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September 8, 2021

Relentless Rays Batter Boston As Red Sox Hold Onto Two-Game WC Lead

Monday, September 6:
Rays    - 100 401 111 2 - 11 19 1
Red Sox - 160 001 100 1 - 10 14 3


Tuesday, September 7:
Rays    - 032 111 400   - 12 14 0
Red Sox - 010 000 042   -  7 15 0

Yes, the Red Sox are being battered by Covid and they played some sloppy ball, but the Rays have been fucking relentless this week, taking advantage of every slip-up, and scoring runs in 11 of 12 consecutive innings (and 12 of 14). They erased Boston's 7-1 lead on Monday, answered two Red Sox volleys, and plowed on ahead, and they were up 12-1 in a laugher last night before Boston made the final score extremely deceptive.

Tampa Bay sent both Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez to the showers after only 3.2 innings; can Nathan Eovaldi get through the fourth tonight? Since August 16, the Rays are 17-4 and have added 8.5 games to their division lead. They are running away with the American League East, leading the Yankees by 9.5 and the Red Sox by 10.

Boston's only postseason hope is the Wild Card Game and right now, they have a two-game lead for the second spot. (The MFY are in the first spot.) The Blue Jays are 2 GB, the Mariners are 3 GB, and the Athletics are 3.5 GB.

After today's finale against Tampa Bay and a day off, Boston will play three games against the White Sox in Chicago starting on Friday. While the White Sox are only 3.5 games better than the Red Sox, that's good enough to lead the AL Central by 11 games.

Boston then heads to Seattle (three games) before returning home to face the Orioles (3), Mets (2), and Yankees (3). Then it's back on the road for two last-place teams: the Orioles (3) and Nationals (3). And that's the regular season.

The AL Wild Card Game will be played Tuesday, October 5. If the season ended right now, it would be: Red Sox at MFY.
 

Last night was the first time the Red Sox had multiple batters come off the bench and hit home runs (Bobby Dalbec and Danny Santana, back-to-back in the eighth) since June 7, 2003, when Bill Mueller and Kevin Millar both had pinch-hit dongs against the Brewers. (Cabin's was a grand slam!)

2 Home Runs In A Game He Did Not Start (Red Sox History)
Joe Foy, June 9, 1967 vs Senators
Mike Lowell, August 11, 2009 vs Tigers
Bobby Dalbec, September 7, 2021 vs Rays

The Giants beat the Rockies 12-3 last night and had seven different players hit a double for the first time since August 25, 2000. The Giants also had seven doubles and two triples in a game for the first time since April 30, 1944 (a 26-8 win over Brooklyn).



The Mop Hits The Fan

Craig Calcaterra notes that Kyle Farnsworth tweeted on Monday: "I just saw that a MLB player didn't play today because of general soreness. Are you kidding me. It's September. Everyone is sore. If you can't play through soreness, you shouldn't be playing the sport." It apparently took zero effort to figure out the Mop was referring to Baltimore's Trey Mancini, who has a 109 OPS+ after being diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer last year.

The replies are hilarious: "At 43-66 for your career, perhaps you should've taken a few more days yourself", "Don't you love these guys with bible verses in their profile?", "You literally had to be traded for a broken down Ivan Rodriguez because the Bronx made you nervous lmfaooo", "How did it feel to throw gas but still somehow always get your tits lit?", and "Why are there always mediocre players like Farnsworth and Huff auditioning for Fox News?"

2 comments:

  1. But Trey Mancini plays for Baltimore !!!!!!

    They are only about 40 games behind ...

    Surely it was entirely possible Trey was "conveniently left out" for the trying out of a younger player & quite possibly to save a few Scheckles too ?

    Next he'll be forensically criticising the Arizona Bullpen !

    Bizarre & Stupid & Utterly Irrelevant & a few other things too !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mancini had also fouled a ball off his foot the day before.

    ReplyDelete