MLB Player News

The A’s got MacKinnon off waivers from the Angels in August. A corner infielder, he batted .318/.416/.585 at the Triple-A level last season, but he was 7-for-50 with no extra-base hits in the majors. He could be re-signed to a minor league contract.

India had an RBI single in the sixth inning and walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. He was dropped in the order after a slow start to the season, but India has picked it up going 22-for-76 (.289) with 16 walks in his last 24 games.

The home run was Morel’s 12th of the year. He’s hitting just .205 on the season, but his .212 BABIP is well below his career .287 BABIP. His 21 percent strikeout percentage is much improved from his career 29 percent strikeout percentage. Even if he goes back to striking out more, his average should improve over the rest of the season.

Betts capped off Los Angeles’ six-run explosion in the fifth inning with his 10th round-tripper of the season, taking Pirates reliever Ben Heller deep to center field. It was his second big fly in his last four games and first multi-hit effort since May 28. He also walked twice in this one. The 31-year-old fantasy superstar is batting .312/.411/.512 with 46 runs scored, 10 homers, 35 RBI and nine stolen bases through 292 plate appearances over 63 games.

Cruz started his professional career with Los Angeles before being traded to the Pirates back in 2017 and came back to haunt his former club in this one with a three-run homer off Dodgers closer Evan Phillips in the eighth inning. It was his eighth round-tripper of the season and he also picked up his fifth steal of the year in this one.

Freeman followed singles by Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani in the opening frame with a no-doubter down the right-field line off Pirates starter Bailey Falter. The 34-year-old first baseman has gone deep twice in his last four contests and is up to eight big flies on the year to go along with a .294 batting average and 38 RBI through 64 games.

Gonzales took Dodgers starter Walker Buehler deep in the early stages of the contest for his fourth long ball of the season. The 25-year-old infielder has been an unexpected revelation for Pittsburgh, batting .315 (28-for-89) with four homers and two steals in 24 games since arriving back in the majors last month.

Phillips got the call for his first appearance in nearly a week with the Dodgers leading by seven runs at the time and wound up surrendering four hits, including a three-run homer to Oneil Cruz. Fortunately, his struggles didn’t end up impacting the final result of the contest, but it certainly doesn’t do fantasy managers any favors in the ratio deparments.

Buehler was staked to a four-run lead before taking the mound at PNC Park, but it vanished by the third inning of this one as he was tagged for seven hits, including a two-run homer by Nick Gonzales. It wasn’t completely his fault as the Dodgers committed a pair of errors and weren’t able to make a couple catches on balls that ended up going for hits and drove up his pitch count in the process. He finished with three strikeouts and only issued one walk. The hard-throwing 29-year-old righty holds a lackluster 4.82 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 27/8 K/BB ratio across 28 innings (six starts). He hasn’t quite returned to fantasy ace status yet, but it’s still early considering how much time he’s missed since undergoing his second Tommy John surgery. He’ll face the Rangers on Wednesday in his next outing.

Falter ran into a buzzsaw in the opening frame as Los Angeles’ star-studded lineup tagged him for four runs on five hits, with a three-run homer by Freddie Freeman accounting for the majority of the damage. He struck out six and also issued a pair of walks. The blowup outing snapped a streak of six consecutive starts in which he had allowed three earned runs or fewer dating back to May 5. He’ll aim for better results on Wednesday when he faces the division-rival Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

De La Cruz took Javier Assad deep in the third inning for his 11th home run of the season. He’s only hitting .240, but with 11 home runs and 32 stolen bases already De La Cruz is on the fast track to having a first round ADP next season.