Astronauta Music

Before the season, Yankees manager Aaron Boone envisioned Giancarlo Stanton launching pitches out of Yankee Stadium at a torrid pace. In April, the guy blistering the ball was Didi Gregorius. Now neither Gregorius, nor Stanton can catch a break.

After striking out four times Sunday, Stanton was given the day off Monday as the Yankees lost to the Astros 5-1. He’s 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts in his last three games, forcing Boone to blame the adjustment phase.

Gregorious was marred in a 4-for-70 slump entering Monday and batted seventh in the order after spending nearly the entire season batting third or fourth. A pair of hits helped Gregorious ignore the demotion.

Now he becomes the latest Met to succumb to an injury.

Noah Syndergaard was examined today at The Hospital for Special Surgery for soreness in his right index finger. A MRI and clinical examination confirmed a strained ligament in the finger. Syndergaard will be placed on the 10-Day Disabled List, retroactive to May 26.

Syndergaard joins fellow starters Jacob deGrom and Jason Vargas in having been on the DL this season, at a time when Mets starting pitching already was thin after they off-loaded Matt Harvey to the Reds.

Although Syndergaard hasn’t been the dominant Thor of past seasons, he is 4-1, tied with deGrom for most wins among starters, with a 3.06 ERA and has been a consistent presence in a rotation that has been roiled almost all season.

This will be Covey’s 20th start in the big leagues. He is 3-9 with a 5.95 ERA in his career.

On the outside looking in, I would say he’s on a path that leads us to believe he’s turning a corner and getting to where you feel comfortable with all of his approaches, when he’s attacking hitters, and that’s going to be able to have this become a sustainable activity for him, Chicago manager Rick Renteria said to the Chicago Sun-Times. The stuff is good. It’s always going to be, for all pitchers, trusting the stuff and commanding strikes.

For Oakland, right-hander Daniel Mengden (6-6, 4.06 ERA) is set to make his 16th start of the season. The Houston Astros drafted Mengden in the fourth round in 2014, and he was traded to Oakland the next season as part of a package for veteran left-hander Scott Kazmir.

Kazmir has not pitched in the big leagues since 2016, but Mengden appears to have a bright future at age 25. He has struggled recently, however, allowing 16 earned runs in his past 14 1/3 innings for a 10.05 ERA during that span. He has given up eight home runs in that time.

In his only career appearance against the White Sox earlier this season, Mengden allowed only one run and six hits in eight innings. He walked one and struck out six while picking up the win in Oakland’s 8-1 victory.

The Steelers traded Martavis Bryant during the draft and then selected James Washington in the second round in a move that may give them a replacement for Bryant in the wide receiver group.

Washington isn’t the only option for the snaps opened up by Bryant’s departure, however. Justin Hunter remains on the Pittsburgh roster and he’s gotten chances to run with the first team with Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster missing some of the team’s OTA practices.

I need every one of [these reps], Hunter said, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. It gives me another op to show what I’ve got against the first team. As long as I keep it consistently, I’ll be straight.

Your San Francisco quarterback, I’m sure nobody ever heard of him,the president said.

… There was an article today that was reported that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump.

But for now it’s important to remember that A) he is here and B) it makes absolutely no sense for anyone, the receiver or the team, to risk aggravating an injury during a meaningless June practice. The Giants would be best served covering him in bubble wrap and sliding him into a storage shed until Sept. 9 given his importance to the team.

This might be headed for a training camp holdout, but for now Beckham’s situation hasn’t been the kind of distraction other teams are facing (see Julio Jones in Atlanta). He’s here. He’s healthy.

Manning needs him. The quarterback looks like a different person than he did at the end of last season, when he wore the strain of a 3-13 record and losing his starting job on his face.

Everything the Giants have done since December has delivered one message to their franchise quarterback: We can win now and we can win with you. Barkley might be the player fans are most exciting to see after the team took him No. 2 overall, but Manning is as much the face of this franchise as he was on his own draft night 14 years ago.

The Los Angeles Rams loaded up on experience on the defensive line and in the secondary with a series of audacious offseason acquisitions through trades and free-agent signings.

Third-year linebacker Cory Littleton is calling plays for the first time after moving inside. Second-year outside linebacker Samson Ebukam was paired with rookie defensive end Justin Lawler to form the main pass rush tandem during a team period Tuesday, with rookies Trevon Young, John Franklin-Myers and Brian Womac seeing significant action behind them.

In the hopes of filling some of those gaps, the Rams used four of their 11 picks on linebackers to add depth inside and outside. Special teams contributors Littleton and Bryce Hager will take on larger roles in the middle, and players from McVay’s first draft class in 2017 such as Ebukam and Ejuan Price are being asked to further ramp up their development in pressuring opposing quarterbacks.

I think as a seventh-year player, now you have a little freedom to just be yourself and to not take a back seat and to just be vocal within reason, Cousins said.

Be a leader, step up, and let your voice be heard. To their credit, the guys have received it well, and it’s been fun to just assimilate myself into the offense and into the program.

As Cousins was finishing an interview session with the Minnesota media on Wednesday afternoon during a visit to a local middle school, his teammates called him over to complete their interaction with the kids and pose for one last photo.

He dutifully sprinted across the gym so as not to disappoint or, perhaps, take the razzing. He’s the face of this franchise, a responsibility he hasn’t shied from, but he’s also a carefully spoken and image-conscious player who can understand the importance of not overstepping his bounds.