Quick Hitters
Tigers lose injured Cabrera for season in loss to Twins
DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers lost much more than a game on Tuesday night.
Miguel Cabrera ruptured his left biceps tendon in the third inning of a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins and will have season-ending surgery later this week.
“This is obviously a very sad day for Miggy and for the entire ballclub,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It is obviously a huge blow to the team, both on and off the field, but we will have to find a way to overcome it.”
Gardenhire said Cabrera’s status for the 2019 season won’t be known until after the operation. He still has $154 million left on a contract that runs through 2023.
Cabrera swung awkwardly at Jake Odorizzi’s slider and immediately walked to the dugout with his arm limply at his side. When he was joined by team trainers, the slugger gestured to his biceps and continued walking into the Detroit clubhouse.
Cabrera has played through numerous lower-body injuries in the past few years, even while winning a Triple Crown, two MVP awards and four batting titles, but it started to catch up with him in 2017. He played 130 games, but hit a career-worst .249 with 16 homers.
This year, he missed three games with spasms in the same biceps tendon that ruptured on Tuesday, then was out for 26 games with a hamstring strain and back tightness. He returned on June 1, hitting .244 with no home runs and one RBI in 12 games before the latest injury.
David Johnson skips first day of Cardinals minicamp
TEMPE — Arizona running back David Johnson skipped the first day of the Cardinals’ mandatory minicamp Tuesday amid reports that the sides are discussing a new contract.
Johnson, who led the NFL with 20 touchdowns in a breakout 2016 season before missing all but one game with a wrist injury last year, is scheduled to make $1,882,500 in the fourth and final year of his rookie contract.
Cardinals first-year coach Steve Wilks did not address Johnson’s situation specifically on the first day of the three-day minicamp, but teammates were supportive of his stance.
“He wants a new contract,” veteran safety Antoine Bethea said. “Especially the position he plays . obviously we know running backs, they have a short span here in the league. That’s all. He just wants him and his family to be stable. We get it. I respect it. I support it. I think anybody would.”
Luck takes private throwing public at Colts’ camp
INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck’s big secret is finally out. He’s been throwing a football for weeks — and now he’s throwing in public, too.
Nearly 17 months after undergoing surgery on his injured right shoulder, Luck jogged onto the practice field Tuesday wearing a red jersey, strapping on a helmet and picking up a special ball as he started throwing in front of reporters for the first time since October.
No, it wasn’t a regulation NFL ball and the longest pass he attempted was only about a 20-yard lob, but it still was progress.
“It’s a lighter football,” Luck said, referring to the striped football he tossed around. “It’s sort of a bridge. I’ve thrown a real football, ‘The Duke,’ whatever you want to call it. I’ve picked it up and I’ve thrown it and it felt great. And honestly, there was a little mental block to doing it and I had to do it sort of by myself.”
Throughout the process, the Colts have been tight-lipped about Luck’s progression.
MEXICO CITY — Mexicans can never be sure who will be playing for the national team under Juan Carlos Osorio.
A different lineup has been deployed by Osorio in all 46 games in charge and now players are starting to question the tactical tinkering going into the World Cup.
“It’s time to stop with the experiments,” Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa said. “We have to focus on how we play as a team.”
Osorio, who replaced fan favorite Miguel Herrera in 2015, isn’t budging. The Colombian has no plans to change his strategy because it carried Mexico to the World Cup as the top-placed team in CONCACAF qualifying for the first time in two decades.
But changing formations depending on the opponent hasn’t fared well in all competitions.
“A lot of people said that the past few years have been good, but I’m not so sure about that,” Manuel Lapuente, who coached Mexico at the 1998 World Cup, told The Associated Press. “We were a failure in the Copa America Centenario. We failed at the Gold Cup and in the Confederations Cup. We did well in the qualifiers, but, guess what? We are not going to play against that kind of rival in Russia.”
The Mexicans were consigned to their worst-ever loss in the 2016 Copa America Centenario quarterfinals, trounced 7-0 by Chile. In a pair of semifinals last year they were beaten 4-1 by Germany in the