Red Sox host the Rockies to begin 3-game series
Colorado Rockies (21-69, fifth in the NL West) vs. Boston Red Sox (46-45, fourth in the AL East)
Boston; Monday, 7:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: Austin Gomber (0-1, 5.49 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, six strikeouts); Red Sox: Richard Fitts (0-3, 4.50 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 22 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Red Sox -239, Rockies +194; over/under is 9 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Boston Red Sox open a three-game series at home against the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
Boston has a 25-20 record at home and a 46-45 record overall. The Red Sox have hit 111 total home runs to rank 10th in MLB play.
Colorado has an 11-33 record in road games and a 21-69 record overall. The Rockies are 8-53 in games when they have allowed at least one home run.
Monday's game is the first meeting between these teams this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Wilyer Abreu is fourth on the Red Sox with 27 extra base hits (10 doubles and 17 home runs). Trevor Story is 16 for 39 with four doubles, three home runs and 14 RBIs over the past 10 games.
Hunter Goodman leads the Rockies with 16 home runs while slugging .516. Mickey Moniak is 10 for 30 with three home runs and eight RBIs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Sox: 6-4, .295 batting average, 4.04 ERA, outscored opponents by 23 runs
Rockies: 3-7, .250 batting average, 5.30 ERA, outscored by 18 runs
INJURIES: Red Sox: Zack Kelly: 15-Day IL (oblique), Justin Slaten: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Luis Guerrero: 15-Day IL (elbow), Hunter Dobbins: 15-Day IL (elbow), Josh Winckowski: 60-Day IL (elbow), Nick Burdi: 15-Day IL (knee), 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), Patrick Sandoval: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Rockies: Tyler Freeman: day-to-day (hamstring), Ezequiel Tovar: 10-Day IL (oblique), Kris Bryant: 60-Day IL (lumbar), Jeff Criswell: 60-Day IL (elbow)
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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New York Times
42 minutes ago
- New York Times
When the Rockies and White Sox play one another, does anybody truly win?
DENVER – Question after question went by in Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable's pregame scrum, but the elephant in the room — obvious to everyone, including the manager of the reigning worst team in baseball history — wasn't immediately addressed. How exciting is Colson Montgomery's call-up? How will you shuffle the infield? Could his minor league struggles benefit him long-term? Advertisement That kind of day-to-day minutiae can obscure the bigger picture, distract from those once-in-a-baseball-lifetime moments: That this weekend in Denver, as the White Sox faced the Rockies, baseball's official worst team ever was facing its upstart challenger, the club desperately vying to avoid taking its crown. 'It should be a highlight on SportsCenter,' joked veteran Rockies infielder Kyle Farmer. 'This is the World Series for the two worst teams.' The White Sox spiraled to 121 losses in 2024 — the most by any big league team, ever. On the back of a schedule populated by three double-digit losing streaks, they broke a 62-year-old record of losing futility. It was so bad that their reclusive owner released a statement, effectively apologizing for how putrid they were. And yet here they were in Colorado, staring across the field at a team that might somehow be worse. A team nearly 50 games under .500, on pace to lose even more than the White Sox did last year. Against the backdrop of Fourth of July, the two worst current incarnations of America's pastime played a weekend series on America's birthday. This series, for the White Sox, was a measuring stick. It was one more important than any singular prospect call-up. It was a chance to find out whether they could pity their opponents for repeating their plight, or remain stuck in that darkness with them. In his press conference, Venable fielded one final question before the start of the series. Was there any motivation to pass the buck onto their opponents? To tag them, and cement a new pecking order among the very worst, perhaps absolving the White Sox of some of that burden in the process? 'It's a Major League Baseball team,' said Venable, his team's own poor record making any sort of boast almost impossible. '[one] that I think has more wins than we do over the last five weeks.' Advertisement Chicago at 30-60, is not a good team. But this weekend they were good enough to take 2-of-3 from the 21-69 Rockies, who are on pace to lose 124 games and take the title of worst team ever off the White Sox after just a year on the throne. This series served as a lot of things. A punch line, for one. But also a barometer, for two clubs with a lot in common. For the White Sox, it served as a way to help put 2024 behind them, to cement themselves as better than the worst. 'We feel like we're in a much better place than we were a year ago,' said White Sox general manager Chris Getz. 