▶ Former Angels employee indicted on drug charges related to Tyler Skaggs’ death./
Former Angels’ employee allegedly gave Skaggs drugs
A federal grand jury indicted a former Los Angeles Angels employee on drug charges for allegedly providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs with the drugs that caused his overdose death.
Eric Prescott Kay was charged Thursday with drug distribution and drug conspiracy in Skaggs’ overdose death, according to the indictment in Fort Worth, Texas. The charges carry a maximum of a life sentence and 20 years in prison, respectively.
Kay remained free on his own recognizance. A message seeking comment from Kay’s attorney, Reagan Wynn, was not immediately returned.
Skaggs was found dead in his suburban Dallas hotel room on July 1, 2019, before the start of what was supposed to be a fourgame series against the Texas Rangers. The first game was postponed.
A coroner’s report said Skaggs had choked to death on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the drugs fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, which Kay was accused of providing.
Kay was the Angels’ director of communications, and he served as their public relations contact on many road trips. He was placed on leave shortly after Skaggs’ death, and he never returned to the team.
Team officials said they had not been aware that Skaggs, a 27-year-old lefthander, was an opioids user and didn’t know any employees were providing drugs to players.
Notes: The Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees played the five-most watched games of the Division Series, boosted by prime-time start times. Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win in Game 5 on Oct. 9 was the most-watched game of the round, averaging 3,723,000 viewers on TBS, the network said. Among the other three series, the most-viewed game was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-5 win over San Diego in Game 2, which averaged 1,655,000 viewers on FS1. While ratings were down from last year, when the YankeesTwins series averaged 2.66 million on FS1, it’s hard to compare due to the pandemic, the switch to neutral sites this year and the national election. Primetime games on Oct. 6 and 9 were opposite the fourth and fifth games of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami, and Oct. 7 competed with the vice presidential debate. ... Major League Baseball once again released positive news, and negative test results, in an encouraging update as the sport gears up for the World Series. There were zero new positive COVID-19 test results as of Thursday, which marked the 47th consecutive day — and 55th of the past 56 days — that players all tested negative for the virus.