The Daily Buzz – June 8th

Hometown Highlights:

1. The Red Sox complete their sweep of the A’s, winning 7-4 yesterday afternoon in comeback fashion.
   • BOS: Scored 7 8th inning runs after being down 4-0 going into the inning.
   • R. Castillo: 2 RBI in 8th (Solo HR, RBI single) to begin and end rally.
   • X. Bogaerts: GW 2-RBI double (Ramirez and Betts scored)
   • BOS: First sweep of the season, 5-2 in last 7 games.
2. The Bruins reportedly told F Carl Soderberg that it is “unlikely” that the team will sign him for the 2015-16 season.
3. Patriots LB Brandon Spikes allegedly tied to a hit-and-run early Sunday Morning on Rt. 495 near Wrentham and N. Attleboro (Exit 14).
   • MA State Police reportedly to an OnStar call for a car hit by a deer but upon arrival they found no driver nor deer but found that the car is registered to Brandon Spikes.
   • MA State Police would later respond to a car who was “rear ended” by unknown driver who took off. Police are investigating whether the events are related.

Around the Nation:

1. The Warriors battle back to force yet another OT game with the Cavs, but Cleveland would hold on and win 95-93 to even the series at 1-1.
   • S. Curry: missed GW shot with seconds left in OT.
2. No. 8 Stan Wawrinka upsets No. 1 Novak Djokovic to win the French open in tennis.
3. Group B of the Women’s World Cup began pool play as Norway beat Thailand 4-0 and Germany destroys Ivory Coast 10-0.

ICYMI (Weekend Edition):

1. American Pharaoh and jockey Victor Espinoza claimed the first Triple Crown since 1978 (Affirmed).
   • V. Espinoza: Record 3rd attempt at Triple Crown (War Emblem 2002, California Chrome 2014), will reportedly donate all proceeds to charity.
   • Bob Baffert: Record 4th horse to be running for the Triple Crown (Silver Charm 1997, War Emblem 2002, California Chrome 2014)
2. Tampa Bay levels the Stanley Cup Finals at 1-1 with their 4-3 win over Chicago Saturday night.
3. The Cavs lose PG Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season has he will undergo knee surgery to correct a fractured kneecap.
   • Irving left Game 1 of the NBA Finals in OT.
4. The Women’s World Cup began Saturday as host-team Canada beat China 1-0 and the Netherlands beat New Zealand 1-0 in Group A.
5. Tanya Carpenter, the woman who was hit by a bat in the head area at Fenway Park, remains in serious condition according to family.

Today’s Buzz:

1. The Stanley Cup Finals moves to Chicago as the Blackhawks host the Lightning in Game 3 at 8 PM.
   • Series tied 1-1.
   • CHI: 7-1 at home this postseason.
   • TB: 7-3 on the road this postseason.
2. The USWNT faces Australia in the Women’s World Cup at 7:30 PM  in Group D.
   • Other WWC games
     • SWE v. NIG 4 PM
     • CAM v. ECU 7 PM
     • JAP vs. SWI @ 10 PM

#TheBuzz

Cue the Duckboats! The Red Sox sweep the A’s

October here we come! The Red Sox completed their 3-0 sweep of the Oakland Athletics this afternoon after their 7-4 comeback victory. The Sox now stand 4 games below .500 (27-31) and remain 5.5 games back behind 1st place New York. the team travels to Baltimore to take on the last place Orioles Monday through Wednesday before coming back to fenway for a 3-game series with Toronto. the Sox are 5-2 in their last 7 and are definitely beginning to heat up offensively. Let’s cover the weekend:

6/5: BOS 4-2 OAK

WP: W. Miley (5-5) LP: S. Kazmir (2-4) SV: K. Uehara (12)

The Sox got 11 hits, 3 of which coming from Pedroia, and capitalized on the 3 errors by the A’s to win 4-2.

6/6: BOS 4-2 OAK

WP: J. Kelly (2-4) LP: J. Chavez (2-6) SV: K. Uehara (13)

Hanley Ramirez catches fire going 3 for 5 with a 2-run HR to lift the Sox over Oakland in Game 2. The Red Sox oddly scored 4 runs off 11 hits two days in a row.

6/7: BOS 7-4 OAK

WP: S. Wright (3-2) LP: T. Clippard (0-3) SV: T. Layne (1)

Down by 4 in the bottom of the 8th, the Red Sox rallied behind a solo HR by Rusney Castillo to lead things off in the inning. Hanley drove in Pedroia with a single to left and moved Holt to 3rd. Holt would score on a sac fly by ortiz to bring the game to  4-3. Sandoval would hit a single to advance Hanley and Betts came in as a pinch runner for Sandoval. Xander Bogaerts would be the day’s hero as his 2-run double would be the game winning hit for the Sox. Newly acquired de Aza would drive in Xander and Castillo would drive in de Aza to complete the 7 run 8th inning for the Sox.

And so, the Red Sox complete their FIRST sweep of a team in 2015. Best said by Tommy Largey, “This is the type of game that turns a season around.” and boy is he right. This is the type of game we’ve been waiting to see all season. Prior to today the Sox hadn’t comeback from a deficit greater than 3 runs. It seemed like when the lead got too much that this team just packed it in. Now, I am not saying that this team has turned it around. The A’s suck and with our roster we absolutely should have won the series. What is going to convince me is sustaining this success in the next 6 games. I cannot stress how important these games will be this week. Although we are 3rd in the AL East and are playing the last place (BAL) and 4th place (TOR) teams, we don’t have any separation from them in the standings. This division is the tightest in baseball this year, the difference between 1st and 5th being 5.5 games as of this afternoon. With the Yankees climbing out of their slump, it is important that the Red Sox sustain this recent success of their and take advantage of the slumping Rays and gain some ground in the division before the All-Star break.

