It was as close to a must-win as you can get in early June, and it still might be too late to save their hopes for repeating as World Series champions.
The Boston Red Sox went into last night's game against the NY Yankees hoping to avoid a three game sweep, and they were sending to the mound a pitcher whose record at Yankee Stadium reads like a baseball horror story.
David Price was 0 for six in the Bronx with an earned run average hovering just under ten. But Price put all that behind him, holding the Yankees to just two runs and six hits with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, and the Red Sox salvaged one game of the series with an 8-5 win.
JD Martinez and Xander Bogaerts homered against CC Sabathia, who took the loss. But some late inning shenanigans made it a tough win to nail down. Reliever Matt Barnes had an especially rough going of it in a rainy 8th inning, walking two batters and committing a balk that allowed a run to score, but Brandon Workman steadied the ship by pitching the 9th to pick up the save.
So Boston's four game losing skid is over, but the Red Sox are still slinking away from the Bronx with an 8 1/2 game deficit against the first place Yankees, and the two teams won't meet again until the inexplicable and unnecessary spectacle of playing in London at the end of the month.
In Phoenix last night Merrill Kelly of the Arizona Diamondbacks struck out ten, Ketel Marte hit a home run with an estimated distance of 482 feet to tie for the longest in the majors this year, and the D-Backs beat the NY Mets 7-1.
Steven Matz took the loss for the Mets, who mustered just seven hits in all and have really struggled on the road, winners of just 5 games away from Queens in their last 21 tries.
Things are going right for the Colorado Rockies, though, now winners of eight straight after beating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 at Coors Field in Denver. Nolan Arenado homered for the Rockies, his 16th of the year.
One good thing for the struggling Blue Jays, though, is that folks in Toronto don't care much about baseball right now, because their basketball team, the Raptors, is trying to make history by winning its first ever championship. But they didn't get good news on that front last night.
By the time the Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson limped off the court with a hamstring injury in game two of the NBA Finals he had scored 25 points, his team had started the second half of the game on an 18-0 run, and the two-time defending champs were on their way to securing a 109-104 victory to tie up the series at one game apiece heading back to Oakland.
The Raptors got a big game from Kawhi Leonard, who had a 34 point, 14 rebound double double, and despite the big run by Oakland to start the second half, the game was still up for grabs with under a minute to go when the Raptors scored ten straight points to cut the lead to two, but Andre Iguodala hit a three-pointer for Oakland with six seconds left to put the game away.
It was a critical win for the Warriors but even with the series shifting back to their home court for games three and four they'll have to hope the hamstring injury to Thompson isn't too serious, as there are cracks showing in the Warriors formidable facade without the injured Kevin Durant on the floor.
And tonight the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues resume the Stanley Cup Finals with the Bruins leading two games to one. A win by Boston tonight and they can eliminate the Blues in a game five back home in Boston. If the Blues pull it out, it's a tie series that becomes a best of three.
Expect rookie goalie Jordan Binnington to be back in net tonight for St. Louis despite being replaced by Jake Allen in the game three loss.