Make it three losses in a row now for the Boston Red Sox, all to their pale hose counterparts from Chicago. Last night at Fenway the frustration grew for Boston with two blown leads of 4-2 and 6-4 in an ultimate 8-6 loss to the White Sox.
The Red Sox looked poised to take this one especially since Chicago starter Jose Quintana went walk-happy, issuing six free passes in the first five innings, but the Red Sox took themselves out of a potentially big inning when Sandy Leon got picked off third base with one out in the 4th. Eddie Rodriguez again got roughed up by the long ball, allowing a homer toTodd Frazier that tied the game at four. The Red Sox took the lead back when Hanley Ramirez went deep and Xander Bogaerts added an RBI single bu the normally reliable Koji Uehara gave up two homers, one to Melky Cabrera in the 8th that tied the game and another to Brett Lawrie that put Chicago up for good. The Red Sox have been having a great season thanks to their offense but the lack of reliable pitching is starting to catch up with them. Look for Dave Dombrowski to make a move soon to add some much needed arms to the rotation.
The NY Yankees finally solved the Colorado Rockies after losing three in a row to Colorado, they won 9-8 last night at the Stadium in dramatic fashion when Starlin Castro led off the bottom of the 9th for his first career walk off home run.
The NY Mets beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on the strength of a homer by Matt Reynolds that broke a 3-all tie in the sixth. Not all good news for the Mets though, as one of their ace pitchers Noah Syndegaard, had to come out of the game after six inning with soreness in his elbow and slugger Yoenis Cespeds was also taken out of the game with a wrist problem. Both players will be evaluated as the Mets begin a 7-game road trip.
In the NECBL the VT Mountaineers stranded 12 men on base in a 5-4 loss to the Ocean State Waves at Recreational Field in Montpelier. Errors in the field hurt as well, wasting a good start by Joe Rocchietti who suffered the loss for Vermont, going four and two thirds innings, allowing three runs, none of them earned, on four hits.
The Upper Valley Nighthawks fared better, posting a season high thirteen runs in a 13-4 victory over the Newport Gulls.
Christiano Ronaldo proved yesterday why he's possibly the greatest soccer player in the world, although fans of Lionel Messi would disagree. But Rinaldo assisted on one goal and scored two others in Portugal's 3-3 draw with Hungary in the Euro Championships yesterday, a draw that keeps Portugal alive in the tournament where they'll face Croatia next n the KO round of 16. Hungary clinches the top spot in group F.
The darling underdogs of the tournament are Iceland, as they move on to the KO round after a 2-1 win over Austria. This plucky little country with a population roughly half that of Vermont has stunned soccer powerhouses like the Netherlands and next up they've got a knockout round game against England, which has underachieved so far. I'm all in on Iceland.
Sweden is out of Euro 16 after a 1-nil loss to Belgium. The Belgians move on to face Hungary and the loss ends the career of Swedish star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who said he'd retire after this tournament and does so without moving into the sweet 16.
And how about the Republic of Ireland scoring the only goal of the game in the 85th minute to upset Italy 1-Nil and gain a spot in the round of 16? Robby Brady headed home the game-winner for the Irish, who take on France in the KO round. Italy takes on defending champs Spain as Euro '16 gets heated up in the next elimination round of play.
There was a big NBA trade right before the draft, which is taking place today. The NY Knicks acquired former MVP point guard Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls for center Robin Lopez, guard Jose Calderon and guard Jerian Grant. The Knicks also get guard Justin Holiday with Rose and a 2017 second-round pick. Rose is a native of Chicago and was seen as the next best thing to come along since some guy named Jordan. He was the league's youngest ever MVP in 2008 but two torn ACL's have hampered his seasons since. The Knicks are hoping he can be at least seventy-five percent of the player he was when he was totally healthy.
