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It’s been a rough few weeks for the Cincinnati Reds, and it’s about to get worse with catcher Devin Mesoraco going on the disabled list.

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Shoulder Injury Sidelines Mesoraco

Monday, May 2   

The Reds have placed the former All-Star catcher on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Thursday, because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder, the team announced Monday.

Mesoraco played 16 games this year for the Reds but has struggled heavily at the plate, batting .140 and recording only seven base hits.

This isn’t the first time the injury bug has bitten Mesoraco. He appeared in only 23 games last year for the Reds and was out since last June because of hip surgery. 

Mesoraco was an All-Star in 2014 and ended up batting .273 while hitting 25 home runs. In the two seasons since, the former 15th overall pick in 2007 has appeared in 39 games and batted .158.

This is a tough break for Mesoraco, who was playing his way back from that aforementioned hip surgery. His numbers don’t reflect any progress, and he now has to put his comeback attempt on hold. Mesoraco is still fighting to get back to 100 percent, and dealing with shoulder and hip problems could limit his offense even further than it already has.

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This might be the weirdest triple play you’ll ever see. 

The Chicago White Sox led the Texas Rangers 5-0 in the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and nobody out with Mitch Moreland at the plate.

Moreland lined out to right fielder Adam Eaton, who launched a throw to first baseman Jose Abreu.

Abreu tagged out Ian Desmond after he slipped off the first base bag, then threw home, where the White Sox caught Prince Fielder in a rundown for Chicago’s first triple play since September 2006, per Alysha Tsuji of USA Today.

The official scoring was a 9-3-2-6-2-5 triple play, as the White Sox took the series opener over the Rangers by that same 5-0 score.

Check out the play in the video above.

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Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle believes Major League Baseball will break another barrier one day.

“I still believe firmly,” Hurdle said, per John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times, via ESPNW.com‘s Matt Eisenberg, “there is going to be a day where there is a female player in the big leagues.”

Friday was MLB‘s annual day during which the league honors Jackie Robinson for his legacy both on and off the baseball field. Hurdle said before Friday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers that the celebration of the contributions Robinson made extends beyond race.

“This isn’t just an African-American celebration,” Hurdle said, per Perrotto. “This is about the opening of doors for everybody.”

As years have passed, women have made breakthroughs in male-dominated sports. Naismith Hall of Fame player and coach Nancy Lieberman is currently an assistant with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA, as is former WNBA star Becky Hammon for the San Antonio Spurs.

Jen Welter also made NFL history last year when she joined the Arizona Cardinals as a coaching intern, and the Buffalo Bills hired Kathryn Smith to be the first full-time female NFL coach ever.

On the playing field, however, there has been less progress. Women have played predominantly male sports on the high school and college levels with men, but nothing in the professional ranks yet. Last June, 16-year-old Melissa Mayeux, a French shortstop on the under-18 junior national squad, made headlines when she became the first woman on MLB’s international registration list.

There is some evidence of progress in the major leagues, but it may still take years before a female player or coach becomes a reality.

Follow Danny Webster on Twitter.

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Bryce Harper hit the century mark in home runs, and he did it in style. 

The 23-year-old reigning National League MVP hit the 100th homer of his career, a grand slam, in the third inning of Thursday’s 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.  

It was the Washington Nationals star’s first career grand slam, which cleared the wall at Nationals Park:

Harper’s grand slam came a half inning after the Braves took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third.

After a sacrifice bunt from Stephen Strasburg resulted in an out at second base, back-to-back hits by Anthony Rendon and Chris Heisey loaded the bases for Harper with two outs.

On a 1-0 pitch from Julio Teheran, Harper connected on a 91 mile-per-hour fastball and launched it over the right field wall for his third homer and ninth RBI on the young season.

The Las Vegas native became the eighth-youngest player to reach the 100-homer mark, per Baseball Tonight. Mel Ott remains the quickest to reach that mark at 22 years, 132 days old. Harper will turn 24 in October.

Sportsnet Stats tweeted out this graphic featuring the entire list, as Harper missed legendary catcher Johnny Bench by 20 days:

Harper knew how close he was to the century mark in homers. He took to Instagram on Monday to show off his bats, which featured “100” emoji decals:

Harper has evolved into one of the best players in baseball, with proof coming last year in his winning the MVP Award. The three-time All-Star has played at least 100 games in every year since coming to the majors in 2012. Last season was the first time Harper hit more than 30 homers in a campaign.

He’s still more than 600 homers away from the top mark all time, but if he continues to stay healthy and play a large number of games, he could challenge Barry Bonds’ total by the time his career is up.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Cincinnati Reds shortstop Zack Cozart has gotten off to a solid start at the plate, but a leg injury may derail his progress.

Continue for updates.

Cozart Dealing with Quad Tightness

Monday, April 11

Cozart left Monday’s 5-3 loss against the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning with tightness in his right quad, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com.

