All-Star Broken

Morning Dose: Monday, July 13

Jul 13, 2026

∙ Paid

☀️ Good Morning:

Around 3:00 PM EST on Friday when it started to become a national story that the Red Sox were in danger of arriving late from Chicago for the series opener, the type of Mets fan who is somehow still reading this newsletter in this dreadful season knew what that news really meant.

You could have Bet the House, as my dad has done at least 162x through the course of every baseball season, that the Sox would roll into Citi Field with just enough time to push their medal belt clips through the final loop and slip into their cleats, while the Mets leisurely played cards in their home clubhouse, and find a way to win that game.

They ended up finding a way to sweep the series.

Check another floundering team off the list whose season once looked almost as dark as the Mets’. Boston has won nine in a row, completing their first 9–0 road trip since 1977. They have climbed from last place in the AL East to within a half-game of the final wild-card spot.

The not-so-Amazins enter the All-Star break 17 games below .500. It somehow feels even worse than that.

Sunday the most fitting ending to one of the worst pre-All-Star-break runs in franchise history.

After Zach Thornton pitched an absolute gem (maybe he belongs in the rotation) and Luke Weaver continued his dominance from the ‘pen, Francisco Lindor ruined both of their days and his own strong offensive performance with a mindless error that turned a win into a tie game. Fundamentals continued to fail in extras as the Sox effectively moved the ghost runner to third and sac fly’d him home, while the Mets couldn’t even advance the runner.