It was the year the Titanic made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The year Fenway Park made its debut. And the year the Boston Red Sox won their second World Series.
The year was 1912, and the star players on that Red Sox squad were Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, and pitcher Smoky Joe Wood. Those Red Sox set a franchise record for regular season wins that stood for 106 years, until the 2018 Red Sox broke it last night with, fittingly, win number 106, led by the likes of Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, and pitcher Chris Sale.
Betts hit a two-run homer last night, his 32nd of the season in what is looking more and more like an MVP year for him, Steve Pearce and Christian Vazquez hit back to back doubles, and Nathan Eovaldi struck out ten as the Red Sox topped the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 at Fenway Park to re-write the franchise record books.
There's been a lot of talk about how this regular season won't mean much if the Red Sox falter in the playoffs, and there's some truth to that, but it's also true that breaking a 106 year old record is no small feat, and this 2018 team should be appreciated for its astonishing run and the extraordinary level of play in nearly every facet of the game.
Not to mention the steady stewardship of first year manager Alex Cora, who's guided this team as well as any seasoned manager and better than quite a few. The Red Sox gained the 106-win plateau while losing no more than three games in a row all season, and the last Red Sox team to do that, in 2013, went on to win the World Series.
On the other side of that coin is the Orioles, who in 1939 were known as the St. Louis Browns, and have now matched those Browns by losing 111 games, the most in their franchise history.
The 2018 NY Yankees are simply trying to stay healthy for the playoffs, and keep in front of the Oakland A's for the first wild card berth so they can host the one-game playoff in the Bronx instead of flying out west.
The Yanks met one of those goals last night, but got bad news on the other in their 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. The win keeps the Yankees 1 1/2 games in front of Oakland, with the A's victorious over Seattle, but outfielder Aaron Hicks pulled a hamstring running up the first base line, and depending on the extent of that injury, may not be available for that one game playoff, perhaps joining shortstop Didi Gregorius on the pine.
Hicks will undergo an MRI, but told reporters after the game he'll be ready to go next week. Yankee fans can be forgiven for wanting to hear that from the medical staff instead.
Brett Gardner hit the go-ahead single for the Yankees and also made a great catch against the center field wall to end a Rays threat with men on first and third. The Yankees used eight pitchers in all to hold off the Rays and eliminate them from the playoff picture.
In Monday Night Football Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw for three touchdowns in a 30-27 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Big game for Vance McDonald, who scored on a 75-yard pass play and finished with four catches for 112 yards.
Veteran Ryan Pitzpatrick threw for 411 yards, but the Bucs suffered their first loss of the season, and the Steelers are 1-1-1.
Locally in men's college soccer the Northern Vermont-Lyndon Hornets fell to New England College 4-1, with Sam Ognenoff scoring the only goal for the Hornets as they fall to 1-7 on the year.
