Boston, MA

All Eyes on Merrill Kelly as Diamondbacks go for Sweep in Boston

Published

2 years ago

August 25, 2024

All Eyes on Merrill Kelly as Diamondbacks go for Sweep in Boston

The Arizona Diamondbacks (74-56) will go for the three game sweep against the Boston Red Sox (67-61) Sunday at historic Fenway Park in Boston. First pitch is 10:35 A.M. Arizona time, 1:35 P.M. EST. The D-backs won the first two games 12-2 and 4-1, holding the normally excellent Boston lineup in check.

The Diamondbacks are 3.0 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West and currently hold the top NL Wild Card spot, 1.5 games ahead of the Padres and 3.5 games ahead of the Braves. The Mets, who Arizona plays in their next series, are six games back of Arizona.

The Red Sox are 4.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the third AL Wild Spot with 34 games remaining.

D-backs at Red Sox Lineups August 25th / Jack Sommers

Pavin Smith gets a start in left field, spelling Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Smith has played sparingly since getting recalled to replace the injured Ketel Marte on the roster. He’s 0-8 with two walks in two prior starts on August 19th and 21st.

Tyler O’neil is back in the lineup at left field for the Red Sox. He missed the first two games of the series with left fourth finger inflammation, an injury suffered during batting practice. He’s faced D-backs starter Merrill Kelly 17 times in his career, but has just one hit. That was a homer back in 2019.

Merrill Kelly RHP, 3-0, 3.63 ERA, 4.07 FIP in 34.2 IP

Kelly is making his third start since missing nearly four months with a left shoulder strain in the Teres Major muscle. He looked sharp in his first game back, going five innings against the Phillies, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks.

It was a different story in his second game. With his velocity all the way down to 89.6 MPH on his fastball, and his command not as sharp as usual, he gave up six runs on eight hits, two walks and a homer to the Rays on August 18th.

Speaking afterwards Kelly said the velocity loss wasn’t a big concern for him, as long as it does not stay down in that range. Velocity loss is often associated with shoulder injuries, but he has not reported any undue discomfort in the shoulder since coming back.

Tanner Houck RHP, 8-8, 3.01 ERA, 3.19 FIP in 152.2 IP

The 28 year old won’t wow you with velocity, as his sinker averages a solid but unspectacular 93.4 MPH. He throws his sweeper more than any other pitch (42%) compared to the sinker (31.6%). His out pitch against lefties is a splitter, with well above average vertical break.

Houck was a first round draft pick, 24th overall, by the Red Sox in 2017. He made his major league debut during the Pandemic 2020 season. A down year last year has been followed by the best season of his career so far. He’s thrown 18.2 innings over his last three outings, allowing six runs, five earned, 2.41 ERA.

Houck has a large reverse split, allowing just a .213 B.A. and .576 OPS against left-hand batters compared to a .255 B.A. and .659 OPS against right-hand batters.

Crawford has the fourth highest ground ball percentage in MLB, 55.8%. He keeps the ball in the yard, allowing just nine homers. His 0.53 home run per nine innings is also the fourth best in MLB. Houck’s 72% Quality Start percentage (18-25) ranks sixth best in MLB.

The D-backs bullpen has been very good this series. The only run allowed in six innings of work over the last two games came against Paul Sewald in the ninth on Saturday. That forced Torey Lovullo to get Justin Martinez warmed up during the inning, but he did not need to enter the game. Martinez has had a heavy workload of late and it would have been preferable if he did not need to warm up at all.

The Red Sox bullpen has been the worst in MLB since the All-Star break, with s 6.70 ERA. They have not pitched well this series, giving up nine runs in 7.2 innings pitched.

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Boston, MA

Historian clears up one of the biggest myths about the Boston Tea Party

Published

6 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Press Room

Historian clears up one of the biggest myths about the Boston Tea Party

When Americans think of the beverage that fueled the American Revolution, they usually picture black tea — but it turns out that green tea was just as popular.

The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, told Fox News Digital.

British subjects “were as likely to be drinking green tea as black tea, whether you were in Jane Austen [era] England … or you were in colonial Boston,” he added.

“There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea,” Richardson said. “And of those five different teas, two of them were green and three of them were black.”

