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Rays visit the Red Sox to begin 3-game series

Rays visit the Red Sox to begin 3-game series

Fox Sports4 hours ago

Associated Press
Tampa Bay Rays (35-30, second in the AL East) vs. Boston Red Sox (32-35, fourth in the AL East)
Boston; Monday, 7:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Rays: Shane Baz (5-3, 4.96 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 60 strikeouts); Red Sox: Brayan Bello (2-1, 3.91 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 33 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Red Sox -114, Rays -105; over/under is 9 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Boston Red Sox host the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday to begin a three-game series.
Boston has a 17-16 record at home and a 32-35 record overall. The Red Sox are 23-8 in games when they out-hit their opponents.
Tampa Bay has gone 12-10 in road games and 35-30 overall. The Rays have the seventh-ranked team slugging percentage in the AL at .394.
The matchup Monday is the fourth meeting between these teams this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Rafael Devers leads the Red Sox with 14 home runs while slugging .522. Ceddanne Rafaela is 14 for 41 with four home runs and six RBIs over the past 10 games.
Junior Caminero has 15 doubles and 15 home runs while hitting .262 for the Rays. Brandon Lowe is 9 for 41 with three doubles and three home runs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Sox: 5-5, .270 batting average, 4.95 ERA, outscored opponents by four runs
Rays: 7-3, .256 batting average, 3.03 ERA, outscored opponents by 28 runs
INJURIES: Red Sox: Josh Winckowski: 60-Day IL (elbow), Nick Burdi: 15-Day IL (knee), Justin Slaten: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Liam Hendriks: 15-Day IL (hip), Alex Bregman: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Triston Casas: 60-Day IL (knee), Masataka Yoshida: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Kutter Crawford: 60-Day IL (knee), Tanner Houck: 15-Day IL (flexor), Chris Murphy: 60-Day IL (elbow), Patrick Sandoval: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Rays: Jonny Deluca: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Ha-Seong Kim: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Hunter Bigge: 15-Day IL (lat), Shane McClanahan: 60-Day IL (tricep), Richie Palacios: 10-Day IL (knee), Alex Faedo: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nathan Lavender: 60-Day IL (elbow)
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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MLB Makes Historic Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers Announcement During Yankees-Red Sox
MLB Makes Historic Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers Announcement During Yankees-Red Sox

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  • Yahoo

MLB Makes Historic Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers Announcement During Yankees-Red Sox

MLB Makes Historic Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers Announcement During Yankees-Red Sox originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The New York Yankees rivalry with the Boston Red Sox runs as deep as any in the history of sports. A rivalry rooted in over 100 years of tension, stemming from the sale of one of the greatest baseball players to ever live, Babe Ruth. Advertisement The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has seen a plethora of Hall of Famers square off in some of the most heated battles in the history of Major League Baseball. And the latest iteration of this fierce matchup came and went this weekend, culminating in a Sunday Night Baseball showdown on ESPN. While the Red Sox were in town to take on the Yankees, most baseball fans filled Yankee Stadium to see one man, hit baseballs really far. That man is the reigning American League MVP, Aaron Judge. While the Yankees would lose this three-game series to the Red Sox, two games to one, Judge did not disappoint. In fact, both team's offenses came to play, as they combined to score 50 total runs during the series. On Sunday night, however, Judge, and Red Sox designated hitter, Rafael Devers, launched themselves into identical places in the history books of Yankees-Red Sox. Advertisement Judge hit two home runs during Sunday's 11-7 loss to the Red Sox, a two-run home run in the first inning and a solo home run during the ninth inning. Devers hit a solo shot as well during the ninth inning. Both ninth inning blasts were No. 30 for Judge and Devers against the opposing team. This made each man the second fastest players to reach this mark in the history of Yankees-Red Sox. MLB was quick to make the historic announcement. Judge reached this feat in 107 games, only exceeded by Ruth who did it in 95 games. Devers accomplished the same history in 113 games, only bested by Manny Ramirez who did it in 102 games. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) reacts after hitting a two-run home run against the Boston red Sox during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images Judge's two home runs (22 and 23) put him in second place in MLB, behind only Seattle Mariners catcher, Cal Raleigh (26). Devers' home run was No. 14 on the season, but he finds himself just ahead of Judge in RBIs this season at 57 as compared to Judge's 55. Advertisement Baseball fans won't have to wait long for the next chapter of Yankees-Red Sox. Their next series is scheduled to start on Friday, June 13. This is another three-game series being hosted by the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Related: MLB Makes Historical Home Run Announcement During Yankees-Orioles Related: MLB Reveals Surprise Favorite to Win 2025 American League MVP Award This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.

