Taylor Ward hit a game-ending three-run homer in the ninth inning, Zach Neto had a home run and three RBIs and the Angels beat the Chicago White Sox 8-5 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
In a tie game, Nolan Schanuel doubled with one out in the ninth before Mike Trout was walked intentionally. Ward went deep against left-hander Tyler Alexander (4-10) to set a career high with 26 home runs.
Taylor Ward has his fourth career walk-off and third career walk-off homer.
Right-hander Kenley Jansen (4-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Angels (54-58).
Colson Montgomery hit a three-run home run and drove in four runs for the White Sox. They lost for just the third time in their last 12 road games.
The White Sox (42-70) took a 4-0 lead in the first inning when Robert had an RBI single and Montgomery followed with a three-run home run against Jack Kochanowicz.
Chicago made it 5-0 in the third on Montgomery’s RBI single.
The Angels started their rally in the sixth with a leadoff home from Neto. Ward had an RBI single, and Trout scored on a wild pitch. The Angels tied it in the seventh on a two-run double from Neto.
Key moment: The White Sox brought in the lefty Alexander to face left-handed hitting Schanuel in the ninth and his second hit of the game was a double to right to start the decisive rally.
Key stat: Montgomery played in his 24th career game since his debut July 4, with all seven of his home runs coming over his past 10 games.
Up next: Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi (4-7, 3.30) is scheduled to start at home against Tampa Bay on Monday.
Aaron Civale pitched one-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 1-0 on Saturday night to surpass their win total from last season.
Chicago improved to 42-69 with its 10th win in 14 games since the All-Star break. It finished with a 41-121 record in 2024, breaking the modern major league record for most losses in a season.
The White Sox scored their only run on Kyle Teel’s RBI single in the second against Kyle Hendricks (6-8). Teel drove in Luis Robert Jr., who reached on a leadoff single.
Civale (3-6) struck out eight in 6⅓ innings. He is 2-0 in his last three starts, yielding an unearned run and seven hits in 17⅓ innings.
The Angels (53-58) got their only hit when Zach Neto beat out a slow roller down the third base line leading off the fourth. It was the team’s third consecutive loss. Nolan Schanuel walked after Neto’s hit. But Civale retired the next three batters.
Mike Trout sat out a second straight game after he missed Friday’s series opener with illness.
Brandon Eisert retired each of his five batters, and Jordan Leasure finished the one-hitter for his third save in seven opportunities.
Brooks Baldwin had two of Chicago’s six hits.
The White Sox (42-69) played without infielder Miguel Vargas, who was scratched because of a left oblique strain.
Andrew Benintendi had a double and a home run, Lenyn Sosa also homered among his two hits, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 6-3 on Friday night.
White Sox starter Shane Smith gave up two runs and two hits while striking out four over 4⅓ innings in his first start since July 11 following a stint on the 15-day injured list. Jordan Leasure (4-6) earned the win in relief, striking out four in 1⅔ innings.
Benintendi and Sosa each hit solo home runs in the second inning off Angels starter Tyler Anderson (2-7), and Luis Robert Jr. had a sacrifice fly drove Miguel Vargas home in the fourth inning to make it 3-0.
Gustavo Campero‘s second home run of the year, a two-run blast to deep center field in the fifth, got the Angels within one, but Colson Montgomery answered with a deep homer of his own in the sixth inning.
Campero’s baserunning error prevented the game-tying run from scoring in the seventh, ending what was a bases-loaded, one-out threat for the Angels.
Logan O’Hoppe scored on Zach Neto‘s sacrifice fly to bring the Angels within one again, and Nolan Schanuel appeared to drive in Travis D’Arnaud with a two-out single, but Campero was thrown out at third prior to d’Arnaud crossing the plate.
Sosa had an RBI single in the eighth and Josh Rojas added a solo homer in the ninth.
Steven Wilson got the last six outs for his second save of the year for Chicago (41-69).
Mike Trout did not play for the Angels (53-57) because of illness.
