According to ESPN, Boston has emerged as a leading destination in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. No deal is on the table (that we know of), but the mere possibility might raise a few concerns.
Boston, MA
Detroit Tigers rally in Casey Mize’s return, but fall to Boston Red Sox, 7-5 (10)
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The Detroit Tigers refused to quit.
Still, they were overpowered by big swings from the Boston Red Sox in the top of the 10th inning.
The Tigers lost, 7-5, to the Red Sox on Friday in the opener of a three-game series at Comerica Park. A three-run home run in the eighth inning from slugger Kerry Carpenter snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak, but the Tigers — despite forcing extra innings — were unable to complete the comeback.
In the 10th, right-hander reliever Shelby Miller allowed a two-run home run to Ceddanne Rafaela on a two-strike elevated fastball. The next batter, Jarren Duran, hit a solo home run off left-handed reliever Tyler Holton, crushing a first-pitch sinker.
Right-hander starter Casey Mize gave up four runs across six innings in his return from the injured list. He hadn’t pitched for the Tigers since June 30 because of a left hamstring strain.
“A little sluggish, a little slow,” said Mize, who completed four rehab starts with Triple-A Toledo. “I think I finished better than I started, but certainly not good enough. I need to be better. Obviously, not good enough.”
The Tigers (68-68) have lost two straight following a six-game winning streak. As a result, the Tigers have slipped to 5½ games out of the final spot in the American League wild-card race, with 26 games remaining in the 2024 season.
As Mize battled, the Tigers were shut out until the eighth inning, when Carpenter hit a three-run home run off Red Sox left-handed reliever Brennan Bernardino.
The three runs in the eighth inning were sparked by Andy Ibáñez’s walk and Matt Vierling’s single. Carpenter hasn’t been successful against left-handed pitchers in limited opportunities, but he pushed Bernardino’s first-pitch sinker — located up-and-away — for an opposite-field homer to left field.
It was Carpenter’s first homer off a lefty pitcher in 2024.
“It’s a tough matchup,” Hinch said of Carpenter, who entered Friday’s game hitting .048 (1-for-21) in 24 plate appearances against lefties this season. “He did a good job of hanging in there and taking a good approach.”
After making it a one-run game, the Tigers opened the ninth with Zach McKinstry’s leadoff single off right-handed reliever Kenley Jansen. McKinstry immediately stole second to advance into scoring position. With one out, Jake Rogers smoked a first-pitch cutter at the top of the strike zone for a double to score McKinstry and tie the game at 4-4.
The Tigers had a chance to walk-off the Red Sox, but Riley Greene struck out swinging on Jansen’s cutter way above the strike zone to strand Rogers at third base.
In the top of the 10th, the go-ahead homer from Rafaela snapped Miller’s streak of nine relief appearances without a run. Miller threw three elevated fastballs in a row to Rafaela, who whiffed at the first two before driving the third one to left-center, into the second row of seats.
“I’ll stand by that decision all day,” said Rogers, who called the three fastballs in a row. “Obviously, it’s not the right call. We’d be in a different position if I made a different call. We went up, went up higher and went up even higher. I’m not mad at that one. It sucks to go down there, but it’s obviously the wrong pitch call. I need to be better about that. But it’s impressive, honestly, that he hit a ball like that.”
Greene, who served as the free runner in extra innings, scored in the bottom of the 10th inning on consecutive outs, making it 7-5, but it was too little, too late for the Tigers.
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Casey Mize returns
The Tigers fell behind in the first inning.
Mize, the 2018 No. 1 overall pick, allowed four runs on six hits and one walk with four strikeouts in six innings, throwing 85 pitches. He has a 4.36 ERA in 17 starts.
“I thought Casey was good, in his own way,” Hinch said. “He was pretty efficient because they were swinging early. He’s going to be frustrated with the way it ended. From a volume standpoint, it was very positive. I thought he was good at times and also misfired at times.”
In the first, Mize surrendered a leadoff double to Duran on the first pitch of the game. Two batters later, Duran scored on a groundout for a 1-0 Red Sox lead.
