Winning their third game in a row could be the headline. David Price pitching like the ace he's paid handsomely to be could top the bill. The Boston Red Sox moving into a first place tie with their 6-2 win over the Rays in Tampa Bay last night would qualify in either category as well.
But the real highlight from the Red Sox win last night emerged from the bottom of the 8th with the Sox up 3-0 and a man on, when Steven Souza launched a bomb deep to left field, a sure home run that cleared the low wall at Tropicana Field and seemingly turned a 3-0 game into a tight one run affair. The ball did clear the wall, but so did the outstretched arm of rookie Andrew Benintendi, who timed his leap perfectly, caught the ball in his glove while half his body tilted over the wall, legs dangling suspended in midair. And just as it looked like he'd fall over the wall, he reversed his momentum and pushed himself back onto the field of play, and calmly tossed the ball back to second base as Souza rounded first, grabbed his helmet with both hands in an expression of utter disbelief, and made his way back to the dugout, victim of what could very well be THE catch of the year. Take a gander at it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td6uGdmsQEc
Now you see why Dave Dombrowski ended conversations with teams looking to make a swap with the Red Sox at the trade deadline as soon as the name Benintendi came up.
As for Price, eight innings of scoreless, two-hit ball, no runs thanks to Benintendi, and his twelfth win of the year is just what the Red Sox ordered and the win over Tampa on what has been an surprisingly strong road trip to this point does move Boston into a first place tie in the A.L. east with the Toronto Blue Jays, and a chance to get first place all to themselves when they send Clay Buchholz to the mound tonight. He makes his second consecutive start in place of Steven Wright, who's still rehabbing after jamming his shoulder diving back into first base when he was for some reason I will never understand brought in as a pinch runner in a game a few weeks ago. Buchholz was very good in his last start against Detroit, a game in which he only gave up one run but did not get a decision when the bullpen faltered late in the game.
The Seattle Mariners rallied to beat the NY Yankees 7-5 at Safeco Field last night, with two big blasts leading the way. Mike Zunino and Kyle Seager each hit three-run homers, enough to counter two home runs from Yankees rookie catcher and rising star Gary Sanchez and two more by Starlin Castro. It looked like the Yankees would take this one after Sanchez' second homer in the eighth gave New York a 5-3 lead but Zunino came through with his three-run bomb off Anthony Swarzak in the bottom half to put Seattle up for good. Sanchez, though, has been on a tear for the Yankees, with homers now in six of his last seven games.
The NY Mets had the night off and will take on the Cardinals in St. Louis tonight.
In the NY Penn League the Aberdeen Iron Birds eked out a 2-1 win against the Vermont Lake Monsters, winning on a walk-off RBI single in the bottom if the ninth in Maryland last night. It was a bad ending to a very good start by the Monsters' Jesus Zambrano, who gave up just one run on four hits over five innings of work.
I was off last week but was able to watch Jericho's own Lea Davison race to a seventh place finish in the Olympic Mountain Bike discipline in Rio, improving her finishing position from the 2012 games in the London Olympics when she finished eleventh out of thirty-two racers. She also had great support from the Little Bellas bike mentoring program which Davison co-founded and had a number of riders watching and cheering her on over the weekend at St. Michael's College. Catherine Pendrel of Canada, a supporter of the Little Bellas, took the Bronze medal.
