Sunday was a very good night to be a Boston sports fan
By Josh Hill
Sunday night was a very good night to be a Boston sports fan.
Some of us are old enough to remember when it wasn’t so great to be a Boston sports fans. Whether it was the Patriots stumbling over themselves, the Bruins being painfully average, or the Curse of the Bambino (remember that?!), Boston was once rich with heartbreak.
Sunday was an example of just how far behind the dark ages are; 30 miles separated New England triumphs that made this weekend a good one to be a Bostonian.
It’s the win in Foxborough that everyone will be raving about around the water cooler on Monday morning. Tom Brady and the Patriots welcomed the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs into town and flexed all over them. It was a shootout that failed to disappoint and featured a team scoring 40-points and still losing. That team was the Chiefs, who dropped their first game of the year despite a brilliant performance by Patrick Mahomes.
A lot has been made about The Patriot Way and how it led to all the winning we’ve seen the team experience, but nothing is Peak Patriots like taking something fun and breaking it like a cheap toy. Mahomes was his usual amazing self, but it wasn’t enough to stop the inevitability that everything will eventually be consumed by the Patriots.
Not only did the Patriots crash the Chiefs party everyone seemed to be enjoying, but it was a win means New England has won three straight games after starting 1-2. Every year around this time, the Patriots start to turn it on and hit a stride that usually carries them deep into January. A signature win over one of the best teams in football seems to be the perfect way to ring in that annual tradition.
At the same time as the Patriots were reminding everyone that the empire hasn’t yet fallen, the Red Sox were in Boston proper taking Game 2 of the ALCS against Houston. Boston had a rough go of things in the opening game of the series, with Chris Sale pitching a solid outing but failing to get the run support needed to erase his mistakes. Despite winning 108 games this season, the consensus seems to have made the Red Sox an underdog.
To be fair, it’s hard to be against Houston’s World Series experience gained last year, coupled with an improved pitching staff and a lineup that is starting to heat up. Houston took a 4-2 lead at one point in the game, which seemed to signal the Astros were going to smother Boston, not unlike the way they did last season in the ALDS.
That didn’t happen, and the Red Sox proceeded to light up Gerrit Cole and force Houston to dip into its bullpen in a 7-4 victory that evens the series as it heads back to Texas.
Maybe the Red Sox and Patriots won’t win championships this year, but Boston fans will always have the euphoria of Sunday night.