Rick Porcello has been the Red Sox most reliable starter this season, not having lost a start in more than three months, but that streak ended last night in a 3-1 loss to the Mariners in Seattle.
If you look at the box score you see that Seattle only had four hits all night. The problem was that three of those four hits were solo home runs by Nelson Cruz, Mike Zunino, and Adam Lind, and on the other side of the hill, the Red Sox couldn't solve Seattle's Hisashi Iwakuma, who put up seven and third scoreless innings in picking up the win. The only positive for the Red Sox was the first major league start for the team's number one draft pick in 2015 Andrew Benintendi, who picked up his first big league hit in the top of the third inning and singled again later. The Red Sox were without Hanley Ramirez for the game, after he sprained his wrist the previous night slipping and falling after the game on the dugout steps. The good news is X-Rays were negative and showed no structural damage, but he is expected to miss at least a couple of games and that's bad timing as the Red Sox continue to lose ground in the American League east. With Baltimore winning last night Boston is now three games out of first place and still in third place, two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, who also won last night.
The four game series with the Mariners wraps up tonight with Drew Pomeranz getting the start, still seeking his first win in a Boston uniform since being acquired at the all star break.
Things got heated in the Subway Series between the NY Mets and NY Yankees at Citi Field last night. Mark Texiera took Steven Matz deep for a three-run homer in the second inning and then took a pitch from Matz off the shin his next time up, sparking a classic bench-clearing scrum that amounted to a lot of posturing and glowering and words you're not allowed to use in a game of Scrabble being exchanged. But the ill will didn't end there. Two innings later the Mets had reliever Hansel Robles on the mound and the Yankees loaded the bases, with Texiera on second. Robles started shouting at the Yankees' first baseman, accusing him of stealing signs while taking his lead off the base. In the end it was a 9-5 Yankees win and another costly loss for the Mets, who are trying to get back into the playoff bubble in the NL east, and didn't help themselves, losing two out of the three to their crosstown rivals in the series.
In the New York Penn League, the Vermont Lake Monsters suffered an even more excruciating loss, blowing a three run lead in the bottom of the ninth, and then a two-run lead in the eleventh to lose 7-6 to the Lowell Spinners in Massachusetts last night. The Lake Monsters have lost nine of their last eleven, but they did get some good news from their parent club Oakland A's, who extended the player developments contract with the team for two more years, meaning their will pro ball played in Burlington at least through 2018.
In the NECBL the season had ended for the Vermont Mountaineers, who los to the the Keene Swamp Bats 3-1 in Montpelier yesterday, a one-game play-in that was a must win for the team to stay alive in the mini four-team tournament to decide which of the four teams tied for fourth place in the northern division would make the playoffs.
But the news was much better for the fledgling Upper Valley Nighthawks, who became the last team standing at the play-in tournament, winning two games yesterday, a 6-4 victory over the Winnipesaukee Muskrats, followed by a 5-0 win over the Keene Swamp Bats on the strength of a two-hit gem thrown by pitcher Bill Maier. No rest for the Cinderella Nighthawks, who will hit the playoffs tonight taking on the number one seeded Sanford Mainers on the road in game one of the three game playoff series, with game two scheduled for Maxfield Sports Complex in White River Junction Friday night.
At the Olympics in Rio the United States Womens' soccer team started their quest for a fourth striaght gold medal by beating New Zealand 2-Nil. Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan netted goals for the U.S. Goalie Hope Solo suffered boos from the fans who were angry about a photo she tweeted of herself showing her covered in mosquito netting with a bottle of insect repellent and the message "Not Sharing This! Get Your own!" #zikaproof, a reference to fears of the insect-borne Zika virus being a threat in Brazil. Elsewhere Canada defeated Australia 2-Nil and Germany beat Zimbabwe 6-1.
Finally, the University of Vermont athletic department announced that sports information director Lisa Champagne, who's been with UVM since 1998, was let go from her position. Also, Sue Hagens, one of four associate athletic directors on staff, was removed from her position. Athletic Director Jeff Schulman confirmed the elimination of the two positions to the Burlington Free Press but declined to provide further details.
