BOSTON (AP)   The Boston Red Sox fired manager Jimy Williams on Thursday in the middle of a playoff race.

Boston has lost six of seven games, but still was only two games behind the Oakland Athletics in the AL wild-card standings and a season-high five games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East through Wednesday.

The Red Sox have been plagued by injuries, including to stars Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra, and the team currently has eight players on the disabled list.

2024-01-25: Broken links in this post have been removed and/or updated.