Tucker, Bregman due for progress reviews
Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman could be at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday to be evaluated by the Astros, manager Dusty Baker said Monday.
The team is awaiting clearance for Tucker, who has been on the health and safety protocols injured list since Aug. 14, to work out at the ballpark. The Astros will not specify what exactly is wrong with Tucker, but the outfielder has been prohibited from being around the rest of the team while on the IL. Baker said Tucker likely will not be eligible for activation right away.
“He’s got to work out a few days first,” Baker said. “Trying to decide if he’s going to go on a rehab assignment or if I’m gonna activate him. He’s got to come in and see what kind of shape he’s in.”
Bregman, on the IL for more than two months with a strained quad, started at third base and went 3-for-5 Monday night in Class AAA Sugar Land’s game against Oklahoma City. It was the third game of his most recent rehab assignment and the second one in as many days in which Bregman played a full nine innings.
Baker said he would determine Bregman’s next steps after Monday’s game and further evaluation by Astros staff.
“He sends videos. I think he sends them to everybody, but that’s Breggy,” Baker said. “They say he’s playing pretty good. He’s swinging pretty good. That’s what I was as concerned about how he’s swinging as his physical being. I’ll see when he gets here and kind of analyze what I think is best for him.”
McCormick hopeful of returning Tuesday
Astros outfielder Chas McCormick said he was targeting a return to the lineup Tuesday after left hand soreness limited his ability to hit for three days in a row.
McCormick remained out of the lineup for Monday’s series opener against the Royals but said he was available to pinch run or play defense, as he did in the ninth and 10th innings of Sunday’s 11-inning loss to the Mariners.
“I feel OK,” he said. “Hopefully I’m back in there tomorrow.”
McCormick was a late scratch from Saturday’s lineup after he said he injured the back of his hand while fouling off a pitch during an at-bat Friday in the Astros’ 12-3 win over the Mariners. He did not swing prior to Monday’s game and went out for fielding practice with his left wrist taped, which he described as a precaution to keep it from rotating on his follow-through.
Baker described McCormick’s status as “day-to-day” and said the outfielder has no broken bones.
Siri’s homer in 8th gives Skeeters win
Jose Siri hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give the
Sugar Land Skeeters to a 6-5 victory over the Oklahoma City Dodgers at Constellation Field.
The Skeeters built a 4-1 before the Dodgers rallied with four runs in the eighth. Siri answered in the bottom of the inning with his 15th homer after J.J. Matijevic led off with a double.