Braves ace Strider will miss rest of season after UCL surgery
MIAMI » Atlanta Braves ace Spencer Strider will miss the rest of the season after having surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, the team said Saturday.
Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas, performed the procedure on Friday, using an internal brace to repair the UCL. Strider avoided Tommy John surgery, which he had in 2019 while at Clemson.
Recovery from the internal brace surgery, which uses an artificial material to make the repair, has allowed pitchers to return to the majors in as few as nine months. Tommy John surgery, which uses a tendon from elsewhere in the body to replace the torn ligament, has a typical rehab period of 12 to 18 months.
Strider complained about discomfort in his elbow after pitching four innings in Atlanta’s
6-5 win over Arizona on April 5. An MRI the next day revealed damage to his UCL, and the Braves prepared for the worst.
“You never expect these things to be good or just a blip on the screen,” manager Brian Snitker said last week.
Strider was 20-5 in 2023, leading the majors in wins and strikeouts (281). The righthander had a 3.86 ERA last season.
He had a 7.00 ERA with 12 strikeouts in two starts this year.
TWINS 11, TIGERS 5 » Minnesota took advantage of a based-loaded walk, a three-run error by Tigers third baseman Zach McKinstry and a three-run homer by Matt Wallner in the 12th inning to beat Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader.
YANKEES 3, GUARDIANS 2 » Oswaldo Cabrera hit a two-run homer and New York survived a scare in the ninth to beat Cleveland in the first game of a split doubleheader and match the best start in the Yankees’ famed history.
The Yankees improved to an MLB-best 11-3 — 7-1 on the road — and equaled their best record through 14 decisions. They’ve been 11-3 in 11 other seasons, most recently 2010.
REDS 5, WHITE SOX 0 » Nick Lodolo struck out 10 in 5.2 solid innings in his first big league start in almost a year, and Cincinnati beat Chicago.
BLUE JAYS 5, ROCKIES 3 » Daulton Varsho hit his second career grand slam, Yariel Rodríguez struck out six over 3.2 innings in his major league debut and Toronto beat Colorado.
ROYALS 11, METS 7 » Salvador Perez had four RBIs on two hits and Bobby Witt Jr. scored four times to lead Kansas City over New York.
The four-run game was the second of the week for Witt, who scored four times in Thursday’s 13-3 win over the Houston Astros. He just missed scoring a fifth run in the sixth inning Saturday, when Brandon Nimmo robbed him of a three-run homer with a leaping catch at the right-centerfield wall.
Twins place Correa on IL
DETROIT » Twins shortstop Carlos Correa was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday, a day after sustaining an oblique injury in Minnesota’s 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Correa was hitting .306 with a homer and four RBIs in 11 games and had an .876 OPS. The two-time All-Star was replaced on the 25-man roster by catcher Jair Camargo, who was hitting .268 with two homers in 11 games for Triple-A St. Paul.
Willi Castro is expected to get most of the playing time at shortstop. He is hitting .103 but got the final out Friday night after switching to the mound.