The Yankees swept their three-game weekend series from the Red Sox at Fenway Park and edged ahead a game ahead of the Sox in the drive for the top wild card spot in the American League.
The Patriots embarrassed themselves at Gillette Stadium Sunday while losing to the Saints, 28-13.
The Brown football team could not have played much worse than it did Friday night in its humiliating 49-17 loss at Harvard Stadium.
And how was your weekend, my friends?
Fenway Park was the place to be Friday night. An SRO crowd of 36,000 packed the old ball yard. The Red Sox had won seven in a row. Ace Nathan Eovaldi was on the mound. Alas, an eight-game winning streak was not to be. The Yankees knocked out Eovaldi in the third inning and cruised to an 8-3 victory. Giancarlo Stanton had three hits, among them a three-run homer.
Another capacity crowd showed up Saturday afternoon and was poised to celebrated a 2-1 triumph until Stanton smashed a grand slam in the eighth inning of New York’s 5-3 win.
The horror continued Sunday night on ESPN. Boston took a 3-2 lead in the seventh, thanks to dropped popups by Yankees third baseman DJ LeMahieu and left fielder Joey Gallo. The Red Sox suffered a more costly case of the dropsies in the top of the eighth. New York slugger Aaron Judge lofted a towering pop foul toward the railing just beyond the Red Sox dugout. Instead of running, finding the railing and then attempting the catch, first baseman Bobby Dalbec drifted, drifted and drifted over, finally stabbed at the ball and dropped it.
Relieve Adam Ottavino shook off that miscue and appeared to retire Judge on a foul tip third strike. But the ball ended up on the ground, and umpire Joe West quickly ruled a drop by catcher Christian Vasquez. But the replay showed that Vazquez clearly caught the ball and then dropped it while removing it from his mitt. The judgment call could not be challenged, according to the rules.
Given a third chance, Judge lashed a two-run double to the 379 mark in left-center. Stanton followed with a two-run blast over the Green Monster into Lansdowne Street.
Game over. Series sweep over.
Six games remain before the playoffs, and the schedule favors the Red Sox (88-68). They will play three against the pathetic Orioles in Baltimore and close the regular season with three against the last-place Nationals in Washington. The Yankees (89-67) have three at Toronto and three at home against Tampa Bay. The Blue Jays (87-69) are a game behind the Red Sox.
Tom Brady and the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are coming to town this week, just what the Patriots need after their loss to the Saints. They were terrible in every phase of the game, one of the worst in Bill Belichick’s long reign in Foxboro.
Rookie quarterback Mac Jones was intercepted three times; Malcolm Jenkins returned a pick 34 yards for a touchdown on New England’s first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. Tight end Jonnu Smith, who is making about $15 million this season, bobbled the ball on that play. He caught one pass for four yards. Jones was also hit 11 times and sacked twice. He was the Pats leading rusher with 28 yards, all you need to know about the New England offense.
The Patriots defense could not make a stop in the fourth quarter, when they trailed by only eight points. The Pats had a punt blocked and a kickoff go out of bounds at the New Orleans 35.
New England is 1-2 with both losses at Gillette Stadium against mediocre teams. What does that make the Patriots?
And what of Brown? The 0-2 Bears have allowed 94 points in two games. They have turned the ball over seven times. URI rolled for 534 yards. Harvard scored five touchdowns in the second quarter. All that after a year off in the wake of a 2-8 finish in 2019. This is not what Brown officials envisioned when they turned the program over to James Perry.
Next up? A Saturday afternoon road trip to Bryant.