The 'Red Seat': How Weather Made Boston's Most Famous Home Run Possible
The 'Red Seat': How Weather Made Boston's Most Famous Home Run Possible

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  • Yahoo

The 'Red Seat': How Weather Made Boston's Most Famous Home Run Possible

If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. But that was never the case with Ted Williams, one of the best baseball players to ever step on a field. And on June 9, 1946, when Williams entered the batter's box for his first at-bat in the second game of a doubleheader, the Boston Red Sox left fielder hit a ball so far into the right-field bleachers at the then-34-year-old Fenway Park that there's still a red seat at the stadium today to commemorate the feat. The red seat is still there because nobody – not Mickey Mantle, David Ortiz or even Shohei Ohtani (yet) – has been able to hit a ball 502 feet at Fenway like Williams did on that famed June afternoon. They've tried. They sure have tried. None of those legends, living or departed, had the assist from weather that Williams had on June 9, 1946. "For me, Ted Williams is the second-greatest hitter of all time to Babe Ruth," said Tim Kurkjian, ESPN senior writer and analyst and the co-host of the "Is This A Great Game, Or What?" podcast. "If someone wants to put him first, you're not going to get a big argument from me." Williams was an imposing figure, 6-foot-3 and nearly impossible to fool at the plate. And when he connected with the baseball, it often went a long way. "Ted Williams was bigger and stronger than basically anyone that he played with or against at that time," said Kurkjian. "And that combination of power and strength, and understanding ... the art of hitting better than anyone who has ever played the game. There is no doubt that he hit a home run to that seat." (MORE: These May Be The 2025 NFL Games Most Impacted By Weather) In 19 seasons, Williams amassed a lifetime .344 batting average and had 2,654 hits, 521 of which were home runs. His career OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, which Kurkjian believes is the truest way to measure a player's offensive worth) exceeded that of every other single season played by every other Major League Baseball player in history until New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge topped it in 2024. "And this thought that he would not be a great hitter today just makes me laugh, and it makes me angry that people do not recognize what we saw from Ted Williams ... right from the day he started till the day he finished," Kurkjian added. "He was a great hitter on every level, and to me, again, the second-best hitter of all-time. And the best left fielder of all-time, period." A good baseball story isn't complete until it includes an element that is so of-the-era that it's almost unbelievable, but once you hear it, the story can't be told without including it. Enter Joseph Boucher, who was sitting in the right-field bleachers as the Red Sox did battle against the Detroit Tigers. The hometown Sox had already won Game 1 of the doubleheader 7-1, so spirits must have been high. And then, in the first inning of Game 2, Boucher – and his hat – became eternally linked to baseball history. For it was his head that the home run ball landed on, splitting a hole in the headgear he was sporting that day. "How far away must one sit to be safe in this park?" Boucher questioned in a Boston Globe article written the next day. And thus, because the ball landed somewhere, the home run could be measured. That's a rarity with historic home runs, because they often land outside the stadium and then the measurements become fuzzy or hotly debated for decades after. But this one landed in Seat 21, Row 37, Section 42. And in just his 48th game after resuming his Major League Baseball career following three years of service as a fighter pilot in World War II (he would later pause his baseball career for nearly two more seasons due to service in the Korean War), Williams entered the record books with a 502-foot homer that remains Fenway's longest, 113 years after the stadium opened. Two things were definitely true on June 9, 1946: One of the greatest hitters of all-time absolutely destroyed a baseball, and the weather conditions couldn't have been more perfect to launch a historic home run. "A cold front swept away the near 90-degree heat, severe thunderstorms and humidity from the