MLB Player News

Kennedy is back with the Rangers roughly one month after electing free agency after being designated for assignment by the organization. The 38-year-old righty made 11 relief appearances this season in the majors and will head to Triple-A Round Rock as extra relief depth.

The Twins are going to push rookie Connor Prielipp’s next start back a couple days in an effort to manage his workload. Matthews will get the call to fill the spot in Minnesota’s rotation vacated by Taj Bradley (pectoral) after he hit the injured list last weekend. The 25-year-old has compiled an inflated 4.72 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and 33/11 K/BB ratio across 34 1/3 innings over seven starts for Triple-A St. Paul this season. He struggled to a bloated 5.56 ERA over 79 1/3 innings across 16 starts with the Twins last year. He’s an intriguing talent, but the results haven’t been there consistently enough for fantasy managers to trust him as a streaming option, even against a relatively weak Marlins lineup.

Burger took Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson deep in the fifth inning to put the Rangers ahead. It was his seventh long ball of the season and second time he’s gone deep since May 1. The -year-old first baseman came through in the biggest moment of the night when he smacked a game-tying single against Arizona’s veteran closer Paul Sewald with two outs in the ninth inning before Danny Jansen followed with a game-winning single.

Carroll reached base safely in four of his five plate appearances and also picked up his fifth stolen base of the year. He sparked a late rally for Arizona with a ninth-inning double against Rangers stopper Jacob Latz before coming around to score the tying run on Nolan Arenado’s double later in the frame.

Latz was called upon to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning and would up surrendering the lead almost immediately. He gave up a leadoff double to Corbin Carroll, uncorked a wild pitch and issued a walk to Geraldo Perdomo before Nolan Arenado followed with a game-tying double. He was pulled after coughing up a two-run single to Ildemaro Vargas. Fortunately, the Rangers managed to rally in the bottom of the ninth to take him off the hook for the loss.

Sewald was summoned to protect a two-run lead after Arizona rallied to pull ahead in the top of the frame and was unable to convert the save. He got into trouble when Ezequiel Duran smacked an RBI double with two outs in the frame before Jake Burger followed a couple batters later with a game-tying single that chased him from the contest. He was stuck with a loss on top of the blown save when Juan Morillo immediately surrendered a walk-off single to Danny Jansen.

Rocker was effectively wild in this one, walking four batters while needing 97 pitches (59 strikes) to complete five frames. He finished with only three strikeouts. The 26-year-old former top pitching prospect has worked beyond the fifth inning only twice in eight starts this season and has yet to top six strikeouts in any of those outings. He’s not a recommended fantasy option when he faces the Rockies at Coors Field on Tuesday.

Nelson carried a shutout into the fifth inning before serving up a three-run homer to Jake Burger, which was his lone mistake in this one, and nearly was enough to saddle him with the loss. He didn’t hand out a free pass and allowed just four hits over seven strong frames. He’ll face the Giants in his next start on Tuesday.

While it didn’t seem like a huge deal at the moment, Montgomery’s solo shot in the seventh inning put the White Sox up by three and wound up being the difference in this game. That was his 11th homer of the season and left the park in a hurry with a 110 mph exit velocity. His batting average sits at a lowly .230, but those home runs still make him a fantasy asset.

Domínguez let this one get closer than it had to be. Bobby Witt Jr. socked a two-out, two-run homer to cut the White Sox’s lead to one before Domínguez finally shut the door by striking out Jac Caglianone to end it. He’s still had a solid season overall with 10 saves on 12 chances, but has been susceptible to the home run ball with four across 18.2 innings of work.

Schultz completely fell apart in the fourth inning here. He faced the minimum through three and seemed to put the blow-up in his last start behind him. Then, he walked three straight hitters to start the fourth and all three wound up coming around to score. He walked another hitter with one out in the fifth and Royals’ manager Matt Quatraro didn’t let him face Bobby Witt Jr. for a third time. Overall, he threw a first pitch strike to just six of the 19 hitters he faced and only threw half of his total pitches for strikes. It’s impossible to be effective with command that poor and it will be a tough call as to whether or not we can trust Schultz ahead of a two-start week against the Mariners and Giants.