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MLB Postseason: Texas Ousts O’s

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ARLINGTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Texas Rangers took the hard route after blowing a 2 1/2-game lead in the American League West in the final week of the regular season and landing in the wild-card round. Five consecutive victories later, the Rangers are headed to the AL Championship Series after a solid 7-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday in Texas.

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Texas swept the Tampa Bay Rays in two games in an AL wild-card series before outscoring the Orioles 21-11 in three AL Division Series contests. The Rangers are headed to their first ALCS since making back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and ’11.

“We regrouped on that flight,” Texas star Corey Seager said of a trip from Seattle following the end of the regular season to Tampa Bay to start the playoffs. “We wanted to punch our ticket (as AL West champion) and we didn’t. We wanted to finish it off and try to win the division, but it didn’t happen. We moved on really fast, and we knew we had an opportunity in front of us.”

Seager hit one of three Rangers’ homers on Tuesday in the club’s first home game of the postseason. Adolis Garcia smacked a three-run homer, Nathaniel Lowe also went deep and Mitch Garver contributed a two-run double for Texas.

Garver, Garcia and Josh Jung each had two hits for the Rangers.

Nathan Eovaldi (2-0) allowed one run and five hits over seven innings for Texas. He struck out seven and walked none in his second straight stellar effort this postseason.

“It is more so just trusting my pitches,” Eovaldi said. “I have a game plan going in, but it’s going to change at times. I had a really good feel for my splitter.”

Texas will face either the Houston Astros or Minnesota Twins in the ALCS, with Game 1 on Sunday in either Houston or Minneapolis.

The Rangers went just 68-94 last season before manager Bruce Bochy was lured out of a three-year retirement by Chris Young, the Texas general manager who pitched for Bochy in 2006 with the San Diego Padres.

Bochy, 68, won three World Series titles as skipper of the San Francisco Giants and is hopeful of adding another.

“It’s just unreal. This is what I came back for, hoping something like this would happen,” Bochy said. “These guys have been warriors. Road warriors. The kind of baseball they’ve been playing is awesome.”

Gunnar Henderson had three hits and an RBI for the Orioles, who have lost eight straight playoff games dating back to 2014. Baltimore won an AL-best 101 games in the regular season.

It was a bittersweet ending for the Orioles.

“They defied all the odds. Nobody gave us a chance,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “These guys played their butts off for six months. We just didn’t play well for these last three, unfortunately. It’s definitely a successful season, and these guys are going to be really good going forward.”

The contest was the first at home for the Rangers since Sept. 24. Texas had played its previous 11 games — seven to end the regular season, four to start the playoffs — on the road.

Seager came up as the second batter in the game against Dean Kremer (0-1) and hammered a 445-foot homer into the seats in right-center. The blast was his first of these playoffs and 14th postseason shot of his career.

Texas loaded the bases with two outs in the second before Garver ripped a double down the third base line to score two. The big hit came two days after Garver hit a grand slam and drove in five runs in Game 2.

Garcia followed with a three-run blast to left-center to make it 6-0 and end Kremer’s night. The 418-foot shot was Garcia’s second career postseason homer, both coming this year.

Baltimore got on the board in the fifth inning when Henderson’s two-out single scored Jordan Westburg from second.

Lowe led off the sixth with a 437-foot homer off Kyle Gibson. It was the first postseason blast of Lowe’s career.

Kremer allowed six runs and seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out none.

–Field Level Media

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Oct 8

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While We’re Young (Ideas) – On Baseball

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – No New York Yankees. No New York Mets. No Boston Red Sox. No San Diego Padres.

But, yes, the Mets, Yankees and Padres, with a combined $876.4 million tab for player salaries this season, all missed the postseason.

The Mets fired GM Billy Eppler and their skipper Buck Showalter while the Red Sox gave the trap-door approach to their head of Baseball Ops and defacto team GM Chaim Bloom. If you add expectations of the LA Angeles to the mix, add to the carnage with Angels Manager Phil Nevin hitting the unemployment line. The SF Giants fired manager Gabe Kapler and the Winter Meetings are two months away.