P.S. Xander Bogaerts leads all AL shortstops in BA (.297), OBP (.340), and is 3rd in OPS (.742). This kid has turned it around since last year, he’s completely figured out his place in the game. I believe he should be right up there in All-Star voting.

The USA basically made Sepp Blatter resign from FIFA. USA! USA!

Okay first let me get this out of my system…

USA! USA! USA! We, the United States of America, a 2nd tier soccer team have ousted Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA. If you have been paying attention to any American news network over the past week you might have noticed they’re talking about this thing called “soccer.” FIFA executive officials were caught laundering money, accepting bribes, and a lot of other shady business through a joint Switzerland- FBI investigation. FIFA has been accused of being corrupt for years and years and years and yeah you get the point but as of the past week nobody has done anything about it. Sepp Blatter, the  president of FIFA, hadn’t been directly linked to these accusations and claims no responsibility but come on we all know thats bullshit. Swiss officials are now looking into whether the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2020 World Cup in Qatar were chosen through bribes (which they were).

This is fantastic for soccer, this isn’t just hype. The 17 year Blatter administration was the worst, they cheated the world out of billions of dollars in bribes. They found that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was bought through bribes and honestly once they keep digging they’ll find the same with Russia and Qatar. Qatar has never qualified for the WC and honestly never will after 2020 (host country automatically gets a bid) so what do they add to the table for soccer? Nothing accept millions of dollars for high-level executives. Why would teams go play in the freakin’ desert where it gets to be like 150 F? Oh that’s right FIFA changed the timing of the WC so it’s less hot (thus interfering with every other soccer league on the planet). Oh, plus they blatantly go against nearly every human-rights policy that FIFA “opposes” such as human slaves/labor, women’s rights (or lack-there-of), and funding of terrorist groups. Not to mention the fact that thousands of migrant workers have died and thousands that will die due to constructing infrastructure for the 2020 WC in scorching Qatari heat. Sorry for the politics but that’s international soccer for ya. So yeah those WC’s should be vacated from those countries and another bidding cycle should follow.

Although Blatter and his cronies are out, FIFA is a while away from being “normal”. Blatter won the election due to his opponent withdrawing, but he still received a good majority of the votes. So really what this means is every official who Blatter had in his pocket will likely vote for the next guy who will give them what they want (money money money). So what it really is going to take to get things back on track is for a powerhouse soccer team (Spain, Germany, the Dutch, Argentina, ect.) to join the US effort to protest the WC and FIFA to start gaining more support. Next,sponsors need to start pulling sponsorships to hit them on the financial front.

But as for now, we celebrate the start of a new era in international soccer.

The Red Sox S-U-C-K and it’s not even close.

The Red Sox are now 21-25 overall after today’s 6-4 loss to Minnesota and have lost 5 out of their last 7 games. Ortiz went 1 for 12 versus the Twins and the rest of the offense was shit to be frank. Pedroia and Napoli are our most productive hitters right now and I wouldn’t even say their hot, not even lukewarm really. The pitching is still doing a lot better than the beginning of the year but Joe Kelly has seriously relapsed into some bad habits and his status as a starter is in question.

Hanley’s not being Hanley, Victorino is one more injury away from being a Bubble Boy, Clay’s hair is still weird, and John Farrell is doing jack-diddley-squat to turn this team around. If the Red Sox were in any other division they would probably be out of contention. Being in a shitty AL East is our only saving grace as of now. I’m not even mad at this team, I’m disappointed. This could have been such a dominant team but the heart just isn’t there. We are always playing from behind and a 3-run deficit feels like a 12-run deficit the way these guys are swinging the bats. We still can’t manage to sustain an AVERAGE offensive output for more than a game and it’s going to be the reason why this team crashes and burns by July.

Figure it out.

The Daily Buzz – May 20

Hometown Highlights:

• Wade Miley leads the Sox to a 4-3 victory over the Rangers.
  • Miley: 7.0 IP, 7 SO, 2 ER
  • Ortiz (6) & Napoli (4) HR each.
  • Red Sox: 13 hits, 8 batters with at least 1 hit.
  • Pablo Sandoval had to leave the game and had to be helped off in the 7th, after taking a 94 mph fastball off his knee.
• Robert Kraft announced that the Patriots would “reluctantly” accept the Deflategate punishments of 2 lost draft picks (2015 1st, 2016 4th) and the $1 million fine.
  • This does not affect Tom Brady’s appeal process.

Around the Nation:

1. The Minnesota Timberwolves win the1st pick in the NBA Draft lottery, their highest pick in team history.
   • Rest of Draft: 2. Lakers, 3. 76ers, 4. Knicks, 5. Magic, 6. Kings, 7. Nuggets, 8. Pistons, 9. Hornets, 10. Heat.
2. The Warriors overcome a 16pt deficit and take Game 1 from the Rockets, winning 110-106.
3. The Blackhawks level the series at 1-1 with the Ducks, winning a triple OT thriller 3-2 in Game 2 of the WCF.
4. The NFL voted to change the placement of the PAT to the 15 yd line.
   • Defenders can also now return intercepted, fumbled, or blocked 2-pt attempts to score 2 pts for themselves.
   • Rule is only in place for 2015 season, will be voted on for renewal in 2016.

Today’s Buzz:

1. Joe Kelly (1-2, 5.58 ERA) takes the mound for Boston as the Sox face Phil Klein (0-0, 7.71 ERA) and Texas at 7 PM.
2. LeBron James and the Cavaliers face off against Al Horford and the Hawks as the ECF begins in Atlanta at 8:30 PM.
3. The Lightning look to take another game from the Rangers as the two teams face off in Game 3 of the ECF.
   • Series tied 1-1.

***All times EST

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