c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use 5.014; ;; my $rec = 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)'; print qq{'$rec'}; ;; $rec =~ s{ \A \s* (?: \S+ \s+){6} \K (\S+) }{ $1 =~ tr/()//dr }xmse; print qq{'$rec'}; " 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - (recip1@domain.com),(recip2@domain.com) -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)' 'Jun 12 10 mail (sender@sender.com) - recip1@domain.com,recip2@domain.com -1.889 25623, queued_as: B67837C0052 Subject goes here Sender(sender@sender.com)'