MLB Player News

“He needs to keep playing,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told reporters of the 25-year-old utilityman. “He’s played fearless up here, aggressive. He still has work to do and at times his swing gets long and they throw the ball by him.” Castellanos has tallied three hits and seven strikeouts in 21 MLB at-bats this season.

Beeter has been sidelined since April 26th due to forearm soreness, but all his imaging came back clean. He began a rehab assignment last week and is now ready to return to his late-inning role. Before the injury, Beeter had posted a 3.48 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and a 9/8 K/BB ratio over his first 10 1/3 innings while notching a pair of saves. Since he has been hurt, Richard Lovelady has recorded three saves and been a solid late-innings option for the Nationals as well. It would be likely that the two would form some sort of tandem in the short term.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said that Puk was sitting in the mid-90s with his fastball and “felt good coming out of the session.” We’d imagine he would face live hitters maybe once more before going out on a rehab assignment, but the left-hander could be back with the Diamondbacks in early June. We can’t see the team simply removing Paul Sewald from the closer’s role, but it could be more of a committe with Puk back in the mix.

It looks like the Rockies want their starters to have an extra day off this week. Zach Agnos will start against the D-backs in a bullpen game on Thursday.

Soderstrom plated automatic runner Nick Kurtz in the 10th with a fly that dropped in front of Mike Trout and Josh Lowe in left-center. It looked like Trout might try to dive for it, but he wouldn’t have had much of a chance, and as he crossed in front of Lowe, the ball got by Lowe for a two-base error. Soderstrom is now up to 23 RBI in 46 for the season.

Civale gave up homers of 432, 419 and 426 feet before the second inning ended, but he did manage to keep the Angels scoreless for three innings afterwards and give the A’s a chance to come back, which they did in a 10-inning victory. Civale was actually at just 61 pitches when he was pulled; he threw a total of 21 pitches in his final three frames. He’s given up nine homers but just 19 total runs in his first 10 starts, leaving him 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA. He’ll face the Mariners next week.

Harris had to stop the automatic runner from scoring to convert the save tonight, but he did so after striking out Josh Lowe, who kept trying to sacrifice, and getting Zach Neto to ground out. He then intentionally walked Mike Trout and unintentionally walked Nolan Schanuel before Jorge Soler grounded out to end the game. It’s Harris’s third save in his last six appearances, so he definitely seems like the A’s preferred choice to close right now. However, he is in line to get Thursday off after throwing 40 pitches the last two days.

Kochanowicz struggled early in this one, but he’d retired 13 in a row when he was taken out with a two-run lead after 94 pitches. The bullpen let that lead slip away over the next three innings, so Kochanowicz remains 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA through 10 starts. He’s shown considerable improvement from last season, but he’s clearly not a mixed-league option right now. He’s due to face the Tigers next week.

Yates was pitching with a lead for the first time in five appearances since coming off the IL, though that had less to do with his status than the fact that the Angels have done little but trail lately. Up 5-3, they went to Ryan Zerferjahn in the seventh tonight, only to watch him hit back-to-back batters with one out. Sam Bachman came in and, after allowing one inherited runner to score, kept the A’s scoreless through the eighth. That led to Yates taking over in a one-run game, but McNeil sent a ball 364 feet down the right-field line to even things up. The Angels ended up losing in 10. Yates has allowed three runs in five innings since coming off the IL, and his velocity is down a bit more than two mph from last year. He’s probably not going to run away with the closer’s role in Anaheim.

That’s the good news. The bad is that he committed two errors in left field, and he couldn’t put a bunt down before striking out as the leadoff man in the bottom of the 10th. Lowe is hitting .333 over his past 10 games, so that’s a little something. He has five homers on the year but just a .182/.225/.322 line overall.

Seems like good news. The Jays are facing lefty Carlos Rodón on Thursday, so Sánchez is probably going to be out of the lineup even if healthy.