Street stands by friend Arrieta

ANAHEIM — Angels closer Huston Street sat at his kitchen table on Wednesday morning enraged. While his two oldest boys played baseball in the backyard, Street sipped on some coffee, scanned Twitter and saw the exchange between his good friend, Jake Arrieta, and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, who helped fan the flames on reckless, random speculation that Arrieta relied on performance-enhancing substances to become one of the game’s most dominant pitchers.

Street wanted to defend Arrieta, so he typed out a tweet on his smartphone, then agonized over whether to hit “send.”

“I swear to you on my life,” Street said, “I debated that long and hard.”

Street ultimately sent the tweet, under his personal account:

The @JArrieta34 PED story is a prime example of horrible reporting, “anything for a retweet, at the expense of the sport” with no evidence

— Huston Street (@HustonStreet) April 27, 2016

The @JArrieta34 PED story is a prime example of horrible reporting, “anything for a retweet, at the expense of the sport” with no evidence

Then he sent another one, thrusting himself into the conversation:

We used to celebrate achievement, hard work, but the truth is negativity sells and that’s sad, talk about setting a bad example for kids!

— Huston Street (@HustonStreet) April 27, 2016

We used to celebrate achievement, hard work, but the truth is negativity sells and that’s sad, talk about setting a bad example for kids!

Smith and Skip Bayless, his partner on the ESPN debate show, “First Take,” were reacting to a USA Today story in which Arrieta said he’s “heard players, and I’m talking about some of the best players in the league, question whether I’ve taken steroids or not. Some of the things I hear are pretty funny, and some …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com