AROUND THE HORN
■ Red Sox: Manager Ron Roenicke will not return in 2021, the Red Sox said Sunday, ending his tenure as a one-year, shotgun stopgap for a pandemic-shortened season with a lastplace finish in the AL East. Hired on the eve of spring training after Alex Cora was caught cheating during his time with the Astros, Roenicke took over a roster that would soon shed 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts and 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price, who were traded to the Dodgers. Ace Chris Sale (Tommy John surgery) and Eduardo Rodriguez (COVID-19) never threw a pitch for the team this year. Sure to get attention as a possible successor: Cora, who led the Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2018, his first season as a major league manager. The team split with him less than a month before spring training after he was identified as the ringleader in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal; Cora’s one-year ban ends after the World Series.
■ Angels: GM Billy Eppler was fired after the longstruggling franchise finished its fifth consecutive losing season under his watch. Eppler was under contract for one more year with the Angels in an extension he signed in July, but team president John Carpino said the franchise will seek new baseball leadership after missing the playoffs for a sixth straight year. Eppler was dismissed when the Angels couldn’t even make the eight-team AL playoff field this month. The Angels finished 26-34.
■ Reds, Twins: Tucker Barnhart and Eugenio Suarez had RBI singles a three-run 10th, and the visiting Reds beat the Twins 5-3. The Reds became the NL’s seventh seed and will play the No. 2 Braves starting Wednesday. The Twins clinched their second straight AL Central title when the White Sox lost to the Cubs in matchup of playoff-bound clubs. The Twins host No. 6 Astros starting Tuesday.
■ Extra innings: OF Ronald Acuna Jr. was removed from the Braves lineup in their regular-season finale due to irritation in his left wrist. The postseasonbound Braves said the move was made as a precaution. Acuna was on the 10-day IL due to soreness in the same wrist from Aug. 12-25. He hit .250 with 14 HRs and 29 RBIs in the regular season. ... Juan Soto became the NL’s youngest batting champion. Soto walked and singled before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the third of the host Nationals’ 15-5 victory over the Mets, elevating his average to .351 and sealing the NL lead in the category. The 21-year-old Soto surpassed Brooklyn Dodgers’ Pete Reiser for the youngest ever to take a batting crown. Reiser was 22 when he ended the 1941 season hitting a league-leading .343. Soto held off Braves Freddie Freeman (.341) and Marcell Ozuna (.338). ... Yankees INF DJ LeMahieu clinched the AL batting title and became the first player in the modern era to win a batting title in each league. He won the NL batting title with the Rockies in 2016, hitting .348. LeMahieu hit .364 this season. Last year’s AL and MLB champ Tim Anderson of the White Sox was second (.322).