Latest news with #ALPlayeroftheWeek
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Red Sox lineup: Masataka Yoshida sits for third straight game with another lefty on mound
BOSTON — The Red Sox will face a left-handed starter for the third straight game Monday night. And for the third straight night, Masataka Yoshida is out of the lineup. Despite an insistence from manager Alex Cora that the club believes Yoshida can handle lefties, he's once again on the bench Monday as Boston begins a three-game series with the Royals. Lefty-mashers Romy Gonzalez (leading off, playing second base) and Rob Refsnyder (the designated hitter, batting fourth) are at the top of the lineup, as assumed. Roman Anthony is in right field and Jarren Duran is in left field with Wilyer Abreu the odd man out of the outfield picture. Yoshida has hit just .229 with a homer (off a position player), three doubles and a .614 OPS in 14 games since returning from the injured list. He has made three starts against southpaws and is 4-for-13 in a small sample. As expected, catcher Connor Wong will start again, marking the first time since early May he has caught two games in a row. Cora likes to line Wong up with righty Brayan Bello and that'll be the case again Monday with Carlos Narváez on the bench. Bello, who owns a 2.77 ERA in his last 12 games dating back to May 28, will try to set the tone for the Red Sox, who are looking for their sixth straight win. Boston, after sweeping the Astros over the weekend, is in sole possession of the top wild card spot in the American League and is three games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East race. The Royals, with trade addition Bailey Falter on the mound, are 3 ½ games out of a wild card spot at .500 (56-56). First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. ET. KANSAS CITY ROYALS (56-56) @ BOSTON RED SOX (62-51) · FENWAY PARK · BOSTON, MA · GAME 114 FIRST PITCH: 7:10 p.m. ET TV CHANNEL: NESN RADIO: WEEI 93.7 FM PITCHING PROBABLES: LHP Bailey Falter (7-5, 3.73 ERA) vs. RHP Brayan Bello (7-5, 3.19 ERA) RED SOX LINEUP: Gonzalez 2B, Bregman 3B, Anthony RF, Refsnyder DH, Story SS, Rafaela CF, Duran LF, Toro 1B, Wong C 1) 2B Romy Gonzalez 2) 3B Alex Bregman 3) RF Roman Anthony 4) DH Rob Refsnyder 5) SS Trevor Story 6) CF Ceddanne Rafaela 7) LF Jarren Duran 8) 1B Abraham Toro 9) C Connor Wong ROYALS LINEUP: 1) 2B Jonathan India 2) SS Bobby Witt Jr. 3) 1B Vinnie Pasquantino 4) 3B Maikel Garcia 5) C Salvador Perez 6) RF Mike Yastrzemski 7) DH Adam Frazier 8) LF John Rave 9) CF Kyle Isbel More Red Sox coverage Red Sox's Trevor Story named AL Player of the Week after hot streak Top Red Sox pitching prospect stays on fast track, promoted to Triple-A in first pro season Red Sox asked for too much, got 'crickets' at trade deadline (report) Social media had Joe Ryan believing he was traded to Red Sox Red Sox starter hates mornings but wasn't 'horribly groggy' before gem Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Red Sox' Alex Cora gives positive update on Roman Anthony's back injury after lineup scratch
BOSTON — The Red Sox don't expect Roman Anthony to play Tuesday night against the Royals, but that doesn't mean the rookie is expected to miss much time with the back injury that caused him to be pulled from the lineup just minutes before first pitch Monday. Anthony, who was scratched and replaced by Wilyer Abreu shortly before the start of an 8-5 Red Sox win, will once again be held out Tuesday but could return as soon as Wednesday in the series finale against Kansas City. He's day-to-day with what the Red Sox are calling 'mid-back tightness' and, as of now, not a candidate to be placed on the injured list. 'Tight back,' said manager Alex Cora. 'I'll stay away from him tomorrow... He'll be OK to play tomorrow but he took today and I'll give him tomorrow, too.' Anthony played all 28 innings of Boston's weekend sweep over the Astros with no issue and felt 100% throughout the day Monday. Things changed as he went through pregame drills on the foul line Monday. Anthony described the discomfort as 'super sudden.' NESN cameras caught Anthony wincing and grabbing at his back during pregame warm-ups. 'Everything felt normal all day and I felt something as I was stretching on the line,' he said. 'Just figured we'd be cautious with it and was super uncomfortable. I relayed that quickly and we decided we were going to shut it down.' Anthony was upbeat about his prognosis after the game. The Red Sox play twice more against the Royals at home before having Thursday off ahead of a two-city, six-game road trip to San Diego and Houston. 