It's kind of like if the Avengers got Batman added to their already stacked super-hero lineup.
Yesterday the basketball world got rocked by the news that Kevin Durant, who averages twenty-seven points per game and is arguably the best all-around pure scorer in the game, will join league MVP Steph Curry and the team that set a record last year for most wins by a team in a regular season, the Golden State Warriors, in a free agent signing for the ages. Championships are not won on paper, of course, but the book the Warriors may be writing next year is one the rest of the league will not be eager to read.
For the Boston Red Sox, Independence Day started out more like the clunker of the movie sequel than the original at Fenway Park yesterday. Rick Porcello followed the disturbing pattern the Sox have had this season of lousy first innings, falling behind the Texas Rangers 4-0 in the top of the first.
But Porcello found his groove, after that and the Red Sox bats did the rest in a 12-5 rout of the Rangers. The big inning came in the third when David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez hit back to back run scoring doubles, and in doing so Big Papi passed former Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski for twelfth place on the all time extra base hits list, and then Brock Holt put the Sox ahead for good with a two-run homer that bounced off the top of the low bullpen fence and into the waiting hat of Red Sox reliever Robbie Ross Jr., who seemed more delighted at catching the ball in his cap than with his teammate's go-ahead shot. Holt has been great in his brief return to the line-up since missing more than a month with concussion symptoms. He had two doubles in the Red Sox previous win over the Angels
and his comeback is especially critical since Chris Young went down with injury after he was swinging a hot bat in taking over left field in Holt's absence.
Mookie Betts hit a two-run homer as the Sox offense seems to have re-emerged from its June hibernation. Porcello didn't yield another run past the first and improves to 10-2 on the season, and remains undefeated at Fenway Park this year. David Price could use a good start in game two of the series tonight, though, after two consecutive poor outings in which he admits that as the purported ace of the staff, he simply hasn't been good enough.
The NY Yankees were hoping to build a winning streak after staving off a sweep against the San Diego Padres, but they got back into the loss column with a rough 8-2 defeat at the hands of the White Sox in Chicago. Tim Anderson and Dioner Navarro each hit two run homers off CC Sabathia, who struck out nine but gave up five runs on eight hits with the two long balls leading to his sixth loss of the year. Chase Headley provided the only runs for the Yanks with a two-run shot. James Shieds picked up the win for Chicago.
The NY Mets were down six runs to the Miami Marlins in the fourth inning, Dark Knight Matt Harvey had been knocked out of the game and sent to the Bat Cave, and fans at Citi Field were thinking there wouldn't be anything in the way of fireworks from the home town team on Independence Day. But the Mets lit the comeback fuse with solo home runs by Travis D'Arnaud and Curtis Granderson, and Yoenis Cespedes gave the fans something to "ooh" and "ahh" about in a big finish that featured his tie-breaking, two-run double off Fernando Rodney in the eighth, good for an 8-6 victory. Coming off their four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs, the Mets got their biggest comeback win of the year and suddenly the big lead the Washington Nationals had for first place over New York in the east is down to a very manageable four games as the all star break approaches.
In the NY Penn League, the Vermont Lake Monsters played some comeback ball of their own yesterday, scoring three unearned runs in the top of the 8th to eke out a 3-2 win over the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in Ohio. Miguel Mercedes hit the go-ahead single in the eighth to power the Monsters to the win.
In the NECBL a rough outing for the Upper Valley Nighthawks, who got routed 12-1 by the North Adams Steeple Cats in western Mass.
At the all-England club, the later rounds are taking shape with the usual suspects all lined up, with the exception of #1 mens' seed Novak Djokovic. Serena Williams is into the quarterfinal round and faces number 21-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia today at ten eastern. Her sister Venus takes on another Russian Yaroslava Shvedova today at eight. On the mens' side the American underdog who ended Djokovic's dreams of a grand slam in the same year, Sam Querrey, has made it to the quarters, as has Roger Federer, who may be the favorite along with Andy Murray, who's also advanced.
Finally, this sad note that 61-year old Ron Casey of Manchester Center has died after crashing during a race at the Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven Sunday night. The Burlington Free Press reports Casey was competing in a modified NASCAR race when he was stricken with what appeared to be a medical emergency that led to a crash.
