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HOUSTON — Alex Verdugo hit a leadoff homer with four hits and rookie Wilyer Abreu got his first major league home run among four hits as the Boston Red Sox tagged J.P. France for 10 runs in a 17-1 rout of the Houston Astros on Thursday.

The 16-run margin of defeat is tied for the largest in Astros history. It was the seventh time Houston had been routed that bad, according to ESPN Stats & Information, with the last time happening vs. the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 25, 2011.

The Red Sox set season highs with 17 runs and 24 hits, and it was the most runs and hits the World Series champs have allowed this year. Boston has at least one home run in 13 straight games, which is the team’s longest streak since homering in 19 in a row in 2019.

The 24 hits in a game were the most for Boston since Aug. 15, 2015, and the 16-run margin of victory was the team’s highest since a 19-3 win against the New York Yankees on July 25, 2019.

“They were just hot,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “The bats were hot and they can hit and then when the hits start coming, it’s hard to stop it.”

Verdugo drove in two runs and Abreu, who made his debut Tuesday, added four RBI in the victory.

“He’s a good hitter,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He kept putting up good at-bats, even at the end. He was relentless.”

Eight different hitters had multihit games for Boston and nine hitters recorded an RBI, which tied for second among MLB teams this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Tampa Bay had 10 players with an RBI vs. Seattle on June 30.

The Red Sox were up 13-1 before Astros catcher Martín Maldonado took the mound and gave up five hits, including a homer to Connor Wong, and four runs in the ninth. It was his second career pitching appearance and first since throwing a scoreless inning for the Brewers in 2014.

Boston went 10-for-22 with runners in scoring position, while the Astros were 1-for-12 while leaving 11 men on base.

Thursday’s lopsided win salvaged a split of the four-game series between the clubs.

The Astros were hoping to get a strong start from France (9-5) to give their taxed bullpen a rest. Instead, the rookie had the worst performance of his young career, giving up 11 hits and 10 runs — both career highs — without getting out of the third inning.

“It didn’t appear that him and (catcher) Yainer (Diaz) were on the same page for a while,” Baker said. “You could sort of tell they were out of sync and … the guy’s been great for us. I know he feels badly.”

Boston starter Brayan Bello (10-7) yielded nine hits and a run in seven innings for his second straight win.

The Red Sox got going immediately with Verdugo sending France’s third pitch into the seats in right field for his third leadoff homer this season.

There was one on with no outs in the second when Abreu homered to right-center to extend the lead to 3-0. Abreu is a former Astros prospect who was traded to the Red Sox last season as part of the deal for catcher Christian Vázquez.

“As soon as I hit that ball, I knew it was gone,” Abreu said through a translator. “I can’t put into words how I felt in that moment … but it was an amazing experience and an amazing feeling, and I’m happy that it happened today.”

Rafael Devers hit a two-RBI single with one out in the inning to make it 5-0.

Luis Urías added an RBI double with one out in the third and Verdugo knocked another run in with a single later in the inning to put Boston up 7-0. France walked Devers after that to load the bases and end his day.

Brandon Bielak, who was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land on Thursday, hit Justin Turner with a pitch before walking Adam Duvall to send two more runs home. Masataka Yoshida singled after that to make it 10-0, and the Red Sox added another run on a groundout by Pablo Reyes.

Mauricio Dubón doubled to start the fifth and the Astros made it 11-1 when he scored on a single by Alex Bregman. Yordan Alvarez went 1-for-3 in his return after missing two games after slamming his left hand in a door and injuring the index finger.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: Closer Kenley Jansen wasn’t available Thursday after leaving Wednesday night’s game with tightness in his right hamstring. Cora said Jansen would be evaluated when they return to Boston on Friday, and the team hopes he can avoid going on the injured list.

Astros: OF Michael Brantley (right shoulder surgery) will return to Sugar Land to resume a rehabilitation assignment this weekend. Baker said Brantley, who hasn’t played since June 2022, wasn’t ready to return and needed more time in Sugar Land before rejoining the Astros.

UP NEXT

Boston: RHP Kutter Crawford (6-6, 3.66 ERA) will start Friday’s opener of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Houston: LHP Framber Valdez (9-9, 3.55 ERA) starts for the Astros against Detroit RHP Matt Manning (5-4, 4.31) on Friday night in the first of three games against the Tigers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ohtani blasts 54th HR as Dodgers clinch NL West

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Ohtani blasts 54th HR as Dodgers clinch NL West

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani matched his career high with his 54th home run, Freddie Freeman went deep twice and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their 12th National League West title in 13 years by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 on Thursday.

Ohtani’s homer splashed into Chase Field’s swimming pool behind the right-center wall for a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. The two-run shot gave him 101 RBIs for the season and matched his career-best home run total with the World Series champion Dodgers last year. He has scored a big league-high 144 runs.

Los Angeles, which clinched a postseason berth last week, won its fourth straight division title.

