The Boston Red Sox reportedly have added right-handed pitcher Garrett Richards to their staff. Tommy Gutierrez/Associated Press
The Boston Red Sox have agreed to a one-year, $10-million deal with right-handed pitcher Garrett Richards, according to an ESPN report.
The former Angels and Padres starter joins Eduardo Rodirguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Martin Perez and Matt Andriese among the candidates for the Red Sox rotation. The Boston Globe reported that the club will also hold a $10 million option on Richards for the 2022 campaign.
Richards, 32, made 14 appearances and 10 starts with San Diego in 2020, helping the club reach the postseason. He finished with a 4.03 earned-run average and struck out 46 in 51 1/3 innings. Richards features a slider, a curveball and a four-seam fastball that has averaged 95.5 mph over the course of his 10-year career.
Major injuries have prevented Richards from capitalizing on his strong raw stuff for any extended period. He suffered a torn patellar tendon in his left knee in 2014 and a torn ulnar-collateral ligament in his right elbow in 2016. Richards put off Tommy John surgery until late in 2018 and ultimately moved from Los Angeles to the Padres.
Richards enjoyed his most productive seasons with the Angels in 2014 and 2015. He made a combined 58 starts and finished 28-16 with a 3.18 ERA. Richards fanned 340 and allowed just 305 hits in 376 innings of work, appearing poised to set himself up as a prominent member of the Los Angeles rotation as a 27-year-old.
Boston was already set to enter spring training with a pair of significant health questions, as Chris Sale (left elbow) and Rodriguez (myocarditis) haven’t thrown a pitch since the 2019 campaign. Sale is expected to make a mid-summer return from Tommy John surgery, and Rodriguez’s workload over the course of the year could be limited because of his absence in 2020.
• The Houston Astros traded left-hander Cionel Pérez to the Cincinnati Reds for minor league catcher Luke Berryhill.
Pérez, 24, pitched seven games in relief last season, going 0-0 with a 2.84 ERA. In parts of three seasons for the Astros, he is 1-1 with a 5.75 ERA over 26 2/3 innings, striking out 27 and walking 15.
Berryhill, 22, hit .240 in eight games in 2019 for Greeneville at the rookie level. He didn’t play last year because of the minor league shutdown caused by the pandemic.
GOLF
PGA: Max Homa made nine birdies and shrugged off a double bogey on the way to a 7-under 65 in the third round of The American Express in La Quinta, California, joining Tony Finau and Si Woo Kim atop the leaderboard at 15-under 201.
Finau and Kim both shot 67.
Richy Werenski also shot a 65 and moved within a shot of the lead.
Russell Knox had the day’s low round with a 64 – one stroke off the course record – to join Brian Harman and Emiliano Grillo at 13 under.
LPGA: Danielle Kang tied her career low with an 8-under 63, and Jessica Korda surged into contention with a 60 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Kang was at 21-under 192 through three bogey-free rounds. She had a two-shot lead over Korda, whose third round was one shot off the LPGA Tour scoring mark.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Rory McIlroy will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the season-opening Abu Dhabi Championship after posting a 5-under 67 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
McIlroy holed out from 73 yards to eagle the 10th and added five birdies to reach 13 under, wrestling control of the tournament from Tyrrell Hatton (71), who trails by a shot.
Hatton held a five-shot lead when play was halted Friday because of fading light, but he finished the second round up by just a shot early Saturday before the third round started.
BASKETBALL
NBA: The shorthanded Washington Wizards signed free-agent centers Alex Len and Jordan Bell, trying to fill out a roster decimated by COVID-19 and injuries.
The Wizards have had six games postponed since a win over Phoenix on Jan. 11 made them 3-8. They’re scheduled to play Sunday at San Antonio.
Six Washington players have tested positive for the coronavirus and three other were sidelined after contact tracing determined they might have been exposed to the illness.
Starting center Thomas Bryant is out for the season because of an injured left knee and point guard Russell Westbrook is still dealing with a left quadriceps injury.
OLYMPICS: USA Basketball is casting a wider-than-usual net in its roster selection for this summer’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
Additions to the list in recent weeks include New Orleans’ Zion Williamson, Atlanta’s Trae Young, Memphis’ Ja Morant, Miami’s Duncan Robinson and Detroit’s Christian Wood.
The people told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the final list has not been revealed publicly.
The additions mean at least 60 players could be on the player-pool list that will be released by USA Basketball in the coming weeks. Most of those are holdovers from the finalists list that was announced in February 2020 in anticipation of an Olympics last summer.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Defending FA Cup champion Arsenal was eliminated from the competition in the fourth round thanks to an own-goal in a 1-0 loss at Southampton, while Manchester City scored three late goals to beat fourth-tier Cheltenham, 3-1.
SKIING
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Olympic champion Sofia Goggia is dominating the downhill season like no woman since Lindsey Vonn.
Goggia won her fourth straight downhill, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, to tie a World Cup streak last achieved by Vonn in 2018.
The Italian star finished 0.27 seconds faster than Lara Gut-Behrami as both thrived on icy snow slicker than in Friday’s race at Crans-Montana also won by Goggia.
Goggia’s teammate, Elena Curtoni, was third, 0.60 back, ending American Breezy Johnson’s streak of four third-place finishes in downhill.
MEN’S WORLD CUP: Rain and snowfall forced the cancelation of the second downhill on the Streif course in Kitzbuhel, Austria.
TENNIS
SUSPENSION: The International Tennis Federation denied a bid by 29th-ranked Dayana Yastremska to lift a suspension for failing an out-of-competition doping test.
The ruling can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the 20-year-old Ukrainian.
Players at Grand Slam tournaments and events sanctioned by the ITF, ATP and WTA are tested for substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Yastremska drew a provisional suspension by the ITF on Jan. 7. She had tested positive for mesterolone metabolite, a prohibited substance that can be used to boost testosterone.
BOBSLED
WORLD CUP: Kaillie Humphries got her second win in as many attempts in a monobob sled this season, leading a gold-silver finish for USA Bobsled and Skeleton in Koenigssee, Germany.
Humphries had the fastest time in both heats and finished in 1 minute, 46.75 seconds. She was 0.62 seconds ahead of Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S., who took second for her first monobob medal.
Stephanie Schneider of Germany was third. Meyers Taylor trailed Schneider by 0.03 seconds after the first heat, then posted a second-run time that was 0.16 seconds faster than Schneider’s.
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