New England Patriots

Morning sports update: The Patriots sat more players than anyone in their preseason opener

Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia stand with members of the team during the national anthem before a preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. AP Photo/Steven Senne

By Nicole Yang

2 minutes to read

Rookie bats led the Red Sox over the Yankees in 10 innings, and the gap atop the AL East is now 5.5 games.

Joint practices a big reason Patriots sat NFL-high 40 players in opener: The final numbers are in from preseason games over the last five days, and the New England Patriots stand out with their approach: After further review, they had a league-high 40 players who didn’t play in Thursday’s first exhibition game.

“We played a lot of guys in practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday against Jacksonville, so a lot of guys that are going to play for us got a lot of reps,” Belichick had said in a pregame radio interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “[This game] will give us a chance to look at some of those guys that didn’t get as many reps in practice, so we’ll try to balance that out.” (ESPN)

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Devers and Benintendi clutch in extra-innings win over Yanks: Devers hit a stunning homer off Aroldis Chapman to tie the game in the ninth inning, and Benintendi singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th as Boston beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on Sunday night. (Boston.com, via AP)

John Farrell prefers aggressive base running: The Red Sox seem almost proud of the fact that that they lead the majors with the most outs on the bases, 66 though Saturday. That’s 15 more than any other team.

Ex-Patriots lineman explains why he retired from football at 26: The reason for his retiring from the NFL, as Bryan Stork explained in a recent interview with Jason Munz of the Hattiesburg American, was his health. Having suffered multiple concussions, Stork decided it was in his best interest to end his playing days. (Boston.com)

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Don Orsillo reunited with Terry Francona in Florida: Orsillo, who was the Red Sox play-by-play broadcaster for 15 years, joked that he was considering skipping his 11 o’clock meeting with Francona, who managed Boston to two World Series championships. (Boston.com)

Fairfield American Advances To Little League World Series: After Fairfield American Little League made Connecticut history by becoming the first state program to advance to three Little League World Series, manager Mike Randazzo was asked if he shed tears of joy as he suggested he might. (Hartford Courant)