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NEEDHAM, Mass. —

Temperatures across Massachusetts and New England will soar into the 90s Thursday, with a surge of humidity making temperatures feel like they're close to 100 degrees.

The heat dome that has led to record-smashing temperatures across the western United States is spread eastward into Massachusetts and New England.

"Although we are not going to get into the core (of the heat dome), we are going to get some of that heat building in," StormTeam 5 chief meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon said.

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A heat advisory was issued for Thursday and Friday across most of eastern Massachusetts, and a heat emergency was declared for Boston.

Boston cooling centers | Worcester cooling centers

"With the higher humidity and higher temperatures, that heat index will be running near 100 degrees," Fitzgibbon said.

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Taking breaks from the heat and staying hydrated will be critically important as the temperature soars above 90.

Dr. Ali Raja, an emergency physician at Mass General, says, above all, pay attention to your body. "We are starting to feel a little dizzy, nauseated, or we can start sweating a lot, and that can be a sign of heat exhaustion," Raja said. "At that point, you're OK, but you really need to move it inside or take a break."

Raja says people can progress really quickly from heat exhaustion to heat stroke, especially if they're older. Raja says it's time to call 911 if confusion sets in or someone loses consciousness.

Many towns around New England will likely see the first heat wave of the summer. A heat wave is defined as three consecutive days with a high temperature of 90 degrees or higher.

A slow-moving cold front will move toward New England late Friday night and Saturday. The front will touch off more thunderstorms to start the weekend. Temperatures will still flirt with 90 degrees on Saturday before things cool off a bit for Sunday.

Video: Ways to keep your air conditioner running smoothly in heat waves

MacKenzie Gore had been so efficient Wednesday night that when his first-pitch change-up to Boston’s Trevor Story with one out in the seventh inning made catcher Keibert Ruiz stand up to reel it in, it set off alarms. The Washington Nationals left-hander looked down at his hand, then wiped it on his side. Meanwhile, Manager Dave Martinez and a trainer were already out of the dugout to check on the 24-year-old.

Gore stood on the mound for a few moments, then walked off with a trainer and headed to the dugout, where he stayed until Jordan Weems worked out of the inning with the Nationals still holding a two-run lead. The concern for the young pitcher, a key part of Washington’s rebuild, was far greater than the result of a mid-August game for a team hoping to climb out of the basement of the National League East.

As it happened, Martinez said after the game that Gore was simply dealing with a split fingernail and a blister on his middle finger — news far more important to the long-term health of the franchise than the Nationals’ 6-2 win over the Red Sox (63-57), a result sealed by back-to-back home runs from Ruiz (a three-run blast) and Stone Garrett (his second of the game) in the eighth inning. The Nationals (54-67) have won 13 of their past 16 at home.

“That was frustrating, but [the blister] is something I deal with, so there’s no panic button or anything,” said Gore, who also left a July outing in Philadelphia early with a similar issue but made his next start. “There was a lot of good tonight. We got ahead of guys. Keibert was awesome. Turned a lot of double plays, and we hit some big homers.”

Weems yielded a two-run homer to Pablo Reyes in the eighth to inject some drama into the game and keep Gore from earning a win, which felt unfair considering how well he pitched: 6⅓ innings, seven strikeouts, two walks and just one hit allowed. He threw 56 of his 85 pitches for strikes and kept the bats of an American League wild-card contender quiet.

If Gore’s outing proved anything, it’s that life is much easier when you’re ahead. Gore had a two-run lead thanks to solo home runs by Michael Chavis in the third and Garrett in the fourth.

Gore threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 22 hitters he faced, including the errant pitch to Story. He primarily attacked with fastballs high in the zone that the Red Sox watched for strikes, swung through or didn’t make solid contact on if they did put the ball in play.