Montgomery continued his second-half tear with a solo home run, which represented his 18th RBI since the All-Star break. He is now tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the most RBIs since the break.
The Philadephia Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox after a catcher interference ruling with the bases loaded – a way of winning a game not seen in the major leagues since 1971.
With the scores level in the borrom of the 10th inning, Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez was deemed to have interfered with the swing of Phillies batter Edmundo Sosa – sending him to first base and “walking in” a walk-off run as the baserunners all advanced.
Landon Hodge, the Mission League player of the year from Crespi, was selected with the first pick of the fourth round by the Chicago White Sox in Monday’s MLB amateur draft. The catcher is an LSU commit.
Day 2 involved rounds four through 20. Pitcher Riley Kelly from Tustin High and UC Irvine went to the Rockies with the 107th pick. Shortstop Colin Yeaman from Saugus and UC Irvine was a fourth-round pick (No. 124) of the Orioles. Pitcher Sean Youngerman, who attended Chaminade, Westmont College and Oklahoma State, went to the Phillies at No. 131.
Outfielder Josiah Hartshorn from Orange Lutheran went to the Cubs in the sixth round (No. 181). USC pitcher Caden Hunter was a sixth-round pick (No. 184) by the Orioles.
In the eighth round (No. 237), Tampa Bay took former Burroughs and Fresno State pitcher Aidan Cremarosa. Outfielder Nick Dumesnil from Huntington Beach and Cal Baptist went to the Tigers are No. 249.
In the ninth round (No. 279), the Tigers selected pitcher Trevor Heishman, who helped St. John Bosco win the Southern Section Division 1 title.
When Clayton Kershaw made his major league debut as a gangly 20-year-old with a devastating curveball, he was considered a one-in-a-million talent.
On Wednesday he entered a much smaller club, becoming the 20th pitcher in history to strike out 3,000 batters. The milestone came in the sixth inning on his 100th pitch of the night, a 1-and-2 slider the Chicago White Sox’s Vinny Capra took for a called strike.
Kershaw then walked off the mound alone with his thoughts before being mobbed by his teammates on the warning track in front of the dugout. The Dodgers marked the moment with a video of his considerable career highlights on the video boards above the outfield pavilions.
An hour later the Dodgers had even more to celebrate when Freddie Freeman’s two-out RBI single capped a three-run ninth-inning rally in a walk-off 5-4 win.
“It’s the last box for Clayton to check in his tremendous career,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who doubted many more pitchers will ever join the 3K club.
“You’ve got to stay healthy, you’ve got to be good early in your career, you’ve got to be good for a long time,” he said. “I’m a fan first and I’ve kind of appreciated longevity and moments like that, as opposed to one moment in time. The consistency is something that should be valued.”
Roberts said before the game he would manage differently as Kershaw approached the milestone and he did, allowing him to start the sixth inning despite having made 92 pitches, the most he’s thrown in a game in more than two years.
He would need just eight more. Capra was the 27th batter Kershaw faced and the 15th he took to a two-strike count.
“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” Kershaw said. “I never really did that before.”
But he could sense the sellout crowd of 53,536 pulling for him every time he got close.
“They wanted it for me so bad,” he said. “And strikeouts tonight, I didn’t really do my part. But you could feel the tension and the fans. They were trying to will me to do it.”
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The Dodgers entered the ninth trailing 4-2 but loaded the bases with no outs on a single by Michael Conforto and walks to Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim.
Shohei Ohtani drove in one run on a ground ball to second, hustling up the line to avoid the double play. Mookie Betts followed with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left-center to score Edman with the tying run.
Ohtani then stole second, scoring two batters later on Freeman’s single to right.
That kept Kershaw, who gave up a season-high nine hits, from taking his first loss of the season. But the Dodgers may have suffered an even bigger loss on the first pitch of the Capra at-bat when Chicago’s Michael Taylor slid hard into Max Muncy on an unsuccessful attempt to steal third.
Muncy, who hit a team-high .333 in June, writhed on the ground before being helped off the field, favoring his left knee. His condition was not immediately known.
