BRAD PEACOCK

Randy Arozarena, rookie Wander Franco and the Tampa Bay Rays won their ninth straight game, breaking away from Boston soon after Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts was pulled because of a positive COVID-19 test.

Boston Red Sox star shortstop Xander Bogaerts has tested positive for COVID-19 and been pulled from a game at Tampa Bay.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)SAN DIEGO – The Houston Astros spent this odyssey of a season as baseball's biggest villains. When Aledmys Diaz flied out with a runner on first to end Game 7 of the AL Championship Series, the bad guys finally lost. Ridiculed, roasted and ripped all year long, the Astros still summoned enough October heart and poise to reach the brink of another World Series. Manager Dusty Baker's club even came agonizingly close to matching the biggest playoff comeback in baseball history in a wild ALCS. But several Astros veterans from those tainted seasons remain on the team, and the players weren’t sanctioned.

One out later, Adell lined a two-run single to right off Enoli Paredes (1-2) for his first game-ending hit. Kyle Tucker homered and drove in three runs for the Astros, who lost in walk-off fashion for the second straight game. With two outs and runners on second and third, Martin Maldonado hit a two-run single to right-center. After Yuli Gurriel's two-run single in the third, Tucker extended the lead to 4-1 with a run-scoring infield single. It is the seventh game to start with triple-digit temperatures since the ballpark opened in 1966.