MLB Notebook: Red Sox offense feeling the loss of Roman Anthony, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s near no-hitter, and a look around the league

The Red Sox have looked incredibly flat, losers of three straight games; the offense has been struggling to get anything going, scoring just seven runs in the last 27 innings.

Boston is feeling the absence of Roman Anthony, who was placed on the 10-day injured list last week after he suffered a Grade 2 strain in his left oblique.

There’s no specific timetable for Anthony’s return; the injury he suffered typically takes a player 4-6 weeks to recover from. With 19 games to go in the regular season and Boston holding a 4/12 game lead in the AL wild card, it’s safe to say Anthony will not be back during the regular season.

Alex Cora wants Anthony to focus on the idea of playing in the ALCS for his first return at-bat. That’s a long way away for a team that still needs to clinch a playoff berth and get out of the wild card round and the ALDS.

The offense is also feeling the pain from the loss of Wilyer Abreu, who remains on the injured list, sidelined with a right calf strain since August 18. Abreu didn’t travel with his teammates out west and is remaining back in Boston to work with the training staff. The Sox’ outfielder is not expected to require a rehab stint before returning to the lineup. Boston is targeting next Friday, when the Sox begin a six-game homestand and welcome the Yankees to Fenway Park.

The loss of Anthony and Abreu’s bats has been felt in the series in Arizona. Boston's offense scored five runs on Friday night, four of which came in the eighth inning. Eduardo Rodriguez held the Sox offense in check for the first six innings, giving up just one earned run off of four hits.

Boston’s lone run on Saturday night came from leadoff hitter Masataka Yoshida’s RBI single into left field in the third inning. Yoshida was surprisingly penciled atop the lineup for the first time in his big league career. Cora wanted to keep Jarren Duran in the middle of the lineup with Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, and Nathaniel Lowe.

“He had a good game the other day,” Cora said. “Trying to keep Jarren, Trevor, and Nate together. Run producers. They’ve been good with runners in scoring position and all that stuff. So we’ll give it a shot and see what happens.”

Cora has had Yoshida bat all over the Sox’ lineup during his three-year big league career.

“We talked about it yesterday in the seventh inning,” said Cora. “I asked him, ‘Have you ever led off?’ and he said, ‘A while ago.’ I asked if he’d feel uncomfortable about it, and he said, ‘No, it’s the same at-bat.’ Nothing’s going to change.”

Since the Sox signed Lowe after he was released by the Nationals in mid-August, he’s been a force in the lineup, and Boston is lucky to have landed the first baseman this late in the season. He is hitting .318 with a .948 OPS and has given the team a competent first baseman. Lowe and Yoshida are two bats the Red Sox need to produce at an elite level the next few weeks with Anthony on the mend and Boston fighting for a spot in the postseason.

The loss of Anthony won’t completely derail the Sox’ season, but it certainly puts them in a precarious position. Boston has been able to weather numerous injuries this season.

When they lost Triston Casas for the season with a left patellar tendon rupture on May 2, Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro stepped up, and the Sox played on.

Bregman went down for seven weeks with a severe right quad strain in late May. Boston recalled Marcelo Mayer and stayed in contention in the AL East and wild-card hunt.

The Sox shipped Rafael Devers to San Francisco on Father’s Day, winners of five straight and having just swept the Yankees at Fenway Park. Boston adapted without their star slugger and pushed forward.

They’ve lost others along the way this season, including Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, and Hunter Dobbins to season-ending injuries. Richard Fitts has spent time on the IL twice this season, further putting pressure on the club’s internal pitching depth.

Teams lose players all the time, and one player shouldn’t just put a nail in the coffin for this team. If Boston is going to secure a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2021, they’ll need Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, and Lucas Giolito to lead the rotation the rest of the way. Boston will need their bullpen to step up, including setup man Garrett Whitlock. They’ll need All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman, fresh off his new contract extension, to dominate in the ninth inning.

With only 19 games to go, Boston controls their playoff destiny. The offense needs to find a way to get going and then get Abreu back to help stabilize the lineup.