Roberts said Muncy will undergo an MRI exam on Thursday but added “that we feel optimistic and our hope is that it’s a sprain.”
Taylor also left the game with a left shoulder bruise.
Nearly three hours earlier Kershaw had been greeted by a loud ovation when he stepped onto the field to stretch about 40 minutes before game time. But the loudest roar — aside the one for the record strikeout — came when Kershaw bounded out of the dugout to start the sixth.
“The energy in the crowd definitely palpable,” he said. “That ovation was something that I’ll never forget, for sure. And then the toast after the game with everybody. I’ll remember those things.”
The White Sox, meanwhile, wanted no part of the party. They forced Kershaw to labor through a 29-pitch first inning in which he faced six hitters, giving up a run and three hits. And it could have been worse, with a leaping Conforto robbing Lenyn Sosa of a three-run home run at the bullpen gate in left field for the final out.
Strikeout No. 3,000!
Clayton Kershaw becomes the 20th pitcher in Major League Baseball history to record 3,000 career strikeouts. pic.twitter.com/mD7tM1POJC
Will Smith, announced as an All-Star starter along with Freeman and Ohtani earlier in the day, got that run back with two out in the bottom of the first, lining a full-count pitch into the left-field bleachers. White Sox opener Brandon Eisert did not return for the second inning and Andy Pages greeted his replacement rudely, driving Sean Burke’s first pitch over the wall in center for his 17th homer.
The Dodgers’ lead was short-lived, however, with Chase Meidroth opening the Chicago third with a single, then trotting home on Austin Slater’s two-run homer. Chicago added another run later in the inning on a one-out double from Andrew Benintendi and an RBI single from Edgar Quero.
Kershaw and the Dodgers, however, endured and at the end of the night the team had a win and the pitcher had joined an exclusive club.
“It’s an incredible list,” Kershaw said. “I’m super, super grateful to be a part of it.”
Etc.
Before Wednesday’s game, pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen threw to hitters for the first time since going on the injured list in April. Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, went on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation April 6 while Treinen has been sidelined because of forearm tightness since April 19. “They’ll go again in a couple days,” Roberts said. “But both guys looked really good.” Right-hander Tyler Glasnow, also out since April because of shoulder inflammation, is scheduled to make his third minor league rehab start for Oklahoma City on Thursday.
Staff writer Ira Gorawara contributed to this report.
Dave Roberts had some goals in mind for starting pitcher Dustin May on Thursday. And they had little to do with the final result.
“The first thing is his ability to go deeper in games,” the Dodger manager said. “The sweeper has got to be a more effective pitch. His sinker has got to be more effective.
“I know he’s working through some delivery things with the pitching coaches. I’m kind waiting to see what to expect tonight.”
May would give Roberts far more than he asked for, setting down the first 16 batters in order and pitching into the eighth inning for the first time in his career in a 6-2 win over the Chicago White Sox.
The win was the Dodgers’ fourth in a row and ninth in their last 10 games.
The start was May’s 16th of the season and the seven innings he threw gave him 89.2 for the year, both career highs. Consistency, however, has been an issue. He won just once in June, when his 5.67 ERA was highest among Dodger starters.
His first start in July was a different story, with May (5-5) giving up just two hits and striking out nine — one shy of his career high — in seven shutout innings before tiring in the eighth.
The Dodgers needed just three batters to give the right-hander the lead with Shohei Ohtani drawing a lead-off walk, then scoring on Freddie Freeman’s one-out double into the right-field corner.
Freeman padded that lead in the third, going the other way and looping a two-run double into the left-field corner. It was Freeman’s first three-RBI game in nearly two months. When Michael Conforto followed two batters later with a two-run homer, it was 5-0 Dodgers.
And the lead could have been larger: Freeman lost a homer of his own in his next at-bat when Chicago right fielder Michael Tauchman reached a couple of rows into the right-field bleachers near the foul pole to bring his fifth-inning drive back.
Mookie Betts closed the Dodgers’ scoring with a one-out solo homer in the seventh, just his second since May 19.
