Athletics' Piazza placed on DL

May/04/07 09:53 PM Filed in: Mike Piazza
The Oakland Athletics placed designated hitter Mike Piazza on the 15-day disabled list because of a sprained right shoulder and purchased the contract of outfielder/designated hitter Jack Cust from Triple-A Sacramento.

Piazza suffered a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder at Boston Wednesday during a sixth-inning collision with Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell.

This is Piazza's first season in the American League, where he is hitting .282 with one homer and eight RBI in 103 at-bats as a designated hitter.

Over 15 major league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and San Diego Padres, Piazza became the best hitting catcher in big league history with a .309 career batting average, 419 home runs and 1,291 RBI. His 396 long balls as a backstop is a major-league record.

Cust was acquired from San Diego on Thursday for a player to be named or cash. He was hitting .295 with eight homers and 19 RBIs in 24 games for Triple-A Portland.

(theolympian.com)