MLB Player News

Hernández was the exit velocity champ tonight, hitting balls 110.8, 107.9 and 103.7 mph. His .263/.326/.466 line isn’t quite stellar, but with six homers, 22 RBI and three steals in 31 games, he’s definitely meeting expectations for fantasy purposes.

Schanuel’s exit velocity numbers aren’t the least bit impressive, but he’s having enough success pulling flyballs that he’s now hit five homers, even though his longest drive of the year is 381 feet. We still wouldn’t want to roster him in mixed leagues at the moment, but it bodes well for the future.

Victimized by a couple of infield singles, Detmers was unfortunate not to be out of the inning before José Altuve hit a three-run homer in the second. Still, this was another disappointing outing for the 24-year-old, who has given up 32 earned runs over 31 2/3 innings in his last six starts. We still believe in Detmers as a useful mixed-league option, what with his 59/19 K/BB ratio in 54 1/3 innings this season, but he certainly doesn’t make it easy.

Estévez gave up two hits and a walk after the outstanding fortune of Jo Adell denying Yainer Diaz a possible homer or at least a double to begin the inning. Estévez is sporting a 5.17 ERA through 15 2/3 innings this season, and he’s lucky that neither Robert Stephenson (out for the season) or José Soriano (in the rotation) is currently an alternative in the closer’s role for the Angels.

Valdez allowed just one run on four groundball singles through four innings tonight, but the fifth was a vastly different story. All three homers came in that inning, and it was really pretty amazing that he got to finish the frame while allowing seven runs. Valdez had a 2.88 ERA going into the fifth tonight, only to finish the game at 4.32. It’s the first time in his career that he’s allowed three homers and the second time that he’s allowed eight runs, with the other instance also coming against the Angels in 2020.

Pressly hadn’t pitched in six days because of a sore finger. He has a 5.19 ERA in his setup role this season.

The second steal saw him jam his left hand into second base, leaving him with an injured middle finger in spite of the oven mitt he was wearing. He was in a lot of pain at first, but he was able to finish the game afterwards. Still, if he’s not in Tuesday’s lineup, this is probably the reason.

Diaz was also robbed of a possible homer by Jo Adell at the right field wall in the ninth. That was actually his softest hit ball of the night. His EVs in the game were 110.7 mph, 107.8 mph, 103.7 mph and 98.4 mph. His hard-hit rate now stands at 51%, which is particularly impressive in combination with a 14% strikeout rate.

Helsley pitched another scoreless ninth inning, which was his 15th consecutive appearance without allowing an earned run. He walked Austin Hays with two outs before getting Cedric Mullens to fly out to end the game. Helsley last allowed an earned run on April 8th. Since then he has converted 11 saves and finished 14 games.

Henderson accounted for all the Orioles’ runs on the night. He blasted his league-leading 16th home run in the sixth inning off Sonny Gray, who hadn’t allowed a single hit at that point in the game. The 22-year-old is up to .271 with a .961 OPS and 34 RBI on the season.

Siani started the scoring with an RBI single off Dean Kremer in the second inning and also delivered the knockout blow in the fourth inning with a three-run homer off Kremer. The home run was his first of the year and the steal was his fifth. Siani is hitting .238 with just a .612 OPS this year.