The 2023 Postseason started slowly with less-than-compelling Wild Card match-ups all ending in a short series (2-0).

The MLB Divisional Playoffs are expected to bring increased interest and batter baseball. In the National League, the Atlanta Braves – baseball’s best – are facing a tough, playoff-tested Philadelphia Phillies team while the winner of the LA Dodgers vs AZ Diamondbacks awaits (think Dodgers).

In the American League, the State of Texas planted two franchises in the divisional playoff bracket – the defending World Series champion Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. They can meet if the Astros dispose of the Minnesota Twins and the Rangers can defeat upstart and entertaining Baltimore.

Regardless of the results this year, the Baltimore Orioles will be “here to stay” in MLB Postseasons to come.

As postseason progresses, an examination of Baseball’s vital signs shows a very healthy patient. Major League Baseball attendance experienced its largest growth in 30 years in 2023, said the league in a regular season-end statement. Total attendance of 70,747,365 was up 9.6 percent over 2022 (64,556,636) and the average attendance of 29,295 was up 9.1 percent.

Seventeen of the 30 MLB teams drew more than 2.5 million fans, matching the most in MLB history, and eight attracted more than 3 million. Eleven weekends drew more than 1.5 million fans, compared to a total of five such weekends over the previous four full seasons (2018-19, 2021-22) combined.

Factoring into the sport’s increased “watchability” waas a decrease in the average length of the games, thanks in large part to pitch clocks. The regular season games of 2023 averaged 2 hours, 39 minutes and 49 seconds, the shortest since 1985 and a decrease of 24 minutes from last season.

Only nine games lasted 3 1/2 hours or longer, down from 390 such games back in 2021.

3×3 champion Vienna (Photo by FIBA)

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The USA Basketball Men’s World Cup team settled for a 4th Place finish this summer in Manila with Germany, Serbia and Canada gaining the top three spots. The groomsmen instead of the groom approach continued this weekend in Amsterdam where the USA Basketball 3×3 entry from Miami took 2nd Place behind a squad from Vienna, Austria. … The second-place finish marks Team Miami’s sixth straight Top 4 finish on the World Tour, including their second runner-up finish of the campaign.

In a rematch of their Saturday “pool play” game, Vienna sought revenge vs. Miami in the Tournament Finals, winning the tightly contested battle, 21-19. Jimmer Fredetteput Miami into the lead, 8-7, with a two-pointer with just under seven minutes remaining. Vienna tried to pull away multiple times, but Miami hung-on and grabbed a 19-18 lead with 3:28 remaining after the Americans went on a 6-1 run. Both teams had empty possessions before Vienna scored the game’s final three points. Fredette led Miami with 10 points. Dylan Travis pulled down a team-high five boards. … The Miami 3×3 entry will next compete at the Doha Challenger on Oct 10-11.

NWSL VALUATIONS: Fresh off a newly reported four-year deal for game rights, divvying up coverage between ESPN, CBS, Amazon and Scripps, the sports business publications – Sportico – released valuations for the National Women’s Soccer League. Here are the Top 10:

  1. Angel City FC – – $180 million
  2. San Diego Wave – – $90m
  3. Kansas City Courant – – $75m
  4. Portland Thorns – – $65m
  5. Washington Spirit – – $54
  6. North Carolina Courage $52m
  7. Houston Dash – – $50m
  8. OL Reign – – $49m (Olympique Lyonnais)
  9. NJ/NY Gotham FC – – $48m
  10. Racing Louisville FC – – $47m

Two other clubs, Orlando and Chicago rated at $47 million or less.

The WNBA just awarded a franchise the the Golden State Warriors’ organization at the value of $50 million.

TIDBITS: The Minnesota Twins snapped an 18-game postseason losing streak with a win in their best-of-three Wild Card series vs. Toronto. It marked the longest losing streak in any major North American sports league. Minny’s 3-1 Game 1 win over the Blue Jays, was dominated by a player who was five years old the last time the Twins won a playoff game. Twins DH Royce Lewis drove in all three runs with a two-run home run in the first inning and a solo shot in the third. …

RIVALRY WEEK: Dare you to say that three times and fast! With No. 12 Oklahoma’s 34-30 upset over No. 3 Texas in Saturday’s Red River Rivalry, it’s time to wax philosophic on the greatness of college football, something city-folk in New York don’t understand.

