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Tag: Pedro Grifol

  • Minnesota Twins hire former pitcher LaTroy Hawkins as bullpen coach


    The Minnesota Twins have hired former pitcher LaTroy Hawkins as their bullpen coach on the staff under new manager Derek Shelton.

    After working as a special assistant to the baseball operations department over the last nine seasons and taking some turns as an analyst on Twins television broadcasts, Hawkins accepted his first coaching assignment. He spent nine of his 21 years with the Twins, culminating with a setup reliever role on the AL Central champion teams in 2002 and 2003. Hawkins is 10th on baseball’s all-time list with 1,042 pitching appearances and one of 13 relievers in history to record a save against all 30 current major league teams.

    The Twins finalized their roster of 11 major league assistants on Friday, retaining pitching coach Pete Maki, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, assistant hitting coaches Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra, and Ramon Borrego — who moved from first base coach to third base coach — from the staff this past season under manager Rocco Baldelli.

    The other new hires are bench coach Mark Hallberg, hitting coach Keith Beauregard, first base coach Grady Sizemore, and assistant bench coach Mike Rabelo. Toby Gardenhire, who was manager of Triple-A St. Paul for the last five seasons, was also named major league field coordinator.

    Beauregard, who spent the last three years as hitting coach for Detroit, is the third hitting coach in three seasons for Minnesota. Hallberg spent the last six years on staff with San Francisco, including the last two seasons as first base coach. Rabelo spent the last six years on Pittsburgh’s staff while Shelton was manager there.

    Sizemore joins Hawkins as another staff member with significant major league playing experience, a three-time All-Star outfielder over 10 seasons with four different clubs including Cleveland, where Shelton was his hitting coach from 2005-09. Sizemore spent the last two years with AL Central rival Chicago, including a 45-game stint as interim manager in 2024 after the firing of Pedro Grifol.

    CBS Minnesota

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  • White Sox lose 21st straight game, tying AL record set by 1988 Baltimore Orioles, falling 5-1 to A’s

    White Sox lose 21st straight game, tying AL record set by 1988 Baltimore Orioles, falling 5-1 to A’s

    OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Chicago White Sox lost their 21st straight game, tying the American League record with a 5-1 defeat to the Oakland Athletics on Monday night as Max Schuemann hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the fourth inning.

    Chicago is on the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row. The NL record since 1900 is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost 23 straight.

    The major league low belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, an American Association team that lost 26 consecutive games during a 27-111 season.

    “We talk about it every day,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said of the streak. “Everybody knows what it is. It’s 21 in a row. It sucks. It’s not fun. It’s painful. It hurts. You name it. However you want to describe it. It’s not for lack of effort. Nobody wants to come out here and lose, so we’ve just got to put a good game together and put this behind us.”

    Chicago, which last won on July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, dropped to 27-88 and is on pace to finish 38-124, which would be the most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League went 20-134. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times.

    “You just try to turn the page,” outfielder Corey Julks said. “Look forward to the next day, bounce back, don’t dwell on the loss, just try to learn from them and get better each day. … We’re just trying to rally as a team and find a way to get a win.”

    Tyler Nevin’s first-inning sacrifice fly put the A’s ahead, but Andrew Benintendi tied the score with an RBI single against JP Sears (9-8) in the fourth.

    JJ Bleday doubled in the bottom half off Ky Bush (0-1), a 24-year-old left-hander making his big league debut. Zack Gelof walked and Darell Hernaiz was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Schuemann grounded a single between shortstop and third that bounced into left for a 3-1 lead.

    Lawrence Butler hit a sixth-inning homer against Chad Kuhl, his 13th home run this season.

    Gelof added a run in the eighth when he sprinted home from first after Jared Shuster’s pitch bounced away from catcher Korey Lee as Schuemann struck out. Lee looked toward Gelof at third and threw to first baseman Andrew Vaughn for the out, and Gelof ran home as Vaughn’s throw skipped past Lee.

    “Our whole plan coming into this series was to continue our focus, focus on the details of the game, play the game the way we know we’re capable of, and we did that tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.

    Sears allowed three hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk, improving to 5-1 in his last six decisions.

