A’s Reliever Bradford to Have Surgery

Oakland Athletic reliever Chad Bradford will have back surgery Monday and is expected to be out until late June.

Bradford has been plagued by lower-back soreness and spasms for years, and the problems flared up again in spring training. His back locked up with spasms last week, and rehabilitation hasn’t fixed the problem.

“With my delivery, it’s not the first time I’ve had lower back problems,” said Bradford, who almost brushes the ground with his arm on his pitches. “The way I twist and turn out there, it grinds on my back. But if I threw over the top, I’d be at home right now working somewhere, and not in the bigs.”

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As an encore to his successful debut with the Baltimore Orioles, Sammy Sosa did something even more memorable: He got ejected from a spring training game while playing the outfield.

Sosa was tossed in the second inning of the Orioles’ 9-6 loss to the Washington Nationals at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It was the first time in 34 years Baltimore and Washington met on the baseball diamond.

In the bottom of the first inning, Sosa was called out by home plate umpire Joe West on a high third strike. Sosa briefly expressed his displeasure with the call before taking his place in right field.

After Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera opened the second inning by going to a 2-0 count on leadoff hitter Brad Wilkerson, Sosa was ejected.

“I said, ‘That was a strike,’ ” Sosa said, “and then the second-base umpire was like, ‘Knock it off.’ I said something back to him, and that was everything. I was all the way in right field, but I guess he took it the wrong way and threw me out of the game.”

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Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson received minor injuries after his sport utility vehicle was rear-ended by another SUV on Friday night in Tampa, Fla.

Jackson, 58, was treated and released from the hospital after his vehicle was hit from behind by another “traveling at a high rate of speed,” a Tampa police spokesman said.