Here’s my non-comprehensive list of the best rivalries in college football:

  1. Army vs. Navy This year to be played in Foxboro, Mass
  2. The Game – Harvard vs. Yale
  3. The Iron Bowl – Auburn vs. Alabama
  4. Michigan vs Ohio State – Usually, it settles the Big 10 championship)
  5. USC vs. Notre Dame – a rivalry based in great games, every year)
  6. Georgia vs. Florida – aka “the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”
  7. Miami vs. Florida State – ‘Canes vs. ‘Noles
  8. California vs. Stanford – Public vs. Private
  9. UCLA vs. USC – West Coast elite, in the Rose Bowl
  10. Lafayette vs. Lehigh – The Rivalry which dates back to 1897

And, don’t forget the Catholics vs the Convicts (ND vs. Miami) of yesteryear.

THINGS TO PONDER ON A SLOW DAY: Back by popular demand are a listing of a few things I think about.

Ready?

  • For years and years we’ve all been shaken by the sound of the Emergency Broadcast System … Repeat after me: “Station XYZ is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency, an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message.” … “This concludes the test of the Emergency Broadcast System.” … Okay, I get it. … It’s an important function and it grew from a directive from President John F. Kennedy in the very early ‘60s during the Cold War. … Now! Tell me this? During the damn GLOBAL PANDEMIC of 2019-2020 did you hear one peep from the Emergency Broadcast System? … That said, they tested an upgraded version this week.
  • Why are there three different ways to describe the exact same thing?
  1. In New York, it’s a car ACCIDENT
  2. In Boston, it’s a CRASH
  3. In Texas, it’s a WRECK

There’s “Fender-Benders,” “Pile-Ups,” “Collisions,” and “Smash-Ups.” Can anyone explain the origin of all of these descriptions and tell is why we need so many different ways to tag the same disasterous thing? Maybe we should slow down and drive safely, especially in the local neighborhood where the speed limit states “20 mph,” and not double nickels.

MLB Postseason: Blue Jays at Minny

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MINNEAPOLIS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Minnesota Twins will try to end a nearly 19-year-old playoff victory drought when they host the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of an American League wild-card series on Tuesday afternoon in Minnesota.

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The Twins’ most recent playoff victory was Oct. 5, 2004, against the New York Yankees. Since then, Minnesota has lost a record 18 straight postseason games.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays also are eager to turn around their recent playoff fortunes. Toronto has been swept in each of its past two wild-card series, in 2020 against the Tampa Bay Rays and last season against the Seattle Mariners, and it is searching for its first postseason win since Oct. 18, 2016, against Cleveland.

Toronto (89-73) won more games this season than Minnesota (87-75), but the Twins will have home-field advantage because they won a weaker AL Central. The Blue Jays finished in third place behind the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

The winner of this series will play the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series.

Toronto manager John Schneider said he and his players felt relief and excitement.

“Baseball is hard and this (East) division is hard,” Schneider said. “I think getting here probably takes a lot of weight off of the players’ shoulders. Looking back at spring training, there were very high expectations.

“People can say we either met them or fell short of them, but the fact that we are in. I think the guys really like that. They’re really looking forward to it because of how good they are.”

The Twins’ lineup includes several young players without playoff experience, but veteran shortstop Carlos Correa is looking to provide leadership and perspective. Correa went to the World Series three times with the Houston Astros.

Correa hit only .230 this season with 18 homers and 65 RBIs. He said those statistics carried no weight anymore, and that he felt healthy and ready to start in Game 1.

“You throw the numbers out the window and the (new) season starts,” Correa said. “This is the season that matters. It’s time to go.”

High-quality, consistent pitching helped propel both teams into the playoffs.

Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez will get the ball in Game 1 after posting an 11-8 record with a 3.66 ERA in 32 starts during the regular season. Lopez recorded a team-high 234 strikeouts in 194 innings, and he limited batters to a .238 average.

