CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians Manager Terry Francona will miss the club’s three-game series against Minnesota this week while he continues to deal with health issues.
Francona underwent another procedure Friday at the Cleveland Clinic to address a gastrointestinal condition that has bothered him for nearly a year.
The 61-year-old Francona already has missed 17 games and the club will be without him as they take on the AL Central-leading Twins, who lead the Indians by 1 1/2 games going into Monday’s series opener.
Interim manager Sandy Alomar Jr., the team’s usual first-base coach, will continue to fill in for Francona.
Francona recently said he’ll try to manage games whenever he can, but last week president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said the team has been encouraging him to take as long as needed before coming back.
The Indians had hoped Francona would return to the dugout at the start of this six-game homestand, but he missed the weekend series against Detroit.
Francona has been with the Indians for eight seasons. The two-time World Series winner is signed through the 2022 season.
METS: The New York Mets will resume play Tuesday after no additional members tested positive for COVID-19 since the team learned of two infections that caused four games to be postponed last week, Major League Baseball said.
The league said in a statement that all the Mets’ subsequent tests, including those taken Sunday, were negative and the team was returning to baseball activities Monday at Citi Field. A doubleheader against the Miami Marlins was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday with the Mets the home team for the first game and the Marlins the home team for the second.
The Mets’ series finale last Thursday in Miami and their three weekend Subway Series games against the crosstown Yankees were postponed after the positive tests were announced.
The Mets will make up the series against the Yankees with doubleheaders on Friday and Sunday at Yankee Stadium and a single game on Sept. 3 at Citi Field.
BLUE JAYS: The Toronto Blue Jays acquired struggling slugger Daniel Vogelbach from the Seattle Mariners for $100,000.
The 27-year-old Vogelbach was a first time All-Star last season but was designated for assignment by the Mariners on Aug. 19 after hitting .094 with two home runs and four RBI in 18 games this season. He had yet to play a game in the field this season at first base and was reduced to being a designated hitter.
A year ago, Vogelbach had a strong first half to the season, hitting 21 home runs and driving in 51 runs before the All-Star break. But the league adjusted after his All-Star Game appearance and Vogelbach hit just .162 with nine home runs over the final 2 1/2 months of the season.
He is a career .196 hitter with 36 home runs, 95 RBI and 120 walks in 223 games over parts of five seasons with the Mariners, beginning with his debut in 2016.
MONDAY’S GAMES
BLUE JAYS 6, RAYS 4: Randal Grichuk hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning as visiting Toronto beat Tampa Bay.
Reliever Aaron Loup (3-2) replaced Edgar Garcia with one on and one out. After Cavan Biggio reached on catcher’s interference, Grichuk gave Toronto a 5-3 lead with his seventh home run.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also homered for the Blue Jays, and Thomas Hatch (2-1) worked two scoreless innings for the win. He got his first big league victory in Friday’s game against the Rays.
Jordan Romano worked the ninth for his second save.
TWINS 3, INDIANS 2: Miguel Sano hit a two-run homer and Nelson Cruz connected for a solo shot to lead Minnesota to a win at Cleveland in the opener of a three-game series between the AL Central’s top teams.
Sano homered in the sixth inning off Aaron Civale (3-3) as the Twins hit the halfway point of this 60-game season in the same place they ended 2019. Minnesota stopped Cleveland’s three-year reign atop the division last year.
MARLINS 11, NATIONALS 8: Jesus Aguilar drove in three runs and Miami won at Washington, taking three of the five games in the series.
Miami entered the series on a five-game losing streak. They now exit Nationals Park just above .500 at 12-11.
CUBS 9, TIGERS 3: Javier Baez hit two home runs and visiting Chicago became the second franchise in major league history to post 11,000 wins.
Only the Giants have won more, with 11,179 victories after starting in New York in 1883 and later moving to San Francisco.
The Cubs, who earned their first victory in 1876, improved to 11,000-10,414. The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers are close behind with 10,996 wins.
BREWERS 4, REDS 2: Justin Smoak homered and drove in three runs as host Milwaukee cooled off Trevor Bauer and snapped a four-game skid.
Omar Narvaez added a solo shot to help the Brewers win their opener of a 10-game homestand.
Bauer (3-1) began the game with an 0.68 ERA that led the majors, but fell behind 4-0 in the first four innings as the Brewers reversed their season-long trend of slow starts.
RANGERS 3, ATHLETICS 2: Lance Lynn struck out eight in another workhorse start, Isiah-Kiner Falefa hit a go-ahead homer and host Texas ended its eight-game losing streak.
Kiner-Falefa, the primary shortstop with Elvis Andrus on the injured list, hit a solo shot in the second inning off Jesus Luzardo (2-1), snapping a 2-2 tie to put the Rangers ahead to stay.
The Rangers had led for only one of the 74 innings they played during their losing streak that was the longest active in the majors.
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