MLB Player News

Thompson is 3-for-8 with four RBI and three walks since being called up nine days ago. The Yankees should begin to give him more starts at Bernie Williams’ expense. He might prove to be a better hitter this year than either Williams or Melky Cabrera.

Alvarez pitched well with 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, but the 26-year-old will return to Triple-A to give the Nats a fresh arm for the coming week. The corresponding move will be announced Monday.

It was Díaz’s first appearance in nine days, and it looked like the rust effected him. His fastball velocity was down with a few 93 mph offerings — he did reach 97 mph a couple of times, to be fair — and his command was awful. He allowed three hits and a walk before exiting, and two runs scored after he exited the contest. The results are ugly, the velocity and lack of movement on his pitches are more concerning. Stay tuned.

Lorenzen was shelled for seven runs against the Astros on Tuesday — although tree of them were unearned — and it was beyond reasonable to be skeptical about his chances of limiting the Dodgers on Sunday. He did, for the most part. He gave up two runs in the second inning, and one more in the sixth, but all things considered, the disaster was averted. He’s now the owner of a 7.48 ERA and Lorenzen will get a chance to build on this decent-ish effort against the Mets on Friday.

Sasaki was able to blank the Rockies over three innings despite dealing with some traffic, but things fell apart in the fourth and fifth. The right-hander ended up allowing seven hits while issuing two more walks and striking out two. There are a smorgasbord of potential replacements for Sasaki in the Dodgers’ rotation. How much more patience will they show. There’s so much long-term potential for Sasaki, but he can’t be trusted right now. He’s scheduled to face the Cubs over the weekend.

It’s worth noting that Carroll left the game with the Diamondbacks trailing 9-1, so there’s a decent chance this is precautionary. It’s still concerning, however, and fantasy managers will likely have to await some testing before knowing Carroll’s status going forward. Jorge Barrosa took over in right and likely will play the position if Carroll needs to miss time.

Nico Hoerner won the game on a sac fly in the 10th. The Cubs never gave Conforto a start against his former team in the sweep of the Mets. In fact, he hasn’t been in the lineup for any of the team’s last seven games. Still, he came through nicely today against Devin Williams, and he’s hitting .304/.448/.435 in 29 plate appearances this season. He probably should be starting regularly against righties for some team right now, but the Cubs aren’t that team and no one else seemed interested in making it happen over the winter.