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Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, Kenta Maeda hit by top prospects from Red Sox in 6-5 loss

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Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, Kenta Maeda hit by top prospects from Red Sox in 6-5 loss


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  • The Detroit Tigers lost, 6-5, to the Boston Red Sox in Thursday’s split-squad game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
  • The Red Sox, led by manager Alex Cora, put three of the best prospects in baseball at the top of the lineup.
  • The prospects went 4-for-8 with four RBIs, one walk and two strikeouts in nine plate appearances against right-handers Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda.

LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost, 6-5, to the Boston Red Sox in Thursday’s split-squad game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. The Tigers played against the Tampa Bay Rays in the other split-squad game at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Florida.

The Tigers are 2-3 in Grapefruit League play.

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What happened

The Red Sox, led by manager Alex Cora, put three of the best prospects in baseball at the top of the lineup: left fielder Roman Anthony (ranked No. 2 on MLB Pipeline’s top-100 list) batting first, second baseman Kristian Campbell (No. 7) batting second, and third baseman Marcelo Mayer (No. 12) batting third.

“I told AC he’s flexing a little bit by bringing those three,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Thursday’s game. “Those kids are good players.”

The prospects went 4-for-8 with four RBIs, one walk and two strikeouts in nine plate appearances against right-handers Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda.

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Mayer — whom the Tigers passed on in favor of right-hander Jackson Jobe at No. 3 overall in the 2021 draft — led the way with three hits in three trips to the plate: an RBI triple off Flaherty in the first inning, a leadoff single off Maeda in the fourth inning and a two-run home run off Maeda in the fifth inning.

All three prospects could start the 2025 season in Triple-A Worcester.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Days of Roar” your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Starting off

Flaherty made his first start of spring training.

The 29-year-old allowed one run on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts across two innings, throwing 15 of 28 pitches for strikes. He felt good about the way his pitches moved, but he struggled with his command at times.

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The Red Sox tagged him for the lone run in the first inning, when Mayer made Flaherty pay for an eight-pitch walk to Campbell by driving a hanging slider to center field for an RBI triple.

Flaherty threw 15 four-seam fastballs, six sliders, four sinkers, two changeups and one curveball. He generated three whiffs on 11 swings (for a 27.3% whiff rate). His fastball averaged 93.5 mph.

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At the plate

The Tigers threatened in the first inning against right-hander Quinn Priester, with a double from Riley Greene (hit with a 111.9 mph exit velocity), a nine-pitch walk from Gleyber Torres and an infield single from Kerry Carpenter.

But Colt Keith grounded into a double play.

The Tigers scored one run in the fourth inning and three runs in the seventh.

In the fourth, Jake Rogers hit a solo home run off right-handed reliever Josh Winckowski’s first-pitch 96.1 mph sinker, located middle-middle in the strike zone. The wind was blowing to right-center, and the ball kept carrying.

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On the mound

After Flaherty, Maeda came out of the bullpen for the third, fourth and fifth innings. The 36-year-old allowed three runs on five hits and zero walks with five strikeouts across three innings, throwing 32 of 50 pitches for strikes.

Maeda retired all three batters in the third and worked around a pair of singles in the fourth, but he ran into trouble in the fifth with three extra-base hits.

The big swings: Trayce Thompson’s leadoff double, Anthony’s RBI double with one out and Mayer’s two-run home run with two outs. The homer from Mayer was significantly aided by the wind blowing out to right, as he hit Maeda’s 91.3 mph fastball with a 94.9 mph exit velocity.

Maeda, whose fastball averaged 91.8 mph, generated seven whiffs on 23 swings for a 30.4% whiff rate on four splitters, two sweepers and one fastball.

Right-handed reliever Will Vest surrendered two home runs in the sixth inning. Jason Foley, a fellow right-handed reliever, shut down all three batters he faced with one strikeout.

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Three stars

1. Rogers; 2. Greene; 3. Foley.

Next up

Friday (1:07, no TV or radio) vs. Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.





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Boston, MA

First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather

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First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather


Today is a First Alert weather day. A system to our south is pushing mix of snow and rain into southern New England through this evening and tonight. 

For us here in Greater Boston, expect snow to continue spreading over our area through the afternoon/evening commute. In fact, parts our area could see up to 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation before the sleet and rain move in.

