MLB Player News

Alexander will retreat to the bench for the series finale against Baltimore. Kevin Newman will instead start at shortstop and hit eighth against Dean Kremer and the Orioles.

This was Wheeler’s worst start as a Phillie and the first time he’s allowed eight earned runs since 2018. Baltimore jumped on him with homers in each of the first three innings and then Jordan Westburg put the cherry on top with his three-run blast. Even the best pitchers in baseball have a day like this and it’s less surprising when it comes against one of the best lineups in baseball.

We’ll have more when there’s an update on Garcia’s status. He left the mound with trainers with two men on and two outs in the ninth inning. Nate Pearson got the final out to earn his second save of the year. It’s unclear what the timetable could be for Garcia, who seemed to have a grip on the closer’s role in Toronto with Jordan Romano (elbow) out.

Kwan is hitting a ridiculous .398 on the season now. It’s probably not sustainable as his BABIP is .418 compared to his career .320 BABIP, but Kwan benefits from his low seven percent strikeout percentage. He’s going to put the ball in play a lot and right now everything is finding a hole.

Guerrero was 1-for-17 (.059) with one walk in his last five games. While the three hits were good to see, his power is still a concern. Guerrero’s .122 ISO is a career-low and with seven home runs so far he’s going to have to pick up the pace to even repeat the 26 home runs he hit last season.

The home run was Varsho’s 11th of the season. He could’ve had an even bigger game as he came up with the bases loaded again in the eighth inning, but he struck out. While he’s only hitting .220, he’s produced in the power categories with 11 home runs and 35 RBI. His .238 ISO is even higher than his .207 iSO in 2022 when he hit 27 home runs with the Diamondbacks.

Lively gave up six hits, walked three and struck out four. He had won his last five starts. Lively had allowed two runs through the first four innings. He was removed after walking Spencer Horwitz and Davis Schneider to begin the fifth inning. Both runners scored on Daulton Varsho’s grand slam off Nick Sandlin. Lively isn’t as good as his 3.02 ERA suggests given his 4.15 xFIP. He’s benefited greatly from an 85 percent left on base percentage and that caught it up with him a little bit on Sunday. He’s still been a really good find off the waiver wire for fantasy managers. The 32-year-old right-hander is set to face the Blue Jays at home next week.

Berrios gave up eight hits, walked none and struck out one. The win was his sixth of the season. Berrios won four out of seven starts in April, but has now won only two of his last eight starts. His ERA is 3.13 on the year, but his xFIP is 4.18. Berrios’ saving grace this year has been his 86 percent left on base percentage. Even on a day where he only left 65 percent of runners on base, he still was a little lucky. In the fifth inning, the Guardians loaded the bases with no outs, but Cleveland only scored two runs on an RBI single by Steven Kwan and a double play by Tyler Freeman. The 30-year-old right-hander is set to face the Guardians on the road next week.

Fairbanks has been solid since returning from the IL last month with six saves in as many chances. It’s worth keeping an eye on his walk rate though as it’s inched up over 12%, the highest mark of his career.

Congratulations to all the fantasy managers who kept their patience with Riley because the hot streak is officially here. He homered in every game this weekend and has raised his OPS from .618 to .695 since Friday.

While bailed out by his offense, this is now back-to-back poor starts from Waldrep to start his major league career. He has not completed four innings yet and gave up a combined 13 earned runs against the Nationals and Rays. There was fear his fastball would lag far behind his impressive splitter and the heater has generated just one whiff total in his two starts. The Braves have a need in the back of their rotation but Waldrep may not be equipped to fill it just yet.