'We've got some pieces we believe in, with some of the players we've brought in from trades or guys that have come up. 'We feel like we're headed in the right direction. Do we feel like we're knocking on the door of where we want to be? We do not. But we wanted to clearly define some objectives.' And for the Rockies? Colorado too is selling the concept of growth. After a 10-16 June, there's at least evidence they're playing better. On May 8, they lost a doubleheader by a combined score of 22-3. Two days later, they lost 21-0, at home, to the Padres. A day after that, they fired longtime manager Bud Black. Interim manager Warren Schaeffer has tried to establish an identity based on small ball, analytics and improved team chemistry. 'The players that you have, you have to maximize what is in them, and use them accordingly,' Schaeffer said. 'That might look a little different than it did before. But that's a good thing, because we're progressing. But still, five pitches into Saturday's game, Rockies right fielder Yanquiel Fernandez awkwardly dove for a ball that he had no chance to catch. He lay on the grass as the ball trickled past him and Chicago's Lenyn Sosa took an extra base. It is bad baseball, being played by a bad team. After Rockies catcher Austin Nola dropped a pop-up right in front of the plate on Sunday, a stadium worker watching on television looked around and said, 'That's been the entire season.' Advertisement Even against arguably the most beautiful backdrop in baseball — a big part of the reason a beleaguered fanbase still shows up in surprising numbers — the product remains ugly. The record speaks for itself, for both the White Sox and their counterparts. Minutes before Game 1 on Friday night, the public address announcer's 'Let's play ball' permeated the warm holiday evening. For a game and a series like this, it was a statement that sounded as much like a threat as it did a rallying cry. Most teams tout their marquee players in their team store – the Ohtanis, Trouts, and Judges, or if they don't quite have those, the closest thing: A budding All-Star like Kyle Stowers, or a name player like Carlos Correa. Prominently displayed in the Rockies' in-stadium team store? A Zac Veen jersey. Veen is in Triple-A, and has been since April 23. A former top infield prospect who was drafted No. 9 overall in 2020, Veen has battled injuries for much of his professional career. His only big league experience is twelve games in April, where he hit .118 over 34 at-bats. The Rockies are a team devoid of marketable star talent. Their highest-paid player, Kris Bryant, has hardly seen the field in the first four years of his doomed seven-year contract. Their farm system is ranked 23rd out of 30, according to The Athletic's Keith Law. This simply isn't a roster that carries gravitas. 'We're playing a lot of young kids,' said Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt. 'We're going to continue to grow with these guys.' That was a common refrain from Schmidt as he talked about his team. But the Rockies aren't actually playing a ton of kids. Their lineup on Saturday and Sunday featured only four pre-arbitration eligible players, and three of their five starting pitchers have been in the rotation since at least 2017. Advertisement Kyle Freeland, one of those pitchers, is among Colorado's longest-tenured players. When things got particularly bad earlier this season, he emotionally leveled with everyone: 'What they're doing is right, what we're doing is wrong. We're playing a bad brand of baseball.' 'The truth hurts sometimes,' Freeland said, reflecting on his comments two months later. 'If you're gonna be a man about it, and wear it on the chin … it's the only way you're gonna get out of it.' The White Sox did just that, and have begun to leverage their failures into young talent. They have a farm system that boasted five Top 100 prospects coming into this season. Colorado seems more firmly entrenched in their anguish. Not winning, but also, seemingly not building. They've regularly been reticent to deal at the deadline, and there was no commitment from Schmidt when asked if they'd be more aggressive at the end of this month. 'We've been open to trades,' Schmidt said. 'What we thought was better for our value, didn't line up. There's always a story behind everything. We'll be open. There are some guys that we'll talk about.' During his pregame scrum before the series opener, Schaeffer made a notable comment when he said, 'I don't like stagnant, hate stagnant,' in the context of him shifting the clubhouse environment. Stagnation is the exact criticism most often levied against the franchise this 40-year-old Rockies lifer now prominently represents. Be it the lack of trades, full-scale rebuilds or changes in leadership. 'I understand we're in a pit right now,' Schaeffer said. 