Arizona (80-79) fell 1½ games behind the New York Mets (81-77) for the final NL wild-card spot and also is one game back of Cincinnati (81-78). The Diamondbacks close with three games at San Diego.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8) allowed four hits in six innings and struck out seven to finish with 201. His 2.49 ERA ranked second in the NL behind the 1.97 ERA of Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes.

Three relievers finished a five-hitter in the Dodgers’ 10th shutout.

Freeman and Andy Pages homered back to back starting the second inning, Freeman off opener Jalen Beeks (5-3) and Pages against Nabil Crismatt. Mookie Betts added a two-run single.

Freeman, who had three RBIs, has 23 homers while Pages has 27.

Arizona finished 43-38 at Chase Field. The crowd of 34,952 raised home attendance to 2,393,773, the Diamondbacks’ highest since 2008.

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Bochy’s Rangers future unclear as season ends

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Bochy's Rangers future unclear as season ends

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bruce Bochy is in the final games of his three-year contract with the Texas Rangers, a span that began with the franchise’s only World Series title, but baseball’s winningest active manager isn’t ready to discuss if he will be back next season.

“Season’s not over. It’s something we’ll talk about when the season’s over,” Bochy said before the Rangers lost 4-0 to Minnesota in their home finale Thursday. “So I’m going to stick with that right now and see if we can win a couple of games here.”

Both Bochy, who turned 70 this season, and Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, said they will talk about next season after this one is done. The Rangers, who will miss the playoffs for the second year in a row since that championship in 2023, finish with three games at Cleveland this weekend.

“The two of us will sit down and talk about where things are, what happened this year, where we’re going,” Young said. “There’s things that I’m sure he’s going to want to know about the future of the team and we’ll talk about it, like we did three years ago, and figure it out.”

Young, who pitched a season for Bochy in San Diego, was the Rangers general manager when he hired Bochy as manager after the 2022 season. They were coming off their sixth consecutive losing season, the longest streak in the half-century since the franchise moved to Texas in 1972.

At that time, Bochy had been out of managing for three seasons. He stepped away from the San Francisco Giants in 2019 after 13 seasons and three World Series titles, which followed 12 seasons and a National League pennant with the Padres.

“Just love him. He’s great. I love working with him. He’s been wonderful,” Young said. “He came here to win a World Series. He’s helped us accomplish that. And, you know, we’ll figure out what the future holds.”

Young didn’t have a timeline on how quickly a decision could be made after the season ends this weekend.

The Rangers (80-79) were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday night when they lost their eighth straight game, but ended that losing streak the next night. They can still finish with a winning record, but would have to win two out of three against the playoff-chasing Guardians.

Bochy has a career record of 2,251-2,264 over his 28 seasons, with those wins ranking sixth among all managers – the five ahead of him are all in the Hall of Fame. No managers in the past 60 years have more than Bochy’s four World Series titles, and the only ones all-time with more are Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Connie Mack.

“Oh, I’ve really had a great time, and it’s as much fun as I’ve had in the game,” Bochy said of his three seasons back in the dugout. “I said this when I came back, you have a deeper appreciation when you’re out, especially for three years and you realize what you have, how blessed you are to be doing what you’re doing. It’s been a lot of fun and I still love it, and enjoy it.”

The only current MLB manager older than Bochy is 73-year-old Ron Washington with the Angels, though he hasn’t managed a game for the Angels since June 19 before he had quadruple bypass heart surgery.

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Horton ‘adament’ he can pitch, but Cubs unsure

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Horton 'adament' he can pitch, but Cubs unsure

CHICAGO — The Cubs were still evaluating the extent of starter Cade Horton‘s back injury on Thursday, leaving the National League Rookie of the Year candidate’s status for the wild-card playoff series in question.

Manager Craig Counsell said “Cade is on track still,” though an MRI on Wednesday showed “some areas of concern” in the ribs.

“Right now, Cade is a go,” Counsell said, adding that Horton is “adament he can pitch.”

Counsell said another physician will look at the imaging. Horton is scheduled to resume throwing on Friday after being off the past two days.

“We want to make sure we use this time to let Cade tell us how he feels, let Cade show us how he feels, consult our doctors and let them make recommendations and get the best decision we can make,” Counsell said.

Chicago will play the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series on Tuesday. The Cubs’ magic number for clinching the top wild-card spot — and homefield advantage in the first round — was at two over Padres entering Thursday’s game against the playoff-contending New York Mets.

Horton is 11-4 in 22 starts and 23 appearances. The 24-year-old right-hander has a 2.67 ERA that ranks second among qualified rookies.

Horton left Tuesday’s start against New York after three innings due to back tightness. He was sick following his previous start and had been coughing, which led to the issues in the back and ribs.

Counsell said the Cubs won’t announce their postseason rotation until next week.

“We’re at this phase where we’re starting to put plans into place,” Counsell said. “We have multiple ones. We’ve got four baseball games left, which affects things.”

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