HBT Weekend Wrapup - MLB

Stuff you may have missed while you sat by the trailer drinkin’ beer with your grandma at the state park:

A-Rod is OK after taking a BP liner to the leg. Thankfully this gave us all a chance to slam A-Rod again. My favorite: Wallace Matthews at ESPN New York,
who described the incident — which was caused when FOX’s Joe Buck said
hello to A-Rod, who returned the greeting — thusly: “a player who once
again just can’t seem to help himself when it comes to
courting, and being courted by, the lure of cheap celebrity.” As if
Matthews wouldn’t have slammed A-Rod for being “an aloof prima donna who
has no time for the press or his fans” had he not acknowledged Buck’s
greeting.

The Rangers will try to lock up Cliff Lee this season.
I’m going to guess that the difference between their losing bid and the
Yankees winning bid will be less than the difference between What Chuck
Greenberg could have paid for the Rangers last spring but ended up
paying for them last week due to the bankruptcy gambit. I also will
guess that no one will make the connection at the time and will instead
use the occasion to write more “the Yankees are trying to buy another
championship” articles.

Torii Hunter got a four-game suspension
and, in a rare move, didn’t appeal it. I guess his union rep explained
that it would be hard to convince the league that it was Brandon Wood
who threw all of those balls on the field during his temper tantrum.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Erik Bedard underwent season-ending surgery
(note: his season never began). Drew’s post on it asks “what’s next?”
in the headline. The only possible answer: Bedard and Ben Sheets team up
to fight crime.

The Pirates fired
pitching coach Joe Kerrigan and bench coach Gary Varsho. Kerrigan isn’t
a huge surprise in that the pitching has been bad. Varsho more so
because, really, I thought the benches in Pirates’ dugout had been
performing at or above expectations.

Chris Coghlan will undergo season-ending knee-surgery. It may seem scary, but the surgeon informed him that the procedure was as easy as pie.

The Tigers are keeping the band together;

The Mets take a glimpse at their future and say goodbye to part of their past;

The Red Sox say hello to a part of the Mets past;

Adam LaRoche should do the Roger Clemens thing and only sign contracts for the second half of the season;

The Dodgers DFA’d Garret Anderson. You have to think this is the end of the road, as there are only so many GMs who will give a guy a contract based on accomplishments that are 7-8 years old.

The good news: the Rays haven’t lost one pitcher to arm trouble this year. The bad news: they’ve lost two.

Mark Prior: Don’t call it a comeback! He won’t be back for years!

And now let us plow into the week.

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).