ARLINGTON, Texas — Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died on Monday at the age of 27, stunning Major League Baseball and leading to the postponement of the team’s game against the Texas Rangers.
Skaggs was with the team in Texas when he was found unresponsive in his hotel room, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they were investigating, but no foul play was suspected.
Skaggs was “an important part of the Angels family,” the team said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Carli, and his entire family during this devastating time.”
Skaggs, who would have turned 28 on July 13, had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016, when he returned from Tommy John surgery. He struggled with injuries repeatedly over the past three seasons but persevered to become a valuable starter in Los Angeles’ injury-plagued rotation.
The left-hander had just pitched on Saturday, allowing two runs in 4⅓ innings in a 4-0 loss to Oakland. He was scheduled to start the series finale at Texas on Thursday.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he was “deeply saddened” by Skaggs’ death.
Angels players and coaches who had arrived at the Rangers’ ballpark for Monday night’s series opener left about four hours before the scheduled start of the game to return to their hotel. The clubhouse was never opened to the media.
The Rangers’ clubhouse also was closed when general manager Jon Daniels and manager Chris Woodward told their players what had happened and dismissed them.
Woodward described it as “one of those moments where you’re just kind of numb” and said the Rangers were thinking about Skaggs’ family and the Angels organization.
“There were a lot of pretty emotional guys in there, you could tell. Some guys knew him. (Jesse Chavez) had actually played with him in L.A.,” Woodward said. “Some guys that didn’t even know him were visibly shaken. You could tell.”
Rangers officials said there had been no discussions on the status of Tuesday’s game or the rest of the series.
“Real life takes precedence here,” Daniels said. “Some things are a lot bigger than baseball.”
CHICAGO — A White Sox official says it was “poor form” for the team to show a scoreboard graphic of “famous people from Chicagoland” that grouped lynching victim Emmett Till with game show host Pat Sajak and film icon Orson Welles.
Scott Reifert, the team’s vice president of communications, said on Sunday that he told the staffer who created the graphic shown during Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins that listing the slain black teenager next to the others “kind of minimalizes (that this) is a young man who lost his life.”
The 1955 killing of the 14-year-old Till in Money, Miss., shocked the nation and was a watershed moment in the civil rights movement.
NEW YORK — In the latest embarrassment for the New York Mets, the team publicly apologized to two living members of its 1969 World Series championship team who were included in a video montage of dead players during a 50th anniversary celebration.
With a message that filled up one Citi Field scoreboard about 15 minutes before Sunday night’s game against Atlanta, the Mets expressed deep regret to Jim Gosger and Jesse Hudson for displaying their names and images in error during the “We Remember” segment of Saturday’s ceremony.
The club said it has spoken with both former players to apologize and wants to thank them along with their families and friends for their “gracefulness and understanding.”
TORONTO — Freddy Galvis hit a pair of solo home runs, rookie Cavan Biggio had four RBIs and Toronto beat Kansas City.
Randal Grichuk had four hits and four RBIs and Teoscar Hernández added a solo home run as the Blue Jays won for the 15th time in 19 regular-season home meetings with the Royals.
Wearing red caps and jerseys in honor of Canada Day, the Blue Jays scored in each of the first four innings and finished with a season-high 18 hits.
Biggio, who went 3 for 5, hit his first career grand slam in Saturday’s 7-5 victory, the first time he had driven in four runs in a game.
Clayton Richard (1-4) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings to win for the first time since Aug. 18, 2018, when he beat Arizona while pitching for San Diego.
Royals right-hander Glenn Sparkman (2-4) allowed season highs of nine hits and eight runs in three innings.
Ahead 2-0 after one, the Blue Jays scored five in the second, doing so for the second straight game. On Sunday, Toronto immediately surrendered five runs in the third and lost 7-6 to Kansas City — the Royals’ only win in the four-game series.
Hernández homered on the first pitch of the second, his eighth, and Galvis followed with a blast to center. It was the seventh time this season the Blue Jays have gone back-to-back.
Biggio added a two-run double and Grichuk capped the inning with an RBI single.
Galvis went deep again in the third, the third multihomer game of his career. He now has 14 home runs this season. Galvis doubled in the fifth and flied out in the seventh.
Jorge Soler, Cheslor Cuthbert and Humberto Arteaga hit consecutive RBI singles off Richard in the fourth, and Royals All-Star Whit Merrifield had an RBI single off David Phelps in the seventh.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: INF Adalberto Mondesi (strained right groin) started at shortstop and went 1 for 4 with a double in his second rehab game with Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Sunday night. Mondesi has been out since June 18.
UP NEXT
Royals: RHP Jakob Junis (4-7, 5.23 ERA) starts for Kansas City in the opener of a three-game home series against Cleveland, which beat Junis in his previous start. RHP Trevor Bauer (6-6, 3.55) starts for the Indians.
Blue Jays: RHP Trent Thornton (2-5, 4.60) starts the opener of a three-game series against Boston. Thornton allowed five runs against the Yankees in his previous start, matching a season worst. LHP David Price (5-2, 3.36) starts for the Red Sox.
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