Boston, MA
Young Red Sox starters have shown they can handle a full season’s grind
For the last few years one of the biggest questions surrounding Boston’s young starting pitchers was whether or not they could survive a full 162-game season. Guys like Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello had shown they could compete against big league hitters, but could they maintain their stuff deep into August and September?
The answer, it turns out, is a resounding yes.
This weekend Houck, Crawford and Bello wrap up successful seasons in which each will exceed 30 starts for the first time in their careers. Houck and Crawford will both approach 180 innings, and while an early-season injury will prevent Bello from nearing that mark, he has also made every start since mid-May and gotten better as the season’s gone along.
Even if the season ultimately fell short of expectations, the trio’s emergence as legitimate rotation anchors has massive implications for the club’s future.
“We felt like they were capable of it,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “They worked hard in the offseason to get to this point physically. Bello, you see the evolution of the body. Kutter put some weight. And Tanner, he’s Tanner. He’s very consistent in everything he does on the field, in the weight room and in the training room.”
Crawford, who is scheduled to make his 33rd and final start on Saturday, comes into the weekend with a 4.17 ERA over 179.1 innings. Barring a change of plan, he will become just the fifth Red Sox pitcher in the last decade to make 33 starts in a season, and probably also the third to top 180 innings since 2019.
Reaching those totals is particularly gratifying for Crawford after he spent his first two full MLB seasons bouncing back and forth between the rotation, bullpen and injured list. He said his goal was to make at least 30 starts and throw 162 innings, but while he’s happy to have accomplished that, there’s still more work to be done.
“I feel good about my ability to stay healthy and make the starts and post every five days, but there are also other stuff that needs to be worked on,” Crawford said. “I’m not satisfied with where my velo is at, I’m obviously not satisfied with how many homers I’ve given up this year. I haven’t given up necessarily as many hits, but when I have gotten hit it’s been hit hard.”
Pitching coach Andrew Bailey, who praised Crawford’s progress and work ethic, offered a similar assessment of what it’ll take to reach the next level.
“Obviously the long balls hurt him,” Bailey said. “So finding ways to stay off barrels, whether that’s increasing velo, honing in on some of the more intricacies of the shapes, specifically the splitter.”
With nothing to play for and having battled shoulder fatigue over the past few weeks, Houck won’t make his final scheduled start on Sunday, wrapping up a breakout year in which the 28-year-old earned his first career All-Star nod and established himself as a front-of-the-rotation guy. Houck finishes with a 3.12 ERA over 178.2 innings in 30 starts, all by far the best totals of his career.
And even Bello, who got off to a rocky start, finished the year on a high note. The 25-year-old missed three weeks with lat tightness in April and May and boasted a 5.32 ERA heading into the All-Star break, but from July 20 onwards he recorded a 3.47 ERA over 72.2 innings, a stretch that included one of the best outings of his career, an eight-shutout-inning gem against the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 28.
“l learned a lot this year,” Bello said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I was able to finish strong, I gave everything my last few outings so to be able to start pretty much every outing since May was a huge accomplishment for me.”
With the core of the starting rotation now firmly in place, the Red Sox should be much better positioned to supplement the group with additional up-and-coming arms along with new external additions this coming winter. But even if the Red Sox are happy with the steps their young pitchers have taken, the hope is this is just the start of their journey, not the ultimate destination.
“For me moving forward it sets the bar for these guys,” Bailey said. “On what we expect and continuing to drive performance.”
Boston, MA
Boston man who spent COVID relief money at casino, Saks, and Six Flags sentenced to 5 months in prison for fraud – The Boston Globe
A Boston man received a five-month prison term Friday for obtaining nearly $50,000 in fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic relief aid for his purported businesses, funds he instead spent at a casino and a Saks Fifth Avenue store, according to Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office.
Antawn Davis, 40, learned his fate in US District Court in Boston, where he had pleaded guilty in June to wire fraud and making false statements, federal prosecutors said. Davis was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $49,999 in restitution and forfeiture.
In April and May of 2021, Davis submitted bogus loan applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, meant to help businesses hurt by the pandemic, prosecutors said in a statement.
“The applications contained multiple false statements, including the purported business’ total gross income in 2020, and the purpose of the loan,” prosecutors said. “Davis also submitted false tax records in support of his loan applications.”
Davis received nearly $50,000 in public funds, money that he promptly spent “on non-business-related expenses, including transactions at a casino and at Saks Fifth Avenue.”
Within weeks of getting the taxpayer funds, Davis “spent nearly the entirety of the proceeds on non-business-related expenses through a series of transactions, including for example, at Champs Sports, a casino, a zoo, Six Flags, and Saks Fifth Avenue,” prosecutors said.