This will be Lopez’s second career playoff start. His first opportunity came with the Miami Marlins in 2020, when he allowed two runs on three hits in five innings against the Atlanta Braves.

In two career starts against Toronto, Lopez is 1-0 with a 5.59 ERA.

The Blue Jays will turn to right-hander Kevin Gausman to start the series. He went 12-9 with a 3.16 ERA in 31 starts this season, and he led the American League with 237 strikeouts in 185 innings.

Gausman has appeared in seven playoff games and started two. He is 0-1 with a 4.57 ERA in those contests, which have included appearances with Baltimore, Atlanta, San Francisco and Toronto.

In 11 career starts against the Twins, Gausman is 1-4 with a 6.35 ERA.

The Twins and Blue Jays faced each other six times this season, with each club winning three games. Minnesota had a narrow 28-26 advantage in runs.

–Field Level Media

MLB Postseason: D-Backs at Brewers

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MILWAUKEE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Milwaukee Brewers will turn to ace right-hander Corbin Burnes when the National League Central champions host the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday in the opener of the best-of-three wild-card series.

Burnes (10-8, 3.39 ERA) will be opposed by rookie right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (3-9, 5.72 ERA), facing the Brewers for the first time. Arizona (84-78) won four of the six regular-season meetings with Milwaukee (92-70).

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The Brewers received devastating news Monday when they learned that right-hander Brandon Woodruff, scheduled to pitch the second game, would miss the entire series with a right shoulder injury, with the remainder of the postseason in doubt.

“We’ve got good pitching, we’ve got really good pitching,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Monday. “We feel good about how we’re going to get through this series with a lot of guys on the mound. Giving the ball to Corbin on Day 1 is as good a feeling as you can have.”

The Diamondbacks, in the postseason for the first time since 2017, finished the regular season with four consecutive losses but secured the final wild card on Saturday when other contenders also lost.

Arizona was 52-39 at the All-Star break and tied with the Dodgers for the NL West lead but finished 16 games behind Los Angeles. The Diamondbacks, who lost 110 games in 2021, are just the third team in major league history to go from a 110-plus loss season to the playoffs within three years.

“It’s a first for a lot of people, not just our pitcher, and I think there’s just a certain readiness that they’ll all have because they’ve worked hard to get here,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “The team is extremely hungry, they have a lot to prove, they’re very connected, and we feel like we’re very dangerous.”

In getting swept by Houston to end the season, the Diamondbacks scored just two runs and were 1-for-20 with runners in scoring position. Arizona also used its two top starters, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, against Houston.

Milwaukee, appearing in the postseason for the fifth time in six seasons, was 27-13 over its final 40 games.

Catcher William Contreras brings an 18-game hitting streak into the playoffs. He hit .342 (52-for-152) with five homers, 11 doubles, 24 RBIs, 25 walks and 33 runs over his final 39 games.

Milwaukee improved its offense with the trade deadline acquisitions of Mark Canha and Carlos Santana. Canha’s 33 RBIs from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1 trailed only Contreras (34) for most on the team. Santana had 11 homers and 33 RBIs in 52 games after being acquired from Pittsburgh.

Outfielder Tyrone Taylor, injured much of the first half, hit .291 (23-for-79) over his final 23 games with five homers, nine doubles and 17 RBIs.

“These guys have done it for a lot of years, so adding them to our lineup, it lengthens it a bit,” said outfielder Christian Yelich. “I just feel like we have quality at-bats up and down the lineup and it puts a lot of pressure on people.”

Burnes was 1-1 with a 2.51 ERA in five starts in September, including three scoreless starts. In his final two outings, he scattered seven hits over nine scoreless innings.

Burnes struck out 200, the third consecutive season he reached that mark, and walked 66. Opponents are batting .200 against him, but just .183 in September.

Burnes is 2-1 in five career starts vs. Arizona, including 1-1 with 4.85 ERA in two games this season.

Pfaadt was 2-2 with a 4.32 ERA in five appearances in September, including four starts. In two of his last three starts, he did not allow a run.

In his last start, he allowed five hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking none in a crucial 3-0 win over the White Sox.

