ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ryan Pepiot could return to the rotation late this week after being hospitalized last month for a knee infection that is believed to the result of a spider bite during the All-Star break.
Pepiot was admitted to Columbia University Medical Center in New York and received antibiotics in his right knee after being placed on the 15-day injured list on July 19.
Pepiot had some bug bites while playing golf during the break, but make the trip for a series at the New York Yankees.
The swelling in his knee reached a point where he needed help to walk into the hospital.
"The first couple days, like, when I went into the hospital, it was real bad," Pepiot said before Monday night's game with Houston. “I couldn't put any weight on my right leg. The first few days it was pretty swollen, a lot of fluid, and it was kind of slushy.”
Pepiot said the swelling is down, which allowed him to get back on the mound.
A 26-year-old right-hander, Pepiot is 6-5 with a 3.92 ERA in 17 starts. He was acquired from the Dodgers in December as part of the trade that sent right-hander Tyler Glasnow to Los Angeles.
Pepiot last pitched for the Rays on July 14, throwing six innings of two-hit ball in a 2-0 win over Cleveland. He started for Double-A Montgomery on Saturday, and rejoined the team Sunday to continue working out.
He will be adjusting his golfing attire, forgoing shorts.
“I’ll be wearing pants whenever I, like, do something outside,” Pepiot said. “When I play golf, I get the scenic view of the golf course."
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Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ryan Pepiot warms up before a baseball game against the Houston Astros Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Pepiot has on the injured list with a leg infection. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people slightly injured by shattered glass from nearby windows, the Israeli military said Saturday.
A further 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before the projectile hit just before 4 a.m. Saturday, the military said.
The Houthis later issued a statement on their Telegram channel saying they had aimed at a military target, which they did not identify, with a hypersonic ballistic missile.
The attack comes less than two days after a series of Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi attack in which a long-range missile hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.
The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — attacks they say won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports “that will lead to the immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port at Hodeida has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region and undermine U.N. mediation efforts.
In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, mourners held the funerals of 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.
One strike Friday afternoon hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a house overnight killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Ahli hospital where the bodies were taken.
Mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City Saturday morning. Women comforted each other as they wept over the bodies before they were carried out of the hospital. One man, stony-faced, cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body in his arms as he carried it along the funeral procession.
In the Aqsa hospital of Deir al Balah, white body bags containing those killed in Nuseirat were taken from the hospital morgue and loaded onto the back of an open truck to be taken for burial.
Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them.
Israel says it only strikes militants, and blames the Hamas militant group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.
More than 45,200 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the devastating 14-month war in Gaza. Local health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)
