MLB Player News

The Brewers selected Egan from the Orioles in December’s Rule 5 Draft, but it’s not known when they’ll get a look at him in game action. “It’s something they said he had in camp last year, also,” said Roenicke. “I’m not concerned about (relievers) being ready to pitch (by opening day) but if a guy is trying to make the team, he needs to be out there and throw as much as he can so we can see him.” One potential avenue to keep the 26-year-old right-hander would be to start him on the disabled list.

Strider struck out eight and walked two with his fastball velocity up 1.8 mph from his season debut against the Rockies on Sunday. That’s pretty exciting, but it’s still worth wondering why his stuff was so much better tonight than it was six days ago. Anticipating consistency from Strider seems like a bad idea, but it’s nice to know that he has performances like tonight in him. His next start figures to come at home against the Red Sox.

Brought in with a 7-0 lead, López lost the shutout but didn’t create much drama in the Braves’ victory. Following a second straight shaky outing, it really doesn’t look like he’ll rejoin Atlanta’s rotation any time soon. He’s just no match for Martín Pérez at the moment.

Everyone unable to activate Snell for his first start back caught a break tonight. This was actually a pretty promising outing; his velocity was up a tad from last year and he gave up two just hard-hit balls, though the 11 balls in play against him turned into six hits anyway. He’ll probably be much better against the Angels next week.

Buxton finished 2-for-5 while the rest of the Twins went 0-for-30 tonight. The Guardians had just two hits as well, but they lost in spite of a 7/9 K/BB, while the Twins were at 17/3. Buxton’s homer was his 13th, placing him tied for fourth in the majors.

Ryan left his last start with elbow soreness, but you’d never guess that based on how he pitched tonight. He had some of his best velocity of the year early on, eventually finishing the night up 0.7 mph from his season average. He struck out five. There’s certainly no guarantee that his elbow won’t act up again, but this was an encouraging showing. He’ll likely face the Brewers next week.

Eric Orze got five outs without retiring a batter between the ninth and 10th tonight, so he might have helped himself a little more than García. Still, Minnesota’s closing situation doesn’t really seem worth speculating on at this point.

Bibee gave up a leadoff homer to Byron Buxton in the first and then no more hits the rest of the way. It’s probably not a coincidence that Bibee’s best effort of the year came the very first time that he got to work with Austin Hedges (Bo Naylor caught him seven times and David Fry did so once). Now that he’ll presumably be paired with Patrick Bailey most of the time, his value could get a significant boost. He’s due to face the Reds at home next Friday.

He was then lifted for a pinch-runner as the automatic runner in the 10th. Bell had some nice peripherals with the Nationals last year and it’s easy to understand why the Twins were interested in signing him, but he’s down to .210/.286/.319 at the moment and might be more of a liability than the much more maligned Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis on the Twins roster.

Thanks to a big assist from Tim Hill, who bizarrely decided to try for an out at third on a comebacker in the 10th and ended up nearly breaking the hand of a sliding Luis Rengifo, the Brewers only needed Contreras to deliver an outfield fly to win this one, and he did so successfully. He’s 13-for-34 with a homer and 10 RBI in his last eight games.

Harrison walked four and threw 77 pitches to get 12 outs, so the Brewers decided to give the Yankees a different look in the fifth and turn to Chad Patrick. Thanks to a late comeback, Harrison avoided the loss after leaving down 2-0. He’s 3-1 with a 2.41 ERA, and he should be worth using against the Padres next week.