Coach apologizes for gesture
OAKLAND, Calif. — Major League Baseball has been in touch with the Athletics about their bench coach making a gesture that appeared to be a Nazi salute following a win over the Rangers. No discipline has been announced against coach Ryan Christenson, who has apologized.
“Ryan Christenson is fully supported by everybody in our clubhouse and they know who he is. So do I. Obviously it didn't look great but that was not his intent at all. I know that for a fact,” manager Bob Melvin said.
A short team meeting was all that the A's needed because Christenson had full support, Melvin said.
Christenson apologized late Thursday for raising his arm during the postgame celebration. He made the gesture while greeting closer Liam Hendriks following the win.
Hendriks immediately pushed Christenson's arm down. Cameras showed Christenson laughing and briefly raising his arm a second time. Christenson faced criticism after video of the gesture circulated.
“I made a mistake and will not deny it,” Christenson said in a statement issued through the team. “Today in the dugout I greeted players with a gesture that was offensive. In the world today of COVID, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players. My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did is unacceptable and I deeply apologize.”
The A's called the gesture “offensive” and apologized for it.
Jeff Samardjiza has been placed on the 10-day injured list by the Giants due to right shoulder impingement. Manager Gabe Kapler said before Saturday's game against the Dodgers that the righthander told trainers and the coaching staff that he felt like wasn't able to get the arm loose during Friday's game. Samardjiza is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Saturday. Samardjiza went four-plus innings and allowed six runs on seven hits in a 7-2 loss to the Dodgers. He is 0-2 with a 9.88 ERA in three starts.
Another day, another Marlins player making his Major League Baseball debut. Such is the life of a team that had to add 17 new players to its roster at once to replace another group of players following a COVID-19 outbreak. This one, however, came with a bit of MLB history behind it. The newest player to take the field for the first time at the MLB level: 25-year-old lefthanded pitcher Daniel Castano, who started Saturday night against the Mets. When Castano threw out the first pitch, he became the Marlins' ninth different starting pitcher over the course of the first nine games of the season. That has never been done in MLB history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Sandy Alcantara, Caleb Smith, Robert Dugger, Pablo Lopez, Elieser Hernandez, Josh A. Smith, Jordan Yamamoto and Humberto Mejia were the starters in order for Games 1-8. “This wasn't something that really we envisioned before everything kind of went sideways pretty fast on us,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said pregame. “We'll see.”
The White Sox placed relief pitcher Aaron Bummer on the 10day injured list Saturday with a left biceps strain. Bummer, one of the team's top pitchers in the bullpen, suffered the injury in Friday's 2-0 victory against the Cleveland Indians. He pitched 1 2⁄ innings, but
3 exited after throwing a strike to Jose Ramirez with two outs in the seventh inning. Bummer is 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA, 12 strikeouts and three holds in seven appearances this season. He tied for sixth in the American League with 27 holds in 2019. He agreed to a five-year, $16 million contract with the Sox during spring training.
Gerrit Cole came within one strike of earning his 20th straight regular-season win before getting pulled, and the Yankees beat the Rays 8-4 Saturday in the opener of a seven-inning doubleheader. Cole, who had won his first three starts since signing a $324 million, nine-year contract in the offseason, took a 5-0 lead into the fifth. With two outs and a runner on, Cole had a 1-2 count on Ji-Man Choi, who came back to hit an RBI double. Jose Martinez followed with a two-run homer on the 107th pitch from a clearly tiring Cole. The ace stared in disbelief and went into a squat as Martinez's drive left the ballpark. “Obviously pitch count got up there,” Cole said. “I wasn't able to finish the outing the way we wanted to. They just ran the count.” Chad Green replaced Cole and got the win.