Sosa buries baseball in avalanche of non-surprise - MLB

Judging by reaction around baseball, Sammy Sosa testing positive for steroids
(just a report at this point, mind you) is akin to saying the Yankees
have a big payroll. Is anyone surprised? Ummm … that would be a big fat
no.

In fact, surprise was the word of the day. A sampling …

Lance Berkman is not at all surprised:
“That’s not that surprising at all. There are just certain guys that
you pretty much know without coming out and making an out and out
accusation, but it does not surprise me, not even a little bit.”

Don’t even try to throw a surprise party for Aramis Ramirez:
“Nothing surprises me anymore. Everybody talked about it, but I played
with him for two years here and I never saw him do anything wrong.”

Joe Torre is surprised when his own player gets caught, but not
by anyone else: “As far as being surprised, I was surprised with Manny.
And after that, I mean, how can you be surprised anymore? After Manny,
how can you be surprised?”

Lou Piniella is surprised you would even ask him about it:
“I don’t know that much about it. Maybe if managers had been trained a
little more in these areas, I could answer better, but I don’t know. I
wouldn’t know a steroid from a reefer.”

After dealing with A-Rod and now Sosa, Rangers GM Jon Daniels seems to wish he could be surprised:
“But it’s the same reaction as I had with Alex [Rodriguez]. You hope
it’s not true. But, unfortunately, nothing would surprise all of us at
this point.”

Don Mattingly hopes these non-surprise surprises are going to soon come to an end:
“I don’t think it surprises anybody any more. I think it’s good that
we’ve got a policy in place. … “Obviously, there’s a lot of guys. I’d
just go ahead — if there’s 103 guys, let’s get ’em all out. We’ll know
who’s who and go from there. We’ll get it over with.”

White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone is surprised that Sosa drew attention to himself:
“I’m kind of surprised that he came out for an official retirement,
because sometimes when you do that and make a comment as he made, it
has ramifications that you can’t foresee and in this case, these are
some of the ramifications.”

And perhaps most surprising is the reaction of Angels reliever Darren Oliver:
“Better him than me. He’s the one who has to deal with it. It seems
like if you are caught with this, you can kiss the Hall of Fame
goodbye.”

You want a surprise? Oliver might now have a better chance than Sosa
at the Hall of Fame. I don’t think anyone would have expected something
like that.

PITTSBURGH – Andrew McCutchen’s tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning lifted Pittsburgh to a 5-4 victory over Oakland on Monday night, extending the Pirates’ win streak to six games and sending the Athletics to their record-tying 15th consecutive road loss.

The 15 straight defeats away from home matches the Athletics’ record since they moved from Kansas City in 1968. Oakland set that mark in 1986.

The major league-worst Athletics (12-50) have lost five games in a row overall. They are on pace to finish the season exactly 100 games under .500 at 31-131.

“It’s tough,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “Tonight’s game, we didn’t play well enough to win the game. I don’t want to say we gave the game away but there were a lot of instances where we had a chance to capitalize on opportunities and didn’t do it.”

McCutchen also singled and drew three walks to go with two RBIs. The 2013 NL MVP now has 1,998 career hits.

With the score tied at 4, Ji Hwan Bae led off the decisive eighth inning with a single off Sam Moll (0-3) and advanced to third on Austin Hedges’ one-out single. McCutchen’s sac fly plated Bae.

“I was just trying to get the job done. I understand the situation there,” McCutchen said. “We just need to get the run. I was trying to bear down against a hard thrower and trying to get that run in as much as I can, and I was able to do it and have a good at-bat.”

Angel Perdomo (1-0) retired both hitters he faced. and Colin Holdeman pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his first career save. It was an eventful inning for Holderman as the first three batters reached base, but he struck out Carlos Perez with runners on the corners to end it.

“I began my career as a starting pitcher in the minor leagues but ever since I was switched to relief, this has been the goal, to get a save in the big leagues,” Holderman said.

Pittsburgh starter Johan Oviedo gave up three runs and four hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Oakland left-hander JP Sears did not allow a hit until Mark Mathias’ leadoff single in the fifth but was unable to make it through the inning. Sears was charged with one run in 4 2/3 innings while allowing two hits, walking five and striking out six.

Sears has not allowed more than two runs in five consecutive starts. His nine no-decisions are the most in the major leagues.

Ryan Noda and Brent Rooker had two hits each for the Athletics.

The Athletics tied the score at 4-4 in the eighth inning on pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz’s run-scoring double. Oakland left the bases loaded, though, when Nick Allen hit an inning-ending flyout.

Consecutive bases-loaded walks keyed a three-run sixth inning that put the Pirates 4-3. McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds each worked bases on balls off Shintaro Fujinami to tie the score at 3-all and pinch-hitter Jack Suwinski followed with a sacrifice fly.

The Athletics opened the scoring in the first inning when rookie Esteury Ruiz reached on catcher’s interference, stole his MLB-leading 30th base of the season and scored on Noda’s single. Seth Brown doubled in a run in the third and came home on Perez’s sacrifice fly to push Oakland’s lead to 3-0.

Connor Joe hit an RBI double for the Pirates in the fifth.

The Pirates drew 10 walks, their most in a game in nearly two years.

“We had a bunch of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize (on), but the thing I think I was most proud of is we got down and we didn’t rush to get back,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “We were still patient.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics: LHP Kirby Snead (strained shoulder) is expected to pitch in the Arizona Complex League on Tuesday, which will be his first game action since spring training. … RHP Freddy Tarnok (strained shoulder) will throw a bullpen on Tuesday.

TOP PICK PROMOTED

Pirates catching prospect Henry Davis was promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis from Double-A Altoona. In 41 games at Double-A this season, the 23-year-old hit .284 with 10 home runs and seven stolen bases.

“He was performing offensively at a level where we felt like he was more than ready to meet the challenges,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. “He improved as an offensive player even since spring training, focusing on the things we were challenging him on. Defensively, he’s made strides too.”

Davis was the first overall selection in the 2021 amateur draft from the University of Louisville.

UP NEXT

Athletics RHP James Kaprielian (0-6, 8.12 ERA) will make his first start in June after taking the loss in all four starts in May and face RHP Mitch Keller (7-1, 3.25). Keller has eight or more strikeouts in seven consecutive starts, the longest streak by a Pirates pitcher in the modern era (since 1901).