The Red Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead on Wilyer Abreu’s sacrifice fly in the third inning, soon after another double from Duran. The Red Sox then made it 3-0 with Connor Wong’s double after Mize walked Tyler O’Neill on six pitches in the fourth inning.
He registered three of his four strikeouts in the sixth inning, but with two outs and two strikes, Wong pulled a down-and-away slider for a solo home run, the fourth and final run against Mize.
“I wanted that one to be off the plate,” Mize said. “It catches some plate, but it’s at the bottom rail of the zone. Not a horrible pitch, but in the context of 0-2 and two outs, probably needs to be better, for sure. It was a gut punch of a home run there.”
Mize generated nine whiffs on 40 swings — a 22.5% whiff rate — with four fastballs, one splitter, two sliders and two curveballs. There was a lot of hard contact on the 20 balls in play from the Red Sox.
His fastball averaged 93.9 mph, down 1.7 mph from his average fastball velocity in the 16 starts.
“The velocity has been in line with what the rehab outings have been,” Mize said. “Definitely a little bit down from pre-injury. My body feels great. I think it’s just a little bit of my brain catching up, realizing my legs are OK. It’s going to take a little bit of time to move the exact same way I was pre-injury, but physically, I feel great. I think we’ll get there.”
Before Carp’s homer
Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck carved up the Tigers for most of Friday’s game. He fired six scoreless innings on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts, using 95 pitches.
The Tigers didn’t get a hit against Houck until McKinstry’s leadoff single in the fifth inning.
McKinstry was later thrown out while trying to advance from first to third on Parker Meadows’ single, ending the inning. Hinch wanted to challenge, but umpire Chris Guccione determined Hinch didn’t decide to challenge within his allotted 15 seconds.
“Yeah, we ran out of time,” Hinch said. “The information afterwards, it’s probably a coin flip that it even gets overturned. That’s why he pointed to his watch.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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Concern numero uno is obvious. Giannis is one of the handful of players capable of altering the championship picture by himself. Pairing him with Jayson Tatum would create an impressive combination of size, athleticism, versatility, and star power. The question is whether Brad Stevens and the Celtics can actually pull it off without creating a new set of problems for themselves.
Boston’s path to Giannis is narrower than it first appears. The Celtics would almost certainly need to move Jaylen Brown, either directly to Milwaukee or through a third team. Reports indicate Brown has little interest in joining the Bucks (in paraphrase: “Milwaukee?! Yuck!”), which complicates matters further. We start moving from a blockbuster trade to a three-team puzzle involving contracts, draft compensation, and competing agendas.
Even if Boston finds a way through that maze, there’s no guarantee the resulting team will succeed.
Giannis may be a better asset than Brown, but championships are not won by comparing players one-for-one. They’re won by building complete teams (case in point: YOUR WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS ).
Brown averaged more than 28 points per game last season while defending multiple positions. He can create his own offense, punish smaller defenders, and absorb primary scoring responsibilities when Tatum is unavailable (as Tatum was for most of last season, recovering from a torn Achilles). Replacing him with Giannis raises Boston’s ceiling, perhaps, but also changes the structure of the roster.
The Celtics have spent years building an ecosystem around two star wings. Remove one and the supporting cast suddenly becomes more important, which means Stevens would have many more decisions to make before the start of training camp.
What catches me up is, if the Bucks believed that Giannis has more great years ahead of him, would they so quickly offload him to a conference rival? Might he actually be a distressed asset?
Giannis will turn 32 this season. He has generally been durable over his career but has dealt with increasing lower-body issues (especially calves and knees) in recent years, leading to more missed time. To wit:
• 2022–23: 63 GP / 19 missed
• 2023–24: 73 GP / 9 missed
• 2024–25: 67 GP / 15 missed
• 2025–26: 36 GP / 46 missed
Wouldn’t that just be the worst if the Celts parted with Brown to get him, and then Giannis missed extended time due to injury? Like, the absolute worst? (Insert diabolical laughter.)
A healthy Tatum-Giannis pairing would present unique challenges for New York. The Knicks would need to defend relentless downhill pressure while also containing one of the league’s best bucket creators. But, given their depth, New York may be better equipped than most teams to handle it.