May, meanwhile, was cruising, talking a perfect game into the sixth before Brooks Baldwin singled sharply to right. He took a shutout into the eighth before Baldwin ended that, too, with a two-run homer.
May got help from a couple of sterling defensive plays, with Conforto taking a hit away from Miguel Vargas with a sliding catch in left to the start the fifth and Freeman diving to his right to stab Josh Rojas’ low line drive to start the sixth.
Relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates followed May to the mound, throwing a hitless inning apiece to close out the win.
For the Chicago White Sox, it was not a question of whether Shane Smith was the best pitcher they had to offer against the Dodgers — he was very likely their best.
Among White Sox pitchers with 10 or more starts, the rookie right-hander had the best strikeout-per-nine inning rate (8.2), as well as the lowest earned-run average (3.38) entering the game. Smith had been respectably good on a young White Sox roster that has been anything but.
Yet, Smith couldn’t make up the gulf in quality between the best-in-the-National-League Dodgers (54-32) and the worst-in-the-American-League White Sox (28-57). The Dodgers would make sure of that in quick fashion. A four-run, two-out rally in the first inning separated the teams quickly in a 6-1 victory to begin the six-game homestand.
“I think we’re really pitching well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re getting a lot of contributions from guys in the middle to the bottom of the order which is huge. We’re getting timely hits.”
“Obviously, that gauntlet of going through 26 games of some really good opponents record-wise, getting through that, not letting down, staying on the gas — I think that’s good, and finishing strong going into the break.”
Whereas Smith was chased from the game in the fifth inning, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was excellent again. A week after being pulled after five innings in Denver — because of a lengthy rain delay — Roberts called on the sure-to-be All-Star to pitch with an extended leash.
Yamamoto gave up one run, a two-out RBI double to Lenyn Sosa in the fourth inning, but twirled his way through an otherwise overmatched White Sox lineup, retiring the final 10 batters he faced. The right-hander tossed seven innings, gave up one run and three hits, while striking out eight, walking one and bringing his earned-run average down to 2.51.
“Any given night, a big league team can get you,” Roberts said, “and I was just happy that he was still aggressive and using the split, putting hitters away, but he’s doing what he needs to do.”
Across his last 12 innings, Yamamoto has given up just four hits.
Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after hitting his 30th homer of the season.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“I think I’m pitching with really good form,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter after the game. “I think it’s becoming very clear what I have to do.”
White Sox first baseman Miguel Vargas — the former Dodgers top prospect who the franchise parted ways with at the 2024 trade deadline in exchange for Michael Kopech and Tommy Edman — represented the heart of the Chicago lineup, batting cleanup with his .229 batting average and 10 home runs entering the game.
Vargas, who failed to bring the power in an 0-for-4 effort, received a 2024 World Series ring from Roberts and general manager Brandon Gomes during pregame batting practice. Yamamoto set him down his first three times at the plate Tuesday.
“Yoshinobu did spectacular work today,” Shohei Ohtani told NHK, a Japanese television station, after the game.
Of more promising White Sox prospects, rookie Chase Meidroth faced a potential NL Cy Young award candidate. In the third inning, Yamamoto struck out Meidroth with a three-pitch combo: 95-mph fastball on the edge of the strike zone, a 92-mph cutter on the outside corner and a splitter down and in, forcing a swing more than a foot above where the pitch landed.
Andy Pages struck two run-scoring hits — a double and a single — en route to a two-for-four day at the plate. The 24-year-old Cuban slugger sits in sixth in the most recent NL All-Star outfielder voting, and ended Tuesday with a .294 batting average and 57 RBIs, the latter statistic being the best on the Dodgers.
“He’s earned it,” Michael Conforto, who struck the two-RBI single that capped off the four-run first, said of Pages’ All-Star candidacy. “What you may or may not see is just how hard he works… really just doesn’t seem to take days off.”
