SPORTS briefs
Cabrera still out of Tigers starting lineup
DETROIT - Miguel Cabrera was out of the starting lineup for the Detroit Tigers for a second straight night Tuesday.
Cabrera hasn’t played since leaving Sunday’s game at Baltimore because of a left biceps spasm. He did not play in Monday night’s loss to Tampa Bay, even though the Tigers had a great pinchhitting situation in the ninth inning .
Niko Goodrum started at first base for Detroit against the Rays on Tuesday. Cabrera is hitting .326 with three home runs and 21 RBIs this season. Monday’s game was the second he’s missed in 2018.
Whiff of offence: Strikeouts top hits in month for 1st time
NEW YORK - Baseball had a whiff of offence in the air during a cold and wet April. Strikeouts exceeded hits during a full calendar month for the first time in the sport’s nearly century-and-a-half history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Nearly one-third of plate appearances this season have ended without the ball being put in play.
“One month is a rather small sample and we are hoping that the phenomenon of strikeouts exceeding hits is an anomaly that will not persist over the course of the season,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in an email to The Associated Press.
Major League Baseball has increasingly become a game of long balls and long walks back to the dugout. There were 6,656 strikeouts and 6,360 hits in April, according to Elias.
The previous low differential was in April 2017, when there were 138 more hits than strikeouts.
“It’s what’s sexy now,” Cincinnati catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “Home runs are sexy. Strikeouts are sexy. Early ground balls with one strike are not sexy.”
Patrick returns to Indy’s famous oval for 1st time since ‘11
INDIANAPOLIS - Danica Patrick’s IndyCar comeback got off to a troubled start. That steering wheel - so heavy! And all those buttons!
But after some quick reminders from team owner Ed Carpenter, Patrick passed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s two-phase refresher course Tuesday after driving an Indy car for the first time in seven years.
After topping 215 mph around the storied oval, Patrick can focus exclusively on attempting to qualify for the 33-car starting grid in the Indianapolis 500 on May 27 - her final race before she retires.
“It’s been since the fall of last year that I’ve been thinking, what the hell is this going to feel like?” she said.
“I’ve been waiting to get this day over with for a long time and I say that with love. It’s just the level of anticipation and not knowing.” The wait took longer than expected, too.
She actually wanted to compete at Indy in 2013, her second year in NASCAR, but was talked out of it. She didn’t contemplate a return again until last fall.