PITTSBURGH (AP) -The Pittsburgh Pirates put first baseman Adam LaRoche on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday because of a strained muscle in his ribcage and called up infielder Brian Bixler from Triple-A Indianapolis.
LaRoche was hurt while swinging during an at-bat in the sixth inning of a 3-1 loss to San Diego on Sunday. He left the game an inning later and sat out Pittsburgh’s 8-4 win over Colorado on Monday.
The move was made retroactive to Monday.
LaRoche is hitting .265 with 15 home runs and 52 RBIs. He hit .390 in July with seven home runs and 18 RBIs and had homered three times in his past three games.
Doug Mientkiewicz started in place of LaRoche on Monday and had three hits and two RBIs in the victory. He was in the lineup again Tuesday.
Bixler struggled as a fill-in for shortstop Jack Wilson earlier this season, hitting .175 with 23 strikeouts in 80 at-bats during his first stint in the major leagues. The 25-year-old was batting .278 with six home runs in 58 games for Indianapolis and played in the recent Triple-A All-Star game.
Bixler could see playing time at second base in place of Freddy Sanchez, who was not in the starting lineup for the second straight game Tuesday because of back spasms. Sanchez was injured running the bases in the first inning Sunday and likely is out until Friday at the earliest.
Chris Gomez was at second base Monday and Luis Rivas was set to make the start Tuesday.
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