MLB Player News

Luplow wasn’t going to make Atlanta’s season-opening roster, especially after the club brought back veteran slugger Adam Duvall to platoon with former prospect Jarred Kelenic, so he’s been cut loose to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

Sánchez should receive plenty of help from the Dominican Republic’s loaded lineup, which scored a tournament-leading 41 runs through four games in pool play. The 29-year-old fantasy ace allowed three runs (two earned) over 1 1/3 innings last Friday against Nicaragua.

The win means the D.R. will avoid a matchup against Japan and face Korea in the quarterfinals. Ketel Marte, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. also homered tonight, and Austin Wells reaches three times. The game got interesting in the ninth, when Abner Uribe, working with a 7-3 lead, walked all three batters he faced, and Elvis Alvarado committed an ugly error on a comebacker after taking over on the mound. However, Salvador Perez grounded into a double play to end the game.

Alcantara gave up two hits and a walk in the first, producing one run, and three hits and a walk in the third, plating two. His stuff was fine tonight, and he wound up as the winning pitcher after leaving with a 4-3 lead. Still, there have been few signs of dominance from the former Cy Young winner thus far.

Rodriguez surrendered homers to Juan Soto and Diamondbacks teammate Ketel Marte, but he struck out five against the best lineup baseball has to offer. Rodriguez averaged 93.5 mph tonight. He was at 93.1 in his first spring start, so both marks are clearly better than the 92 mph that’s been his norm in recent years. His stock is trending up at least a little.

The rest of the Venezuelan lineup combined for three hits in the 7-5 loss, but Garcia excelled. His softest hit came in at 97 mph, with the other three leaving his bat at 104-108 mph. Garcia finishes pool play 6-for-16 with three steals in three tries.

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber for Japan as the defending WBC champions host Venezuela at loanDepot park in Miami. It’s a challenging assignment for Suárez having to face a loaded Japan lineup that is headlined by generational talent Shohei Ohtani. The winner of Saturday’s contest will face whoever emerges from a highly-anticipated matchup between Puerto Rico and Italy in the semifinals.

It’ll be Michael Soroka drawing the starting assignment for Canada after they advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in tournament history. Webb, who will be making his final WBC appearance on Friday, struck out six over four innings of one-run ball last week against Brazil.

It’s the first three-homer game in WBC history. Italy’s win means Team USA advances as well and will face Canada in the quarterfinals. Italy will take on Puerto Rico. Jon Berti also homered for Italy, which went undefeated in pool play. Pasquantino didn’t get all of the way into any of his three homers, which checked in at 342, 349 and 337 feet. For the Royals last season, the shortest of his 32 homers was hit 358 feet. He’ll have a chance to hit a few homers in that range this year with Kauffman Stadium bringing the right field corner in from 353 to 344 feet.

Nola could have gotten Team USA eliminated had he struggled tonight, potentially leading to some awkwardness with Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Instead, he kept Team Mexico quiet throughout, striking out five along the way. He could pitch again if Italy’s run continues into the WBC final.

The two big blows against Assad were 342- and 349-foot home runs. The 28-year-old’s velocity was again better than normal, and he threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 17 batters he faced. If Jarren Duran could have jumped a little higher on Vinnie Pasquantino’s first homer and Jon Berti’s had gone a foot to the right, it would have been a solid outing.