'And there's a ways to go. But also, when you're in a pit, it provides a lot of opportunity to look at yourself, everybody in the organization, and see, 'How can we push forward? How can we change things? How can we get out of the stagnation of losing?' Advertisement About 90 minutes before the second of the Rockies' two weekend losses, Rockies fan Bailey Meyer was in his seat, alone, purple jersey on, City Connect team cap atop his head, glove in his hand. It's well-documented that the Coors Field crowds remain sturdy, win or lose. Both Friday and Saturday night were sold out. They came for the incredible postgame fireworks show, the $3 pregame beers on the upper deck, the temperate weather, beautiful sunset and picturesque venue. When the 3-2 Colorado loss wrapped on Friday, there were no boos or cheers — just a rush from fans in the bleachers to find good seating on the outfield grass. Meyer, however, came for the baseball, and the team he's rooted for since childhood. 'We're right on their tail to break the record,' Meyer said. 'I told a couple friends, 'It's bad versus bad. Maybe something good will come out of it.'' The 10-3 Rockies loss on Saturday clinched their 17th consecutive series defeat at home. They allowed 15 hits to the team with the sport's worst batting average. Already in the series, they'd stranded 13 runners, scored just five runs, committed a catcher's interference and been picked off. It was ugly, awful, and yet, not at all surprising. 'What are the positive storylines from the night?' one member of the Rockies' media contingent asked out loud after the game, while poring over a printed box score. Tyler Freeman had a good night, she noted. A slumping Brenton Doyle had broken out with a pinch-hit homer, she said. But those barely qualify as silver linings. These are the Rockies — why search for something encouraging at all? 'You gotta look for the positives,' the reporter said, 'or it's too grim to contemplate.' The Rockies are headed down that grim path — full speed ahead to baseball's worst-ever record. They will need to go 21-51 to beat Chicago's 2025 mark. Advertisement The White Sox remember these types of calculations all too well. Last season, before the final home series, Getz spoke to a throng of media inside the tunnels of Rate Field in Chicago. He had to be upfront with the fans, and all the people whose eyes peered at him for answers on an abomination of a season. It was painful. 'From a personal level, you hope that they're staying above water,' Getz said this weekend. 'Looking back at last year and enduring that, you've got to take advantage of the situation. 'Sometimes organizations are on the fence, or maybe stuck in a way that, let's call it, alarmingly poor. Hopefully it provides clarity and decisiveness that we need to change.' White Sox starter Davis Martin made his season debut in the midst of that 21-game losing streak. He pitched well in his return from Tommy John surgery, with a replacement level ERA+. Still, the team went just 1-10 in his starts. Losing typically makes a team irrelevant. Losing this much, however, can draw in unending scrutiny. 'There are questions asked every day,' Martin said. 'For the last 60 or 70 games, everybody is in the locker room, 'Hey this is where y'all are at.' You're constantly reminded of what your record was. It's tough.' That is where the Rockies are right now, whether they like it or not. They still have 72 games to change their circumstances, but there is scant evidence to suggest that they will. 'We try to give the cliché answers, like, 'It doesn't matter, we're trying to play baseball,' and stuff,' said longtime Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon. 'But there's a lot of pride in this room.' Before the White Sox's record-breaking season, the expansion 1962 Mets held the record with 120 losses. It took decades to break that mark. And now, it might get broken again after just one year. Getz acknowledged that 'you don't just show up and have bad luck and end up with 121 losses.' Advertisement Years of bad processes in modern baseball can heighten the gulf between the good teams and the bad ones. The end result is two teams — the White Sox last year, and the Rockies this year — that face an uncomfortable situation of fighting to avoid these dubious marks. 'If you make a negative goal like, 'We can't lose 100 games' or 'We can't have the worst record of all-time' — if you say, we can't do that, then there are a lot of things you're missing opportunity-wise,' Schaeffer said. 'You have to trust the process, that winning is a byproduct of how you go about your business. 'Chasing wins for a negative goal, you're gonna miss something. I don't agree with that thought process.' It will ultimately be on those above him if they heed Getz's advice. That they leverage this extreme failure to embrace necessary major change. Ultimately, much of this falls on Rockies GM Schmidt to address. The questions about stagnation, about the direction of the organization, are his to tackle. Schmidt sat on the top bench in the dugout Friday, watching his team take batting practice about two hours before first pitch. It was a holiday, but it didn't feel festive. He was willing to answer the questions, but that was about it. When things are this bad, does that mean wholesale changes are needed? 'We're trying to get better,' Schmidt replied. 'We're trying to continue to grow.' How trying has this season been on you personally? 