Arizona right fielder Corbin Carroll, the likely NL Rookie of the Year, had 25 homers and 76 RBIs, hitting .285.

–Field Level Media

MLB Postseason: Marlins at Phillies

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PHILADELPHIA – (Staff and Wire Service Report by Field Level Media) – If last year’s success was any indication of what the Philadelphia Phillies can do with a wild-card berth, the Miami Marlins could be in some serious trouble.

Philadelphia will look to replicate its playoff run from a season ago, and it will begin its journey on Tuesday when it hosts Miami in Game 1 of a best-of-three National League wild-card series.

The Phillies are coming off a 90-72 finish in the regular season that allowed them to lock down the NL’s top wild-card position after grabbing the third and final spot in 2022.

While it might not have been presented with the most favorable draw last year, Philadelphia thrived, going all the way to the World Series and coming within two wins of its first championship since 2008.

But what’s in the past is in the past, and the Phillies know they have to prove themselves once again.

“Nothing is going to be easy,” Philadelphia designated hitter Kyle Schwarber said. “They’re all really good teams in the postseason. Miami is a really good team. We’ve got to do what we do.”

Right-hander Zack Wheeler (13-6, 3.61 ERA) will look to help the Phillies get off to a fast start when he takes the mound for Game 1.

Wheeler made his final start of the regular season on Thursday, allowing one run on four hits in four innings to take a no-decision against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 22 career starts against the Marlins, Wheeler is 10-4 with a 2.48 ERA. He has never faced Miami in the postseason, where he has gone 1-3 with 2.78 ERA in six starts overall.

Left-hander Jesus Luzardo (10-9, 3.63) will get the start for the Marlins, who went 84-77 to grab the NL’s second wild card.

In his last outing of the regular season, Luzardo gave up one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings against the New York Mets on Thursday. He didn’t earn a decision, though, as the game was suspended in the ninth and never made up.

Luzardo is 3-0 with a 3.26 ERA in five career starts against the Phillies. He hasn’t faced Philadelphia in the playoffs, where he has struggled, going 0-1 with a 5.91 ERA in three appearances (two starts).

Miami finds itself in unfamiliar territory, as it heads to the playoffs in a regulation-length season for the first time since 2003 when they won the World Series as the Florida Marlins. The team didn’t return to the postseason until the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Although Miami will be thrown into a hostile environment right out of the gate, manager Skip Schumaker believes his team is ready for the challenge.

“This is one of the better places to play, just because the fans are so passionate,” Schumaker said of Philadelphia, where he faced the Phillies in the NL Division Series in 2011 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. “It’s a special place.

“If you don’t have a little bit of nerves, that means you don’t care. … I know that these guys are really excited, they’ll probably be a little bit nervous, and that’s OK, but I think there’s more excitement than nerves.”

Schumaker said second baseman Luis Arraez, the NL batting champion, should be good to go for Game 1 after being hampered by an ankle injury.

Arraez hit .354 during the regular season.

–Field Level Media

MLB: Positive Signs from Fans

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Major League Baseball attendance experienced its largest growth in 30 years in 2023, the league announced in a statement. Total attendance of 70,747,365 was up 9.6 percent over 2022 (64,556,636) and the average attendance of 29,295 was up 9.1 percent.

Seventeen of the 30 teams drew more than 2.5 million fans, matching the most in MLB history, and eight attracted more than 3 million.

Eleven weekends drew more than 1.5 million fans, compared to a total of five such weekends over the previous four full seasons (2018-19, 2021-22) combined.

Spectators also set streaming records this season with 12.7 billion minutes watched on MLB.TV, a 9 percent boost from last season’s total of 11.7 billion.

The number of users watching MLB.TV increased by 14 percent from 2022 and fans watched 17 percent more games than last season.

Factoring into the sport’s increased watchability was the marked decrease in the average length of the games, thanks in part to pitch clocks. Games in 2023 averaged 2 hours, 39 minutes and 49 seconds, the shortest since 1985 and a decrease of 24 minutes from last season. Only nine games lasted 3 1/2 hours or longer, down from 390 such games back in 2021.