'I'll get with the training staff and figure that out, but I'm already definitely trending in the right direction and feeling better than it was earlier,' Anthony said. In Anthony's place, Abreu got a rare start against a left-hander in new Royals starter Bailey Falter. Taking the third spot in the lineup after Anthony was scratched, Abreu went 2-for-3 with a walk and RBI single while making a clutch throw to prevent the Royals from getting within two runs when he gunned down Nick Loftin trying to score on a Bobby Witt Jr. single in the eighth. 'Credit to Willy for having my back there and coming in and doing what he did,' Anthony said. More Red Sox coverage Red Sox outfielder has big game after finding out he was in lineup 'two minutes' before first pitch Red Sox reactions: Another big inning leads to Boston's sixth straight win; Brayan Bello sharp Roman Anthony scratched from Red Sox lineup due to mid-back tightness Liam Hendriks clears the air on injury — and 'frustrating' season with Red Sox Red Sox's Trevor Story named AL Player of the Week after hot streak Read the original article on MassLive.
San Francisco Chronicle
29-07-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Oh, my God, he did it again!' How A's rookie Nick Kurtz's historic night rocked baseball
WEST SACRAMENTO — In the 66th game of his big-league career, Nick Kurtz went 6-for-6. He hammered four homers. He drove in eight runs, scored six and collected a crazy 19 total bases, tying the all-time record. He's 22 years old, and the Sacramento A's first baseman is the first rookie to homer four times in one game. 'Every at-bat, I did something that I didn't expect to do, and then it just kept happening,' Kurtz said. ''Awe-inspiring' is the word that comes to mind,' A's DH Brent Rooker said of Kurtz's outrageous game Friday at Houston. 'The conversation in the dugout was like, 'It doesn't look like he's playing the same game as the rest of us are right now.' 'He's making it look so easy, and that night, those were quality pitches, guys weren't missing spots. It was amazing. It was impressive. Without a doubt, one of the greatest games in history.' Kurtz's extraordinary season is best measured by the Hall of Famers he's now connected to in the record books. For instance, his 43 extra-base hits in his first 67 games are second most after Joe DiMaggio's 48. The only other A's player with five or more hits in a game with three or more homers was Jimmie Foxx in 1932. Only 20 players have hit four homers in a game. Only nine have scored six runs in a game. Kurtz's Friday output is in the conversation for the best game ever by a hitter, along with Shawn Green's 6-for-6, four-homer game on May 23, 2002, and Shohei Ohtani's 6-for-6 game in September when he reached 50-50 in home runs and stolen bases for the season. 'Having a day like that that not many people have ever done, It's incredible,' said A's and former Giants catcher Austin Wynns. 'That's why it's history. History.' The Baseball Hall of Fame called and requested Kurtz's bat, which he was thrilled to donate. 'It's nuts,' Kurtz said. 'You'd never think about even saying the words 'Hall of Fame' in your rookie year. It's unbelievable.' All of baseball was abuzz Friday as Kurtz was piling up hits and homers, and his friends and family were locked in on every at-bat. Bill Cilento, Kurtz's college hitting coach, and Neil Avent, the scout who signed him, were texting each other throughout, and by the end of the night, Avent said, another A's scout, Rich Sparks, was relaying him real-time information by phone. 'He said, 'Nick's got a chance to hit four! ' and was telling me pitch by pitch what was happening,' said Avent, who was busy scouting the Cape Cod League. 'Then Sparksy said, 'Oh, my God, he did it again! '' By that point, Cilento, driving back to North Carolina from a recruiting event in Atlanta, was listening and watching on his phone as he drove, a no-no he'd never have contemplated except for the magnitude of the event. He wound up not seeing much anyway. 'My phone was just blowing up,' he said. Kurtz has won AL Player of the Week honors each of the past two weeks, he's likely to be the Player of the Month, and he's vaulted ahead of his teammate, All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson, in the race for Rookie of the Year. 'We've talked about 'What if it's me? What if it's you? ' and we're just glad it's an A's player,' Kurtz said. 'It's a great thing for the franchise as a whole to have someone win that award. It's really cool. Either one of us (winning) is great and we'll be happy for each other.' Scouts rave about Kurtz's advanced approach at the plate, especially for a player drafted just a year ago, but the A's knew what they had; assistant general manager Billy Owens was telling people before this season that Kurtz would be the best player on the roster by August. Last July, the A's had Kurtz listed as the best player available, period, and were thrilled they could snare him with the fourth pick overall. 