'We're trying to get better,' he said. 'You keep grinding away at it. Hopefully we get to where we need to go.' Schmidt has never been one to be publicly introspective about the state of his team, and now, as the Rockies head towards baseball ignominy, outclassed by a team a year removed from its own shameful moment, that was clearly not about to change. You may have constructed a roster that finishes with the worst record in baseball history. Is that something you're concerned about? Do you think about that? Advertisement 'We just try to get better every day,' he said, once again. 'Continue to grow.' Growth? There will be a time for that. For now, the Rockies hope to avoid a far bleaker fate. And the White Sox move on to play the Toronto Blue Jays, increasingly safe in the knowledge that their time at the historical bottom may be coming to a surprisingly swift end. (Top photo of Rockies RF Yanquiel Fernandez in Friday's game:)
New York Times
42 minutes ago
- New York Times
Craig Breslow's 3 Red Sox All-Stars are great for July. Now it's time to work on October
Craig Breslow isn't much for wisecracks. He doesn't jab people in the chest and say, 'I told you so.' And if the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox has ever done any strutting, it has taken place in the privacy of his home or his Fenway Park chambers, not in front of the television cameras. Advertisement On Sunday, however, Breslow could have been excused had he done all those things and then some. Turns out his offseason roster building has produced not one, not two, but three players who have been named to the American League All-Star team. The starry Boston cast includes left-handed ace Garrett Crochet, closer Aroldis Chapman and third baseman Alex Bregman, three men who were playing for other teams last season. True, Bregman is jussssssst about ready to return to the lineup as he recovers from the right quad strain that has kept him out of the lineup since May 23, and perhaps there are fans in other cities crowing that their hometown hero would have been a more deserving choice. But that's a story for another day. What matters here is Breslow and his three All-Stars for the 2025 Red Sox, and that's the narrative we'll be exploring today. Breslow met with reporters on Sunday at Washington's Nationals Park to discuss the All-Star picks, with NESN carrying the taped interview after the Sox had emerged with a 6-4 victory over the Nats to complete a three-game sweep. Breslow had done the interview before the game with the understanding that the selections would be embargoed until later in the day. Asked if he takes pride in having 'hit' on Crochet, Chapman and Bregman, Breslow said, 'For sure. And, you know, I think the credit starts with the players. They've shown that they're All-Star-caliber players before they got here,' and then he credited the coaching staff and 'everyone who's involved in the acquisition process,' which of course is a very Breslow thing to say. (We must pray, however, that 'the acquisition process' never replaces 'the Hot Stove' in offseason baseball jargon.) Our 2025 All-Stars. 🥹 — Red Sox (@RedSox) July 6, 2025 I kid about the strutting, but, yeah, Breslow could have had some fun with all this by saying (with a wink) something along the lines of, 'Hey, I guess I got lucky.' Whatever. The fact is that Breslow headed up a mighty fine offseason acquisition process, and he deserves plaudits for that. So now what? We can agree that MLB's All-Star Game isn't the summertime be-all and end-all that it used to be, but it's still a pretty good pageant. For instance, actual defense is played in this sport's All-Star Game. Beyond that, it's a safe bet more Red Sox fans will be watching than if Boston had been limited to the standard, obligatory lone representative. And if the actual game doesn't rock your boat, there's still much at stake here. As it happens, Selection Sunday (yeah, yeah, so sue me, NCAA basketball people) fell on the same day the Red Sox had taken care of business by completing their sweep of the Nationals. The Sox have now won five of their last seven games to again climb above the accursed .500 plateau (46-45), and they have a chance to fatten up with a three-game set against the horrible Colorado Rockies before the Tampa Bay Rays pull into Fenway for a four-game series, which will mean big-boy baseball. Advertisement What this means is that the Red Sox are positioning themselves to be worthy of Breslow adding, not subtracting, as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. Now, if this is the part where frustrated Red Sox fans want to do a what's-the-big-deal moan about baseball's expanded playoff format and what they see as the phoniness of competing for a wild-card spot, that's their right. But here's another way of looking at it: A) The Red Sox haven't been to the postseason since 2021, and B) baseball in October, even early October, can be really, really exciting. If the Red Sox don't make the playoffs this season, that'll be four straight years without October baseball, other than the occasional regular-season game that spills over from September. The last time the