Online Destination for the Best in Boston Sports
BOSTON – Celtics forward Jaylen Brown was diagnosed with a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist. Brown is expected to have the torn ligament surgically repaired this week, and will be out for the remainder of the 2020-21 regular season and playoffs.
Brown had recently been sidelined with a sprained ankle.
Further updates will be provided as appropriate.
BOSTON – After winning four straight and clinching a spot in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Boston Bruins have now lost two-of-three to drop to 6-3-1 over their last 10 games. The Bruins have two games remaining in the regular season, Monday against the New York Islanders, at home and Tuesday at Washington.
On Saturday, Mika Zibanejad scored two of New York’s four third-period goals, and the Rangers finished their 2021 season with a 5-4 victory over Boston. The Rangers ended on a high note and broke a five-game losing streak.
For Boston, forward David Pastrnak scored his 200th career goal, Brad Marchand put in his team-leading 28th, and Patrice Bergeron and Nick Ritchie also scored for the Bruins, who had earned at least a point in their previous six games (5-0-1). Bruins goalkeeper Tuukka Rask stopped 18 shots but allowed the four third period goals.
The Rangers ended a tumultuous week as team owner James Dolan unexpectedly fired team president John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton on Wednesday.
BALTIMORE – With the aid of his teammates and retired Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, Boston 1B Bobby Dalbec snapped an 0-for-27 batting slump with a single and a three-run homer, powering the Boston Red Sox to a 6-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night at Orioles Park at Camden Yards.
Sox starter and team ace Eduardo Rodriguez (5-0) allowed one run on seven hits while striking out two batters over five innings to help the Red Sox improve to a the MLB-best record of 20-13. Boston won the last nine games Rodriguez has started against Baltimore, where he originally signed as a free agent in 2010 before he was traded to the Sox for reliever Andrew Miller.
The Red Sox lead the majors in runs (166), batting average (.267), slugging (.444), on-base+slugging (.776), doubles (72), and extra base hits (113). In their last 5 games, the Sox are batting .311 with an .856 (on-base+slugging) with (7.4 runs per game).
Tonight, Boston’s righty, Garrett Richards, (1-2, 4.40 ERA) will make his third start against the Orioles this season. In the previous two games, he’s 0-1, allowing eight runs and 10 hits with six strikeouts and five walks over seven innings.
CHICAGO – Chicago’s combination of Zach LaVine and Coby White each scored 25 points and the Bulls overcame a big effort by Boston’s Kemba Walker and the Bulls soundly defeated the slumping Celtics, 121-99, on Friday night. The game marked the first time this season fans were admitted to Chicago’s United Center, and the Bulls were fueled by their presence. Chicago led by 21 in the third quarter but allowed Boston to draw within eight in the fourth quarter, before putting the game away by scoring 12 straight.
With the victory, Chicago kept their playoff hopes alive and pulled within three games of Washington and a half-game further away from the Indiana Pacers for the final spots in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
Like their arch-rivals out West in the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston is trying to avoid the play-in tourney, but fell to seventh in the East and trail Miami by a game with the Heat beating Minnesota. The Celtics and Heat meet for an all-important game Sunday in Boston.
BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox trailed, 7-5 ,entering the bottom of the 6th inning and were behind, 9-8, entering the bottom of the 8th but infielder Christian Arroyo scored the decisive run in the 8th inning on a fielding error by the Detroit 3rd baseman Jeimer Candelario and Boston OF Alex Verdugo singled in two insurance runs to give Boston a 12-9 victory. It marked an MLB best of 13 come-from-behind victories for the Red Sox this season.
Boston starter Nathan Eovaldi allowed six runs on seven hits in a season-low 4.1 innings pitched. Relieve Matt Andreise was credited with the win while Detroit’s Alex Lange took the loss in a game that can best be described as “sloppy,” as the teams combined for six errors, three wild pitches, two hit batsmen, a passed ball and a balk.
Boston 3B Rafael Devers went 2-for-5, with three RBI, including an RBI single in the 3rd inning and a go-ahead, two-run single with the bases loaded in the 6th inning. Devers stands 14-for-35 (.400) with Runs in Scoring Position this season and leads MLB since the start of 2019 with 63 game-tying or go-ahead RBI. Ten of Devers’ 23 RBI this season have tied the score of given the Red Sox the lead. Devers did make two fielding errors in the game.
After going 10-6 in their last 16 home games, the Red Sox will next visit Baltimore Friday for the first of four games. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (4-0) will face righty Matt Harvey (3-1).
BOSTON – Boston starter Martin Perez tossed a season high 5.2 innings for the second time, allowed six hits, three runs, (only two earned, walked two and struck-out six but it was not enough to get the Red Sox a victory as the Detroit Tigers upset the Sox 6-5 at Fenway Park Wednesday night. The series with Detroit is now tied 1-1.
The Tigers snapped their season-long seven-game losing streak and are now 2-0 in extra-inning games this season and 3-1 in extras since the start of 2020. Detroit 3B Jeimer Candelario went 3-foro-5, including his three-run home run in the 10th off Boston’s highly-touted reliever Garrett Whitlock.
Detroit’s pitcher Casey Mize threw 6.0 innings, allowed a season-low three hits, but a career-high three walks over a career-high-tying 95 pitches. He held the Red Sox hitless through three frames. Mize allowed his only run to score in the 2nd inning, after starting the inning with two walks. His game-changing efforts came when he worked around a bases-loaded jam in the 6th.
Sox DH J.D. Martinez hit his 10th homer of the season. He is tied with Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. for the major league lead in home runs and leads the majors in RBI (29) and total bases (78), while leading the American League in extra-base hits with 20.
