Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Francisco Liriano left in the fourth inning of his start against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday with a strained left oblique, manager Clint Hurdle told Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
MLB roundup: Francisco Liriano, Justin Upton exit early with injuries
A couple of key pieces from 2013 playoff squads suffered injuries on Tuesday while another one of those playoff squads dug itself into a deeper hole.
Justin K. Aller
Liriano surrendered a two-run homer to Anthony Rizzo in the first inning, and it was Rizzo who was at the plate when the Pirates' starter grimaced after making his third pitch of the fourth. Liriano was given the opportunity to throw a few painful-looking warm-up pitches before he was removed in favor of reliever Jeanmar Gomez.
Liriano allowed two runs on three hits while striking out four in three innings. The 30-year-old southpaw is having a rough season after winning the NL Comeback Player of the Year award in 2013. Liriano entered Tuesday 1-6 with a 4.54 ERA and has walked nearly five batters per nine innings.
The Pirates did have some good news on Wednesday, though. Top prospect Gregory Polanco made his major league debut and picked up his first career hit in his second plate appearance:
Polanco came around to score on Andrew McCutchen’s two-run homer in the next at-bat. The Cubs wound up winning, 7-3.
Justin Upton hurts hamstring
Braves outfielder Justin Upton didn't make it out of the first inning on Tuesday after straining his right hamstring during the team's opening frame against the Colorado Rockies, per the Braves' official Twitter account.
Upton singled with one out in the first and scored on Tommy La Stella's RBI hit later in the inning. He was replaced in the outfield by Jordan Schafer prior to the bottom half of the inning.
The Braves cruised to an easy victory in Denver despite the absence of their clean-up hitter, who owns a .292/.372/.551 line with 14 home runs in 248 plate appearances.
Tampa Bay loses again
The Rays were shut out by the Cardinals, 1-0, on Tuesday and have not scored a run in 28 innings. Adam Wainwright shut down Tampa Bay's woeful offense for seven innings, scattering seven hits and a couple of walks while striking out two.
Joe Maddon's squad last plated a run on Evan Longoria's eighth-inning homer against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday. They've had only 17 hits -- only five of which have gone for extra bases -- since that point. Perhaps even worse, as of the start of the west coast slate of games on Tuesday, the defending AL wild card game winner faced the largest divisional deficit in all of baseball:
The Rays are 15.5 games back of the Blue Jays.
— YCPB (@cantpredictball) June 11, 2014 Tuesday scores
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