'There was almost nobody in our room that didn't agree this was the top guy on the board, and it started in January, before our draft meetings,' A's general manager David Forst said. 'We were all pretty bummed we didn't have the first pick, but we went around the room and said, 'If we did have the first pick, who would it be? ' And it was pretty much Nick.' Kurtz is from Lancaster, Pa., which is why he's known as 'Big Amish,' a nickname Max Schuemann gave him. 'With any nickname, you've got to lean into it,' said Kurtz, who started celebrating extra-base hits with a butter-churn motion — which meant an awful lot of churning Friday night. (He has actually churned butter, on a school trip. 'It's hard work,' he said.) He moved from Amish Country to Tennessee for his final two years of high school and then to North Carolina for college, playing at Wake Forest, a school with a strong program and an advanced sports lab, especially for baseball. Asked about Kurtz's quick adjustment to the big leagues less than a year after the draft, A's manager Mark Kotsay said, 'I think some of it has to do with his coaching at Wake; he really knows what he wants to do at the plate. He has an approach that he sticks with. 'He makes adjustments, pitch to pitch, and when you can do that and you're 22 years old, it's pretty special. The guys that I played with in my career that were able to do that are all Hall of Famers. Not to put Nick in that category yet, but he understands what a pitcher is trying to do to him.' A moment later, Kotsay dropped another Hall of Fame reference when asked whom Kurtz reminds him of. 'I mean, Jim Thome,' Kotsay said. 'Nick's that kind of a slugger, someone who can hit the ball to all parts of the field, but then take a walk or hit a line drive to left, and Thome could do that really, really well.' Perhaps the most surprising part of Kurtz's back story is that when he was in high school, he was a promising left-handed pitcher. At 6-foot-5, he also was an accomplished basketball player. Wake Forest was recruiting Kurtz as a pitcher when one day, Cilento got a call from Kurtz's father, Jeff, saying Kurtz had decided to focus just on hitting. 'I'll never forget it, I was at the beach with my family and Jeff called and said, 'Hey, I think we're going to put pitching down. If you guys don't want to recruit Nick now, we'll understand,'' Cilento said. 'But of course, we were all in at that point.' Kurtz had power already, but was a little prone to strikeouts. 'He had some swing-and-miss. We'd be telling tales if we said we knew what he was going to be today,' Cilento said. 'But even then, he always made good swing decisions, and what he did at Wake was to really hone his approach, figuring out that what he did really well was hitting to all fields. And he's always been completely unselfish. He'll take his walks, he'll move runners over. He never wants it to be about him.' Cilento takes no credit for Kurtz's hitting prowess, saying the A's suggestion that he move his hands out away from his body a bit had made the biggest difference. 'That gives him the space to do what he does,' Cilento said. The swing itself blows the A's veteran hitters away. 'Every kid can look at the highlights and see how everything is perfectly stacked,' Wynns said. 'Great position, good gather, smooth and just powerful.' 'He's hitting back-side homers at 108 mph, which is not a normal thing to do,' Rooker said. 'There are a handful of guys in the league that can do that. (Friday), he takes 97 at the top of the zone pull-side for a homer, then takes a splitter just off the plate away back-side for a homer. In the same game. Incredibly impressive.' Even more eye-popping, Rooker said, was Kurtz's walk-off homer off a slider from Houston's Josh Hader last month in Sacramento. 'No one hits that pitch from Hader,' Rooker said. 'He's made his whole living throwing that pitch. Nick hit it off the batter's eye in center. That's when I was like, 'OK, this kid might be different.'' With Kurtz, Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers and Lawrence Butler, the A's have one of the best young groups of position players in the game. If they get some decent pitching, they could soon be back in one of their three- to four-year stretches of contention. 'These guys are superstars,' said Rooker, himself a two-time All-Star. 'The base is here for a very good team. These guys are all significantly better players than I am, and they're going to have better careers than I am.' 'I really like the group we have right now,' Forst said. 'Obviously, it's very position-player heavy, but it's a group that we've drafted and developed ourselves, which everybody here is taking a lot of pride in, and I think this is the foundation for the next playoff team. We still have a lot of work to do to get there, but there's a lot of optimism.'
