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Archives for September 7, 2026

Boston Takes the Fifth (Straight)

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

FENWAY – The Boston Red Sox returned home to Fenway Park this gorgeous Labor Day afternoon with a four-game winning streak after a much-needed, wild card securing sweep over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Sox starters, Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray and Payton Tolle, buried postseason hopes for their AL East rivals, plummeting the O’s into the divisional basement.

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That four game sweep took the pressure off Sox starter Brayan Bello as he took the mound against the lowly Los Angeles Angels on a 77-degree day in Boston. Bello responded with a respectable 5-inning gem, allowing only four scattered hits, walking two and striking out seven Angels. He threw a heavy 103 pitches (62 strikes) in his shutdown effort, and left the game with a 5-0 lead.

The Red Sox backed Bello with four runs in the 2nd inning. A lead-off home run by Jarren Duran opened up the scoring before Sox catcher Adley Rutschman clocked a three-run homer, scoring Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Roman Anthony who had each reached on the dreaded and deadly base-on-balls. In the 4th inning, the Red Sox added another run when Caleb Durbin singled to center, Duran doubled and Eli White singled in Durbin to make it 5-0, Boston.

After Bello gave way to reliever Wyatt Olds in the 6th inning, LA’s Moises Ballesteros homered to right field. Olds retired the side with three consecutive strikeouts following the solo homer by Ballesteros.

The Angels picked up a run in the top of the 8th as Alec Gamboa and Garrett Whitlock closed out the game from the Boston bullpen. Whitlock secured his third save of the season with the final score, 5-2.

Boston improved to 80-65 while the Angels fell to an MLB low 54-90. The Sox picked up a half-game on the idle New York Yankees and remain two games back of their second place rivals. Bello improved to a 6-7 record on the season. LA starter Grayson Rodriguez fell to 4-7.

The series continues on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, 6:45pm early starts to allow the college crowd to descend upon Fenway.

Sox Surging Once Again

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FENWAY – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Red Sox made a quick exit from Baltimore and look to keep up their winning ways in a three-game series against the visiting Los Angeles Angels beginning on Monday afternoon.

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The Red Sox (79-65) just pulled off a four-game sweep of the Orioles, pitching back-to-back shutouts before capping the series with a 3-1 win Sunday.

After Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray both threw seven shutout innings in the previous two games, Payton Tolle struck out 12 over six innings, standing up teammate Eli White’s three-run home run in the second inning.

“It was an amazing performance by our pitching staff for four days. It was awesome,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Tolle was fantastic, and the guys coming out of the pen were awesome.”

Aroldis Chapman closed the series, becoming the ninth pitcher in major league history to reach the 400-save plateau for his career.

“To be that elite for as long as he’s been elite is cool to watch,” Tolle said.

White started in center field in place of Ceddanne Rafaela, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a right quadriceps strain after missing each of the first three games in Baltimore.

White, a trade-deadline acquisition from Atlanta, is 7-for-19 with eight RBIs in his last six games.

“The first thing you think of if (Rafaela) goes down … you have a really fast, good defensive outfielder that can go out there. But he has hit as well,” Tracy said.

With the Red Sox looking to give their starters an extra day of rest, Tracy said that Brayan Bello (5-7, 5.07 ERA) is “likely” to start Monday.

It would be Bello’s first start since June 4, when he allowed eight runs in a five-inning outing against the Orioles and was then optioned to Triple-A Worcester. The 27-year-old allowed eight runs in 7 1/3 innings in his two most recent relief appearances but has had much more success as a reliever (4-1, 2.03) than as a starter (1-6, 10.35) this season.

Bello is 1-2 with a 5.14 ERA in four career starts against the Angels.

The Angels (54-89), whom the Red Sox swept in a three-game road set in July, have now dropped five straight series and 11 of their last 13 games following their second 1-0 loss in three days to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Despite the Sunday loss to Pirates ace Paul Skenes, 22-year-old rookie Walbert Urena allowed just three hits and a walk over eight innings, which tied for the team’s longest start this season.

“It’s nice to get your starting pitchers wins,” outfielder Wade Meckler said after left-hander Yusei Kikuchi’s six scoreless innings in a 6-1 win on Saturday. “Our starters have been throwing the ball well the last couple of weeks and haven’t been getting wins.”

“(Urena has) been incredible, and he keeps getting better,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.

Next, Los Angeles turns the ball to Grayson Rodriguez (4-6, 6.03) for his fourth career start against Boston. The first three came with Baltimore during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, when the right-hander went a combined 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA.

Rodriguez is coming off a loss to the New York Yankees on Tuesday, when he allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out seven in six innings. He had allowed no more than three earned runs in any of his prior six starts, though the Angels won just one of them.

Suzuki and the Angels appear to have dodged a bullet regarding the status of three-time American League MVP Mike Trout, who returned to the lineup on Sunday after leaving the previous day’s game when he was hit in the hand by a pitch.

Returning to his typical No. 2 spot in the lineup, Trout went 2-for-4 with a double on which Zach Neto was thrown out at home plate attempting to score.

–Field Level Media

Goodell Gets Multi-Million Extension

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The NFL announced Sunday that NFL owners agreed to a four-year contract extension with commissioner Roger Goodell that runs through the 2030 season, ending on March 31, 2031.

The length of the deal is significant because the current collective bargaining agreement between owners and players expires in March 2031.

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One of the main topics to be sorted out between the two parties is the potential introduction of an 18-game regular season. The NFL moved from a 16-game schedule to 17 games in 2021.

Contracts with broadcast partners are also expected to be renegotiated by 2030.

The extension, which was reported last week as certain, is Goodell’s fifth and his first since he signed a three-year deal in October 2023. Goodell, 67, has been NFL commissioner since 2006.

The NFL does not publicly disclose Goodell’s compensation. His most recent reported earnings, for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, were $63.9 million annually.

Owners met in Atlanta last week, but it was reported that a Goodell extension was not discussed. The new deal was announced four days after that owners’ meeting.

“The Compensation Committee notified the full ownership today that an agreement has been reached on a four-season contract extension for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell through the 2030 League season, ending on March 31, 2031,” the NFL said in a release Sunday.

–Field Level Media