland.
In the Bronx, Lorenzo Cain hit three home runs for the Kansas City Royals, but pitching continues to be an Achilles heel for the defending World Series champs, and Cain's three-homer night wasn't enough to stop the NY Yankees from putting up double digits in a 10-7 win. Brett Gardner had the game winning hit, doubling home the tie-breaking run off Kelvin Herrera as part of a three-run eight inning. Aroldis Chapman picked up his first save in a Yankees uniform, at one point throwing a fastball recorded at 102 miles per hour. The Yankees are still in last place in the division but if their bats stay hot, their bullpen featuring Betances, Miller and now Chapman could change that in a hurry. The Royals, meantime, have dipped below .500 for the year and have lost eleven of their last fourteen games.
Trayce Thompson may not be as well known as his brother Klay, who plays for the defending World Champion Golden State Warriors in the NBA, but then again, Klay Thompson will never be as well known as his Warriors teammate Steph Curry. But, I digress. Point is, Trayce Thompson plays baseball for then Los Angeles Dodgers, and for one night anyway stole the headlines from his NBA brother, coming up with a bottom of the ninth, two-out, pinch hit home run, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 win over the NY Mets in Los Angeles. The Dodgers had lost their last three meeting with the Mets before Thompson connected off of Hansel Robles for the walk-off winner.
To the NHL playoffs, and fans of the Washington Capitals have got to be wondering what their team did to the hockey gods to deserve yet another early exit from the playoffs after a dominating regular season. Last night in Pittsburgh, the Penguins sent the Caps packing in a wild 4-3 overtime win that Pittsburgh very nearly gave away to force a game seven. The Pens jumped out to a 3-0 lead but Washington crept back to make it 3-2 and then late in the third period Pittsburgh took three delay of game penalties in succession in a two-minute time span. The Caps cashed in on a five on three power play to force overtime, but Nick Bonino, who was guilty of one of those delay of game penalties, atoned for the sin by putting a rebound in the slot behind Braden Holtby for the game winner. The Pens move on to the eastern conference finals to face the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Capitals, who have never won a Stanley Cup, get to gaze resentfully all summer at the tauntingly meaningless president's trophy for best regular season record, while another year with one of the best players on the planet, Alex Ovechkin, goes by without a chance to see what he could do in a Stanley Cup final.
If there's a western conference version of the Capitals, it is the St. Louis Blues, who also have never won a Cup, consistently have great regular seasons, and then falter in the playoffs. The Blues can exorcise some of those demons or fall to them again, when they play a winner take all game seven in Dallas against the Stars tonight.
In the NBA playoffs, more referee controversy in San Antonio, where the Oklahoma City Thunder have taken a three games to two lead over the Spurs in a 95-91 win last night. The Thunder had a one point lead and the ball when it was in-bounded to Russell Westbrook with nine seconds left. The Spurs Kawhi Leanoard made the only play he could, wrapping his arms around Westbrook for a foul to stop the clock in hopes he would miss the free throws. But even if he hit both the Spurs would get the ball back with a chance to tie with a three pointer. But despite what looked like a clear foul, the refs never blew the whistle, and Westbrook correctly kept driving to the net, where he scored while getting fouled, getting the bucket and adding the free throw that made it a two-possession game instead of one, and that was it. If a similar situation pops up in game six, I'd be wary if I'm Westbrook of Leonard tackling him like a football dummy to make sure that foul gets called.
Colchester baseball coach Tom Perry has reached the 100 win milestone for his career, after a walk off hit in the bottom of the ninth by Derek Sanderson, giving Colchester a 2-1 win over Rice yesterday, and yesterday we told you about the first ever Vermont sanctioned unified high school basketball title game. It was CVU coming out on top, 51-35 over Rutland.
