MLB Player News

Hirano gave up three consecutive hits to open the ninth inning before starting a pivotal double play on a comebacker to the mound off the bat of rookie sensation Jake Cronenworth. He proceeded to coax a ground ball to second base from ensuing batter Jurickson Profar to end the contest. The 36-year-old righty has converted all three of his save chances this year. He owns a 2.70 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and 8/4 K/BB ratio across 10 innings.

Soderstrom helped complete the Athletics’ comeback with a single off Caleb Thielbar to tie the game in the eighth inning. Heading into this game, he had a .182 batting average against left-handed pitchers, so that knock was as shocking as it was huge. He’s gotten his season back on track with hits in 12 of his last 13 games with three home runs and three doubles over that stretch.

Sterner was tasked with holding onto a one-run lead in the 10th inning and did the job here. The game-changing at-bat came when he struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong with a runner on third and one out after a tough battle. This may have little to do with the Athletics’ closer hierarchy as Hogan Harris came on for the bottom of the ninth in a tie game after nabbing the save on Tuesday. Continue to keep an eye on this bullpen.

Springs could not hold the early lead his offense granted him. Home runs by Seiya Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong plus a run-scoring triple from Michael Busch and a heap of other hard-hit balls between them forced Springs to hit the showers early. Both his bullpen and lineup picked him up though, so he didn’t get saddled with the loss. Proceed with caution ahead of a two-start week for Springs against the Brewers and Rockies, with both starts coming at home.

That’s it, Crow-Armstrong is officially hot. That home run was his second in his last four games and he’s currently riding an eight game hitting streak. He also struck out with a runner on third while down by one in the 10th, but let’s focus on the big picture. Zooming out a bit, Crow-Armstrong’s quality May with a .762 OPS, four home runs, and six stolen bases flew a bit under the radar due to how poor of an April he had plus some extra-curricular antics. Now, it looks like he’s carried that hot hitting into June and is even taking more walks than we’ve ever seen from him during his short big league career. There’s a massive up arrow on Crow-Armstrong right now.

Rea settled in decently well after letting up a run in each of the first two innings and fighting through some traffic in each. He set down seven of the last eight hitters he faced and the only one who reached – Zack Gelof via a walk – was picked off. Now, many of those outs were well hit balls that were fortunately hit directly at a defender, but it’s all the same in the box score. Just be cautious ahead of a two-start week for Rea coming up in Coors Field against the Rockies then in San Francisco against the Giants.

While he didn’t look sharp out there, Pallante did what he needed to in order to put his team in position to win this one. He didn’t miss many bats, but he forced lots of weakly hit fly balls on his way to another solid outing. Again he wasn’t sharp at all and was especially chaotic with his sinker against righties and didn’t force ground balls at a high rate like we’re used to seeing from him. Still, he left this start with a 3.96 ERA and is scheduled for a date with the Mets next Wednesday.

Things have been shaky for O’Brien lately, taking a blown save or loss in three of his last four appearances before this one. He even gave up a run in that one converted save. Things again got dicey here when he walked the lead-off batter in a two-run game, but things settled shortly after that. He seems to still have a solid grip on this closer job without many other strong options in the Cardinals’ bullpen.

A one man wrecking crew against Rangers’ starter MacKenzie Gore, Burleson had already amassed three runs batted in by the third inning. His first run scoring hit was an early back-breaker, coming on an 0-2 pitch with two outs. His next was better struck though, a 105 mph double into the corner. Quietly one of the best run producers in the league, his 42 RBI are seventh-most in the National League as a remarkably steady hitter.

In another quiet game for the Rangers’ offense, Pederson tried to drag them back into this game late with a two-run, seventh inning triple. While it was all for naught, Pederson has caught fire. He has eight extra-base hits in his last nine games and an impressive .945 OPS over his last 30 games. He’s also hit lead-off against the last 12 right-handed pitchers Texas has faced as a legitimate mixed league option.

This was as frustrating a start one could imagine for Gore. He repeatedly got ahead in the count, but struggled to put hitters away and allowed multiple two-strike, run-scoring hits. Many of those pitches weren’t in bad spots either, just nice pieces of hitting by the Cardinals plus an inability by Gore to finish at-bats. Without a meaningful third pitch against righties or any growth in his command, he’s sadly stuck in this spot. He’ll take a 4.23 ERA into his next scheduled start against the Royals.