Much of Greater Boston will likely see snow amounts on the lower end. Higher snow amounts are expected toward southern New Hampshire and along and north of outer Route 2. Also, some ice accumulations are possible, up to a tenth of an inch, creating a thin glaze here and there.

Dozens of schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts have already announced early dismissals as a result of the storm.

While this system won’t cripple our area, conditions could still create a mess on the roads during the evening commute through tonight. Be careful while driving. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for parts of our area through early Wednesday morning. High temperatures will be in the mid to upper 30s today. Overnight lows will drop into the low 30s.

We’ll wake up to patchy fog Wednesday morning before the sun returns. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s. We’ll stay in the 40s on Thursday with increasing clouds. But by late Thursday night into Friday, wet weather returns. Some snow could mix with the rain into Friday morning. Highs will be in the upper 30s Friday.

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Warmer weather is expected this weekend. Highs will be in the 50s Saturday and possibly near 60 on Sunday.



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Boston, MA

Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe

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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe


That was more than what every other city department spent on overtime combined, though it was a slight drop from the $103 million the police department spent on overtime in 2024.

High overtime spending inside the police department has long been controversial and a source of frustration for police-reform advocates. Last year’s nine-figure total comes as Mayor Michelle Wu warns of a challenging budget season to come for the city, which is grappling with inflation and the possibility of more federal funding cuts.

In a December letter, Wu told the city council that she instructed city department heads to find ways to cut 2 percent of their budgets in the next fiscal year. She also imposed a delay on new hires. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper has also proposed cutting somewhere between 300 and 400 positions next fiscal year due to budget constraints.

Overall, the city spent about $2.5 billion on employee salaries in 2025, up around 1.5 percent from $2.4 billion in 2024. The city employs roughly 21,000 workers, according to a public dashboard.

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In a statement, Emma Pettit, a spokesperson for Wu’s office, attributed the payroll increase to raises, and in some cases, employees receiving retroactive pay, that were part of contracts the city negotiated with its various labor unions.

“We’re grateful to our city employees for their hard work to hold Boston to the highest standard for delivering city services,” Pettit said.

When Wu won her first mayoral race in November 2021, all of the city’s 44 union contracts had expired. Since then, Wu’s office has negotiated new agreements with all of them, and last year, agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.

But as the city heads back to the bargaining table to negotiate extensions or new contracts with others, city leaders should keep cost at the forefront of those conversations, said Steve Poftak, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.

“As budgets tighten, I’m hopeful that it increases the scrutiny on these collective bargaining agreements,” Poftak said.

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The top earner on the city’s payroll last year was Boston Police Captain Timothy Connolly. In addition to his $194,000 base salary, Connolly took home nearly $230,000 in overtime, about $26,000 in undefined “other pay,” and roughly $49,000 as part of a higher-education bonus, for a total of $498,145 in compensation.

Skipper, as BPS superintendent, was the 55th-highest earner among city workers, coming behind 54 members of the police department. She made a total of $378,000 in 2025.

Nearly 300 city employees made more than $300,000 last year. In contrast, Wu made $207,000, though her salary increased to $250,000 this year. More than 1,700 city employees made more than the mayor in 2025.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, argued that the high overtime costs in the police department are, in part, a result of understaffing.

The department is short roughly 400 rank-and-file police officers, Calderone said, meaning the department has to pay its staff to work overtime and fill vacant shifts. The average salary for an officer in the BPPA is roughly $195,000, Calderone said.

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With several large events approaching, including a Boston-based fan fest around this summer’s World Cup matches and the return of a fleet of tall ships to Boston Harbor, Calderone said most of the members of his union are likely to be working the maximum allowable 90 hours a week.

“We just don’t have the bodies on the street,” he said.

The Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation — the union that represents the department’s sergeants, captains, and lieutenants — did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and former member of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, said while high spending on overtime is not new for the police department, it’s a pressing problem the city should tackle.

The police and fire departments are “essential components of the city and society in general … [and] folks should be getting a fair wage. But it also has to be within fiscal responsibility,” Crawford said.

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“In another 10 years,” he continued, “with pensions and everything else, this type of thing can bankrupt the city.”


Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold. Yoohyun Jung can be reached at y.jung@globe.com.





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Boston, MA

Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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