Ohtani, who was not a part of the Dodgers’ hit parade that led to their first five runs across three innings, joined the run-scoring effort in the fourth with a no-doubt solo home run — 408 feet and 116.3 mph, halfway up the right-field pavilion — off of Smith, his 30th this season. As fireworks unexpectedly shot up from the Dodger Stadium parking lot during the ninth inning — it was a reminder that Wednesday could bring fireworks on the field as Clayton Kershaw takes the mound three strikeouts away from being the 20th MLB player to reach the 3,000-strikeout milestone.
Etc.
Kopech returned to the 15-day injured list — of which he recently returned from on June 7 — with right-knee inflammation. He said before Tuesday’s game that he wasn’t sure what caused the injury, and would characterize the ailment as discomfort rather than pain.
Roberts said there isn’t a timeline for Kopech’s return, but said it was a short-term issue. The 29-year-old, who received a cortisone shot in his knee, had yet to give up a run in eight scoreless appearances out of the bullpen.
In pitchers on their way back from injuries, Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) will throw his third rehabilitation with triple-A Oklahoma City on Thursday. The expectation is that Glasnow will pitch five innings/75 pitches, Roberts said.
The Dodgers manager added that Blake Snell (left shoulder inflammation) and Blake Treinen (right forearm sprain) will throw to live hitters Wednesday, the next step in their recovery progression.
“Hopefully we’re starting to turn the corner a little bit,” Roberts said.
Next Ohtani start
Ohtani will next start on the mound Saturday against the Houston Astros — a 4:05 p.m. start — and southpaw Justin Wrobleski will again piggyback off the two-way star’s opening effort.
Yusei Kikuchi struck out a season-high 12 in seven innings, Jo Adell and Travis d’Arnaud hit solo homers and RBI singles, and the Angels beat the Boston Red Sox 5-2 Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.
Kikuchi (3-6) gave up two hits, walked one and threw 31 pitches in a shaky first inning when the Red Sox took advantage of shortstop Scott Kingery’s fielding error and scored two unearned runs on Trevor Story’s two-out single with the bases loaded.
The 34-year-old Japanese left-hander recovered and limited Boston to one hit with no walks over the next six innings. Kikuchi struck out the side in the second and fifth innings and retired the Red Sox in order in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
Kikuchi induced 20 swinging strikes and threw 74 pitches over the final six innings. Ryan Zeferjahn worked a scoreless eighth and ninth for his second save as the Angels (40-40) reached .500 for the first time since May 23.
Adell and d’Arnaud homered off Red Sox starter Richard Fitts on consecutive pitches in the fourth for a 2-all tie. Adell’s 433-foot shot was his 17th homer of the season and 10th in June.
Boston reliever Luis Guerrero (0-1) issued a leadoff walk to Nolan Schanuel and a one-out walk to Mike Trout in the fifth. The right-hander struck out Taylor Ward with a 97-mph fastball before allowing consecutive two-out RBI singles to Adell and d’Arnaud, giving the Angels a 4-2 lead.
The Angels pushed the lead to 5-2 in the sixth on singles by Luis Rengifo and Kingery. Trout followed with an RBI single with two out off reliever Zack Kelly.
Key moment
Boston had a chance to extend its lead in the first, but Kikuchi got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground out to second with runners on second and third, ending the inning. Kikuchi then retired 18 of the next 19 batters he faced.
Key stat
The Angels have used five starting pitchers — Kikuchi, Jose Soriano, Tyler Anderson, Kyle Hendricks and Jack Kochaanowicz — through 80 games, matching a franchise record set in 1999 for most games to begin a season using no more than five starters.
Up next
Jose Soriano (5-5, 3.39 ERA) of the Angels will oppose Washington’s Jake Irvin (6-3, 4.18) in Anaheim on Friday.
Boston southpaw Garrett Crochet scorched through them on Tuesday night, striking out 10 across seven scoreless innings. The 6-foot-6 Red Sox ace fired high-90s heat with success a day after Walker Buehler struggled to keep the Angels off the basepaths.
