McCutchen’s homer gives Bucs series opener victory
MLB Notes
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Andrew McCutchen hit a go-ahead homer and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat San Francisco 6-5 Monday night for their third straight win on a night when Giants top pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt made his major league debut.
McCutchen's 10th homer this season and 329th of his career put the Pirates in front 6-4 in the seventh.
Whisenhunt gave up a homer to the third batter he faced, NIck Gonzales, and three more runs in the second but then finished with three scoreless innings before departing after the fifth with the score tied 4-4. The 24-year-old left-hander gave up five hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a two-run double then scored on Tommy Pham's single for a 4-1 lead in the second. The Giants came back with two runs in the bottom of the second and tied it game on Willy Adames' second RBI hit in the fourth.
Yohan Ramirez (1-0), the third of six Pirates pitchers, got the win and David Bednar pitched the ninth for his 17th save in 17 chances this season. Mitch Keller turned in the shortest of his 22 starts this season after throwing 73 pitches over two innings.
Adames had three hits for San Francisco. Carson Seymour (0-1) gave up McCutchen's homer and took the loss.
Bednar gave up three hits and a run in the ninth before getting Patrick Bailey on a ground out to convert his 17th consecutive save, the longest-active streak in the majors.
Cubs wear patch
MILWAUKEE -- The Chicago Cubs have unveiled a ceremonial patch on their uniform in memory of Ryne Sandberg one day after the Hall of Famer's death.
Sandberg, who made 10 All-Star teams with the Cubs before his retirement in 1997, died Monday at the age of 65. The blue patch has a red 23 - Sandberg's uniform number - and features his signature in white lettering. It sits over the Cubs logo on an arm sleeve.
The Cubs posted a video on social media of the patch being sewn onto the uniforms before Tuesday night's game at Milwaukee. During pregame warmups, the Cubs wore T-shirts with the message, "FO23VER."
There was a moment of silence to honor Sandberg before Tuesday's game.
As Sandberg fought cancer last year, the Cubs unveiled a statue outside Wrigley Field that showed the second baseman in his familiar defensive crouch. As he talked about Sandberg before Tuesday's game, Counsell looked back on that ceremony from June 2024.
Sandberg hit .285 with 282 homers, 1,061 RBIs and 344 steals in 15 years with the Cubs and was named NL MVP in 1984. The second baseman played 13 games for Philadelphia in 1981 but got traded to Chicago the following January.
Wilson to IL
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Athletics placed All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson on the 10-day injured list on Tuesday with a fractured left forearm.
The 23-year-old Wilson was hit on his left hand by a pitch in the first inning of a 10-1 victory over Atlanta on July 8. The rookie is batting .105 (4 for 38) in his last 10 games.
Wilson, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2023 amateur draft, hasn't played since he went 1 for 3 in a 15-3 win at Houston on Friday. The IL stint was made retroactive to Saturday.
Wilson, the son of former big league infielder Jack Wilson, and A's teammate Nick Kurtz are two of the top contenders for AL Rookie of the Year. Jacob Wilson is batting .312 with 10 homers and 45 RBIs in 94 games.
O's hit 5 sac flies
BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Orioles tied a major league record with five sacrifice flies in their 16-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of Tuesday's doubleheader.
Baltimore immediately loaded the bases with nobody out in the first, and Tyler O'Neill and Cedric Mullins hit sac flies that inning. Then Ramon Urias and Mullins added a couple of more in the third. Jackson Holliday's flyout to left in the eighth tied the record and brought home Baltimore's final run of the game.
The sacrifice fly became official in 1954, and the Orioles were the fourth team since then to produce five of them in a game. Seattle did it in 2008 and 1988, and Colorado pulled it off in 2006.
To hit that many sacrifice flies, you need men on third with fewer than two outs. The Orioles loaded the bases with nobody out in the first and third, had men on second and third with one out in the fifth, then had runners on first and third with one out in the sixth and eighth.
Baltimore had seven plate appearances with a man on third and fewer than two outs. The Orioles went 1 for 2 in those chances, since sacrifice flies don't count as at-bats.
Baltimore also homered four times in the game.
Royals DFA Hill
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals designated Rich Hill for assignment on Tuesday, a week after the 45-year-old left-hander pitched in the first game of his 21st big league season.
Hill went 0-2 with a 5.00 ERA in two starts with Kansas City. The Royals were his 14th team, matching Edwin Jackson for the major league record.
Hill allowed three runs -- one earned -- and six hits in five innings in a 6-0 loss at the Chicago Cubs a week ago. He became the oldest player to start a major league game since May 27, 2012, when lefty Jamie Moyer tossed his final game with Colorado at age 49.
He also started for Kansas City on Monday against Atlanta, issuing six walks while surrendering four runs in four innings in a 10-7 loss.
Hill made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2005. He is 90-76 with a 4.02 ERA in 388 games, including 250 starts.