Pirates recall Hunter Stratton from Triple-A

It’s a positive sign that Acuña is back with the club and feeling well enough to swing the stick, even in a simulated surrounding. The 28-year-old is unlikely to return before the All-Star break according to manager Walt Weiss, but it does appear likely the former MVP will be back in action well before the end of July, assuming no setbacks, of course.

O’Hoppe was forced to leave Friday’s game when he took a foul ball off the helmet. He’ll sit with Tyler Heineman handling catching duties and hitting Sonny Gray and the Boston staff.

Hernaiz gets the boot from the active roster with Zack Gelof (hand) back from the 10-day injured list. Hernaiz will likely be the first option if/when the A’s need some infield depth later in the campaign.

The Athletics need some catching depth with Shea Langeliers’ (thumb) availability in question, so Meneses will head back to the minors and be replaced by Brian Serven on the active roster.

Serven’s promotion comes a day after Shea Langeliers left Friday’s game with a thumb injury. Coincidence? Probably not. Serven will be a backup backstop to Jonah Heim while he’s with the club. How long that takes place will depend on Langeliers’ availability.

Gelof missed just the minimum stint on the injured list after suffering a hand laceration near the end of June. The 26-year-old was starting to swing a hot stick, and is worth fantasy consideration for those needing help in the middle infield.

Bell homered in back-to-back innings in the seventh and eighth, though the latter, which was hit 96.4 mph to right-center at Yankee Stadium, likely would have been an out most days. It’s his 13th career mulithomer game, including his second of this year. It’s his fourth game ever with three extra-base hits. The other three all came with the Pirates in a three-month span in 2019, with the last being his only three-homer game. He’s batting .247/.304/.434 through 345 plate appearances this year.

Beck generated 17 whiffs on 42 swings and 87 pitches today, which is really good. However, they turned into just three strikeouts. Three is also the number of homers he allowed. Luke Keaschall’s was Yankee Stadium-aided on a hitter friendly day, but the homers from Kody Clemens in the first and Alex Jackson in the second needed no such assistance. Beck will probably return to Triple-A now. The Yankees will need a fifth starter again Thursday, but they’d probably rather have a fresh arm available Sunday than wait to use Beck again. Perhaps Elmer Rodriguez can come back up for Thursday’s start.

Statcast says the homer, a 360-foot liner to right off Tim Hill, would have left four ballparks, which doesn’t even account for it getting a little help from the wind blowing out to right at Yankee Stadium today. It was just the 14th regular (non-inside the park) homer with a launch angle 18 degrees of lower this season. Still, it was an impressive 106-mph drive from Larnach in a matchup with a quality left-handed reliever. It was his sixth career homer against a southpaw. He’s 5-for-28 with two homers against lefties while serving as a platoon player this year.

Domínguez’s homer, his fourth in 108 plate appearances this season, would have been a double most days, but this was still a really nice game, as he delivered hard-hit balls all five times up. He entered the day 3-for-21 with no extra-base hits in his last six games. With Spencer Jones going back to Triple-A, Domínguez seems set to play pretty regularly until Aaron Judge returns. He hasn’t offered much mixed-league value yet, but he still might for a spell.