AROUND THE HORN
MLB: The pace of coronavirus vaccinations in Major League Baseball has slowed, with no additional teams in the last week joining the 22 that had already reached the the 85% vaccination threshold for players and other on-field personnel. MLB and the players’ association said Friday that 85.3% of tier 1 and 2 tier individuals had been fully vaccinated and 86.5% had received at least one dose. Previous weekly announcements included just tier 1, and MLB said on June 11 that 83.5% had been fully vaccinated and 85.1% had been partially vaccinated. Tier 1 includes players, managers, coaches, team physicians, athletic trainers and strength and conditioning staff. Tier 2 includes ownership, front office staff, travel staff, head groundskeepers and ballpark operations staff. Once a team reaches 85% vaccinations among tiers 1 and 2, it has the option to apply loosened protocols to tier 2. Among changes to protocols made Wednesday, all fully vaccinated players and staff can stop wearing masks in dugouts, bullpens and clubhouses. In addition, fully vaccinated players and staff may eat in restaurants without restrictions and attend sporting events as spectators at venues with government approved safety protocols, the commissioner’s office and players’ association said in a memo sent Wednesday night. There was one positive test, involving a player, among 9,104 tests in the past week, a 0.01% positive rate. So far this season, there have been 66 positive tests — 37 players, 29 staff — among 203,523 samples tested, a 0.03% positive rate. The positive tests are among 25 teams.
Angels: Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani will compete in the All-Star Home Run Derby at
Denver’s Coors Field on July 12. The Angels RHP/DH/OF will be the first Japaneseborn player in the derby, held the night before the All-Star Game. The 26-yearold former AL rookie of the year had 19 HRs entering Friday night’s games, three behind major league leaders Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays. Ohtani was hitting .270 with 47 RBIs, and he’s 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 10 starts. Ohtani won Japan’s home run derby in 2016, when he also was MVP of the second of Japan’s two All-Star Games. He will become the seventh Angels player in the derby, after Wally Joyner (1996), Troy Glaus (2001), Garrett Anderson (2003), Vladimir Guerrero (2007), Mark Trumbo (2012) and Albert Pujols (2015). Anderson and Guerrero won the competition, and Joyner was a co-winner.
Extra innings: The Orioles placed LHP Bruce Zimmermann on the 10-day injured list with left bicep tendinitis. Zimmermann was supposed to be the Orioles’ starter against the Blue Jays, but the Orioles instead went with RHP Thomas Eshelman. They selected Eshelman’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk. Zimmermann is 4-4 with a 4.83 ERA this year. His move to the IL is retroactive to Tuesday. ... Germán Márquez (5-6) allowed one hit over six scoreless innings, C.J. Cron ignited a five-run first with a grand slam and the Rockies beat the visiting Brewers 7-3 on Thursday for their fourth straight win. Garrett Hampson followed Cron’s slam with a HR, and Raimel Tapia extended his hitting streak to a career-best 14 games with an RBI single in the sixth. Friday’s game between the teams ended too late for this edition.