So if the Celtics’ pursuit of Giannis causes an initial flutter of worry, you can let that just drift on by. The scenario only noses toward Red Alert if Boston nabs him while somehow also acquiring a guard who makes up for what they’d lose with Brown’s departure.
But wait! This just in: Chris Haynes has pushed back on the idea that a Giannis Antetokounmpo-to-Boston deal is close. He writes that Boston does not appear to be a promising destination and suggested the situation could extend into July. Additionally, Marc Stein reported that the Celtics are frustrated by speculation involving Jaylen Brown, while Brian Windhorst said Brown has not been formally offered in a trade. So, to quote the great William Goldman (also a Knicks fan), “Nobody knows anything.”
It’s worth noting that the Miami Heat are also reportedly in the mix. We’ve heard that the lack of income tax is alluring to the Greek Freak. Plus Florida offers sunny, warm weather, which is not a defining feature of Wisconsin. In the end, though, joining Boston would allow Giannis to keep all his favorite green-themed items in his wardrobe, and shouldn’t looking good be a priority, too?
BOSTON — The Boston Bruins said Thursday they are retiring Patrice Bergeron’s No. 37 as part of a ceremony next season.
The date will be shared later, following the NHL schedule release that is expected next month.
Bergeron is set to join fellow 2011 Stanley Cup champion Zdeno Chara with his number in the rafters. Bergeron, when it happens, will be the 14th player to have his number retired by the storied franchise.
He spent his entire 19-year career in the league with the Bruins, playing 1,464 games counting the regular season and playoffs. That included the title run in 2011 and more trips to the final in ’13 and ’19.
“Patrice was the kind of rare, generational talent that every team wanted,” owner Jeremy Jacobs said in a statement. “He was a deftly skilled playmaker and the undeniable greatest defensive forward in the NHL’s history. But it was the leadership he provided on the ice and in the locker room that made him truly stand apart and an all-time legend of the Boston Bruins.”
Bergeron succeeded Chara as captain in 2020 and served three seasons in that role before retiring. He called this an honor that is difficult to put into words.
“When I arrived in Boston as an 18-year-old, I could never have imagined receiving this recognition one day,” Bergeron said. “I have always believed that any success I had was only possible because of the people around me. I was fortunate to play alongside incredible teammates, learn from outstanding coaches and staff and be supported by an organization that believed in me from the very beginning.”
Craig Ferguson set out on foot from Los Angeles with a remarkable goal: to walk 3,500 miles across America. It took him 109 days.
Last week, I had the privilege of joining him for his final steps into Boston. In those first moments after completing his journey, I asked him what the experience had been like. Without hesitation, he called it the hardest thing he had ever done.
What began as a mission to raise money for SAMH, a Scottish charity that provides mental health and social care support, became something far greater. Along the way, Craig inspired thousands of people and helped raise more than $1 million. His arrival in Boston also came amid the excitement surrounding Scotland’s appearance in the World Cup, giving his home country even more reason to celebrate.
Craig’s commitment to mental health advocacy is perhaps best expressed in his own words: “Mental health doesn’t care who you are or where you’re from. It can meet you along the road, sometimes when you least expect it.”
Those words resonate deeply with me. I was raised by a mother who faced significant mental health challenges, and I know firsthand how important support systems can be for individuals and families. Organizations like SAMH provide hope when people need it most. Equally important is continuing to normalize conversations about mental health and recognizing that it is a health issue that touches every community and every walk of life.
There are countless routes Craig could have taken and many cities where he could have chosen to conclude this extraordinary journey. The fact that he finished in Boston is something we should be proud of.
Boston has always been a city defined by resilience, compassion, and perseverance. Those qualities are why “Boston Strong” means so much to so many people. Craig Ferguson may be Scottish by birth, but through his determination, his generosity, and his commitment to helping others, he has embodied that spirit.
As we welcome him to our beautiful and sports-loving city, we thank him for reminding us that even the longest journeys begin with a single step, and that no one should have to walk through life’s struggles alone.
Craig Ferguson is Boston Strong.
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