Anything short of clinching a postseason berth would be a catastrophic failure for the Red Sox this season. Boston’s magic number to clinch a spot in October is 16.

NEAR NO-NO

Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one out away from history.

Yamamoto was brilliant on Saturday night, attempting to put the finishing touches on a masterpiece in Baltimore. After getting the first two outs in the ninth inning, Yamamoto was one out away from tossing a no-hitter. Instead, Orioles’ Jackson Holliday belted a cutter that just snuck over the right-field fence.

The Japanese star went 8 2/3 innings, allowing just the homer to Holliday with two walks and 10 strikeouts. With the Dodgers riding high, Dave Roberts turned to his bullpen to get the final out of the game, but they failed to do their job, and the Orioles came back to win the game.

The Orioles put together a two-out rally against relievers Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott. The Dodgers lost 4-3 after the O’s Emmanuel Rivera provided the last blow of the game, a walk-off single.

The Dodgers went from throwing a no-hitter to losing in a mere matter of minutes.

“Obviously, it’s really hard to swallow,” Yamamoto said after the game through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.

You have to give credit to the Orioles, who are not playing for the postseason and are riding out the remainder of the schedule. Jeremiah Jackson crushed a two-out double to welcome Treinen into the game, and then Gunnar Henderson was hit in the foot with a sweeper to give Baltimore two runners on base.

Consecutive walks and a wild pitch forced Roberts to hand the ball to struggling closer Scott, one of the Dodgers’ prized free agent bullpen additions, this past offseason. The southpaw left a fastball over the plate that Rivera smacked into center field to bring home the tying and winning runs.

“It’s hard to recount a game like this,” Roberts said. “We just couldn’t get that last out.”

All of that could have been avoided had the Dodgers' bullpen been able to get that one final out. 

“I have to get one flipping out, and I didn’t do it,” Treinen said.

Yamamoto has thrown two no-hitters in his career while pitching in Japan. He was attempting to become just the third Japanese-born pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter. Ironically, the other two were Hideo Nomo and Hisashi Iwakuma, who tossed their no-hitters against the Orioles.

Nomo’s came while he was a member of the Red Sox back in 2001. It was his first start for Boston and it was also the first game that NESN play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo would call for the Red Sox. 

AROUND THE LEAGUE

- Former longtime player and Major League Baseball manager Davey Johnson died at the age of 82 on Saturday. He played in the majors from 1965 to 1978 with the Orioles, Braves, Phillies, and Cubs. During his career, he was a four-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner, and won two World Series as a second baseman for Baltimore.

He managed the Mets, Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, and Nationals, winning the 1986 World Series with New York. He won Manager of the Year honors in 1997 and 2012, while finishing with 1,372 career managerial wins and 25 postseason victories.

- Did you see the viral video on social media of the female Phillies fan confronting a man in Phillies gear after he grabbed a ball in the stands and gave it to his son?

After Harrison Bader hit a homer in a game on Friday night at Miami’s LoanDepot Park, the male fan ran across the section he and his family were at to try and scoop up the ball. He secured the homer and went back to his seat, dropping the ball into the glove of his son and giving him a hug.

Almost immediately after, the female fan went running over and confronted the man, grabbing his arm and berating him over getting the ball. Essentially, she was screaming that the ball was hers, and he ripped it from her hands. A few seconds later, he gave the woman the ball, and the moment went viral.

The Marlins immediately brought the young boy over a gift bag and then met Bader after the game. While he didn’t get the home run ball, he left with a signed bat from the outfielder and a viral moment his family will never forget.

- Did Astros starter Framber Valdez get crossed up with his catcher, César Salazar, last week? Controversy sparked in the Astros’ loss to the Yankees last Tuesday after Valdez allegedly hit his own catcher in the chest with a pitch.

Valdez got into trouble when loading the bases with the Astros down 2-0. The southpaw appeared to shake off Salazar’s sign for a curveball to Trent Grisham; instead, Valdez threw a sinker, and Grisham crushed a grand slam.

