They won the series

With last nights win over the Dodgers, the Red Sox have won 2 of the 3 games in their series and are now only 2½ games behind the Judges in the wildcard race.

And Fangraphs now gives them a 81.5% chance of making the playoffs:

The MLB trade deadline is tomorrow, August 3^rd at 6:00pm so if Breslow is looking to add anyone, he will need to finalize by then. My concern is he might trade away someone that the team should hold on to. He kinda already did that when he traded away Early for Mead and that didn't work out vey well. I would hate to see Bennett or Monasterio playing for some team other than the Red Sox.

Bennett has the start tonight and the first pitch is at 7:20. That means I will hopefully be able to watch all 9 innings.

⧫
The democrats keep saying, "November is coming" like it has meaning. This tells me the democrats don't get it. They are clueless. They think they are better then the republicans and they will win big in November.

They are wrong.

Democrat candidates are, for the most part, elitist snobs who think they are better & smarter than everyone else. They think people are stupid and need to be told how to behave while maintaining their infamous, "Do what I say, not what I do" atitude. And what is even worse is their railing away at the wealthy while making millions of dollars by insider trading.

Hell, even people who are registered democrats don't really trust the democrat candidates.

Voting is the one selfish thing I do. I don't vote for a candidate that spends all of their time telling me what they are going to do for other people, I vote for the candidate who is going to do something for me. My only questions are, "What are you going to do for me and how are you going to do it?"

I'm not saying the republicans are any better, I'm saying the democrats are in disbelief that a lot of people think they are arrogant, self-centered, prissy assholes who honestly believe the rest of us are a "basket of deplorables" or we are all living in a "swamp of crazy"...

⧫
Here are some links:

• Bummer. Big Pussy Bonpensiero died. Not only was he great in The Soprano's, he made the best Pepsi commercial ever.



• Does anyone know how many times Trump has claimed that Iran agreed to something? I think there have been at least 30 times since he started this fiasco but it's probably more.



• Ain't nothin' makes being trapped in a small silver tube more tolerable than a good ol' fashion preachin'...



• There was a time not so long ago in this country where these were called "cults".



• I can't say that I believe her but I can say that she's not very bright.

Good dinners

About once a month, we go to dinner with our next door neighbors and gossip about all the other neighbors in the 'hood. Last night was that night.

We went to a place we'd never been before and I'm going to tell you, it was a damned good dinner.

We went to the Villa Napoletana in East Longmeadow and if you want some good Italian food, you should go there. I had veal & shrimp with red peppers in a excellent gorgonzola sauce.

Now, this is not to say it was the best Italian food. I'm just saying that we are adding it to the rotation. For the record, the rotation currently consists of:

• La Cucina (The Hampden House) in Hampden.
• Casa Bella in Hampden.
• Villa Napoletana in East Longmeadow.
• Center Square Grill in East Longmeadow.

As you can see, we are big fans of Italian food. The Center Square is last on the list for a reason. It's a nice place but it's not Italian...

⧫
The Red Sox have been slowly, but surely, making their way up the standings and with last nights win, they are now only 3½ games behind the Aaron Judges and only 6 games behind the Rays in the ALEast.

What is even more impressive is the fact that they have moved from last place into a tie for 3^rd place in the American league.

They won their series against the Athletics, taking 3 of the 4 games and they won the 1^st game of the 3-game series against the best team in all of MLB, the Dodgers.

My hope-o-meter is pegged so hard against the top of the scale that it's starting to bend the needle but there is one fly in the ointment...

Contreras got hit in the head with a 95mph fast ball last night and is now under concussion protocol. That means the medical staff will evaluate him through out the day today and if they detect any issues (dizziness, nausea, poor eye/hand coordination, etc..), they will put him on the DL for however long it takes.

This is bad because Contreras is one of their better hitters and they kinda need him if they want to continue their roll to the top.

Hopefully he is in tonight's lineup and all is well but as of right now (6:00 pm), the lineup has not been posted and the team has had nothing to say about his status other than, "He is being evaluated."

Update:

Contreras is not in tonight's lineup and, according to the Boston Globe, the manager says "He is doing well"

⧫
Here are some links:

• It's the famous "McDonalds Coffee Burned Her Coochie" story but more upscale.



• 650 seems like a lot to me. Does it seem like a lot to you?



• Looks like Dementia Donny got handed yet another loss. Don't worry, she'll get fired soon.



• Well, if The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization says it's true, it must be true.

No post

It's 8:30 and I don't feel like typing.

⧫
Here are a couple of links:

• Considering only about a 1,000 people attended the "celebrations", that seems like a lot of money.



• If you own a Galanz Retro Refrigerator, stop using it.

They lost

The Red Sox lost last night but they are still in the 2^nd wildcard slot and they are still in 3^rd place in the ALEast.

What is worse is the incredible bad luck they ran into head-on like a little kid learning to ride his bike next to a large brick building.

The new guy, Mead, played his first Red Sox game on Monday and it did not go well. He struck out in his first at-bat in a Red Sox uniform but he made it to first base in his second at-bet because he got hit by a pitch. He was hit on the left wrist by a fastball which, I can assure you, hurts like hell.

They took him out of the game, got him x-ray'd and it looked like he was only dealing with a bruise. They figured to give him a day or two to get the pain out of his system and then he would be back ready to play baseball.

Alas, that was not to be...

He got an MRI this morning and it turns out his wrist is fractured and he will be out for more than "a day or two".

The internet has begun the process of creating funny memes about his time with the Red Sox:

Sandoval has the start tonight and I will once again try to stay awake for at least one inning, maybe two.

⧫
When I am wrong, I'm wrong.

Turns out that the other day, when I said Gas Buddy is full of shit, I was wrong.

The website has a filter option that allows you to filter on which grade or type of fuel you are looking for and at some point I inadvertently switched from regular to premium.

When I found that little glitch in my system, I switched it back to regular and discovered that they are indeed extremely accurate:

Please allow me to apologize to the good people of Gas Buddy who offer us this excellent, and accurate, service free of charge.

⧫
It rained a little bit here today...

⧫
Here are some links:

• I disagreed with a lot of what he said but he is a pretty smart guy.



• He is probably the most oblivious individual in the United States. He actually thinks Iran is worried about him or wants to deal with him. They don't give a shit about him.



• Ukraine may have found Russia's weak spot.



• There was a time when the guards would beat the shit out of him and after a few times of getting his ass kicked, he would miraculously become more cooperative.

Interesting win

The Red Sox did not score a run until the 6^th inning last night. Fortunately, it was a grand slam hit by Rafaela and it put the Red Sox up 4-2.

And that was the score when the game ended, giving them the win.

As of this afternoon, the Red Sox remain in 3^rd place in the ALEast and are now 2 full games ahead of the Guardians in the wildcard.

Tonight's game will once again start at 9:40 and I will once again try to watch the first 2 innings. Bennett has the start.

⧫
Here are some links:

• Like I said before, it's like that movie Weekend At Bernie's. They keep propping him up and telling everyone he is fine.



• I guess she really didn't want to get married.



• I had the "pleasure" of sitting next to an influencer person at a Red Sox game last year. She was dumb as a box of crushed stone and very, very talkative.