previous day," said senior digital meteorologist Jon Erdman. "As is often the case in New England, strong winds lingered behind the front. "The setup couldn't have been better for a left-handed hitter, much less one of the all-time greats." According to observations from Logan Airport 5 miles to the northeast, west to northwest winds from 20 to 26 mph buffeted Fenway Park that afternoon during the doubleheader, Erdman added. And that meant the wind was blowing straight out to right field, making the day a left-handed pull hitter's dream. We don't have data on wind gusts, but it's fair to assume, given the front's passage, that gusts over 30 mph and perhaps even 40 mph likely occurred. "There were power losses throughout the day that day," said Alex Speier, a sports reporter with the Boston Globe. "There were reports of hospitals where babies were being delivered without power and where they were shining flashlights … in the delivery room. So there was an extreme weather circumstance that played into this." Greg Rybarczyk, a former Red Sox employee who launched Hit Tracker Online to more closely examine the physics of famous home runs, estimated in 2006 that the Williams home run was hit with a launch angle of 38.3 degrees and an exit velocity of 118.9 mph. A ball hit that high and hard with a strong wind immediately aiding its flight is bound to be historic. Ultimately, it's been determined that without these weather conditions in place, the homer wouldn't have traveled 500-plus feet. And in fact, because home runs are now measured by how far the ball would have traveled to the ground level (the seat where it landed was about 30 feet off the ground), Rybarczyk concluded the distance was actually 527 feet, which would make it one of the 10 longest home runs hit in MLB history. "There's no question that it would not have happened in April, May or September," said Bob Ryan, a retired Boston Globe sports columnist who covered the Red Sox for decades. "The ball carries very differently in Fenway according to the weather conditions." Even with all the technology advancements and players getting larger, one sentiment has been repeated for years by the game's best lefties: Hitting a ball to the red seat is impossible. And it's not really their fault. One key reason why it'll probably never happen again is that Fenway Park has grown up. As in, it has literally been built up in some areas. One such area is the press box and suites that were added behind home plate in recent decades. Those additions have blocked the jet stream that propelled balls over the right-field fence – or made them fly dozens of feet farther. "It really changed because I was taking batting practice and telling Walt Hriniak, our hitting coach, 'Man, I got all of that ball and it's not going to the warning track,'" said Wade Boggs, Baseball Hall of Famer and a member of the Red Sox from 1982 to 1992. "And it really changed my philosophy because I'm a tremendous wind player, especially in Fenway Park, because I can elevate the ball, get it up in the air, and it'll blow to the wall." More recently, when legendary Red Sox slugger David Ortiz took an aluminum bat out to batting practice with the goal of getting a ball to the red seat on the fly, the odds were stacked against him, and like so many before him, he landed short. "David Ortiz is, I think it's safe to say, very, profanely skeptical of the idea that anyone could hit a ball there," said Speier. "And the reason is that he never came close to hitting a ball there." But there was hope with Shohei Ohtani. After all, he was – and is – doing things that few players since Babe Ruth had done. And although he came closer than anyone else during a batting practice session, he still fell several rows short. Williams's historic home run has withstood the test of time at Fenway – different baseballs, the steroid era and everything else that the game of baseball has seen in the 79 years that have passed since that incredible day. "I am sure that every night, or every day, that some guy walks in with his 10-year-old for the first time and says, 'See that red seat out there? Well Ted Williams hit one out there.' You know that's happening. There's no question. And there's no other place where that's going to happen." But even with all the greatness of the Splendid Splinter, without weather, that red seat in the right-field bleachers would just be another green one.

