MLB Player News

With two outs, two runners on and the score knotted at 3-3 in the fourth inning, Brewers manager Craig Counsell got aggressive and pinch-hit for starter Adrian Houser with Austin. The move looked brilliant after Austin demolished a Jon Lester fastball over the Brewers bullpen in left field, giving them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The hit was just Austin’s second since the club promoted him at the start of this month, and the well-traveled 28-year-old is hitting just .196/.306/.428 across stints with three different organizations this year.

Yamamoto also retired the final 22 batters he faced against the Angels on Sunday, so he was working on a streak of 45 retired in a row until Mookie Betts booted a grounder with two outs in the eighth. Yamamoto got a groundout afterwards, but he gave up a homer to Tristan Peters to start the ninth. He then retired one more batter and was lifted at 109 pitches. Yamamoto was looking for his first MLB no-hitter after throwing two in Japan. The Dodgers’ last no-hitters were a combined effort in 2018 in which Walker Buehler started and went six innings and one from Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Yamamoto improved to 7-4 with a 2.52 ERA. He’ll get the Orioles next.

It’s the second straight outing in which he’s walked five and the fifth time in his last seven starts that Burke has failed to last five innings. His rotation spot probably isn’t in jeopardy yet, but he’s going to need to do better next week against the Tigers. While his overall 4.15 ERA isn’t bad, he’s at 5.82 since May 8.

In spite of the big day, Betts had quite a letdown with two outs in the eighth, committing an error on a grounder to end Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s bid for a perfect game. Yamamoto wound up giving up a homer to lead off the ninth anyway, so it’s a lesser story now. Though who knows if things might have ended differently if Yamamoto didn’t have to pitch to the extra batter in the eighth. Betts had three hits for the third time this year and scored three runs for the first time.

The homer, his 14th of the year, led off the game against Sean Burke. Ohtani didn’t show much enthusiasm on the bases today while playing through some knee soreness. It’s safe to say he won’t be a basestealing threat for at least a little while.

Peters got a middle-middle fastball on the second pitch of his third at-bat and yanked it 108.5-mph just fair down the right field line. It was only his third homer in 194 plate appearances, but he’s been a nice fit for the White Sox against right-handers while batting .299/.358/.460 to date.

Kimbrel will rejoin the pen after missing time with a strained right wrist. He pitched a scoreless inning in his only appearance for the Rays before going on the injured list.

Englert gets swapped out after allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings out of the pen on Friday. He has a 7.59 ERA in three appearances for the Rays this season.

Still dealing with the calf/ankle issues that had him on the IL earlier this month, Schanuel didn’t start either of the Angels’ previous two games. This is his fourth start in seven games (six versus righties) since he was activated.

Rojas got checked out by a trainer during his at-bat in the seventh and was lifted for a pinch-runner after drawing a walk.