    “I thought his outing was great,” Kotsay said. “Five strikeouts, just one earned run. He managed the game great.”

    Austin Adams and Tyler Ferguson finished a four-hitter that took just 2 hours, 15 minutes, and included eight overall hits.

    Bush allowed three runs, two hits and five walks over four innings with three strikeouts. He played college baseball at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.

    “Got the first one out of the way,” Bush said. “Obviously, a little amped up. But happy to debut and just be here.”

    TRAINER’S ROOM

    White Sox: RHP Dominic Leone (right elbow inflammation) was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. RHP Prelander Berroa and LHP Sammy Peralta were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte.

    Athletics: RHP Mason Miller (fractured left pinky finger) threw batting practice and could return from the 10-day IL as soon as Wednesday, according to Kotsay.

    UP NEXT

    White Sox rookie RHP Jonathan Cannon (1-5, 4.11 ERA) will start Tuesday night opposite A’s RHP Ross Stripling (2-10, 5.64).

    —-

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

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  • Nick Nastrini shines in MLB debut for the White Sox

    Nick Nastrini shines in MLB debut for the White Sox

    CHICAGO — While the Chicago White Sox added another tally to the loss column on Monday, it was still an evening that begged the question, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” — Especially in the cases of Nick Nastrini and Jordan Leasure.

    The two rookie pitchers both made appearances on the mound Monday — Nastrini his Major League Baseball debut as a starting pitcher, and Leasure his sixth appearance out of the White Sox bullpen so far this year.

    “It was an out of body experience. It was everything I hoped it to be,” Nastrini said after the game, smiling from ear-to-ear. “I don’t really have a whole lot of words to describe it because there’s not really words I can use to describe it. That’s how fun it was.”

    Nastrini ended up going five full innings while giving up two runs on three hits and two walks to go with five strikeouts.

    Leasure pitched a 1-2-3 scoreless frame in the top of the seventh, keeping his ERA at a flat 0.00 through six games and 6.1 innings pitched in 2024.

    It should be the first of many times the two share a mound in a White Sox uniform.

    “I was just texting some of my friends, telling them I feel like a proud big brother,” Leasure said postgame. “That was really special for him and it was special for me to be able to be there with him.”

    Nastrini and Leasure were the two prospects who came over at the 2023 deadline in a trade that saw Chicago send Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Los Angeles Dodgers for them and Trayce Thompson.

    Leasure made his major league debut on March 30 against the Detroit Tigers, but the two share a history that spans back several years in the minor leagues.

    Both were selected by the Dodgers in the 2021 MLB amateur draft and followed similar ascents through the Los Angeles farm system, playing together in the Arizona Complex League (rookie ball) and at Rancho Cucamonga (Low-A) in 2021, all the way up to Tulsa (Double-A) and eventually Charlotte (Triple-A) when the two were traded to Chicago in 2023.

    For Nastrini, who had an 11-person contingent at the ballpark cheering him on Monday, those five innings were the culmination in a long grind that included everything from working within the parameters of professional baseball, to playing catch and throwing extra bullpen sessions with friends and family to get him right along the way.

    “My buddy Noah out there, I play catch with him every day during the offseason. My brother Jake, he catches my bullpens,” Nastrini said. “It makes me a little emotional talking about it. He catches my bullpens with no gear on — He’s out there taking spiked sliders to the shins for me during COVID and times after that too.

    “So, having my dad, my mom, my sister, they’re my biggest support system. My friends and family mean the absolute world to me so, it meant a lot to have them out there.”

    White Sox manager Pedro Grifol remarked after the game that Nastrini’s presence stood out as far back as a fan fest event at Guaranteed Rate Field in January. At the time, Grifol said Nastrini threw a bullpen and in the moment, he could tell “that’s what good ones look like.”

    “It was an emotional day for him … But I thought he was as expected — Under control, good presence, pounded the strike zone, think he retired the first 11 [batters],” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol. “He left a pitch out over the plate for [Vinnie] Pasquantino and a seeing-eye single by [Kyle] Isbel, other than that, I thought it was a really good outing.”

    Eli Ong

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