After Boston allowed three runs in the top of the 10th, they rallied for two runs in the home half of the inning but fell short.
Whitlock (0-1) took the loss for Boston.
BOSTON – Red Sox starting pitcher Nick Pivetta went 5.0 innings, allowing six hits, and only three runs, as he tossed at least 5.0 innings for the fifth time in six starts this season, to lead Boston to an 11-7 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Pivetta struck-out eight and walked only two batters and is 4-0 with a 3.23 ERA (11 ER/30.2 IP) on the young season. Pivetta leads the Sox starters in ERA, opponent AVG (.200), and strikeouts (33).
The Boston offense returned in a big way and are 9-3 when scoring first and 15-1 when scoring four or more runs. Red Sox hitters clocked 10 homers over their last four games, after hitting only one HR in their previous five games. The outburts tonight vs. Detroit was the third time this season Boston hit four or more HRs in a game (also 4/11 at Baltimore (6) and 4/30 at Texas (4).
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts went 2-for-5, with two runs scored and a pair of RBI as he hit a two-run homer in the 2nd inning. It was his third HR in his last four games and sixth in his last 13 games.
Outfielder Hunter Renfroe went 3-for-4, with a pair of runs scored and RBI. He hit an RBI single in the 1st inning and a solo HR in the 5th inning which was his 100th career HR, and his second in his last three games. Renfroe as 12 RBI in his last 17 games…Is 6-for-12 (.500 AVG) with 2 HR and 5 RBI in his last three games.
The Sox are 9-5 in their last 14 games at Fenway Park.
Boston’s Matt Barnes converted his first career five-out save, and just his second of at least four outs (1.1 IP on 5/7/19 at BAL) as he entered in the 8th inning. Barnes is seven-for-seven in saves vs opportunities this season as he earned Manager Alex Cora’s confidence as the team’s full-time closer.
PRINCETON – IVY League football will be back in action this Fall, barring any unforeseen and major setbacks from the variants of the COVID-19 virus which halted IVY League sports in March, 2020.
The IVY League school Presidents issued a joint statement today, addressing likely “in-person” learning and the resumption of all Fall sports.
“At each of our campuses, we are busily planning for the fall semester. As is prudent given all the uncertainty around the course of this pandemic, we are each planning for a range of possible scenarios. But given the current steady decline of Covid-19 infections in this country, and the broad availability and uptake of vaccinations, we are optimistic that our campuses will be back to something close to normal by this fall, including in-person learning with students in residence. And this includes our expectation for the resumption of regular competitive schedules for Ivy League athletics across all sports beginning in fall 2021.
“We know that this has been a challenging year for Ivy League student-athletes – as it has for our entire campuses, our country and the world at large – and we very much look forward to a return to spirited athletics competition and to the Ivy League rivalries that make our conference so special. Barring unanticipated circumstances, such as a dramatic increase in infection rates from a variant in the virus, we look forward to welcoming our teams back to intercollegiate competition this fall,” read the statement (which did not have typos).
NEWARK – The Boston Bruins clinched the final slot to compete in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs and battled throughout the competitive East Division of the NHL to post a decisive 3-0 shutout of the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. The Bruins (31-14-6) moved into third place, a point (68-67) ahead of the New York Islanders and three behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals with five games remaining.
“You play for an opportunity to play for the cup, so we’ve accomplished the first part of that — getting into the playoffs,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We had our share of adversity as much with COVID rescheduling and injuries, and using different people, but the flip-side of that — the positive side of that — is you learn a little bit about guys. They get thrown into situations where they have to step up. We came out of it OK.”
Boston team Captain Patrice Bergeron scored his 20th goal of the season and Boston clinched its fifth consecutive playoff berth with the road victory. Bruins’ No. 1 goalkeeper, Tuukka Rask, stopped 20 shots for his second shutout of the season, supported by Nick Ritchie goal which broke a scoreless tie in the second period.
The Bruins won their fourth straight game and ended the Devils’ three-game winning streak.
Boston had five games remaining, including another match-up against the Devils at Newark tonight.
ARLINGTON – Former Red Sox utility man Brock Holt had a key RBI single to help the Texas Rangers produce a three-run 8th inning to defeat the Boston Red Sox 5-3 on Sunday. The Rangers took 3-of-4 games against the Sox for their first winning series of the season.
Rangers SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered to help Texas win a series against Boston for the first time since 2016. Rangers reliever Josh Sborz (3-1) got three outs for the win, and Ian Kennedy worked the ninth for his seventh of seven save opportunities.
Boston’s star SS Xander Bogaerts cracked three hits for Sox, including his fifth homer, as the Red Sox built a 3-1 lead with runs in the second, fourth and seventh innings. The loss marked the AL East-leading Sox’ first lost a series since being swept by Baltimore at Fenway Park to open the season.
“Like I told you guys after we started 0-3, we thought we had a good team,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “And after we won all those games, we still have a good team. We reset tomorrow.”
Bogaerts scored the game’s first run after he reached on a towering popup that second baseman Nick Solak lost in the sun. He advanced to third on Marwin Gonzalez’s double and scampered home on Hunter Renfroe’s grounder to Solak.
Boston starter Garrett Richards struck out seven while pitching five innings of one-run ball. He allowed four hits and walked one.
The Red Sox have a day off for travel today and then ace SP Nick Pivetta (3-0, 2.81 ERA), who held the Mets to one hit through five scoreless innings in his previous start, will open a three-game home stand against Detroit at Fenway on Tuesday.