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
CONFIRMED: Rafael Devers and Freddie Freeman become MLB Players of the Week
CONFIRMED: Rafael Devers and Freddie Freeman become MLB Players of the Week (Image Source: Getty) The MLB Players of the Week results are out, and it is quite shocking, as one of the players was the center of controversy this week. However, the results clearly indicate that the honors are given based on how the players have performed and not on the basis of the controversies they were a part of. Who won the Players of the Week? It's none other than Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox and Freddie Freeman from the Los Angeles Dodgers . Rafael Devers' performance this week Despite being a part of the recent controversy related to switching positions in the team, Devers has managed to keep his performance intact, which showed when MLB announced him as the AL Player of the Week. In the past week alone, Devers went 10-21, hit 2 home runs, 8 RBIs, and managed to up his OPS to 1.386. Devers currently plays as the designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox and has managed to perform far better than when he was playing third base. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Cinnamon: The Hidden Blood Sugar Enemy? Try This Tonight! Cinnamon Help Learn More Undo The past 15 games, when Devers was dealing with off-field drama, he managed to score 5 home runs, 5 doubles, 17 RBI, and had 1.277 OPS. His batting average went to .424, and he's currently in the same hitting zone. Freddie Freeman as the NL Player of the Week Freddie Freeman managed to take the NL Player of the Week title through his brilliant on-field performance. In the past week, Freeman went 14-28, scored 3 home runs, 12 RBIs, and had a 1.500 OPS, which is quite remarkable. His performance on the Mother's day was exceptionally well, as he went 4-for-4, with 2 doubles, and a home run, which increased his batting average to .376. His OPS till May 11, 2025 was 1.171, which helped increase his weekly OPS. What's remarkable about the Dodgers' star player is that, despite playing for 16 seasons in MLB, he is one of the strongest and most reliable player of his team. Moreover, his dedication towards the game can be clearly seen through the way he performs directly after getting physiotherapy for his injured ankle. The Players of the Week announcement by MLB made it clear that it keeps players' performances above all controversies and knows how to honor the best ones in the field. Also Read: 'He's probably the best DH' - Red Sox manager Alex Cora praises Rafael Devers amidst 1B controversy in franchise
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rafael Devers named AL Player of the Week amid first base drama
Rafael Devers named AL Player of the Week amid first base drama originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston Boston Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers' wild week ended with a reminder that he remains one of MLB's premier sluggers. Advertisement On Monday, Devers was named the American League Player of the Week. The three-time All-Star has gone 10-for-21 at the plate with two home runs, eight RBI, and a 1.386 OPS over the last seven days. Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman earned the honor in the National League. Devers capped off his red-hot week by going 6-for-7 with a homer and five RBI over the last two games of Boston's series in Kansas City. That Royals series started with Devers making headlines for his words rather than his bat. After the team's series finale against Texas at Fenway Park, the 28-year-old called out the Red Sox front office for asking him to move to first base in the wake of Triston Casas' season-ending injury. His comments prompted team owner John Henry and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to travel to Kansas City to meet with their disgruntled star. Advertisement While the plan is to keep Devers at DH for the foreseeable future, Breslow and manager Alex Cora have left the door open for Devers to make the switch. The club has yet to find a permanent solution for the void at first base. After taking two out of three against the Royals, the Red Sox will begin a three-game set in Detroit on Monday night.