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Gore’s struggles this season have hinged on his inability to put hitters away when he gets ahead in the count, though he showed in the first inning that wouldn’t be an issue Wednesday. In the first frame, he needed three pitches to get Rob Refsnyder to pop out, four to strike out Justin Turner swinging and just two to get Rafael Devers to pop out in foul territory. He retired the first 10 batters he faced.

“His stuff is electric,” Martinez said. “He’s got to understand what he wants to do every fifth day. . . . But when he has command of his fastball and he pounds the zone, everything else works for him. But his stuff is really good. The key is putting himself in situations where he’s walking and getting deep in counts — just finishing hitters off and trusting your defense. Today, that’s what he did.”

The Nationals have put an emphasis on building around their starting pitching, which is why the development of Gore and Josiah Gray is crucial. Gore is now at 123⅓ innings on the season, well above his career high. And outings like Wednesday’s are proof he’s learning and growing from each start.

“He can be really good,” Ruiz said. “We’ve just got to keep working hard, keep learning about everything. For him, when he attacks the zone and throws a lot of strikes, he’s really good.”

It helps that he can grow with Ruiz, the Nationals’ 25-year-old catcher. Ruiz also happens to be the team’s hottest hitter, entering Wednesday’s game hitting .340 in August and showing improved plate discipline.

And when he stepped to the plate against Garrett Whitlock with the score tied in the eighth and two runners on, he blasted his fourth home run in eight days into the center field seats, paving the way for a win.

“I feel like I’m just not trying to do too much, being more patient and watching for my pitch,” Ruiz said. “I’m having good results, and I just got to keep it going.”

Note: Tanner Rainey and Mason Thompson will start rehab assignments Thursday. Rainey will head to low Class A Fredericksburg, while Thompson will join Class AA Harrisburg. Both players threw simulated games Tuesday and reported no ill effects Wednesday.

Thompson, who has been sidelined for the past two weeks with a left knee contusion, is closer to returning than Rainey. Rainey is working his way back from Tommy John surgery, so Martinez said it could take him more time to get back into game shape. Martinez said he wants Rainey not to rush and, most importantly, to leave his outing healthy.

John Farinacci will be sticking around town a little while longer.

The Bruins signed the former Harvard center to a two-year entry-level contract Wednesday that comes with an annual salary cap hit of $910,000. The New Jersey native played at Dexter-Southfield in Brookline and then spent three seasons playing for the Crimson. Harvard coach Ted Donato is Farinacci’s uncle.

Farinacci was originally a third-round pick of the Coyotes in 2019 but never signed. Because he played four years of amateur hockey (three at Harvard and another with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL), Farinacci was granted unrestricted free agency Tuesday. It was a path similar to the ones taken by former Bruin Blake Wheeler and ex-Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey.

Farinacci quickly came to an agreement with Bruins general manager — and fellow Harvard man — Don Sweeney Tuesday night.

Continuing his career in Boston was “always something in the back of my mind,” said Farinacci, who collected 23 goals and 59 points in 78 games for the Crimson. His 2022-23 season was truncated by a herniated disk in his lower back.

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“I loved everything the Bruins had to offer, and I’m super excited,” said Farinacci, who did have some brief talks with other teams. “Nothing could compare to the opportunity to join the Bruins.”

Related: David Krejci was an underappreciated star at the heart of a Bruins revival, and his farewell marks the end of an era

Farinacci said he hadn’t had any conversations with Ted Donato, or his cousin, Ryan, both of whom played at Harvard and were drafted by the Bruins, because the deal came together so quickly.

Farinacci, who described himself as “a 200-foot centerman,” said it took some time to adjust playing for Donato.

“He went from being Uncle Teddy for the first 17 years [of my life] to Coach Donato pretty quickly,” said Farinacci, who served as a captain at Harvard. “I really learned so much from him.”

The 6-foot, 185-pound Farinacci, who won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2021 World Junior Championships in Edmonton, said Patrice Bergeron is a player he watched a lot and tries to emulate.

“The way he played was amazing,” he said. “That’s a guy I try to play like.”

