Well, this is not how you want to head out on an eleven game west coast road trip. The Boston Red Sox couldn't avoid getting swept by the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park yesterday, losing 4-3 in the ninth on a home run by Miguel Cabrera that took a bad bounce for the home team, hitting the top of the Red Sox bullpen wall and just skipping over it.
The home run came off Brad Ziegler, the first run he's given up since being acquired at the all star break, and there's not shame in giving up a hit that only barely qualified for home run status to one of the game's best sluggers, but the larger issue is that the Red Sox had a chance to make some proverbial hay while the sun was shining on a nine-game homestand that included just two wins out of four against a last place Twins team, followed by the oh-fer against Detroit that left the Sox going just 4-5 over the nine game stretch, and now they've got to channel their collective inner Mad Maxes because they'll need to be nothing less than road warriors if they want to get into the post-season.
It starts tonight in Los Angeles against the Angels, a four-game series that begins with David Price taking the hill for Boston, and his last two starts were not promising. Now is the time for Price to work through whatever has kept him from being the true ace the Sox paid handsomely for this offseason. The hard throwing lefty takes a 9-7 record and what is for him a larger than normal ERA of 4.51 into tonight's game in Anaheim.
On the plus side Eddie Rodriguez did pitch fairly well yesterday, giving up three runs, all earned on nine hits in five and a third innings against a pretty good Tigers line up and Clay Buchholz went an inning out of the pen without giving up a hit. Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia hit solo home runs for the Red Sox but at this point, with the majority of their remaining games on the road this season, it's all about racking up wins, as the Sox sit in third place in the A.L. east, two and a half games behind first place Baltimore.
The NY Yankees had hopes of a sweep of their own against the Houston Astros, but Lance McCullers had other ideas, striking out ten Yankees over six innings in a 4-1 Houston win. Colby Rasmus hit a two-run homer to lead the Astros offense, handing Masahiro Tanaka the loss, just his third of the season.
Jeurys Familia had quite the save streak going. He hadn't blown one for the NY Mets in nearly a year, but Yadier Molina reset that clock with a ninth inning RBI double that tied the game at four and then pinch hitter Kolten Wong gave the Cards the eventual game-winner when he doubled as well for a 5-4 St. Louis victory over the Mets at Citi Field in Queens. Familia had saves in 52 consecutive chances reaching back to July 30th of 2015 before failing to nail it down last night. The Mets had gone ahead in the seventh on a three run blast by Yoenis Cespedes, but couldn't hold on as the Cards rallied in the ninth.
The Vermont Lake Monsters were off yesterday and open a six game homestand at Centennial Field tonight against the Brooklyn Cyclones. The Monsters will be trying to put the skids on a four game losing skid.
The Vermont Mountaineers were also idle yesterday and take to the road tonight against the Valley Blue Sox. Meanwhile, they may want to send a thank you note to the Sanford Mainers, who rallied from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning with back to back RBI singles to beat the Upper Valley Nighthawks 4-3. The Nighthawks were just a game and a half behind the Mountaineers for fourth place and the final playoff NECBL berth and could have inched closer with a win, but saw it slip away with the Mainers' rally.
The Vermont American Legion State Baseball championship went to Brattleboro Post 5 after their roller coaster 7-6 win over Rutland Post 31 yesterday at Castleton University. The game seemed locked up for Brattleboro as they took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning but that's when things got hairy as Rutland rallied to take a 5-3 lead and also led 6-5 in the ninth when the game went to extra innings on a controversial play at the plate. Pinch runner Kam Pelkey collided with Rutland catcher Jaxson Smith at home and was ruled safe, but the Rutland bench was insistent he was out. No benefit of instant replay to look at it, though, and the call stood, setting up the game-winning hit by tournament MVP Leif Bigelow, a bases loaded single in the eleventh that gives Brattleboro its first Legion State title since 1999 in a barn burner of a game.
