The Athletics claimed pitcher Angel Perdomo off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels.

The 30-year-old left-hander appeared in 22 total games for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2020 to 2021 with an alarming 8.24 ERA.

However, Perdomo returned to the majors in 2023 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and performed significantly better with a 3.72 ERA, 1.103 WHIP, and 44 strikeouts across 30 relief appearances.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery, he missed the entire 2024 campaign. The Pirates released him, and he was claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves.

On March 17, the Braves shipped him to the Angels for a player to be named later or cash considerations. However, the team designated him for assignment only eight days later.

In spring training, Perdomo played in 10 games between the Braves and Angels. He gave up two earned runs, seven hits and four walks, while striking out eight in 10 innings.

To make room, the Athletics designated outfielder Esteury Ruiz for assignment.

Ruiz appeared in 132 games for the franchise in 2023, recording five home runs, 47 RBIs, and an AL-leading 67 stolen bases. It also marked the most stolen bases by a rookie in AL history.

However, he appeared in only 29 games in 2024, posting two home runs, eight RBIs, and five stolen bases with an underwhelming .200/.270/.382 batting line.

The 26-year-old ranks in the 95th percentile in sprint speed. His baserunning ability, alone, gives him value to another club.

DALLAS -- The Texas Rangers placed third baseman Josh Jung on the 10-day injured list with neck spasms before Sunday's series finale against the Boston Red Sox and recalled infielder Jonathan Ornelas from Triple-A Round Rock.

Jung batted twice in an exhibition game at home Monday night before exiting because of neck stiffness. He didn't play in the exhibition finale Tuesday but started each of the first two regular-season games.

Ezequiel Duran was starting at third for Texas on Sunday with Ornelas at shortstop.

Josh Smith started at third Saturday but suffered a left quad bruise while going after a foul ball in the first inning. He initially stayed in the game, but Duran pinch hit for him in the first and then took over at third.

Manager Bruce Bochy said he hopes Smith will be ready for Monday night's game at Cincinnati.

Jung, the AL All-Star starter at third base as a rookie in 2023, was hitting .412 with two homers and six RBIs in the first four games last season before his right wrist was fractured when hit by a pitch while he was swinging. He then missed 102 games before returning July 30. That was after he had been out most of spring training with a left calf strain.

Ornelas hit .205 in 26 total games for Texas during the past two seasons.

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays put right-hander Max Scherzer on the 15-day injured list Sunday because of inflammation in his right thumb. The move comes one day after the three-time Cy Young Award winner left his debut start with Toronto after three innings because of right lat soreness.

Manager John Schneider said Scherzer will visit a hand specialist in the U.S. on Monday.

"Hopefully this kind of resets him and knocks it out," Schneider said of the persistent thumb issue. "We obviously need him. Elite pitcher, and we want him to feel his best."

Following Saturday's 9-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the 40-year-old Scherzer said his lat soreness was directly related to lingering thumb pain that forced him to push back a spring training start earlier this month.

Calling himself "frustrated," Scherzer said solving the thumb issue is his top priority.

"This thumb is absolutely critical to your arm health," he said after Saturday's game. "I've got to get this 100% before I pitch again."

Scherzer signed a one-year, $15.5 million contract in February. He went 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA in nine starts for the Texas Rangers last season, starting the year on the injured list while recovering from lower back surgery. He also had a stint on the injured list with shoulder fatigue and didn't pitch after Sept. 14 because of a left hamstring strain.

He allowed two runs and three hits Saturday, including two solo home runs. He threw 45 pitches, 28 for strikes. He struck out one and walked none.

Toronto recalled left-hander Easton Lucas and selected lefty Mason Fluharty, both from Triple-A Buffalo. Left-hander Richard Lovelady, who allowed four runs in relief of Scherzer and took the loss against Baltimore on Saturday, was designated for assignment.

NEW YORK -- Brewers pitcher Nestor Cortes had a return to Yankee Stadium to forget on Saturday.

A day later, Cortes reflected on allowing five of the Yankees' team-record nine homers and lasting two-plus innings in a 20-9 loss.

"It's not a good feeling," Cortes said. "So obviously didn't go the way I planned."

Cortes left the ballpark after the game without speaking to reporters in what the Brewers said was a miscommunication. He was at his locker about two hours before Sunday's series finale.

Cortes gave up homers on his first three pitches to Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge. He also allowed homers to Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe and was pulled after throwing 64 pitches.

The Brewers acquired Cortes on Dec. 13 from the Yankees for former closer Devin Williams, who is eligible for free agency. The left-hander, who became a fan favorite for his unique leg kicks, sported platinum blond hair and got a nice reception from the crowd in baseline introductions on Thursday.

"Obviously I spent a few years over there, and I was able to be on their side and not have to face them, but I think this comes with the territory of being a major league pitcher," Cortes said. "You never know where you're going to end up and at some point, you're going to face somebody you know or somebody that's close to you and it just happened to be yesterday."

