The Red Sox expand their pitching coach interview list

The Red Sox were previously reported to be interviewing Rick Peterson for their pitching coach gig. While he still remains a candidate, Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com reports that the list is expanding:

Red Sox interviewed Juan Nieves for pitching coach position today. Tomorrow: Randy St. Claire. Also, attempting 2 re-schedule Rick Peterson

— Sean McAdam(@Sean_McAdam) October 31, 2012

St. Claire is the current pitching coach for the Marlins, but given Ozzie Guillen’s firing, his job may not be the most secure thing on the planet. He’s also the uncle of professional wrestler Ryback, which is something I did not know until I looked at his Wikipedia page a minute ago.

Juan Nieves, the former Brewers pitcher who once tossed a no-hitter, is the bullpen coach for the White Sox.

Christian Yelich simply can’t be stopped. The Brewers outfielder (and defending NL MVP) entered Saturday’s game with a league-leading 11 home runs after swatting two against the Dodgers on Friday night, then clubbed another two homers in the first six innings of Saturday’s game.

The first came on a 2-1 pitch from the Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu, who lobbed a changeup toward the bottom of the strike zone before it was lifted up and out to center field for a solo home run in the third inning.

While Chase Anderson and Alex Claudio held down the fort against the Dodgers’ lineup, Yelich prepared for his second blast in the sixth inning — this one a 421-foot double-decker on a first-pitch curveball from Ryu.

One pitch. That's all. #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/CI5BGNHdZl

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) April 21, 2019

Yelich’s 13 home runs not only gave him a stronger grip on the league’s leaderboard, but helped him tie yet another franchise record, too. Per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy, he’s tied with Prince Fielder for the most home runs hit by a Brewers player in a single month, and sits just one home run shy of tying Álex Rodríguez’s 2007 record for most home runs hit within any club’s first 22 games of the season.

It may be far too early to predict which players will finish first in the MVP races this fall, but there’s no denying Yelich has already set himself apart from the competition. Through Saturday’s performance, he’s batting .361/.459/.880 with a 1.329 OPS and MLB-best 31 RBI across 98 PA so far.