The Boston Red Sox beat the team with baseball's best record, the San Francisco Giants, 4-0 at Fenway Park last night, doing it with a combination of efficiency and power.
The power was chiefly supplied by David Ortiz, who drove a Jake Peavy cut fastball in the bottom of the fourth inning an estimated 440 feet deep into the right field seats behind the Boston bullpen. The homer was a three-run blast, Big Papi's twenty-third in his final season, and one that continues to thumb its nose at Father Time.
Brock Holt also went deep against Peavy, a solo shot less majestic than Papi's, but welcome nonetheless by Red Sox starter Rick Porcello, who provided the efficiency of six and a third innings of no-run ball on just four hits. Porcello is still undefeated at Fenway Park this season and improves his overall record to 12-2. One potential storm cloud came in the ninth when reliever Koji Uehara left the game after facing just one batter, feeling a strain in his right pectoral muscle. He'll be evaluated today to see how bad the injury night be, but with closer Craig Kimbrel already on the shelf and Junichi Tazawa a question mark as he gets ready to make his first appearance since coming back from the 15-day disabled list, the Red Sox can ill afford to lose more bullpen arms. Tommy Layne finished up in Uehara's stead last night.
The Giants are at Fenway for just one more game tonight and it's a big one on both pitching fronts. Tonight Red Sox fans will see the Boston debut for the newly acquired all-star lefty Drew Pomeranz, picked up from the San Diego Padres after the all-star game to shore up what's been Boston's Achilles Heel this season, the starting rotation. He'll face Matt Cain of the Giants, who's making his first start for San Francisco since spending more than a month on the DL with a strained hamstring.
The NY Yankees may be getting ready to sell on the sell mode mindset after beating the Baltimore Orioles for a second consecutive night, in a 7-1 win at the Stadium last night. Starlin Castro homered and drove in four runs on the night. Chase Headley added a two-run bomb, and Nathan Eovaldi got the win after reliever Anthony Swarzak bailed him out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth. The Yanks led 3-1 when Eovaldi lost his command and put ducks on every pond with just one out, but Swarzak got Nark Trumbo and Jonathan Schoop to foul out to end the threat. The Yanks are now just six and a half games behind the division leading Orioles, and the win helps the Red Sox out as well, as they now sit just a half game back of the O's.
In Chicago, NY Mets closer Jeurys Familia didn't do it the easy way, but he got the job done, working out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with the Mets leading by a just a single run in the bottom of the ninth, good for a 2-1 Mets win against the Cubs. Familia walked the first two batters he faced to start the ninth, but after a bunt single loaded them up and had Wrigley Field on the edge of eruption, Familia induced a grounder to first and a force out at the plate, and ended the drama and the game when he got Kris Bryant to ground into a double play to end it. Jake Arrieta for the Cubs and Noah Syndegaard for the Mets were both excellent in their starting roles, but neither figured in the decision. Rene Rivera singled home the eventual game winning run for the Mets in the top of the ninth.
In New York Penn league action, the Vermont Lake Monsters avoided a sweep against the Connecticut Tigers, eking out a 3-2 win at Dodd Stadium last night. Brett Sunde hit a two-run double in the second inning, and the pitching combo of Brendan Butler and Brandon Bailey retired nineteen straight Tigers hitters from the second through the eighth. Butler struck out five on the night, giving up just one run on two hits and now sports an ERA of 1.95. The win also snaps the Lake Monsters' three-game losing skid as they get a day off today before returning home to Centennial Field to face the Hudson Valley Renegades on Thursday.
While the Monsters were putting a halt to their losing skid, the North Adams Steeplecats threw a wet blanket over the Vermont Mountaineers' four-game winning streak, beating the Mountaineers 7-2 at Recreational Field in Montpelier last night. Jon Stiever took the loss, giving up four runs on seven hits over five innings. Mike Osiniski did have a good night for the Mountaineers, going three for four on the night.
The Upper Valley Nighthawks split a double-header with the Keene Swamp Bats, losing game one in dispiriting fashion, blowing a late-inning 7-3 lead to lose 8-7 on a walk-off single by Keen's Dom Lero. But the Nighthawks responded in the nightcap, winning 4-2 on Joey Denison's two-run homer in the top of the eighth.