Seven wonders of the sports world

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WATCH: Associate editor Stan Grossfeld shares stories from visits to his seven wonders of the sports world, from Fenway Park to Lambeau Field.

ARLINGTON - Imagine taking a stroll down a rainy bike path and having no idea you are stepping in sewage. Neighbors in Arlington say it happens all too often, and they are sick of it.

Last Tuesday, the Alewife Greenway bike path flooded with water from the nearby Alewife Brook. Neighbors say the waterway is a sewage dump for a few different sewer systems. These dumps are called combined sewer overflows, or CSOs. When heavy rains hit, sewer water gets pumped into the brook to release stress on the system.

Last week, a CSO dump coincided with the heavy flooding of the bike path. People were seen walking, biking and pushing children in strollers through the sewage water. Neighbors say those people had no idea despite the smell.

"Anybody going through it would have been wading through sewage," said David Stoff, a neighbor and member of an advocacy group called Save The Alewife Brook.

"You need to know whether what you are walking in is contaminated," Stoff told WBZ-TV. "There's a legal duty to notify the people using that street, and that duty has been avoided."

Stoff says there is an email system in place to warn people. However, neighbors say, visitors may not know it exists.

"There are six CSOs in the Alewife, and you have to subscribe to three systems in order to get notified," says Kristin Anderson, and fellow member of Save The Alewife Brook. "A lot of people think you subscribe to one, and you will know when sewage in the Alewife Brook. That's not true."

They want to see the EPA step in and increase notifications in real-time. They point to a lighting system seen on the Potomac River.

"You see a light go on, and that lets you know sewage discharge triggered the light," explains Stoff.

The neighbors have formed a group called Save the Alewife Brook. The group has started a growing petition to ask the EPA to make a change. In addition to the lighting system, they want to see a CSO treatment system for the sewer runoff water.

"Twenty years ago, they weren't telling anyone, and my neighbors and I were ... received flood waters in our home - it came right in through the back door - and we got sick."

"1910 or 1911, that was the end of maintenance for the Alewife Brook. Nothing has been done since then," adds Stoff. "When you get six to eight inches of rain, that water goes into the adjacent houses here."

WBZ contacted the EPA for comment, but have yet to receive a response.

Saying good-bye to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci might mark something different for the Boston Bruins if they were more similar to other really good teams.

Usually, when your first- and second-line centres hang ‘em up, it’s a sure sign a cohort of close-in-age players who’ve won together are ready to move on, creating a natural pivot point for an organization that needs to start again.

Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, more or less, came to the end of the road with the Chicago Blackhawks around the same point. When Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are done chasing Cups, the Penguins can kick off a rebuild by trading Erik Karlsson ahead of the final year on his contract.

Even in Tampa Bay, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov are all within three years of each other.

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The record-setting Bruins from last year are a different beast, though. Their No. 1 centre — Bergeron — was 37 years old. But top winger David Pastrnak just turned 27 in May and stud D-man Charlie McAvoy won’t hit 26 until Christmas. Both are locked up on massive, long-term contracts.

Yes, there’s a gaping hole up the middle in Boston now, but this team is going to keep the pedal pinned to the floor in win-now mode.

And pin it, they should

The Bruins have operated under somewhat-exceptional circumstances each of the past two summers wondering if Bergeron and Krejci would return. Twelve months ago the answer was yes; this time it’s something different.

There is, however, another unique situation in the league right now Boston might be able to exploit in that two very, very good centres could be had via trade. Both Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jet Mark Scheifele are one year away from unrestricted free agency with more than a little summer-long speculation their time with their current clubs could end before July 1 of 2024.

Scheifele, in particular, would seem like a dream fit for Boston.

Nobody is going to replicate Bergeron in terms of being a two-way presence, to say nothing of the calm, sturdy leadership he brought to the club. But if you’re forced into replacing a right-shot centre at the top of your lineup, you could sure do worse than slotting in another righty who comes in a six-foot-three package and just set a career high with 42 goals in the same season he turned 30.

