TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Mason Fluharty left Saturday’s game against the Athletics in the seventh inning after being struck on the right leg by consecutive infield singles.
Fluharty replaced Braydon Fisher to begin the inning and gave up a leadoff single to Jeff McNeil that bounced in front of the mound and struck the Toronto reliever above the right knee.
Manager John Schneider and a trainer came out to check on the 24-year-old Fluharty, who stayed in to face Max Muncy. Three pitches later, Muncy’s bouncing comebacker hit Fluharty on the inside of the right knee, knocking him to the ground.
Schneider and the trainer came out again and Fluharty eventually limped off while being supported by slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and head athletic trainer Jose Ministral.
After Toronto won 8-7 in 11 innings, Schneider said Fluharty had a right knee contusion, adding that X-rays had not revealed a fracture.
“He feels good,” Schneider said of Fluharty. “Should be good for (Sunday).”
Left-hander Brendon Little came on for Fluharty, who went 5-2 with a 4.44 ERA in 55 games as a rookie last season.
Both hits off Fluharty led to runs. McNeil scored on an infield single and Muncy came home on a grand slam by Shea Langeliers.
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Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, left, tends to pitcher Mason Fluharty after he hit by a second comebacker forcing Fluharty to leave the baseball game against the Athletics in Toronto, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Trainers and staff observe as Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mason Fluharty (68) as he throws after being hit by a come-backer in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Athletics in Toronto, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mason Fluharty (68) reacts after he was hit by a second come-backer forcing him to leave in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Athletics in Toronto, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.
In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.
Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.
Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.
“I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls ... to escape who I am.”
After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.
Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.
“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.
Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.
“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab."
Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.
“I've been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it's not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light."
Evans said he'd had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”
“Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power," he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt -- all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”
Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans' interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”
“I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying ... I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”
Andrew Johns, one of rugby league's greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.
“To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it's incredibly strong," Johns told the Nine network. “There's going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he's going to save a lot of lives.”
Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he's gone through, and the strength he's shown, it'll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”
“So Kane, well done mate," he added. "We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Kane Evans of the Parramatta Eels, top, is tackled by Bayley Sironen of the South Sydney Rabbitohs during their National Rugby League match between in Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2020. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)