A 36th-round pick of the Yankees in 2013, Cortes went 33-21 with a 3.80 ERA in 86 starts and 49 relief appearances over seven seasons with the Yankees, Orioles and Mariners. He is eligible for arbitration and also can become a free agent after next season.

An All-Star in 2022, Cortes was 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 31 appearances and 30 starts last season. He missed the final month of the regular season with a flexor strain in his pitching elbow, missed the AL Division Series and League Championship Series and allowed Freddie Freeman's game-ending grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series in Los Angeles.

After allowing the first game-ending grand slam in World Series history, Cortes stood at his locker stall for several minutes answering numerous questions.

The new torpedo bats drew attention when the New York Yankees hit a team-record nine homers that traveled a combined 3,695 feet on Saturday.

Using a strikingly different model in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered in New York's 20-9 rout of the Milwaukee Brewers.

"That's just trying to be the best we can be," manager Aaron Boone said Sunday. "That's one of the things that's gotten pointed out. I say to you guys all the time, we're trying to win on the margins, and that shows up in so many different ways."

Major League Baseball has relatively uncomplicated bat rules, stating under Rule 3.02: "The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood." It goes on to state there may be a cupped indentation up to 1 inches in depth, 2 inches wide and with at least a 1-inch diameter, and experimental models must be approved by MLB.

Former Yankees infielder Kevin Smith posted online Saturday that Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins, developed the torpedo barrel to bring more mass to a bat's sweet spot.

"You're going up with a weapon that can be better," Smith wrote. "Your just misses could be clips, your clips could be flares, and your flares could [be] barrels. And it was true, it's fractions of an inch on the barrel differentiating these outcomes."

Goldschmidt, batting leadoff for the first time, opened with a 413-foot homer off Nestor Cortes, and Bellinger followed with a 451-foot drive that initially didn't register with Statcast. Aaron Judge, using a bat with a conventional shape, hit a 468-foot shot that made the Yankees the first team to homer on each of a game's first three pitches, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Bellinger first was presented with the torpedo-shape concept in a batting practice session last season with the Chicago Cubs but did not use it in a game. He was given a more advanced version during spring training this year.

"I started swinging this one in spring or before spring, kind of early on, and I was like, 'Oh it feels good,'" Bellinger said. "It was an ounce lighter than the one I was swinging, but I think the way the weight was distributed felt really good."

Bellinger, the 2019 National League MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers, switched from a maple Louisville Slugger to a birch bat and cited MLB's 2010 rule change narrowing the maximum diameter from 2.75 inches.

"I'm usually a maple guy, but birch for me allows me to get the bigger barrel because I wasn't grandfathered in," Bellinger said. "So it's all within regulation. They made sure that before the season even started, knowing that I imagine at some point the way these bats look that it's probably going to get out at some point."

Volpe, who homered for the second straight game Saturday, began using the torpedo bat in spring training.

"The concept makes so much sense. I know I'm bought in," Volpe said. "The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me."

Judge, who hit an American League-record 62 homers in 2022 and 58 last year en route to his second AL MVP award, didn't see a reason to experiment.

"The past couple of seasons kind of speak for itself," Judge said a day after his third career three-homer game. "Why try to change something?"

Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said he knows a little about developing and designing bats from serving on the boards of two bat companies.

"Players are doing everything to try to get an edge today legally, and I think they should," Murphy said. "I think whatever is good for the offensive game is good for the game."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

High-scoring, high-entertainment running rugby is just what the Premiership "needs", according to Gloucester and Bristol after they shared 81 points and 13 tries at Kingsholm on Saturday.

Gloucester ran rampant in the West Country derby, scoring nine tries in a 53-28 win over the Bears.

Some have questioned if the quest for attacking flair is coming at a detriment to defence, but Bristol director of rugby of rugby Pat Lam said the style is bringing more fans to the game.

"I think you've just got to look at the Bristol crowd [against Exeter Chiefs] last week, the Gloucester crowd [on Saturday]," he told BBC Sport.

"They enjoyed the rugby, we're enjoying rugby. I'm pretty sure everyone's talking about these caterpillars [rucks], these box[-kicking] fests.

"The purists might not like it but it's not about the purists. It's about the young people, it's about people enjoying coming to games."

The match was played in front of a capacity crowd at Gloucester, and Lam added that attracting new fans is important for the future of the game.

"We sold out here, we had our second biggest crowd last week, our game against Bath [at the Principality Stadium in May], the crowd's building there," he said.

"People want to be entertained. Our game needs people coming to rugby. I'm pretty confident that Gloucester are going to continue selling out because they're playing great rugby.

"You're always going to get people complaining, but I would look more at the positives where people are loving and enjoying it particularly the kids, that's what I like because that's our future."