Tyler Andrews of Arlington, Virginia, won the men's division of the Vermont City Marathon and Relay yesterday, breaking the tape with a time of 2:19:41, and in the women's division a Vermonter took the crown. Huntington's Kasie Enman took first place among women, the third time she's accomplished the feat. Enman finished with a time of 2:50:27.
The first Vermont man to cross the finish line was Teague O'Connor of Burlington, who finished third overall behind second place finisher Sam Morse and Andrews, the winner. O'Connor crossed with a finishing time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds.
In the handcycle division, the men's winner was Chris Zybowski of Avon, Connecticut, and Alicia Dana of Putney, was the top women's finisher in hand cycling. Both set course records with their finishing times.
Conditions were far better this year than last, when extreme heat forced the race to shut down early and resulted in a number of people being treated for heat-related ailments. As a precaution, the starting time for this year's race was moved up an hour to 7am, with about 8,000 people taking part.
A very different kind of race took place in Indianapolis, the 101st Indy 500 and it was a wild one this year, featuring a spectacular crash early on in the race, when Jay Howard's car hit the wall and forced him into the center of the track where Scott Dixon had no time at all to avoid Howard's car. Dixon caromed off the vehicle and his car went airborne, spinning and striking the inside wall and protective netting, literally ripping the shell of the car apart, and amazingly, Dixon was able to walk away after the crash with no major injuries but for a hurt ankle that put him in a walking boot. When you see the crash in replays it looks horrific, but Dixon praised the updated safety measures race officials have included in recent years, including the improved netting, for quite possibly saving his life. In the end, the winner was 40-year old Takuma Sato of Japan in a photo finish, getting the checkered flag in under a second better than the second place finisher Helio Castroneves of Brazil.
To Major League Baseball, and the Red Sox could not complete a perfect homestand at Fenway Park yesterday. Looking to go 6-0 before heading out on a 10-game road trip the Red Sox instead got shut out by the Seattle Mariners 5-0 behind an excellent start from Seattle's Christian Bergman, who stifled the Red Sox all afternoon, yielding just four hits. Bergman and his defense also combined to turn double plays in each of the first four innings, all adding up to another loss for Rick Porcello, who again did not pitch badly but ended up with his 6th loss of the season against just three wins. Porcello did give up 11 hits over 6 and a third but gave up just two runs before leaving the game. Fernando Abad gave up a late two-run homer to Robinson Cano, ruining any hopes for a late Red Sox rally.
But this afternoon in Chicago, all eyes will be on David Price, who's finally making his first start of the season for the big club after experiencing elbow soreness in spring training. Price has not pitched well in his minor league starts leading up to today's start against the White Sox, but he's said he feels good, which may be the most important thing. Still, a poor start today for Price would not bode well for the rotation or the team going forward. Expect price will be on a short leash as well, even if he's effective, its doubtful he'll be allowed to go more than five or six innings tops, so it's critical that he not run up his pitch count early.
The NY Yankees increased their first place lead over the second place Red Sox in the A.L. east to three games with a 9-5 win over the Oakland A's at the Stadium yesterday, and the mammoth rookie Aaron Judge added to his legend with a grand slam in the third inning. Home runs are not uncommon, for the 6'7", 280 pound slugger. He's got 16 now on the season, but the grand slam yesterday was the first of his career. Michael Pineda got plenty of run support and improves his record to 6-2 on the season. The A's did themselves no favors, though, committing two errors in the game, adding to their league-leading total of 49, ten more than any other major league squad.
Mets fans could use some good news and they got it with a 7-2 win over the Pirates in Pittsburgh yesterday, and it was also cause for optimism that it was the second consecutive win for beleaguered pitcher Matt Harvey, who gave up just one run over six innings. The Mets pounded out 14 hits on the afternoon with Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson recording three each in the victory.
The Texas Rangers had been on a five game losing streak but snapped it in Toronto against the Blue Jays yesterday with a 3-1 win. Joey Gallo smacked his 15th home run of the year to make a winner of Andrew Cashner. Joe Biagini took the loss for Toronto, despite giving up just two runs and seven hits in a career-high six innings.
