{"id":23620,"date":"2025-05-13T11:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T11:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/23620\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T11:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T11:59:11","slug":"autopsy-reveals-former-red-sox-pitchers-cause-of-tragic-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/23620\/","title":{"rendered":"Autopsy Reveals Former Red Sox Pitcher\u2019s Cause of Tragic Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The baseball world spent the early days of spring training mourning longtime pitcher Scott Sauerbeck, who suddenly passed away in February.<\/p>\n

It was reported at the time that Sauerbeck, 53, suffered a heart attack. TMZ Sports obtained the autopsy and shared that Sauerbeck died from complications of the flu, specifically \u201csequela of acute influenza A, including streptococcal pharyngitis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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TMZ added<\/a> that hypertensive heart disease \u201cwas listed as a contributing factor\u201d in Sauerbeck\u2019s death. The seven-year MLB veteran had no substances in his system, according to a toxicology report.<\/p>\n

\"Oakland<\/p>\n

Oakland Athletics pitcher Scott Sauerbeck in 2006Tom Szczerbowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

A 1994 27th-round pick of the New York Mets, Sauerbeck went 20-17 with a 3.82 ERA from 1999-2006. He pitched for four teams, even pitching in the 2003 ALCS for the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

However, Sauerbeck spent most of his career with the Pirates, posting a 3.56 ERA and 319-191 K-BB ratio across 308.2 innings. Despite not debuting until his age-27 season, Sauerbeck\u2019s 341 appearances remain tied for the most of any Pirates left-handed pitcher.<\/p>\n

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A 6-foot-3, 190-pound lefty from Ohio, Sauerbeck also pitched for the Cleveland Guardians and Oakland Athletics. He traditionally worked as a LOOGY (Left-handed One Out Guy), averaging 45 innings over 65 games in his final four seasons.<\/p>\n

Related: Former Red Sox Prospect Tragically Dead at 43<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Tigers Make Heartbreaking Announcement on Former All-Star Outfielder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The baseball world spent the early days of spring training mourning longtime pitcher Scott Sauerbeck, who suddenly passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,51,9730,4,61,63,89,2543,9729,4504,1564],"class_list":{"0":"post-23620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-cleveland-guardians","13":"tag-hypertensive-heart-disease","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-oakland-athletics","17":"tag-red-sox","18":"tag-redsox","19":"tag-scott-sauerbeck","20":"tag-the-boston-red-sox","21":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114500414200571432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}