But with Crochet removed from the game in the eighth, the Angels discovered life. Enter the youngest-tenured Angel, Christian Moore. He walloped a home run over the left field wall for his second career home run to tie the score at one and help send the game to extra innings.
In the 10th inning, Moore played hero again, shooting a two-run home run to right field to walk-off the Red Sox and lift the Angels (39-40) to a 3-2 victory, bringing them one game below .500 and earning a blue sports drink shower in the process.
The announced crowd of 33,115 fans at Angel Stadium attempted to will a rally into existence in the seventh inning, cheering loudly as the heart of the Angels’ lineup hit after Mike Trout worked a leadoff walk. Crochet dispatched the Angels back to the dugout, inducing pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud to pop out and hold a 1-0 lead.
Angels fans would have to wait just one more Angels batter before Moore pulled his home run over the short left-field wall against reliever Greg Weissert. The Angels’ top prospect became the first Angel since 1966, and second overall, to have each of his first two home runs the tying or go-ahead variety in the seventh inning or later.
The Angels’ bullpen, which has emerged as one of the best in baseball during June to the tune of a 2.91 earned-run average entering Tuesday’s game, shut down the Red Sox (40-41) after acting manager Ray Montgomery pulled Tyler Anderson from the game after 4 ⅔ innings and 82 pitches.
Reid Detmers gave up the only run (unearned) out of the bullpen, the 10th inning single from Marcelo Mayer to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
Anderson — flummoxed as he watched Montgomery come to the mound as he called on right-hander Connor Brogdon from the bullpen — has only finished the fifth inning twice in his past five starts. Despite the short start Tuesday, the outing was arguably his best in that span, striking out five and walking two, while giving up one run and two hits.
Angels closer Kenley Jansen, who left Monday’s game with shoulder cramps after throwing a few pitches below 90 mph, returned Tuesday and tossed a scoreless ninth.
Zach Neto left Tuesday’s game in the ninth after short-arming a throw, airmailing first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. After a short talk with Montgomery and the team trainer, he walked to the dugout.
Zach Neto hit a leadoff homer and rookie Christian Moore had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in a four-run eighth inning that sent the Angels to a 9-5 win over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
LaMonte Wade Jr. opened the eighth with a single off reliever Garret Whitlock (5-1). Wade stole second and went to third when catcher Connor Wong’s throw bounced into center field for an error.
Luis Rengifo walked, and Moore hit a sacrifice fly for a 6-5 lead. A single by Neto, who had three hits, and an intentional walk to Mike Trout loaded the bases with two outs. Taylor Ward walked to force in a run, and Travis d’Arnaud’s two-run single made it 9-5.
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh by striking out Roman Anthony and Trevor Story with 96 mph fastballs. Sam Bachman (1-0) retired the side in order in the eighth to get the win for the Angels (38-40).
Angels closer Kenley Jansen left because of injury after four pitches in the ninth, and Hector Neris got the final three outs.
Handed a 3-0 lead before he took the mound, Boston starter Walker Buehler walked four and hit two batters with pitches during a five-run first. The right-hander finished with a career-high seven walks in four innings. But the Red Sox took him off the hook when Story hit a solo homer off reliever Ryan Zeferjahn for a 5-5 tie in the sixth.
Boston (40-40) scored three runs on five hits, including Wilyer Abreu’s two-run single, off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz in the first and later pulled to 5-4 on Wong’s sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Key moment: The Red Sox squandered a chance to tie it in the fifth when they ran into two outs on the bases on the same play. Jarren Duran led off with a double but hesitated on Abraham Toro’s grounder to shortstop.
Duran was tagged out by Moore in a rundown, and the second baseman spun and threw to second to nail Toro trying to advance. Boston manager Alex Cora was ejected — for the second consecutive game — while arguing that Rengifo blocked second base with his knee.
Key stat: Neto has six leadoff homers this season, one shy of the franchise record set by Brian Downing in 1987.
Up next: Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet (7-4, 2.20 ERA) opposes Angels lefty Tyler Anderson (2-5, 4.56) on Tuesday night.
The Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday in a blockbuster deal.
