high praise

Mitch Moreland, who spent parts of four seasons in a Red Sox uniform, returned to Boston Tuesday as a member of the Oakland A’s and got a standing ovation as he dug in for his first at-bat. Before the series between the two division leaders began, the former Mississippi State star from Amory was showered with high praise from the other clubhouse. “Mitch is a good player, man, and a great person, and what he brought to the equation in the clubhouse was kind of like a sense of calmness, you know?” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said in a story on nesn.com. “He’s one of my favorites, to be honest with you.” Moreland helped Cora and the Red Sox win a World Series in 2018. Cora said the left-handed hitting first baseman “was probably one of the most important players that we had in ’18.” Moreland went 1-for-4 in Tuesday’s game as the A’s took a 3-2 win. He is batting .220 with four homers and 15 RBIs as Oakland’s primary DH. A 12-year veteran, Moreland is a .251 career hitter with 180 homers and, befitting his “2-Bags” nickname, 210 doubles. P.S. Ole Miss product Bobby Wahl is on a rehab assignment with the Biloxi Shuckers, Milwaukee’s Double-A affiliate, and likely will pitch in this week’s series against the Mississippi Braves. The oft-injured Wahl has pitched in 17 MLB games over parts of three seasons stretching back to 2017. He was a fifth-round pick by Oakland in 2013.