MLB Player News

The soon-to-be 28-year-old Tupman gets a spot as your run-of-the-mill, defensive-minded third catcher, but the Royals couldn’t find room for Chris Lubanski, the fifth overall pick in the 2003 draft. The Royals are right to be down on Lubanski, but on the off chance they would have lost Tupman, there are a dozen more just like him waiting for phone calls. Lisson is also a long shot to have a career in the majors. Lubanski still has some upside at age 22, and there’s a good chance someone will select him next month, though it’s less likely that he’ll be kept on a major league roster all season.

The Royals managed to put up eight runs in a game where they had just one extra-base hit and drew three walks. Perez put himself in the middle of a few of their rallies, which was a welcome sight considering how much he’s struggled this season. This was his first multi-hit game in nearly three walks and just barely dragged his average back over the Mendoza line, sitting at .205 after 64 games played.

It’d be almost impossible to script a worse start than Avila’s here. After 12 pitches, three runs were already home on a single and two home runs. After that, he retired the next two batters before a catastrophic five-batter sequence with three walks and two singles. He was mercifully pulled there and reliever Mason Black promptly allowed a grand slam to Yordan Alvarez, his second home run of the first inning. This was one of those starts to simply flush down the toilet and hope it can be moved on from. He’s scheduled to face the Nationals on the road next time out.

The Giants brought in Erik Miller just to face Busch in the fifth, and the left-handed hitter responded with his second homer in 91 plate appearances against a southpaw this season. It was also the first homer Miller has ever allowed to a left-handed batter in the majors; they had hit .200/.318/.242 against him in 196 plate appearances.

Assad allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five. He’s pitched 12 1/3 scoreless innings versus the Giants his last two times out, lowering his ERA from 5.88 to 3.99. Unfortunately, he’ll have to face a more forward-thinking team in the Rockies next time out. He’ll just have to prepare a little harder, most likely.

Roupp allowed just three hard-hit balls tonight, but he took his sixth straight loss anyway. The Giants haven’t won with him on the mound since Apr. 26, but he’ll probably be allowed to try again next week against the Braves.

The rest of the Giants combined for one hit in the game. Eldridge’s homer came in the bottom of the ninth with the team down 5-0, but unlike Wednesday’s game against the Nationals, the Giants did not have the Cubs right where they wanted them. Eldridge has five homers in 113 plate appearances since his callup. He might keep up that pace, but it’s highly unlikely that he’ll maintain his current .316 average.

Please, please let this be the sign that Bichette is finally turning the corner. After homering in his first at-bat on Thursday, he did the same here with a solo shot in the first inning against Spencer Strider. Then, he came up in the second with the bases loaded and blasted a grand slam. That made it three home runs in six at-bats after only having five all season before then. He chipped in a sac fly in his next plate appearance as well. While not as sexy as the home runs, it reminded us of the type of situational awareness Bichette has more so been known for in his career. He jumped up from a .607 OPS to a .635 OPS after this game alone and again, the hope is that he is finally getting himself back on track.

Williams was called upon in a tense situation in the eighth inning with runners on second and third in a three run game with two outs. He gave up a hit to Eli White there – that nearly went down the line if not for a diving effort from third baseman Brett Baty – then retired Rowdy Tellez to end that threat. Afterwards, Mauricio Dubón knocked a single in the ninth after a 14-pitch battle, but struck out Michael Harris and Matt Olson to close this one out. He’s now converted eight of his last nine save opportunities after what started out as a very choppy season.

In the midst of a frustrating set of starts, this one stands out as being particularly annoying. The Mets put up six runs in support of McLean over the first two innings and he still couldn’t hang on long enough to earn the win. His 42-pitch second inning was a huge reason for that. McLean gave up alternating hits and walks to the first five hitters he faced that frame to bring two runs in with the bases loaded and still nobody out. It was a pure Houdini act to get out of that without any more damage being done with plenty of help from Mauricio Dubón, who chased a 3-1 pitch out of the zone to pop-up and help neutralize the threat. Otherwise, the command of his often stellar breaking stuff remains choppy and he’s not putting away hitters – especially lefties – like he was earlier in the season. He’ll have another chance to right the ship next week against the Reds in Cincinnati.

The ball was flying out of Citi Field on a hot summer night with four total home runs. Olson cashed the only of which for his Braves and it was his 20th of the season. In doing so, he joined Kyle Schwarber, Yordan Alvarez, Byron Buxton and Munetaka Murakami as the only players to reach that mark yet in what’s been a massive bounce-back season power wise for Olson after hitting just 29 homers in each of the last two seasons.