Injured Alex Cobb dropped from Guardians' ALCS roster, replaced by Ben Lively

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Injured Alex Cobb dropped from Guardians' ALCS roster, replaced by Ben Lively

2024-10-16 13:22 Last Updated At：13:30

NEW YORK (AP) — Pitcher Alex Cobb was dropped from Cleveland's American League Championship Series roster on Tuesday after he got hurt yet again in the opener, leaving the Guardians in search of a Game 5 starter against the New York Yankees.

“It’s been a challenging year. Timing of this one coming in the postseason makes it extra difficult," Cobb said. "It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for my whole career and to not be able to contribute — to put the team in a hole yesterday was challenging.”

Cobb left Monday's 5-2 loss after 2 2/3 innings. The 37-year-old right-hander is ineligible to pitch for the remainder of the postseason.

“He was diagnosed with a lower back strain,” manager Stephen Vogt said before Cleveland dropped to 0-2 in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday with a 6-3 loss. “This type of injury would be a full blown IL stint, and with the timing of the year, the chances of him pitching again were very, very, very slim.”

Cobb was replaced on the roster by Ben Lively, a 32-year-old right-hander who was Cleveland’s winningest pitcher this season at 13-10 with a 3.81 ERA in 29 starts.

“We don’t know what we’re going to have,” Vogt said. “Alex was going to start Game 5. Now we have to figure out today knowing that we have six more games to cover.”

Lively and left-hander Gavin Williams are candidates to start Game 3 on Thursday in Cleveland.

Cobb pitched just 22 innings over five games this year, including the regular season and playoffs.

A 2023 All-Star, Cobb had hip surgery on Oct. 31 and hadn’t yet returned to the mound when he was acquired by Cleveland from San Francisco at the July 30 trade deadline.

He made his season debut Aug. 9 and was sidelined after two games by a torn nail on his right index finger. He didn’t allow an earned run over six innings in his Sept. 1 return against Pittsburgh, then went back on the injured list with a blister on his right middle finger that ended his regular season.

Cobb went 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA in the playoffs. He received a $10 million salary this year under a club option that was exercised and can become a free agent after the World Series.

Lively last pitched Sept. 28 against Houston on the next-to-last day of the regular season.

“I’m just staying on the same workout program as I was when I was starting: workout day, heavy bullpen day mixed in between and just try to stay built up,” Lively said.

He has faced the Yankees once, on May 19 last year for Cincinnati, when he allowed a home run to Aaron Judge in the first inning and issued a sixth-inning walk to Judge, who scored on Anthony Rizzo's homer off reliever Ian Gibaut in a 6-2 New York win.

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Menendez brothers' family to push for their release as prosecutors review 1989 case

2024-10-16 13:05 Last Updated At：13:20

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The extended family of Erik and Lyle Menendez will advocate for the brothers' release from prison during a news conference set for Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles as prosecutors review new evidence to determine whether they should be serving life sentences for killing their parents.

Billed as “a powerful show of unity” by more than a dozen family members — including the brothers' aunt — who are traveling across the country to Los Angeles, the news conference will take place less than two weeks after LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced his office was looking at the brothers' case again.

Erik Menendez, now 53, and his 56-year-old brother, Lyle Menendez, are currently incarcerated in state prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago.

Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot-gunned their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, in 1989 but said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent the disclosure of the father’s long-term sexual molestation of Erik.

The extended family’s attorney Bryan Freedman previously said they strongly support the brothers’ release. Comedian Rosie O’Donnell also plans to join the family on Wednesday.

“She wishes nothing more than for them to be released,” Freedman said earlier this month of Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister and the brothers' aunt.

Earlier this month, Gascón said there is no question the brothers committed the 1989 murders, but his office will be reviewing new evidence and will make a decision on whether a resentencing is warranted in the notorious case that captured national attention.

The brothers’ attorneys said the family believed from the beginning they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder. Manslaughter was not an option for the jury during the second trial that ultimately led to the brothers’ murder conviction, attorney Mark Geragos previously said.

The case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. ”

The new evidence includes a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father. A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 29.

Prosecutors at the time contended there was no evidence of any molestation. They said the sons were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

But the brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them. Their attorneys argue that because of society’s changing views on sexual abuse, that the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole today.

Jurors in 1996 rejected a death sentence in favor of life without parole.