What it's like to hit a 472-foot home run; Daniel Bard's return
This could have been an exciting time in the Boston sports world. The Celtics could be taking on the Nuggets in the NBA Finals on the same day Denver's baseball team came to town for a meeting with the red-hot Red Sox.
Unfortunately for New England sports fans, the only part of that equation that came to fruition was that the Rockies were in attendance for Monday night's game at Fenway Park.
No, things are not panning out how we envisioned them a month ago.
On the night the Nuggets celebrated winning their first NBA championship - over the Heat, not the Celtics - the Rockies capped off Denver sports fans' night-to-remember with a 10-inning, 4-3 win over the Red Sox.
As good as it was for those Mile High fanatics, it was equally as bad for all of those weathering a one hour, 29 minute rain delay in the 10th inning at Fenway Park. By the time the fans filtered out of Fenway, the brightest light of sports optimism seemed like free agent receiver DeAndre Hopkins simply taking a meeting with the Patriots.
That's where we're at.
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While the Red Sox are far from out of postseason consideration - sitting 4 1/2 games from the third Wild Card spot at 33-34 - they are seemingly far from grabbing the hearts and minds of Boston sports fans. That's in large part because of the missed opportunity to grab all those Celts and Bruins followers when those teams' seasons fell off their respective cliffs.
The Sox are 12-20 since the early May eight-game win streak and 7-14 in their last 21 games. And beside the inability to possess sustained success, it's the presentation that isn't helping matters, either.
Case in point: Monday night's loss.
More poor defense, this time resulting in runs thanks to errors by Kiké Hernandez and Triston Casas. Continued offensive ugliness, this time coming against a familiar face in Colorado starter - and former Red Sox - Connor Seabold.
Since that May 21 jumping off point, the Red Sox have carried a .676 OPS. But one of the more striking stats during that stretch has been that there has been just one home run with runners in scoring position over those 21 games.
All of this might have been moot if Denver's most recent sports icon, Nolan Jones (who hit a 472-foot walk-off homer the day before) didn't reach up and grab what would have likely been Rafael Devers' eighth-inning, game-winning homer. But Jones did catch the 384-foot blast (which would have been out of seven ballparks, including Fenway), and we are left with another day of looking for the clouds to part.
It must be nice to live in Denver right now.