Richardson, a tea historian who works as the tea master at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, said the five types of tea dumped into Boston Harbor in protest of the Tea Act of 1773 included three black varieties — Bohea, Souchong and Congou — as well as the green teas Hyson and Singlo.

Bohea, the most common and least expensive black tea of the era, was often made from older tea leaves harvested after the highest-quality leaves of the season had already been picked.

Most of the tea dumped into Boston Harbor was Bohea, Richardson said — and it was so ubiquitous that he compared it to the way Kleenex has become synonymous with tissues today.

The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas said. Getty Images

“It was so common that often teapots at the time, or some that I’ve seen, would say Bohea on the side of the teapot,” he said. “If they wanted tea, they’d say, ‘I’ll have a cup of Bohea.’ It was that common.”

Not only did colonial Americans distinguish between green and black tea, they even stored them differently.

“They still wanted their tea time, but they didn’t want to support the British government.”

“The well-to-do people would have a tea caddy – a wooden, beautifully made tea caddy to store their tea in,” he said.

“It was kept under lock and key. And in that tea caddy, [there] would be two compartments, one for green tea and one for black tea.”

Pouring sencha or genmaicha from a green clay teapot into a ceramic teacup. — There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea, and green and black teas were very popular! Kristina Blokhin – stock.adobe.com

Merchants often favored black tea because it held up better during the long voyage from China to Europe and onward to the American colonies, Richardson said.

“The green tea was what China had always drunk,” he said.

“And so they were exporting that as well, but they found that the black tea actually made the voyage better than the green teas.”

Even after many colonists swore off British tea, they kept the ritual of drinking it — or at least a close substitute.

Many patriots brewed so-called “Liberty Teas” made from ingredients such as dried apples, blueberries, chamomile and herbs grown in their gardens.

“They still wanted their tea time, but they didn’t want to support the British government,” Richardson said.

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Boston, MA

Boston Pops surprise travelers at Logan Airport with July 4th preview performance

Published

17 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Press Room

Boston Pops surprise travelers at Logan Airport with July 4th preview performance – CBS Boston

Watch CBS News

The Boston Pops surprised travelers at terminal E at Logan Airport with a preview of their July 4th performance.

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Boston, MA

Scottish soccer fan who died in Boston was ‘Tartan Army to his core,’ fundraising page says – The Boston Globe

Published

1 day ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

Scottish soccer fan who died in Boston was ‘Tartan Army to his core,’ fundraising page says – The Boston Globe

A Scottish man who died after collapsing outside a Boston pub while visiting for the World Cup is being remembered as a devoted soccer fan who was “Tartan Army to his core.”

Thomas Murty, known as “Tam,” died June 19 after collapsing near The Dubliner pub in downtown Boston a day earlier, according to a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to return Murty’s body to Scotland and pay for funeral expenses. Murty was born in 1963.

“Tam was Scotland daft his whole life,” the GoFundMe page reads. “He lived for it — the highs, the heartbreaks, the songs, the hope that never died no matter how many years went by. Following Scotland wasn’t just something he did; it was who he was.”

Murty had waited three decades to see Scotland play in the World Cup. Watching the Scottish team compete in the tournament was “the dream of a lifetime,” the fundraising page said.

Oram McGonagle, who owns The Dubliner, said he was at the pub when Murty collapsed. He said he saw a Scottish fan with an oxygen tube standing by a pillar outside the building. McGonagle said employees called an ambulance when they realized he needed help.

Caitlin McLaughlin, public relations director for Boston EMS, confirmed that medics took a patient from The Dubliner to an area hospital around 4:30 p.m. that day.

McGonagle later learned from a media report that Murty had died.

The Dubliner has donated 1,000 pounds, or about $1,325, to the fundraiser.

“We had a really good few weeks with the Scottish people,” McGonagle said Monday. “This felt like a way to give some back to them.”

Murty is the second Scottish soccer fan known to have died in Boston while visiting for the World Cup tournament. Donny Strathie, 76, died June 14 after collapsing in a hotel in Norwood. Fans paid tribute to Strathie in the 76th minute of Scotland’s game against Morocco in Foxborough on June 19.

About 2,800 people have donated more than $85,000 to the GoFundMe campaign set up for Murty’s family, as of Monday afternoon.

Ariela Lopez can be reached at ariela.lopez@globe.com. Follow her on X @ariela__lopez.

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