Red Sox went that long without postseason baseball was from 1976 to 1985, and that was in the old days when only the four division winners got invites. Nobody complained when the post-pandemic Red Sox of 2021 surprisingly toppled the Yankees in what was then a one-game wild-card game, went on to beat the heavily favored Tampa Bay Rays in the Division Series and then took the Houston Astros to six games in the ALCS before being dismissed. Fenway was electric during Boston's 6-2 victory over the Yankees in the wild-card, and not just because the pregame included an appearance by the great Jerry Remy, who would pass away just 25 days later. These 2025 Red Sox don't have Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling are not walking through that door. And while we're at it, I miss the calming presence of the late Tim Wakefield. Moreover, customers have the right to ask if the Red Sox will ever again be 'damn the torpedoes' mega spenders. To use that word swagger yet again, the Boston baseball community would be better served if the Red Sox returned to the days of organizational swagger. It's not unfair to ask if the Red Sox Way has turned into an annual mission to build a team that's just good enough to compete. That's a big picture discussion. But in 2025, they owe their fans a playoff run, which is why it should scare the customers that Chapman's name keeps popping up as a trade commodity, the idea being that if the Sox lose four in a row he be dealt to a team that thinks it's one shutdown closer away from getting to the postseason. Advertisement 'I've been on teams that have bought and I've been on teams that have sold (at the trade deadline),' said Crochet, per NESN, after allowing two runs over five innings on Sunday to improve his record to 9-4. 'I think this time of year, yeah, it's really huge for that. You just want to do as good a job as you can as a clubhouse and as a unit to make sure that ownership knows there's a reason to buy in. I think right now we're giving them good enough reasons.' Crochet on making his second #AllStarGame ⭐ ⬇️ "As a whole, I think as a Red Sox I've done nothing but improve… it's an honor just to represent this organization at an event of that caliber." 💪 — NESN (@NESN) July 6, 2025 Breslow has already made his for-the-future move by moving Rafael Devers and his contract to the San Francisco Giants. And remember, Breslow has posited that the move might make the Red Sox a better team this season. If he truly believes that, he needs to make the moves that make him right. It's time for the acquisition process to get put back into play.
Fox Sports
3 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Blue Jays try to keep win streak alive against the White Sox
Associated Press Toronto Blue Jays (52-38, first in the AL East) vs. Chicago White Sox (30-60, fifth in the AL Central) Chicago; Monday, 7:40 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Blue Jays: Jose Berrios (4-3, 3.64 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 92 strikeouts); White Sox: Sean Burke (4-7, 4.03 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 73 strikeouts) BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Blue Jays -189, White Sox +157; over/under is 8 1/2 runs BOTTOM LINE: The Toronto Blue Jays will attempt to keep an eight-game win streak alive when they play the Chicago White Sox. Chicago has a 30-60 record overall and a 19-24 record in home games. The White Sox have gone 18-4 in games when they scored five or more runs. Toronto has a 52-38 record overall and a 20-22 record in road games. The Blue Jays have the third-best team on-base percentage in the majors at .329. The teams play Monday for the fourth time this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Chase Meidroth has six doubles and two home runs for the White Sox. Lenyn Sosa is 11 for 36 with two doubles and three home runs over the past 10 games. Bo Bichette has 20 doubles, a triple and 12 home runs for the Blue Jays. George Springer is 16 for 39 with five home runs over the past 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: White Sox: 5-5, .252 batting average, 3.03 ERA, outscored opponents by two runs Blue Jays: 9-1, .278 batting average, 4.60 ERA, outscored opponents by 13 runs INJURIES: White Sox: Luis Robert: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Cam Booser: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Davis Martin: 15-Day IL (forearm), Jared Shuster: 15-Day IL (hand), Ky Bush: 60-Day IL (elbow), Miguel Castro: 60-Day IL (knee), Martin Perez: 60-Day IL (forearm), Drew Thorpe: 60-Day IL (elbow), Prelander Berroa: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jesse Scholtens: 60-Day IL (elbow) Blue Jays: Andres Gimenez: 10-Day IL (ankle), Yimi Garcia: 15-Day IL (ankle), Anthony Santander: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Paxton Schultz: 15-Day IL (middle finger), Bowden Francis: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Daulton Varsho: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Alek Manoah: 60-Day IL (elbow), Angel Bastardo: 60-Day IL (elbow) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. recommended
