The Boston Red Sox look to get back in the win column after losing 6-1 to the Los Angeles Angels , the team with MLB's worst record, on Tuesday.
Before the slip-up, the Red Sox had won five games in a row and six of their last eight.
Before the final Red Sox-Angels game of 2026, some personal news emerged on a fan-favorite Boston infielder.
Nick Sogard celebrates a birthday on Wednesday.
The 2019 12th-round Tampa Bay Rays draft pick turns 29 and will spend the occasion in the Red Sox lineup Wednesday night, with the switch-hitting infielder set to start at first base and bat fifth against the Angels at Fenway Park.
Sogard, born Sept. 9, 1997, in Los Angeles , enters the 6:45 p.m. ET series finale coming off a two-hit game. He singled home Trevor Story in Boston's 6-1 loss Tuesday, giving him 16 RBI in 50 games this season. Sogard's official Red Sox player page lists him at 29 years old, 6-foot-1 and 189 pounds.
The Red Sox announced Sogard's birthday in a post taken from the Red Sox annual photo day.
"Photo day with our birthday boy, Sogie!" the team posted on social media.
LOS ANGELES ANGELS STARTING LINEUP
SP: Ryan Johnson (RHP) • 3-8, 5.17 ERA
September 9, 2026 • Fenway Park, Boston, MA • 6:45 PM ET • Angels at Red Sox
#
Player
Pos
AVG
SLG
Lineups confirmed. Season stats shown (AVG / SLG). Kyren Paris ' .000 AVG and SLG reflect a small sample.
The Red Sox will use Sogard at first base against Angels right-hander Ryan Johnson , with left-hander Jake Bennett starting for Boston. Roman Anthony will serve as the designated hitter, Mickey Gasper will catch, and Sogard will hit behind Story and ahead of third baseman Caleb Durbin . MLB's Wednesday lineup page confirms Sogard's spot in interim manager Chad Tracy's starting nine.
It will be his 16th appearance at first base this season, to go with 34 at second, nine at third and five at shortstop. Sogard has moved around the infield while maintaining a place near the middle of Boston's order.
His latest stretch has also supplied a more immediate reason for another start. In his past 30 games, Sogard is batting .281 with a .362 on-base percentage, .456 slugging percentage, four homers and 13 RBI, according to the club's statistical page. The more recent 21-game sample shows a .300 average with a .903 OPS, 10 extra-base hits and nine multi-hit games.
BOSTON RED SOX STARTING LINEUP
SP: Jake Bennett (LHP) • 9-6, 3.34 ERA
September 9, 2026 • Fenway Park, Boston, MA • 6:45 PM ET • Angels at Red Sox
#
Player
Pos
AVG
SLG
2
Mickey Gasper
C
.270
.491
5
Nick Sogard
1B
.267
.406
6
Caleb Durbin
3B
.248
.380
Lineups confirmed. Season stats shown (AVG / SLG). Nate Eaton 's .125 AVG reflects a small sample.
Through Tuesday, Sogard was hitting .267/.364/.406 with four home runs, 11 doubles, one triple, 16 RBI, 26 runs, 28 walks and 41 strikeouts in 180 at-bats. His .770 OPS represents his best full-season major-league mark so far, and all four homers have come this year.
The first homer took a while. Sogard did not homer in 31 games as a rookie in 2024 or 30 games last season, before he took Arizona 's Brandon Pfaadt deep at Fenway Park on Aug. 19 for his first major-league homer .
Sogard's route to Boston began at Loyola Marymount, where he was named West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a junior and led the conference with 28 stolen bases. Tampa Bay selected him in the 12th round of the 2019 draft, No. 368 overall, then traded him to Boston with catcher Ronaldo Hernandez in February 2021 for Jeffrey Springs , Chris Mazza and cash.
He made his major-league debut on Aug. 2, 2024, against Texas . Over 111 career games, he has hit .266 with a .343 on-base percentage, four homers, 33 RBI, 52 runs and five stolen bases. Boston's player biography traces Sogard's path from Jesuit High School in California through Worcester and into a role that now includes a birthday start in the middle of a September lineup.
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