HOUSTON (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton was not in the starting lineup for the second straight day Sunday against Houston after exiting Friday’s win over the Astros with right calf tightness.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said a decision on whether Stanton will need a stint on the injured list should be made in time for Monday’s series opener against the Texas Rangers.
“I know yesterday he felt like it improved,” Boone said. “I think he also feels like he got in front of it a little bit, so we’ll see how it unfolds today.”
Stanton said he felt tightness in his calf while running the bases in the sixth inning on Friday night. He was removed from the game after he was unable to score from second on a single to the left-field wall by J.C. Escarra.
The five-time All-Star is hitting .256 this season with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games.
Stanton has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t played a full season since 2018, his first with the Yankees. He has been out of the lineup due to injuries to his elbows (2025), left hamstring (2020, 2023 and 2024), left quadriceps (2021), and right ankle and left Achilles (2022) over the last six seasons.
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New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) runs to home base after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced more heat Tuesday over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to the United States, with lawmakers set to vote on whether the British leader should be investigated by a parliamentary standards watchdog over the ill-fated decision.
Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, was due to testify to a group of legislators investigating how Mandelson, a scandal-tainted friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee was set to quiz McSweeney on Tuesday morning, before the whole house debates a demand by the opposition Conservative Party for Parliament’s Privileges Committee to investigate Starmer’s explanations of how Mandelson came to be appointed.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that Starmer had “misled the House of Commons repeatedly” when he said that “full due process” was followed over Mandelson’s appointment.
It's a potentially dangerous day for Starmer, who has spent weeks fending off calls to resign over the Mandelson saga. Starmer fired Mandelson in September after new details emerged about the ambassador's friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Police opened an investigation into Mandelson in February over allegations that he passed on sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a member of the U.K. government in 2009.
McSweeney, a protégé of Mandelson who served as Starmer’s top aide, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for appointing him as ambassador. He's certain to be asked about allegations by Olly Robbins, the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office, that Starmer’s staff pressured officials to rush through the confirmation so that Mandelson could be in the post at the start of the second term of U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2025.
Robbins' predecessor, Philip Barton, told the committee on Tuesday that he was concerned that Mandelson's known links to Epstein “could become a problem” in the future.
But he said that he wasn't consulted on the “political decision” to appoint Mandelson. It's rare but not unknown for U.K. ambassadors to be political appointees rather than career diplomats.
“I was presented with a decision and told to get on with it," said Barton, who left his job for unrelated reasons in January 2025 before Mandelson's security clearance was approved.
Ian Collard, the senior security official who briefed Robbins on the security checks, told the committee in a written statement that there was “pressure to deliver a rapid outcome,” though he said that it didn't affect his judgment.
Starmer has denied that anyone in his office put pressure on the civil service.
The prime minister fired Robbins earlier this month after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government’s security vetting agency. Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns.
Critics say Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson in the first place is evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.
Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment. He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.
It would require a large number of Labour lawmakers to vote with the opposition on Tuesday for Starmer to be referred to the Privileges Committee, which has the power to suspend lawmakers, including the prime minister, from Parliament, for breaches of the rules.
Starmer urged Labour lawmakers to “stick together” and vote against the motion, calling it a “stunt” timed to damage the government before the May elections.
Censure by the committee exerts considerable moral pressure on politicians to resign. Its investigation into lockdown-breaking gatherings in government offices during the COVID-19 pandemic helped end the political career of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson quit as a lawmaker in 2023 after the committee found that he had repeatedly misled Parliament over the “Partygate” scandal.
Lord Peter Mandelson taking his dog for a walk near his home in London, England, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)
Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, second left, looks on as Leader of Britain's Conservative party Kemi Badenoch speaks during a debate on a motion on Privileges in the House of Commons in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (House of Commons via AP)
Leader of Britain's Conservative party Kemi Badenoch speaks during a debate on a motion on Privileges in the House of Commons in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (House of Commons via AP)
This is a screen grab of former former No10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee about Lord Peter Mandelson's vetting process at the Houses of Parliament in London, Tuesday April 28, 2026. (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA via AP)
This is a screen grab of former former No10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee about Lord Peter Mandelson's vetting process at the Houses of Parliament, in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in north-west England, Britain, Monday, April 27, 2026. (Temilade Adelaja/Pool Photo via AP)