When SailGP came to New York City: Spectators, ‘storytelling' and star-studded investors
When SailGP came to New York City: Spectators, ‘storytelling' and star-studded investors

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time3 hours ago

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When SailGP came to New York City: Spectators, ‘storytelling' and star-studded investors

In New York City, there is never any shortage of sports and entertainment options. This weekend alone, the New York Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd and more than 100,000 people attended the Governors Ball music festival. The battle for market share has rarely felt so fierce, yet a short ferry ride over the water to Governors Island and another live sports event was in demand: SailGP. Just under 10,000 people filled out a grandstand — at $85 (£63) per ticket for adults and $43 for kids — to watch a sport growing in appeal and increasingly marketed as the Formula One of the seas. Advertisement The product is increasingly straightforward: 12 nations compete in 12 destinations for $12.8 million worth of prize money across the season. They race in identical hydrofoil catamaran boats, which can go at speeds of over 60 miles per hour. During this weekend's event, racers navigated rainy conditions and choppy waters on the Hudson River, with the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty painting a picture-perfect backdrop. Spain took their second consecutive event win in the difficult conditions. After finishing the Fleet Races in third with 38 points, Los Gallos held off New Zealand and France to take home the victory in the three-boat final. 'Sailing used to be white triangles on a blue background way out at sea,' says Andy Thompson, SailGP's managing director. 'But that is very far from what SailGP is today. It's a racing property.' The past fortnight has offered further evidence that SailGP is captivating investors. First, the Italian team was acquired by the women-led investment firm Muse Capital at a valuation of $45 million in a consortium that includes the Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway. This represented considerable growth for teams that were selling for between $5m-10m only two years ago. The former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry has previously led a group which acquired the U.S. team for $35 million. In March, Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe bought into the France SailGP team. If we needed any more evidence that Sail GP is the en-vogue sporting investment, this came last week when Ryan Reynolds added to his growing sporting portfolio by teaming up with Hugh Jackman — yes, that's Deadpool and Wolverine — as the pair became controlling owners of the Australian SailGP team. The Aussies, who have now rebranded as the Bonds Flying Roos — yes, that's Bonds underwear as the title sponsor — won the first three Sail GP championships and were runners-up last season. Advertisement Their star sailor Tom Slingsby, an Olympic gold medallist and CEO of the Aussie SailGP team, says he became aware of visits to SailGP events by Reynolds' team at Maximum Effort, the production company and marketing agency founded by the actor ('maximum effort' being the catchphrase of Reynolds' movie Deadpool). Tentative discussions have already started about a possible docuseries, following on from Reynolds' investment in Welsh soccer club Wrexham and Colombian soccer team La Equidad. 'They bring star power,' Slingsby tells The Athletic. 'To have Deadpool and Wolverine, they're the 'it' people right now. They also bring an element of storytelling. We're seeing what Ryan's done with Wrexham. They're just going to be fun owners. Having chatted with Ryan, he is incredibly funny and he's going to fit really well with our team. 'Importantly, every discussion with them is, 'What do you guys need to do to be successful?'. Obviously there's talk of ways to promote our team in the league, but it all comes second to us being successful on the water. I was obviously pretty strong on us being athletes first, and if we can be entertaining for the public as well, that's great, but we want to win on the water.' The U.S. team's ownership group is similarly stacked with big-time investors and star names. Mike Buckley, the CEO and on-boat strategist for the U.S. team, says: 'We wanted the most diverse ownership group that we could possibly find. We want people who don't think like us and have different areas of expertise. 'I can pick up the phone and call Marc Lasry, who runs one of the most successful private equity firms in the world (Avenue Capital). He won the NBA championship and took the Bucks from the back to the front and the valuation from a few hundred million to three or four billion.' The U.S. ownership also features founding Uber engineer Ryan Mckillen and his wife Margaret, the Resy co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk, Hollywood actress Issa Rae, the NFL's DeAndre Hopkins and boxer Deontay Wilder. For sailors, SailGP provides game-changing security by providing year-round events beyond the America's Cup and Olympic Games. Advertisement 'Sailing used to jump on the radar every four years and then it just disappeared off the mainstream public's vision,' says Slingsby. 