If you attended last night's Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway park expecting to see David Ortiz play, you may have initially been disappointed to find he was not in the line-up, getting a night of rest while the Yankees started lefty CC Sabathia in the finale of the four-game series. But by night's end, you'd have realized that Ortiz would in effect have an understudy by the name of Hanley Ramirez playing his role for the game, and doing a pretty good job of filling it as clutch home run hitter.
Ramirez almost single-handedly brought the Red Sox back from a 4-0 deficit, hitting two home runs, including a solo shot in the seventh that proved to be the game-winner in Boston's 5-4 victory. Ramirez started the comeback trail with a three-run shot in the fifth off Sabathia that made it a one-run game and Jackie Bradley Jr. tied things up with an RBI single in the sixth. Then in the seventh Ramirez unloaded off Yankees reliever Tyler Clippard, sending the ball way out and over the Monster, an apt descriptor as well for Hanley in this series against the Yankees, as he went 9 for 16 at the plate, with four home runs, including the walk-off in game one, and he now has twelve home runs in his last twenty-one games, turning on the power at just the right time. Not only does the win finish off a four-game sweep of the Sox' arch-nemesis, it maintains the Red Sox three game lead over Baltimore for the still up for grabs American League east division, just as the Sox are about to head to Camden Yards for a four game set against those Orioles. Drew Pomeranz did not pitch especially well for Boston for the second straight start, and that's a concern, but the offense led by Hanley picked him up, and the win goes to little known Robby Scott, who's been in the Red Sox farm system for six years and has made two appearances now with the big club, sporting an ERA of 0.00.
Rick Porcello gets the start for Boston tonight, looking for his twenty-first victory of the season. The Yankees get a day off to lick their wounds before heading to Tampa Bay. Don't feel too bad for the Yanks, though. They got another home run last night from rookie Gary Sanchez, who now has sixteen on the season in just forty-one games, and the future will be built around him and many of the other top prospects the Yankees picked up when they sold off their big name stars at the trade deadline. As for their playoff hopes now, they are four games behind Toronto for the last wild card berth, but with three other teams ahead of them jockeying for that same spot.
The NY Mets did some sweeping up of their own, taking three in a row from the Minnesota Twins with a 3-2 victory last night. Michael Conforto drove in two for the Mets who now have a one-game lead over the San Francisco Giants for the first wild card berth, and have a two game advantage over the St. Louis Cardinals for the second. Things are clicking for the defending National League champs down the stretch, and rookies keep stepping up for the Mets. In his first ever major league start last night, Gabriel Ynoa struck out eight over just four and two thirds to pick up the win.
To the NFL and with Tom Brady out for two more games thanks to the petty grudges and arbitrary whims of the football overlords, the Pats are now forced to have a third-string quarterback lead the team after back-up Jimmy Garoppollo was injured in the Patriots' 31-24 win over the Miami Dolphins at Foxboro yesterday. Garoppollo had been brilliant before having his shoulder rammed into the turf by Miami's Kilo Alonso in the second quarter. He'd already thrown three touchdown passes and was shredding the Dolphin defense, looking like a more mobile version of number 12 when he got taken out. So in came rookie Jacoby Brissett, who did lead the Pats to a touchdown on their first possession of the second half, capped off by a nine-yard run by LaGarrette Blount, but being cautious with the rookie the rest of the way on play calling, the Pats could do little else on offense and Miami came roaring back, scoring three touchdowns and they had a chance to tie the game on the final play but Duron Harmon,preserved the win with an interception in the back of the end zone. Some media reports have Garoppollo missing up to six weeks, so it's likely Brissett will have to get up to speed fast for this Thursday's game against Houston, and then one more game before Brady is allowed to return from the trumped-up charges against him.
The NY Giants got another clutch catch from Victor Cruz, who took in a 34-yard Eli Manning pass late in the fourth quarter to set up a game-winning field goal by Josh Brown, good for a 16-13 win over the New Orleans Saints as the G-Men start the season at 2-0.
In the World Cup of Hockey Team North America, the squad made up of players 23 and under, topped Finland 4-1 and Sweden nipped Russia 2-1. The big game this week will be the U.S. vs Canada, a must win for the under-performing U.S squad that was beaten 3-0 by Team Europe in their first game of group play.
Locally in womens' college soccer UVM goalkeeper Coco Speckmaier made a career high eleven saves in the Catamounts 3-1 victory over Charleston Southern yesterday. Colby Snyder scored her second goal in as many games for UVM. Savana Yurick also tallied as did Catie Green, who scored the Catamounts' third goal on a header from Sarah Martin and UVM improves to 5-2-1 on the year. Elsewhere Johnson & Wales beat Norwich 3-0.