Devers’ agent, Nelson Montes de Oca, confirmed that the slugger had been traded to San Francisco. ESPN reported that the package of players going back to the Red Sox includes starter Jordan Hicks and left-hander Kyle Harrison.
Devers, 28, is one of baseball’s most feared hitters. He is batting .272 with 15 homers and 58 RBIs in 73 games after he connected for a solo drive in Boston’s 2-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday.
Devers, a three-time All-Star, agreed to a $313.5 million, 10-year contract in January 2023, but his relationship with the Red Sox began to deteriorate when the team signed third baseman Alex Bregman during spring training.
Devers insisted he was the team’s third baseman before switching to designated hitter. When Triston Casas was sidelined by a season-ending knee injury, the Red Sox approached Devers about filling in at first base. He declined, and suggested the front office “should do their jobs” and look for another player.
A day after Devers’ comments to the media about playing first, Red Sox owner John Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow flew to Kansas City to meet with Devers and manager Alex Cora.
Bregman has been out since May 23 with strained right quadriceps, similar to his left quad strain that cost him 58 games for the Houston Astros in 2021.
The Red Sox improved to 37-36 with their three-game sweep against New York. But they are fourth in the AL East, trailing the division-leading Yankees by 6½ games.
Devers first signed with Boston as an international free agent in August 2013. He was 20 when he made his major league debut with the Red Sox on July 25, 2017.
He helped the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series and led the team in RBIs for five consecutive seasons from 2020-24. He has finished in the top 20 in voting for AL MVP five times.
Devers is not the first Red Sox All-Star to be traded away: The team sent Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 2020 season — just a year after he won the AL MVP award and led Boston to a franchise-record 108 wins and its fourth World Series title since 2004.
It’s a good thing too — otherwise the event being thrown in his honor at the team’s home stadium this weekend might be a little awkward.
While the White Sox play the Rangers in Texas on Saturday afternoon, the Archdiocese of Chicago will be at Rate Field celebrating the new leader of the Catholic Church — who was born and raised on the city’s South Side — with a Mass by Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich and other festivities.
Leo will also be represented in mural form. The White Sox unveiled a graphic installation featuring his likeness on a concourse wall before a May 19 game against the Seattle Mariners, less than two weeks after Leo was selected as the first U.S.-born pope. He replaced Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at age 88.
The Chicago White Sox have commemorated the fandom of Pope Leo XIV with a graphic installation at Rate Field.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
The graphic was installed next to Section 140, where Leo sat in Row 19, Seat 2 for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and Houston Astros. As remarkable as it might sound, there is footage from Fox’s national broadcast of that Oct. 22, that shows the man then-known as Father Bob in the stands at the stadium then-known as U.S. Cellular Field.
Hosting a World Series game for the first time since 1959, the White Sox led by two runs with one out in the top of the ninth inning. Chicago closer Bobby Jenks had just thrown a 95-mph fastball past Houston’s Adam Everett for an 0-1 count and was preparing for his next pitch.
That’s when the camera panned to a nervous-looking Father Bob, who appears to be wearing a team jacket over a team jersey.
Viewers never got to see the future pope’s reaction to what happens next, but he must have been ecstatic as Jenks strikes out Everett in two more pitches for a 5-3 Chicago win. The White Sox would go on to sweep the Astros for their first World Series win since 1917.
“That was his thing. He liked to get out and go to a game once in a while,” Louis Prevost told the Chicago Tribune of his brother, the future pope. “Eat a hot dog. Have some pizza. Like any other guy in Chicago on the South Side.”
His favorite team may have fallen on harder times since then — the White Sox are an American League-worst 23-45 and 20.5 games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the Central Division — but Leo is still willing to put his fandom on display for the world to see.
On Wednesday, he wore a White Sox hat along with his traditional papal cassock while blessing newly married couples in St. Peter’s Square outside the Vatican.
Kelly and Gary DeStefano, who live in Haverhill, Mass., and are Boston Red Sox fans, gave him the hat. Kelly DeStefano told Boston.com they were just trying to get the new pope’s attention.