The Yankees’ Anthony Volpe was the next batter. With a 1-0 count, a sinker hit Salazar’s chest protector, catching him off guard because he was expecting a curveball. Valdez turned his back to the plate and paused as Salazar and Volpe stared at him.

Valdez said he got crossed up with the young catcher.

“When we got down to the dugout, I excused myself with (Salazar), and I said sorry to him, and I take full responsibility for that,” Valdez said. “He called for a curveball, but I already had in mind that I was going to throw a sinker, so that’s what I threw, and that’s what happened.”

Valdez’s agent denies that his client intentionally hit his teammate with a pitch.

“In no way, shape, or form does the starting pitcher intentionally try to hurt his teammate,” Ulises Cabrera told the Chronicle. “Mix-ups happen all the time, just like a pitcher shaking (off a pitch) all the time. This is just not an issue.

“But it does become an issue when people question Framber’s quality as a teammate and his interest in defending his fellow players in the dugout on the field. He messed up. He admitted it. He got mixed up, done. But to suggest anything other than that is just wrong, and it’s not acceptable.”

Valdez is a free agent at the end of the season, and the incident could cost him millions in future earnings.

- Pirates pitching prospect Bubba Chandler was finally recalled to the big leagues on August 22 after conquering the minor leagues. The 22-year-old went 26-18 with a 3.73 ERA in 372 innings in the minors before finally getting his call to the bigs. 

While in the Majors, he’s been outstanding in three appearances, all out of the bullpen, owning a 2.25 ERA with nine strikeouts across 12 frames. He was humbled in a recent outing when facing Shohei Ohtani after trying to pump a 99 mph fastball by the All-Star, but instead he crushed it into the seats.

“He’s a great player, one of the best players to ever play. Lotta guys in that lineup, some really tough at-bats,” Chandler said. “Some went my way, some went theirs, but it’s pretty cool. Can’t complain, givin’ up a home run to Shohei.”

- It’s been 30 years since Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games record hit 2,131 games. Ripken set the record on Sept. 6, 1995, then extended it to 2,632 before finally sitting out a game in 1998. The 25th anniversary of the record-breaking moment was in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic made that season a less ideal time for a big celebration. Despite some rain, the Orioles and Ripken celebrated the record on Saturday.

"I've been told that this record is unbreakable now," said Ripken, now a member of the Orioles' ownership group. "I would always say, if I can do it, certainly somebody else can."

- Not only did Jackson homer on Saturday night, but his younger brother, Ethan Holliday, crushed his second pro homer just a mere 15 minutes after his brother’s.

It marked the first time that the two brothers had homered on the same night since Ethan was taken fourth overall by the Rockies in the 2025 MLB Draft.

Ethan, while playing with Single-A Fresno, homered off Rancho Cucamonga's Hyun-Seok Jang on Saturday night. Since joining Fresno’s lineup, he has reached base safely in 15 of his 17 games.

- Marlins top pitching prospect Thomas White struck out 10 batters and took a no-hitter into the fifth inning in his Triple-A debut on Saturday. He also walked six batters, a career high. White, who’ll turn 21 later this month, began the season in High-A before skyrocketing through Miami’s farm system.

- Guardians' top-ranked prospect, infielder Travis Bazzana, had his first multi-homer game of his career. He’s carried a hot bat this September, going 8-for-20 (.400) with three homers and a 1.405 OPS.

- Former Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta has been an under-the-radar key signing for the Padres this season. After signing a four-year, $55 million deal back in February, the 32-year-old has helped stabilize San Diego’s rotation.

He’s thrown six or more innings and allowed two fewer runs in 17 starts this season. That is tied for third most in the Majors behind Skenes (19) and Garrett Crochet (18). He’s 13-5 with a 2.85 ERA with 172 strikeouts and owns a 0.96 WHIP in 164 1/3 innings.

- It’s officially that time of year when the NFL regular season schedule intersects the MLB schedule. The Red Sox and Patriots will play on Sunday, with New England at home to kick off the season against the Raiders, and the Red Sox will attempt to thwart a series sweep at the hands of the Diamondbacks.