“The defendant spent the funds on shopping and recreational excursions,” they said. “No portion of the loan proceeds went toward keeping a business running or employees paid.”
In a recent sentencing memo, Davis’s lawyer, John H. Cunha Jr., asked that his client be spared prison time.
“He is a 40-year-old man, motivated by his personal and professional responsibilities as a father of four and a chef, who has worked to turn his life around,” Cunha wrote. “He requests a sentence of 36 months’ probation, which is ‘sufficient, but not greater than necessary’ to achieve the purposes of sentencing set forth” in federal law.
“The seriousness of Mr. Davis’ offense is mitigated by his remorse and desire to pay restitution,” he said. “There is no need to incarcerate Mr. Davis to prevent recidivism.”
Davis had thought about buying a food truck with the money but “determined there was a three-year waiting period” for a city permit, his lawyer said.
“He then spent some of the money paying bills, including a car payment, but also frittered some of it away, including by gambling, a regular pursuit, although he does not believe his gambling is problematic,” Cunha wrote.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.
Boston, MA
Boston College Men’s Hockey Gears Up for Another Top 10 Matchup, The Rundown: November 19, 2024
The third-ranked Boston College men’s hockey team traveled to Storrs, Connecticut to face the UConn Huskies on Friday evening. After a sweep of fifth-ranked Maine, and with a matchup with the tenth-ranked Providence Friars awaiting, this matchup with the 5-5-1 Huskies was supposed to be a schedule break for the Eagles.
It proved to be anything but that.
After taking a 1-0 lead into the second period, the Huskies went on to score three unanswered goals in the last five minutes of the second frame to make the score 3-1 going into the final period.
Despite a three-goal effort from the Eagles, UConn was able to hold onto its lead and prevent BC’s comeback effort. The men move to 7-2 after the upset loss.
The road does not get easier this week, as Boston College now travel to Providence, Rhode Island to take on another top 10 opponent in the Providence Friars, its fourth top 10 opponent of the season.
The Eagles will be without their sophomore goalkeeper, Jacob Fowler, after being ejected and later suspended for throwing a punch after giving up the third goal of the second period to the Huskies.
Another sophomore, Jan Korec, will get the call after finishing the last 32-minutes against the Huskies. He performed well in the near-comeback effort, only surrendering two goals, but it will be a tall task in his first start of the season, on the road against an elite opponent.
Fortunately for fans, Tuesday night’s match against Providence will be the first nationally televised appearance of the season for the Eagles.
How to Watch: Boston College @ Providence; Tuesday, November 19th: 7 p.m. EST; ESPNU | Watch | Live Stats
No games scheduled on Monday, November 18th
87 days.
Check us out on…
Boston, MA
Condominium sells in Boston for $4.2 million
A condominium located at 1 Dalton Street in Boston has a new owner. The 1,403-square-foot property, built in 2015, was sold on Oct. 21, 2024, for $4,200,000, or $2,994 per square foot. The layout of this condo includes two bedrooms and three baths. The home’s outer structure has a flat roof frame. The property is equipped with forced air heating and a cooling system. In addition, the home is equipped with a one-car garage, allowing for convenient vehicle storage and protection.
These nearby units have also recently changed hands:
- In July 2024, a 1,693-square-foot unit on Belvidere Street in Boston sold for $2,850,000, a price per square foot of $1,683. The unit has 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
- On Belvidere Street, Boston, in October 2023, a 972-square-foot unit was sold for $1,400,000, a price per square foot of $1,440. The unit has 1 bedroom and 2 bathrooms.
- A 837-square-foot unit at 100 Belvidere Street in Boston sold in April 2023, for $1,150,000, a price per square foot of $1,374. The unit has 1 bedroom 1 bathroom.
Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data. See more Real Estate News
-
News1 week ago
Herbert Smith Freehills to merge with US-based law firm Kramer Levin
-
Technology1 week ago
The next Nintendo Direct is all about Super Nintendo World’s Donkey Kong Country
-
Business6 days ago
Column: OpenAI just scored a huge victory in a copyright case … or did it?
-
Health6 days ago
Bird flu leaves teen in critical condition after country's first reported case
-
Business3 days ago
Column: Molly White's message for journalists going freelance — be ready for the pitfalls
-
Politics1 week ago
Editorial: Abortion was on ballots across the country in this election. The results are encouraging
-
World7 days ago
Sarah Palin, NY Times Have Explored Settlement, as Judge Sets Defamation Retrial
-
Politics2 days ago
Trump taps FCC member Brendan Carr to lead agency: 'Warrior for Free Speech'