MLB Player News

The 36-year-old slugger has been punishing his former ballclub this week. He socked a pair of dingers and drove in five runs in Monday night’s victory, then added a 402-foot solo shot off of Tyler Holton to get the Dodgers on the board in the fourth inning on Tuesday. Martinez finished the night 2-for-2 plus a pair of walks and is now hitting .270/.324/.566 with 29 homers and 92 RBI on the year.

TJ Friedl is starting in his place against lefty Martín Pérez, with Blake Dunn moving from ninth to leadoff.

How many grand slams does a guy have to hit in order to start regularly? Alas, Bader is batting just .170/.198/.358 overall. Now that Jung Hoo Lee is back, Bader could lose significant time against righties to Drew Gilbert. Of course, Gilbert is only hitting .194/.254/.274 this month, but he does have the platoon advantage (and the his-college-manager-loves-him advantage). Bader has a .482 OPS against righties and an .837 OPS versus lefties.

It’s believed to be a hamstring injury for Nimmala, though the Jays haven’t commented. The 20-year-old was hitting .308/.375/.369 in 18 games since being moved up to Double-A at the beginning of May.

It’s another big blow to the Reds pen just after losing Graham Ashcraft. Johnson had a 3.27 ERA, one save and four holds over 22 innings to start the season. With him and Ashcraft out of the mix, Tony Santillan is looking like the heavy favorite for saves until Emilio Pagán returns.

Richardson, 26, had a 4.54 ERA in 37 2/3 innings out of the Reds pen last year. He cleared waivers back in January, but he’s back now after compiling a 4.75 ERA and a 34/14 K/BB in 30 1/3 innings over 17 relief appearances and one start for Triple-A Louisville. He’ll work in middle relief.

Nicolas saw time with the Reds in April but gave up seven earned runs and 13 walks in 7 1/3 innings. He had since pitched for Triple-A Louisville, amassing a 5.17 ERA and a 20/17 K/BB in 15 2/3 innings. The arm is there for him to be helpful in a major league pen, but control has always been an issue and he’s faring worse than ever there at age 27.

The 372-foot homer off Beau Brieske was Montgomery’s first since he homered in three straight games from May 14-16. He was 3-for-29 with 13 strikeouts from May 17-25, but he seems to have snapped out of that little skid with eight hits in his last five games.

Wenceel Pérez’s third-inning homer was the only damage. Kay left after a walk and an error to begin the sixth, but fortunately for him, the White Sox didn’t mess around and turned right to Grant Taylor, who successfully negotiated the jam. It’s third straight start in which Kay has allowed exactly one earned run, and he’s 4-0 with a 1.65 ERA in his last five turns. We still wouldn’t want to bet on him in mixed leagues, but it’s been quite a run for the 31-year-old. He’ll make his next start in Philadelphia.

Some interesting bullpen usage for the White Sox today, as Grant Taylor came in during the sixth with a 2-1 and escaped a jam for Anthony Kay. He then worked a scoreless seventh. It was a 4-1 game when Domínguez entered, but it doesn’t seem likely that he would have been asked for a two-inning save after working a scoreless ninth in a tie game Friday. Perhaps Bryan Hudson would have been in line for a save, but it proved moot after the White Sox made it a 7-1 game in line for the ninth. Trevor Richards finished up at that point. Hudson could still get a save Sunday, since we assume both Domínguez and Taylor will be unavailable.

Valdez got into all kinds of trouble at the start of the game, allowing a leadoff double and two walks before a run-scoring wild pitch. Still, he limited the damage to two runs and the proceeded to hold the White Sox scoreless through the sixth. He came back out for the seventh and gave up a leadoff homer to Edgar Quero and then eventually a double and an RBI single before being pulled. That cost him what would have been his eighth quality start in 12 tries. With the Tigers hardly scoring at all, Valdez is 0-3 in May and 2-4 overall. He’ll face Seattle on Friday.