–Field Level Media

Orioles Keep Eye on Playoffs

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As Red Sox and Orioles Close Out the Regular Season, Orioles Look Ahead and the Red Sox Look to Rebuild

BALTIMORE – The Baltimore Orioles have had a win mentality all season. They don’t want to back off during the last weekend of the regular season.

The Baltimore Orioles have had a win mentality all season. They don’t want to back off during the last weekend of the regular season.

“I still want to play well,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I want to play to win.”

The Orioles and visiting Boston Red Sox will meet in the third game of their four-game series on Saturday night.

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The Orioles (100-60) had won five in a row before losing 3-0 on Friday, a night after they clinched the American League East title with a 2-0 victory over the Red Sox.

“It was a big night for us (Thursday) night, and we just didn’t play our best baseball (on Friday), and those things happen,” Hyde said. “Hopefully, we’ll rebound and play a better game.”

Boston (77-83) ended a five-game skid on Friday.

“There’s a lot of good things that are happening in that clubhouse,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “They’re still playing hard.”

Boston’s offense still has holes. The Red Sox ended a 23-inning scoreless streak when Trevor Story hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning on Friday, but it still was far from an offensive outburst.

The Red Sox aren’t done learning about their personnel, even with just two games left in the season. That’s what was among the takeaways from seeing Nick Pivetta throw seven shutout innings and strike out 10 on Friday.

“It has been fun to watch,” Cora said. “He’s going to work hard in the offseason to keep getting better. He should be one of the guys next year when we talk about it.”

The Orioles have more pressing matters. Though they will have nearly a week off before opening the playoffs at home on Oct. 7, they want to start formalizing a plan, and that could dictate some moves this weekend.

“Nothing’s set in stone right now,” Hyde said. “We’re seeing who we’re playing (in the first postseason series), and we have some time.”

Hyde gave right fielder Anthony Santander the night off Friday, putting Heston Kjerstad in the lineup for his first start in the outfield.

“You’re going to see him play probably two, if not all three, of these games and give him the at-bats,” Hyde said. “I want to give him four or five at-bats a night if I can and see what he’s like against big-league pitching.”

Right-hander Kyle Gibson (15-9, 4.86 ERA), who already has a career-high win total, will be the Orioles’ starting pitcher on Saturday. Baltimore has won three of four September games pitched by Gibson, who is 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA in those contests. He faced the Red Sox in the season opener on March 30 and earned a win despite giving up four runs in five-plus innings.

Gibson will make his career-high 33rd start. He is 4-4 with a 3.72 ERA in nine career starts against Boston.

The Red Sox are set to give the ball to right-hander Kutter Crawford (6-8, 4.23), who has gone six consecutive outings without a victory. Boston went 1-5 in those games, while Crawford was 0-2 with a 6.26 ERA. Most recently, he yielded three runs in 5 1/3 innings during a 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.

Crawford surrendered 11 runs across 3 2/3 innings covering two appearances (one start) last year in his only career matchups with the Orioles.

Baltimore is 6-5 in September home games, dropping their season mark at Camden Yards to 48-31. The Orioles will have home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs.

–Field Level Media

Rays Hobble Into Fenway for Pair

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Tampa Bay Rays’ chances of an American League East championship are fading as their injury list grows ahead of Tuesday’s visit to Boston, the first of a two-game series against the division rival Red Sox.

With a wild-card spot already in hand, Tampa Bay (95-62) sits 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles in the East with a week of the regular season to play, but three more players were sidelined for at least part of this past weekend’s series at Toronto.

The Rays lost 9-5 in Sunday’s deciding game of the series – and lost All-Star first baseman Yandy Diaz due to right hamstring tightness in the second inning.

“It’s going to be very difficult (down the stretch),” infielder Isaac Paredes said through a translator. “We’ve lost a lot of key players and position players as well. I think we need to just make sure these young guys are going to do a good job of making up for it.”

Paredes hit his 30th home run of the season during the Sunday loss.

Outfielder Randy Arozarena (right quad tightness) and setup man Robert Stephenson (neck soreness) missed the entire weekend. And that was after center fielder Jose Siri and second baseman Brandon Lowe were among four additions to the injured list in a 12-day span.