“I’m sore. It’s more of a precaution though,” Cozart said, per Sheldon. “Being a chilly night, I just had some tightness in my quad. I’m going to get some treatment [Tuesday] and come back Wednesday and see how I feel. Hopefully, I feel fine.”

Before leaving the game, Cozart was 1-for-2 at the plate. He has recorded a hit in each game he’s played this year. Coming into Monday, the 30-year-old former second-round pick was batting .400 with one RBI.

The shortstop appeared to suffer the injury in the first inning after hitting a bloop single on a 2-1 pitch. Manager Bryan Price and trainer Steve Baumann then came out to check on him. Cozart tried to play through it before eventually exiting the game in the fourth.

Ivan De Jesus Jr. replaced him in the lineup.

“I think it just has to do with this tightness in my quad. It’s kind of irritating everything on my right side,” Cozart said, per Sheldon. “Since it’s my surgery side, we didn’t want to push it this early in the year.”

De Jesus will likely fill in at shortstop until Cozart is able to return. De Jesus has been a solid presence at the plate for a Reds team that fell one game behind the Cubs after Monday’s loss.

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After throwing 100 pitches without giving up a hit, Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling’s night against the San Francisco Giants came to an end. It was a decision that proved costly for the Dodgers, who lost 3-2 after Brandon Crawford hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

In his major league debut, Stripling threw 7.1 no-hit innings while striking out four. The 26-year-old had his team at a 2-0 advantage over the Giants on Friday night but was pulled by manager Dave Roberts after an eighth-inning one-out walk to Angel Pagan.

Baseball Tonight provided the official update:

Going into the eighth, rain began to fall at AT&T Park. No delay was called, but it could’ve hindered Stripling’s matchup against Pagan. It was Stripling’s fourth walk of the night, but despite working out of jams for most of the game, the Dodgers did not want to let their rookie pitcher go beyond the century mark in pitches.

The very next batter was rookie Trevor Brown, who hit a game-tying two-run home run off Chris Hatcher to make it a 2-2 game.

Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports called it right away:

Andy Glockner of The Cauldron knows the ball doesn’t tell many truths, even in baseball:

However, it appears pulling Stripling was not Roberts’ call to make, per Steve Mason of ESPN Los Angeles:

That, however, wouldn’t be the last time Roberts got involved during the game. After Brown’s homer, Ehire Adrianza pinch-hit for Josh Osich and drew a walk. Roberts was ejected for arguing the call, the first such occurrence of his short managerial career.

After further review on MLB‘s game tracker, Roberts was wrong, per Jesse Spector of Sporting News:

With the rain continuing to pour, Crawford ended the wild night with a walk-off homer and gave the Dodgers their second loss of the season, per Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times:

Stripling said after the game he had “no ill feelings toward the decision one bit,” per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

“Thinking that’s just the right choice,” Stripling said. “If we had more leeway, maybe we stick it out.”

Roberts said Stripling’s father “thanked him with eyes watering up [on Saturday] for taking care of his son, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

It’s understandable why Stripling was pulled at the 100-pitch mark. A pitcher making his major league debut shouldn’t have to go all out, which could hinder performance and arm strength down the road. In the long term, it was the right call.

Stripling looked frustrated coming off the mound, and rightly so. Not only was he in position to win his first start, but he was going for a no-hitter against the Dodgers’ biggest rivals.

The last pitcher to pitch a no-hitter in his major league debut still remains Bumpus Jones back in October 1892, but if the Dodgers hadn’t made the call to pull Stripling, that mark might have fallen Friday night.

Stripling’s next start is expected to be next Thursday, at home, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona’s offense has gotten off to a slow start, even with star Paul Goldschmidt batting .231 through four games. At home for the first time, Stripling could be in line for another stellar outing in front of the Dodger faithful.

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The blazing start to Trevor Story’s major league career continued Friday.

The Colorado Rockies rookie shortstop hit his fifth and sixth home runs during his team’s game against the San Diego Padres, becoming the first player in the last 100 years to hit six homers in his team’s first four games of a season, per StatsCentre.

Story’s first homer of the day came in the bottom of the fourth inning, shortly after the Padres had scored six runs in the top half. His blast cleared the left field wall and cut San Diego’s lead to 6-5.

Though the Rockies lost 13-6, Story hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“I’ve said it before,” Story said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), “I’m not trying to hit home runs, sometimes it kind of happens.”

Rockies All-Star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez said it’s “legendary” what Story has done so far.

“He’s fearless,” Gonzalez said, per the AP. “He’s playing like a Hall of Famer right now.”

Story came into Friday’s game batting 4-for-14, with all four hits coming via the long ball. He went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs in the loss to San Diego.

The Irving, Texas, native is quickly becoming another offensive star for the Rockies, joining Nolan Arenado and Gonzalez to form an exciting young trio in Colorado. It’s unfair to expect these numbers to continue for Story, but he’s showing glimpses of what’s to come in the future.

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The San Diego Padres are finally on the board in 2016.