“I just wanted to make sure everyone at home knew that we did not turn on our team,” she told Boston.com. “It was all in joke and good fun.”
Chicago White Sox fans dress up like fellow White Sox fan Pope Leo XIV to watch a game against the Cubs on May 17 at Wrigley Field.
(Paul Beaty / Associated Press)
It worked, with Boston.com reporting that Leo gave the couple a good-natured ribbing once he found out where they are from.
“You’re going to get in trouble for this,” he told them, in a video of the meeting.
“Don’t tell anyone in Massachusetts,” Kelly DeStefano replied.
While Leo might be a little too busy to attend a game anytime soon, White Sox executive vice president, chief revenue and marketing officer Brooks Boyer said last month that the pope is welcome to return to Rate Field whenever he wants.
“He has an open invite to throw out a first pitch,” Boyer said. “Heck, maybe we’ll let him get an at-bat.”
BOSTON — Automatic runner Zach Neto scored on Taylor Ward’s bases-loaded double-play groundout to lift the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings on Tuesday night.
Nolan Schanuel had two RBIs and Neto added two hits and an RBI to give the Angels consecutive wins for the first time since capping an eight-game win streak on May 23.
Kenley Jansen (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the win a night after getting a save and Reid Detmers got his first save.
Schanuel led off the 10th with a sacrifice bunt that was bobbled by reliever Zack Kelly (1-2), allowing Neto to advance to third. Mike Trout then walked to load the bases.
Kelly went 3-0 to Ward before he grounded into the double play. But it allowed Neto to score to put the Angels in front.
Ceddanne Rafaela had two RBIs for Boston. Jarren Duran also had an RBI.
Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi pitched five innings plus three batters, giving up three runs and eight hits with five walks. He also struck out five, including his 900th major league strikeout.
Zach Neto leans away from an inside pitch in the ninth inning.
(Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)
Boston’s Brayan Bello ended a five-game streak of not making it through at least five innings. He lasted six innings, giving up three runs and seven hits.
Key moment
With Boston trailing 3-1 in the sixth, Trevor Story led off with a walk. Rafaela then jumped on Kikuchi’s 89 mph slider, driving it 426 feet over the Green Monster for his fifth homer of the season. It was Kikuchi’s final hitter of the game.
Key stat
Boston drops to 6-17 in one-run games this season.
Up next
Angels right-hander José Soriano (4-5, 3.41 ERA) faces Red Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito (1-1, 4.78) in the series finale.
BOSTON — Mike Trout had three hits, including a three-run, 454-foot homer off the left-center field light stanchion in the Angels’ six-run first inning on Monday night and Los Angeles held on to beat the Boston Red Sox 7-6.
Zach Neto homered to lead off the game, and the Angels opened a 5-0 lead before before Red Sox starter Richard Fitts (0-3) recorded his first out. Jo Adell also homered in the first and added another solo shot in the sixth after Boston cut the lead to 6-5.
Jarren Duran had three hits for Boston, including a double to start the four-run fifth inning. Ceddanne Rafaela homered to make it 7-6 in the eighth.
Ryan Zeferjahn (3-1) was credited with the win, pitching a scoreless seventh inning and striking out two. Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for his 11th save, getting Romy Gonzalez on a line drive to the warning track in right to end it.
Boston scored four in the fifth to make it 6-5 and loaded the bases in the sixth before reliever Reid Detmers got cleanup hitter Carlos Narváez on a slow chopper to third to end the inning.
Trout spent a month on the injured list with a bone bruise on his left knee. He returned on Friday and has gone 8 for 14 since then.
Key moment: Neto’s homer was followed by a walk, single, error and Trout’s homer. One out later, Adell added a solo homer.
Key stat: With hits in his first three at-bats, Trout reached 1,675 in his career, passing Tim Salmon for second all-time in franchise history. Garret Anderson is first with 2,368.
Up next: Boston RHP Brayan Bello (2-1) faces Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi in the second game of the three-game series.