'After an Olympics, when you finish your event, you'd just be sitting there and there's no funding, you're out of a job for a while and you're waiting for the phone to ring. 'When I've been between Olympics, I've had other jobs — bartending and boat building, all sorts of things. You're doing anything you can to keep the money coming in. 'In 10 years, we'll definitely be seeing SailGP still here and racing in consistent events. It's going to be the backbone of sailing. It's five years old now, a lot of people were saying that it would be around for a year or two and disappear.' Founded by the billionaire Larry Ellison, the co-founder of tech firm Oracle, SailGP is discovering traction in what their executives describe as the crossover market between lifestyle and experiential sports. Slingsby notes there are markets such as New Zealand where the fandom is more intense, and athletes are approached at hotels and when out for dinner. SailGP's executive Thompson says the event's ratings 'regularly average around 20 million dedicated viewers around the world.' In the U.S., CBS and its Paramount+ streaming platform broadcast the event. Their highest-rated events — which bring in around 1.8 million viewers — have been intentionally scheduled to follow NFL games in order to capture audiences from America's most popular sport. SailGP's chief revenue officer Ben Johnson bristles at any suggestion sailing is a 'niche' sport, but the locations of some races — St. Tropez in France, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East, or Manhattan — do lend themselves to an exclusive in-person audience. The aim is a vast broadcast audience and a hot-ticket live event. Johnson says they are taking learnings from events such as the Kentucky Derby, or the Indy 500, as well as F1, and 'leagues who are moving from traditional sports operators to more sports entertainment and even just broadly entertainment properties.' By attracting celebrity investors (or employing DJ Khaled as the league's 'Chief Hype Officer'), SailGP want to make their events, much like F1, a place to see and be seen. Advertisement Johnson says: 'It is very intentional. There are brands like (European soccer champions) Paris Saint-Germain, where they are more of a lifestyle brand than they are a traditional sports team. They are a perfect example of where we see the opportunity in the global sports space. 'We don't need to be a season-ticketed event. We don't need local media rights to validate our audience growth or our revenue model. We think the demand right now from an experiential standpoint is the highest it's ever been and will continue to grow. So we're focused on new fanbases and inspiring the next generation of lifestyle sports fans. 'People (are) looking for social, communal, family-friendly, brand safe moments where they can bring people together. And I think we're the perfect backdrop for that. It's new, it's novel, fast, you know, all the things that you need to really capture people's attention.' Sponsors are certainly discovering the appeal. SailGP's title sponsor is Rolex, but across the league and teams there are now investments or partnerships from sovereign wealth funds, such as Mubadala Capital (of Abu Dhabi), as well as Emirates airline sponsoring the league and Red Bull partnering with the Italian team, while the U.S. team have sponsorships with Tommy Hilfiger, Amazon, and T-Mobile. The British team is title-sponsored by Emirates and has a partnership with JP Morgan, while Deutsche Bank sponsors the German side. 'I would expect next year you (will) see all the teams somewhere close to commercial profitability,' says Buckley. When asked about profitability, Johnson said SailGP does not disclose its financials, but it is 'ahead of our own internal targets.' The growing investment in the sport is also accompanied by increased jeopardy. Only Spain have won more than one event this season, which may be one of the advantages of sailors racing on identical boats — meaning winning and losing come down to conditions on the day and the performances and skill of those on board. That is not to say there have not been challenges. May's SailGP event was supposed to be held in Rio de Janeiro for the first time but it was cancelled after a defect was found in some of the fleet's wingsails. Australia's wingsail collapsed in San Francisco in a moment Slingsby called a 'scary situation.' The 12 boats were all back on the start line in New York. With 12 teams and money swishing around the sport, talk invariably turns to expansion. Russell Coutts, SailGP CEO and an Olympic gold medallist with New Zealand, has previously spoken about expanding the number of events per season to as high as 20 or 24. Plenty of nations remain untapped, notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which has poured money into sports elsewhere. Advertisement 'I think the demand right now exceeds 12 teams,' Johnson says. 'We have an opportunity for us to announce expansion teams, continue to look at markets that we think are really additive.' Buckley says 'balance' is key, concluding: 'There are plenty of countries out there that aren't represented currently in the league. It would be great for all of us.'

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