-So how about that four-game sweep?
I can honestly say I didn’t see that coming, especially after the New York Yankees jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first game of the series at Fenway Park on Thursday night. I was at that game on Thursday. Brian Johnson was making the spot start for the injured Chris Sale, who had just been placed on the 10-day disabled list with minor inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Johnson allowed four runs on a pair of home runs in the first two innings. And I can remember feeling like, “This is going to be a long night.” Well, I was right about that. But it ended up being a long night for the Yankees, who lost that series opener to the Red Sox, 15-7, thanks to Steve Pearce’s three home runs.
The Sox went on to also win the next three, ending the series with a 10th-inning walk-off single by Andrew Benintendi on national TV. Following that win, the Red Sox took a 9.5-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East. There’s a lot of baseball to still be played. And these two teams play each other six more times in the regular season. But there’s no way the Red Sox blow this division lead. No bleeping way.
They’re the favorite to win the World Series at +325. I’m not guaranteeing you they’ll win it all, because they still have to beat the Houston Astros — or maybe even the Yankees — in the postseason. But I will guarantee you they win the AL East. That race is over. A lot of that has to do with the way J.D. Martinez is playing. He might finish the season with 50 home runs. And yeah, you can consider me surprised.
Martinez didn’t sign with the Red Sox until late February. He signed a five-year, $110 million deal that includes several opt-outs. The first opt-out is after the second year of the contract. Well, at $22 million a year, if he keeps raking like this through next season, then you can expect him to hit free agency once again. If you had told me in the winter that Martinez would be playing like this, then I would’ve told you he’d be the highest paid player in baseball. At $22 million per year, he’s not even in the top 10.
I was skeptical about Martinez. But so was everybody else in Major League Baseball. Even the Red Sox, who waited until the last minute to get the deal done. Had somebody stepped in and offered Martinez $25 million a year, I’m not convinced that the Red Sox would’ve even got into a bidding war for Martinez’ services. It felt like the Red Sox had a number, and they were sticking to it. If nobody else wanted Martinez, then the Sox would get him at their price. And that’s exactly what happened.
I said it in February, and I’ll say it again now. Martinez is only in Boston because nobody else wanted him. And because nobody else wanted him, I wasn’t sold on him. I was wrong. But again, so was everybody in the league. Martinez has been playing out of his mind. And it’s not streaky. It’s steady. It’s not a fluke. And it makes you think, “What was the rest of the league thinking?”
-It was announced this week that Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon on Oct. 6 at UFC 229 in Las Vegas. He’ll challenge the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov for the Lightweight championship. It wasn’t too long ago that McGregor held both the Featherweight and Lightweight titles. But he was stripped of both due to inactivity, as he stepped into the boxing ring to fight Floyd Mayweather.
It also wasn’t too long ago that McGregor attempted an attack on Khabib’s bus that ended with McGregor being charged with assault. Consider me SHOCKED that they’ll be fighting each other six months later. UFC denied that the bus attack was a stunt. And to an extent, it wasn’t, as the legal issues McGregor faced afterwards were real. But come on now, it’s not like McGregor’s life is going to be affected in any way because of those legal “issues.” If anything, they just generated more buzz for their fight, which makes everybody more money.
It was a stunt.
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