Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
(Published May 2, 2023)
Lars Nootbaar had a hit and an RBI for the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, but the host Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep with a 6-3 victory.
The El Segundo native was 2-for-9 in the series against L.A., with two RBI and a stolen base.
St. Louis, 10 games back of Pittsburgh and in last place in the NL Central, will be in Anaheim on Tuesday night to face the Angels. Nootbaar has a chance to reconnect with Shohei Ohtani, his teammate on the Samurai Japan squad that won this year’s World Baseball Classic.
In Milwaukee on Sunday, Ohtani hit his seventh home run of the season and his first in four games as the Angels beat the Brewers 3-0.
The two-way star ripped Colin Rea’s first-pitch cutter high over the center-field wall for a solo run in the third inning at American Family Field, giving the Angels a 2-0 lead as he hit for the fifth straight game in a 1-for-3 outing.
Masataka Yoshida also went 1-for-3 for the Boston Red Sox in a 7-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians, extending his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the second inning.
Yu Darvish gave up four runs on nine hits, including three homers, over six innings, but did not factor in the decision as the San Diego Padres came from behind to win 6-4 against the San Francisco Giants in Mexico City.
Former Dodgers star Trevor Bauer took part in his first pitching practice at Yokohama Stadium on Monday, in preparation for his Nippon Professional Baseball debut with the Central League-leading DeNA BayStars.
DeNA skipper Daisuke Miura revealed the previous day that the 2020 Cy Young winner will start Wednesday’s CL game against the Hiroshima Carp, whose lineup is likely to include Shogo Akiyama, a former teammate of Bauer with the Cincinnati Reds.
The scheduled start comes five days after Bauer threw 93 pitches for the BayStars’ affiliate in the second-tier Eastern League. In three Eastern League games, the 32-year-old right-hander had 17 strikeouts over 16 innings with a 2.25 ERA.
The BayStars acquired the unsigned Bauer in March on a one-year deal after he received an MLB record 324-game suspension, reduced to 194 games through arbitration, for domestic violence.
The Dodgers released Bauer in January in the wake of the suspension, which was handed down after the former All-Star declined to deny allegations of domestic abuse under oath during an application for a restraining order against him.
Other MLB teams could have signed the pitcher with a career 83-69 record and a 3.79 ERA, but there were no takers until the BayStars offered him a deal.