There’s no denying a Scheifele move would be tricky for Boston on a couple of fronts. First off, the B’s have a bottom-five farm system and have already spent significant draft capital at recent trade deadlines trying, in vain, to bring the second title in careers of Bergeron and Krejci to Massachusetts. The futures Boston can offer just might not tantalize the Jets all that much.

Also, there’s that pesky salary cap that won’t be increasing for another year. The Bruins are already up against it, so squeezing in Scheifele’s hit of $6.1 million for 2023-24 would take some work.

Still, GM Don Sweeney could find a way.

Let’s tackle those issues in the order presented. The B’s may not have a glut of good prospects, but their best one — 20-year-old Fabian Lysell — just finished his rookie season in the AHL and could be ready for NHL action next fall. The Jets made it known while negotiating to move another centre, Pierre-Luc Dubois, that they preferred young NHL talent to pure futures. Lysell sort of fits that bill and even if he needs another AHL year to marinate, Winnipeg is already adding 23-year-old Gabe Vilardi from the Dubois swap with L.A. Put Lysell together with a first-round pick and surely you’ve got the foundation of a deal that would see Scheifele come to Boston and ink an extension — as Dubois did — as part of the deal.

From the Bruins’ perspective, you’re in for a penny, in for a pound. What’s the point of hugging prospects or draft picks now? You might as well explode what little powder you have remaining and deal with the smoldering crater down the road.

As for the salary cap, there’s no way around some difficult discussion that start and end with Jeremy Swayman. The goaltender entered the summer on more than one ‘trade candidates’ board around the Internet because, as an RFA, he was in need of a new deal and the Bruins are perpetually in need of salary cap space. At the start of this month, Swayman was awarded a $3.5-million salary by an arbitrator and the team chose a one-year term.

Trading a 24-year-old goalie and breaking up the best tandem in the league would hurt. But given the interest Swayman would generate — he’s still an RFA next summer — you have to think Boston could not only find several suitors, but one that might also take an additional salary — for example, both Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort each have one year remaining on their deals with hits of $3 million or more — off the Bruins’ hands if it meant giving up a little less for Swayman.

Again, it’s not pleasant, but think of what the Bruins would be left with once the dust settles.

First, off, you’re slotting hockey-obsessed Scheifele in as your 1C for a long time. He’d be supported by second-line centre Pavel Zacha, who broke out last year with a 57-point season and, at 26, could make the four-year extension worth $4.75 annually he signed eight months ago look very team friendly in the coming years. Put Charlie Coyle behind those two and you’re looking at a trio of six-foot-three guys down the middle, with Rocket Richard candidate Pastrnak locked up forever on the wing and Brad Marchand — signed through 2024-25 — still an incredibly effective two-way player on the flank, too.

On the blueline you’ve got McAvoy — bound to win a Norris one of these years — and No. 2 D-man Hampus Lindholm under team control through the end of this decade. A third important defenceman, Brandon Carlo, is signed through 2026-27. At 29, Lindholm is easily the senior citizen of that group.

You’re going to take a hit in goal, but there are always make-it-work solutions for a backup and you’ve still got the reigning Vezina Trophy winner in Linas Ullmark, 30, serving as your No. 1 for at least two more years.

And I’d far rather be looking for a second goalie than a No. 1 centre.

Much of what’s been laid out above applies, too, if the Bruins pursued Lindholm from Calgary. And whether you’re talking about Scheifele or Lindholm, you have to think Boston — a good organization in a great city that offers a chance to win now — is well positioned to acquire those players in a scenario that would see them land with an extension in hand.

This is a time to be teary for Bruins fans; ‘Bergy’ and ‘Krech’ were franchise icons and the 1-2 on a Cup-winner. When the eyes clear, though, they’ll see there’s only one way forward for this team and that’s all in, full steam ahead.