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Willson Contreras and Romy Gonzalez homered to back the superb pitching of Sonny Gray, who gave up one run and four hits in six innings of the Boston Red Sox’s 8-1 win over the Angels on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

Wilyer Abreu added a two-run double, and relievers Jovani Morán, Greg Weissert and Alec Gamboa combined for three hitless innings for the Red Sox (39-48), who have won seven of nine games. The Angels (36-54) have lost five straight and 11 of 17 since June 17.

Gray (10-1) induced two of Boston’s three double-play grounders, struck out seven and walked one. The 36-year-old right-hander has six straight quality starts since May 30, a stretch in which he’s gone 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA.

Though he leads the American League in wins and ranks second with a 2.61 ERA, Gray was not named to the AL All-Star team Saturday.

Angels starter Sam Aldegheri (3-4) walked two ahead of Contreras’ 19th homer, a 421-foot blast to left-center that gave Boston a 3-0 lead in the first.

Josh Lowe’s one-out homer pulled the Angels to within 3-1 in the second. Jo Adell walked, and Wade Meckler singled, but Gray struck out Donovan Walton and Tyler Heineman to escape the jam.

Aldegheri did not give up a hit in the second, third and fourth, but with his pitch count at 88, he was pulled in favor of left-hander Samy Natera Jr., who gave up one run in his first nine big-league games.

Anthony Seigler led off the fifth with a double, Ceddanne Rafaela walked, and Abreu slammed a two-run double off the right-field wall for a 5-1 lead.

Gonzalez, robbed of a potential first-inning homer when Adell made a leaping catch of his drive above the wall in right, followed with a towering, 368-foot fly that cleared the short left-field wall for his first homer of the season and a 7-1 lead. Rafaela’s RBI single in the eighth made it 8-1.

Up next: Red Sox LHP Ranger Suarez (4-3, 2.94 ERA) will oppose Angels RHP Ryan Johnson (1-3, 7.40) in Sunday night’s series finale.

Finn Russell will not feature in Scotland’s opening Nations Championship match of the summer series but could feature against South Africa, says head coach Gregor Townsend, who welcomes back Jonny Gray.

Fly-half Russell, 33, has not fully recovered from the calf injury that kept him out of the latter part of Bath’s domestic campaign and was not considered for the match at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Cordoba on Saturday (20:10 BST). The Scots face the Springboks in Pretoria on 11 July then Fiji at Murrayfield on 18 July.

Tom Jordan starts at 10 in Russell’s absence, with Fergus Burke among the replacements.

Gray returns against the Pumas, having missed this year’s Six Nations, while fellow lock Scott Cummings, 29, and prop Pierre Schoeman, 32, will win their 50th caps.

“Great for [Jonny Gray] to be back in the squad,” said Townsend. “Since his move to Perpignan, he’s played very well so his form’s been rewarded with this opportunity. It’s nice obviously nice that him and Scott Cummings are playing together.

“Jonny was at Glasgow when Scott came through as an 18-year-old. It will be great to see them both back int he second row again.”

Overall, the XV in Cordoba shows eight personnel changes to the team that finished the Six Nations with defeat to Ireland in Dublin in mid-March.

Full-back Kyle Rowe, centre Rory Hutchinson, wing Jamie Dobie, fly-half Tom Jordan, hooker George Turner, prop Elliot Millar-Mills and Cummings are the players joining Gray in coming in to the side.

Kyle Steyn moves from left to right wing to accommodate Dobie. Prop Zander Fagerson and wing Darcy Graham, who started in Dublin, drop to the bench.

Gregor Hiddleston could make his Scotland debut off the bench.

“We’ll have to gel quickly,” Townsend said.

“It’s our first game since we played in Dublin. We’ve got a lot of evidence in the Six Nations and November that when we get our game in place in attack and defence, we can cause problems to any team in world rugby and do more than that, convert opportunities.

“I believe that our squad now is much deeper and we use that bench to continue what the starters are doing or actually raise the energy.”

Scotland: Rowe, Steyn, Hutchinson, Tuipulotu (capt), Dobie, Jordan, White; Schoeman, Ashman, Millar-Mills, Gray, Cummings, M Fagerson, Darge, Dempsey.

Replacements: Hiddleston, Sutherland, Z Fagerson, Samuel, Brown, Horne, Burke, Graham.

Gray Atkins has made a return to EastEnders as Toby-Alexander Smith reprises his iconic villainous role. He was last seen in the Square back in 2022

Gray Atkins has made a return to EastEnders as Toby-Alexander Smith reprises his iconic villainous role.

The villain was last seen in Albert Square in 2022 when he was sent to prison for murdering Chantelle Atkins, Kush Kazemi and Tina Carter. The serial killer has not been seen since, with Toby-Alexander Smith now reprising his role for a short stint.

Speaking about his return, he said: “It’s been very surreal returning to EastEnders and stepping back into Gray’s shoes.

“He’s one of the most complex characters I’ve had the opportunity to play and revisiting him after several years has been an exciting challenge to get my teeth into. Exploring who Gray is now has been, fascinating, and I’m excited for the audience to see this version of him and watch the storyline play out.”

Gray is currently serving a life sentence in prison but needs the help of his grandmother Sheila (Sheila Ruskins) to get close to ex-wife Chelsea Fox after Jordan’s harrowing accident.

With motives still unclear, there’s trouble ahead but what does Gray want?