Daily Boston Sports Blog - Sept. 23, 2025
Last week of the MLB regular season | Pats fall to the Steelers | Bruins pre-season opener | Jayson Tatum Recovery
By Will Moore
Red Sox
The Red Sox are entering the most crucial stretch of the season. With the Guardians breathing down their necks in the wild card race, wins are more crucial than ever. After such an exciting season, a failure to make the playoffs would be devastating for the team. The offense has struggled since losing Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu to injury, and the starting pitching has started to slip as well. The Red Sox’s big three of Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito, and Brayan Bello have combined for 10 earned runs over 12.1 innings in their most recent starts.
The Red Sox have six more games, and they can’t afford to lose any of them. They sit only a game up on the Guardians, who have won a whopping 15 out of their last 17 games. Lucas Giolito will take the mound against Toronto, and the Red Sox will need his best against a Blue Jays team that leads the league in hits. Starting pitching has been the backbone of the Red Sox’s season revival, and a good start from Giolito is absolutely essential if this team wants to play in October.
Luckily for the Red Sox, the Guardians and Tigers play each other this week in what has become an intense race for the division. The Tigers have completely collapsed while the Guardians have surged, and the Guardians now sit only a game back from the division lead. The fact that these teams will face each other bodes well for the Sox, but beating the Blue Jays needs to be the absolute focus in the clubhouse.
The wild card race is heating up, and every game from here on out will be treated as a playoff game. The Red Sox will finish the regular season against the struggling Tigers, and the final wild card spot could come down to the last game of the season. Expect fireworks, and go Sox.
Patriots
It was a Sunday to forget in New England as the Patriots fell 21-14 to the Steelers. The Patriots finished the game with 369 total yards of offense to Pittsburgh's 203 but turned the ball over five times in crucial moments.
Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled twice, once on the first drive of the game and once on the goal line. After the game, many fans were calling for Stevenson to be cut, as fumbles have been a common trend in his career thus far, and unfortunately, he hasn’t fixed it. After the game, Stevenson said, “If I can’t hold onto the ball then they don’t need me.”
Drake Maye also struggled in this one. While he was able to complete some big plays, Maye still had another multi-turnover game, which has happened far too often in his time so far in New England. Right before the half, the Patriots were poised to score, but on 3rd down Maye underthrew a pass to the back of the end zone. It was tipped and intercepted, the first of two red zone turnovers for the Pats.
Disaster after disaster struck for the Patriots, but they still were in the game toward the end. In an effort to tie the game, Drake Maye started to lead a good drive, but it was stopped when Demario Douglas failed to get upfield on 4th-and-1, resulting in a turnover on downs.
Through the first three weeks, the only consistent aspect of the Patriots’ play has been the sloppiness. Turnovers and penalties have been sinking the Patriots, but it is unreasonable to not expect these issues from what is a very young team. To say that this team is as bad as last year is an overreaction, but the inability to gain momentum and the sloppy play are starting to raise alarm bells.
Heading into Week 4, the Patriots will play the Panthers. It will be interesting to see if the Patriots decide to switch things around in the backfield and turn to Treveyon Henderson to be the new RB1. While many Patriots fans have been calling for this, it is tough to say whether this will help the Patriots. Henderson has had a noticeably slow start to the season and has the lowest yard totals of any rookie running back drafted this past year. People have been frustrated with Henderson's lack of touches, but the rookie has failed to produce much in the touches he has been given. Henderson is certainly not a bust yet, but he will need to get going to instill some hope into the New England faithful.
While it was a bad day for the Patriots as a team, it was a great day for Hunter Henry, who finished the game with eight catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots will look to bounce back and get their first home win this week against the Panthers.
Bruins
The Bruins fell 2–5 in their preseason opener against the Washington Capitals on Sunday. While preseason games aren’t great indicators of regular season success, many of the Bruins’ issues from last year still presented themselves in this game. Turnovers and sloppy positioning led to the Capitals scoring four goals in the first period.
Bruins goalie Michael DiPietro, who many believed would make a push to be the team's backup, struggled in this one. DiPietro allowed five goals on 21 shots, which is far below the standards required of an NHL goalie. It was a bad day for DiPietro, but the 26-year-old is coming off an incredible season in Providence, so a bounce back for him is expected.
A developing story from camp has been the play of rookie goalie Simon Zajicek. Zajicek is an undrafted 24-year-old goalie from Czechia and has been turning heads in camp. Zajicek made an appearance late in the game and stopped all six of the shots he faced. Late in the game it looked like they were going to put in a sixth goal on a cross-ice pass, but Zajicek displayed incredible skill to get across and make a great pad save. While the Czech rookie will likely not suit up for the Bruins this year, he will surely be a player to watch in Providence.
Celtics
An intriguing update came out recently about Jayson Tatum’s recovery, and that is that the Celtics have been extremely happy with the effort and attention Tatum has put into his recovery. The Celtics star reportedly has left Boston since the injury and has been putting his full focus on getting back on the court.
As Celtics fans, we aren’t surprised by this. Jayson Tatum has done nothing but work hard and succeed in a Celtics jersey. The 27-year-old forward has always gone about his business the right way, and if he keeps it up, he could blow the league away with an epic comeback.