“The expectation this year was to win at a high clip and put ourselves in position to get to the postseason,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “(But) if you would have told me in spring training that all of this stuff would have happened – the injuries and everything else – I probably would have been scratching my head a little bit.”

With Aaron Civale “under the weather,” according to Cash, the Tuesday pitching nod goes to fellow right-hander Zach Eflin (15-8, 3.44).

The 29-year-old Eflin struck out double-digit batters in two of his past six starts, including his Thursday outing against the Los Angeles Angels when he fanned 10 across five innings of two-run ball but did not factor into the decision. His two starts prior were victories.

Eflin has made three starts against Boston in his career, logging a 6.43 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 14 innings.

After consecutive one-run losses and not scoring more than three runs in all three weekend games against the Chicago White Sox, Boston (76-80) will counter with Tanner Houck (5-9, 4.92) in its penultimate home game of the season.

The 27-year-old righty allowed two runs in four innings Tuesday at Texas, breaking up a streak of three straight five-inning starts that included six shutout frames against the New York Yankees five days earlier.

Houck, Kutter Crawford and Garrett Whitlock are all essentially auditioning for a spot in the starting rotation to begin next season. Crawford struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings in Sunday’s rain-shortened loss.

“I think it applies to all (three),” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “I mean, you can always adjust to the other role. Right now, we don’t know (who will be starters in 2024). … And then at one point, somebody’s going to take over, and if we have to make adjustments, we will.”

Houck is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA in two career starts against Tampa Bay.

The Red Sox have also seen contributions from youngsters in the lineup in September, including the talented, versatile Ceddanne Rafaela and fellow rookie Wilyer Abreu, who hit his second career homer Sunday.

–Field Level Media

The Human Vacuum Cleaner Passes, 86

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BALTIMORE – (Staff and Wire Services) – Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles, the man they called the “Human Vacuum Cleaner” for his ability to gobble up tough ground balls at the “hot” corner of third base, died at the age of 86.

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The Associated Press called out Robinson’s “deft glove work and folksy manner (which) made him one of the most beloved and accomplished athletes in Baltimore (sports) history.

The Orioles announced his death in a joint statement with Robinson’s family Tuesday evening. The statement did not say how Robinson died.

Coming of age before the free agent era, Robinson spent his entire 23-year career with the Orioles. He almost single-handedly helped Baltimore defeat Cincinnati in the 1970 World Series and homered in Game 1 of the Orioles’ 1966 sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers for their first crown.

Robinson participated in 18 All-Star Games, won 16 consecutive Gold Gloves and earned the 1964 AL Most Valuable Player award after batting .318 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 118 RBIs.

White Sox Take Washed Out Finale

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Starting pitcher Mike Clevinger allowed two runs in six innings to help the visiting Chicago White Sox defeat the Boston Red Sox 3-2 Sunday in a game that ended after six innings because of rain.

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Clevinger (9-8) gave up five hits and didn’t walk or strike out a batter.

The White Sox (60-96) won two games in the three-game series. It was their first series victory since they took two out of three against the New York Yankees on Aug. 7-9.

The loss dropped the Red Sox (76-80) to 39-40 at home.

Boston starter Kutter Crawford (6-8) took the loss. He allowed three runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings. Crawford struck out seven and walked three.

Wilyer Abreu (No. 2) and Adam Duvall (No. 21) homered for the Red Sox. Abreu was in the starting lineup for the first time in a week after dealing with hand soreness. He hurt his left hand when he slammed into the outfield wall during last Sunday’s game in Toronto.

Abreu’s home run handed the Red Sox a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Chicago led 2-1 after scoring twice in the fifth. Gavin Sheets and Korey Lee each walked, then scored on an Elvis Andrus two-out double.

The White Sox stretched their advantage to 3-1 in the sixth, when Eloy Jimenez doubled, moved to third on an Andrew Vaughn single and scored on Gavin Sheets’ sacrifice fly.

Duvall’s home run trimmed Chicago’s lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth. The game entered a rain delay in the top of the seventh and was then ruled official because the forecast called for continued rain.