Jon Jay hit an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning during Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, ending San Diego’s scoreless streak of 30 innings to begin the season, an MLB record, per ESPN Stats & Info.

That was the first of a six-run inning for the Padres.

The Padres’ rough start was not only evident at the plate but also on the mound.

The Los Angeles Dodgers swept them at Petco Park, and San Diego allowed 25 runs in those three games. The Padres only mustered 11 hits. Through four innings Friday, San Diego had recorded nine hits.

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune thinks it’s time for the Padres to focus on more important things:

Sports on Earth felt it was appropriate to celebrate a monumental occasion at Coors Field:

While the Padres pitching staff has not been up to par, the biggest problem for San Diego was the lack of production it was getting from the No. 2 through 4 hitters in the lineup. Those who started in those slots batted a combined 5-for-33 against the Dodgers. Star slugger Matt Kemp recorded two of those hits in the series finale Wednesday but went 2-for-10 overall.

It took three-plus games for the Padres offense to finally come to life, but it wasn’t due to a shortage of talent. San Diego has talent in the middle of the lineup with Kemp and Wil Myers, and Jay has had a solid start to the season at the top of the order.

San Diego has plenty of time to turn it around, but now the test will be sustaining consistent offensive success.

Follow Danny Webster on Twitter.

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For the second straight year, the New York Yankees will call upon Masahiro Tanaka to be their Opening Day starter.  

On Thursday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced the news in an interview with YES Network (via Wallace Matthews of ESPN.com). Tanaka will take the mound for the Yankees in their season opener on Monday at Yankee Stadium against reigning American League Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros.

“I kind of wanted the first four guys to know when their days were and we just went ahead with it,” said Girardi, per YES Network (via Matthews). “[Tanaka] feels good. He’s confident that he’s ready to go.”

The decision by Girardi to go with Tanaka means the Yankees-Astros matchup will be a rematch of last year’s AL Wild Card Game. Keuchel and the Astros shut out the Bronx Bombers, 3-0, at Yankee Stadium to move on to the AL Division Series.

An All-Star in 2014, Tanaka opened the Yankees’ season last year with a 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. He went only four innings, gave up four earned runs and a home run. Tanaka went on to win seven of his next 11 starts after that.

However, the 27-year-old has had a struggling spring so far, going 1-1 in four starts with a 7.36 ERA after undergoing surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, per Matthews.

“We weren’t exactly sure where he was going to be when he got here and how he was going to react to the surgery, and if he was going to maybe need one more start,” Girardi said, via Matthews. “That was something that we looked at too, do you give him one more start? But we just felt that he was ready to go.”

Tanaka struggled slightly last year, going 12-7 with a 3.51 ERA as the Yankees’ ace. New York’s success in 2016, despite the recent acquisitions of shortstop Starlin Castro and closer Aroldis Chapman, will rest on its starting rotation.

The Yankees will rely on Tanaka to have a strong start to 2015, but they will need success from Nathan Eovaldi (14-3 last year) and Michael Pineda (12-10) if a trip back to the postseason is in their plans.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Saturday’s spring training game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates was interrupted by a fan storming onto McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida, and throwing a beer and soda can in the Rays dugout.

The fan, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, was of Cuban descent and seemed to protest the Rays’ recent trip to Cuba this past Tuesday. Police did not release the name of the fan, but he was charged with assault, trespassing and causing affray, according to Topkin.

“It was a Cuba thing,” Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi said, per Topkin. “I don’t speak Spanish too well. … I think it was a Cuban person, frustrated about the politics of it, I guess. He threw two beer cans. Nobody got hit. Nobody did anything. Maybe some guys got wet. It was a Cuba thing.”

Tampa Bay became the first major league team to play a game against Cuba since the Baltimore Orioles in 1999. Playing the Cuban national team at the Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana on Tuesday, the Rays won 4-1.

According to Topkin, the man seemed to be in his 60s. He hopped a wall in the seventh inning, charged toward the Rays dugout and began throwing the beverage containers. Some officers told Topkin the fan was also yelling in Spanish toward the Tampa Bay team bus when it arrived at the stadium.

Tampa Bay third-base coach Charlie Montoyo grabbed the fan until the police arrived to detain him, per Topkin, and Montoyo noted he could smell alcohol on his breath.

I just saw him throwing stuff to the dugout and then I realized his age so I was just holding him and I was telling him, I realized he speaks Spanish, telling him to relax. I didn’t hear what he was yelling, I just saw the two things and then I was holding him. He smelled like beer or rum or something. … To me it was an old person drunk so I felt bad for him.

Rays utility player Taylor Motter noted the containers exploded when they connected with the wall. He also said it was a scary situation and security should have been on higher alert, but he was happy it was resolved.

“If it was or wasn’t related to Cuba or it was or wasn’t related to MLB, I still feel like security should have been there a little more knowing that we’re on the map a little bit,” Motter said, per Topkin. “But they did a good job coming to get him as quickly as possible.”

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