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Yankees moving Marcus Stroman to the bullpen next week

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Yankees moving Marcus Stroman to the bullpen next week
Sport

Sport

Yankees moving Marcus Stroman to the bullpen next week

2024-09-14 12:36 Last Updated At:12:40

NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Stroman will be moved into the bullpen by the New York Yankees next week as they attempt to hold off Baltimore in a close race for the AL East crown.

New York has a day off Monday before beginning a six-game trip to Seattle and Oakland, so the Yankees will return to a five-man rotation. Nestor Cortes will be scheduled to start next time through instead of Stroman.

“He’ll be available for us out of the ‘pen probably Sunday and we’ll keep evaluating moving forward,” manager Aaron Boone said before Friday night’s 5-4 victory against Boston.

"I’ll try to put him in the best position, make sure we communicate well with him. He and I spoke yesterday about it. Nothing’s necessarily permanent, but with the off day coming I wanted to have us go five at least this time and maybe the next time around, too. We’ll see.”

It was Cortes who was the odd man out last week, when New York used five starters around an off day Sept. 5. The left-hander wasn't happy about the decision, but he pitched 4 1/3 hitless innings last Saturday against the Chicago Cubs in his first relief appearance since 2021. He earned the win in a 2-0 victory at Wrigley Field.

Without an off day off this week, Stroman and Cortes both pitched on turn as the Yankees went with six starters.

Stroman allowed three runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings Tuesday in a 5-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Cortes struck out nine over five innings in a no-decision Thursday against the Red Sox, permitting one run and three hits with three walks on 92 pitches.

Stroman is 10-8 with a 4.07 ERA in 28 starts during his first season with the Yankees. He has lost back-to-back outings after going 3-0 with a 2.35 ERA in his previous four.

“He’s one of the reasons we’re here," Boone said. “He’s gone to the post for us, taken all of his starts, won a lot of ballgames for us. I think one of the reasons we have a chance to get to the postseason is some of the consistency of our starting pitching, and on balance he’s done a really good job for us.”

The right-hander made two relief appearances for the Cubs last September, pitching on consecutive days after returning from a right hip injury. Besides that, the other six relief outings of his major league career all came during his first season in 2014 with Toronto.

“Stro’s been so good for us and so good in the room,” Boone said. “He’s all team in there and all about the guys in there. Basically his message to me is, whatever you need and I’ll be ready to go.”

Cortes is 9-10 with a 3.90 ERA in 29 starts and one relief appearance this year. He has given up 24 home runs, eight more than previous career high.

Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt recently returned from the injured list, giving the Yankees six healthy starters. New York has the best record in the American League at 86-62, three games ahead of the Orioles in the AL East.

“It’s just really about, we’re at that point of the year — difficult decisions to make,” Boone said. "And part of the reason they’re difficult decisions is because we have a lot of really good options that have made those difficult decisions. That’s where we’re at right now.”

New York has another day off Sept. 23 before hosting Baltimore and Pittsburgh to conclude the regular season, but Boone didn't commit to a rotation plan for the final week.

“I would say it’s kind of fluid,” he said.

AP freelance writer Larry Fleisher contributed to this report.

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

New York Yankees closing pitcher Nestor Cortes, right, celebrates with catcher Austin Wells, left, after defeating the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in a baseball game in Chicago, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

New York Yankees closing pitcher Nestor Cortes, right, celebrates with catcher Austin Wells, left, after defeating the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in a baseball game in Chicago, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman looks up before the start of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman looks up before the start of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes throws during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes throws during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Marcus Stroman throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Next Article

The Gulf of Whatnow? Mapmakers grapple with Trump's geographic renaming plans

2025-01-23 15:31 Last Updated At:15:40

What's in a name change, after all?

The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it’s called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it’s called Mt. Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed.

But Trump's territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers and teachers, snark on social media and sarcasm by at least one other world leader. And though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put the Trumpian “Gulf of America” on an official document and some other gulf-adjacent states were considering doing the same, it was not clear how many others would follow Trump's lead.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that if Trump went ahead with the renaming, her country would rename North America “Mexican America.” On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”

Map lines are inherently political. After all, they're representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world.

There’s no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features across the Earth.

“Denali” is the mountain's preferred name for Alaska Natives, while “McKinley" is a tribute to President William McKinley, designated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. Many Arab countries don’t recognize Israel and instead call it Palestine. And in many official releases, Israel calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Trump's executive order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — concludes thusly: “It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”

But what to call the gulf with the 3,700-mile coastline?

“It is, I suppose, an internationally recognized sea, but (to be honest), a situation like this has never come up before so I need to confirm the appropriate convention,” said Peter Bellerby, who said he was talking over the issue with the cartographers at his London company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers. “If, for instance, he wanted to change the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean, we would probably just ignore it."

As of Wednesday night, map applications for Google and Apple still called the mountain and the gulf by their old names. Spokespersons for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent map makers in the U.S., said this week that the company does not comment on individual cases and referred questions to a statement on its web site, which reads in part that it "strives to be apolitical, to consult multiple authoritative sources, and to make independent decisions based on extensive research.” National Geographic also has a policy of including explanatory notes for place names in dispute, citing as an example a body of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula, referred to as the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans.

In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it's still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York's Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.

“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of the body of water?” asked one Reddit poster on Tuesday.

“I guess you can tell students that SOME PEOPLE want to rename this body of water the Gulf of America, but everyone else in the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico,” came one answer. “Cover all your bases — they know the reality-based name, but also the wannabe name as well.”

Wrote another user: “I'll call it the Gulf of America when I'm forced to call the Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, which is to say never.”

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

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