A’s Gray shut down 3 weeks
Oakland ace will begin season on DL with lat strain.
Oa k l a n d At h l e t i c s a c e Sonny Gray will begin the season on the disabled list with a lat strain and has been shut down from throwing for the next three weeks.
A’s general manager David Forst said Thursday there’s no timetable for the righthander beyond the preliminary stretch.
This is a big blow to the A’s and Gray, who was eager to st ar t fresh following a forgett able 2016. He was scratched from his scheduled outing opening day last year because of food poisoning and never had the kind of season he envisioned as the leader of the rotation.
He spent two stints on the DL and went 5-11 with a 5.69 ERA on the heels of back-toback 14-win seasons.
Cubs: Manager Joe Maddon will receive $1 million more per year for the final three years of his contract for leading the franchise to its first championship since 1908. The raise pushes Maddon’s pay into a three-way tie for the most in MLB with the Angels’ Mike Scioscia and the Giants’ Bruce Bochy for tops among managers at more than $5 million a year, according to several reports. ... Former pitcher Bill Hands, a 20-game winner for the 1969 Cubs, died Thursday in an Orlando, Fla., hospital after a brief illness. He was 76.
R a n g e r s : N e w Te x a s starter Andrew Cashner is being held back from throwing for the second time this spring because of soreness in his right upper biceps. Cashner had resumed throwing after an MRI and exam last week showed nothing significant in the biceps.
Reds: Starter Anthony DeSclafani could make his spring training debut Monday after missing a few weeks with a sore elbow. DeSclafani was scheduled to throw in the bullpen today as a final test.
MLB to Williamsport: Major League Baseball and its players’ association officially announced the relocation of the Sunday, Aug. 20 game between the Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals from PNC Park to Williamsport, Pa. The game will air on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” and coincide with the Little League World Series.
World Classic Dominican Republic 9, Canada 2: Jose Bautista homered and drove in four runs, and the Dominican Republic opened its bid for a second consecutive WBC title. Welington Castillo hit a two-run homer for the Dominicans. Carlos Martinez pitched four innings in first career WBC outing and allowed one run. Jose Reyes had three of the Dominicans’ 15 hits.
Israel 4, Netherlands 2: Nate Freiman’s RBI double sparked a three-run first inning as Israel finished at the top of Pool A in the World Baseball Classic at 3-0 with the victory in Seoul. Zach Borenstein and Ryan Lavarnway also drove in runs in the first for Israel.
Australia 11, China 0: James Beresford hit a grand slam in the eighth inning as Australia won in Tokyo and improved to 1-1 in Pool B. Luke Hughes also drove in four runs for Australia, which will play Cuba tonight with the winner advancing to the second round.
Rookie Sebastian Aho scored the go-ahead power-play goal with 7:32 remaining. Aho also scored the tying goal with 10:56 to play and added an assist to help the last-place Hurricanes. Cam Ward made a season-best 40 saves. The Rangers were without goalie Henrik Lundqvist (upper-body injury).
Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, the first on a power play less than seven minutes into the game and assisted a goal by Andrej Sustr, giving him nine goals and eight assists in his past eight games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves and is 4-0-1 since the trade of Ben Bishop to Los Angeles.
Frederik Andersen made 36 saves, and Tyler Bozak had a goal and an assist for Toronto, which won its second straight after losing five in a row. Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the Flyers.
Corey Perry scored at 17:44 of the second period. Jonathan Bernier made 43 saves for Anaheim. Late Late Late Late Late Late
Forward Tom Sestito was suspended four games without pay for boarding Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom on Wednesday night.