MLB Player News

Helsley didn’t allow a hit, didn’t walk anyone and didn’t get a strikeout. Kinda boring, but effective, and it’s already the 41st save of the season for the 30-year-old right-hander. It’s not likely he reaches the 50-save mark, but it can’t be completely ruled out with 29 games left to go.

Alvarez might well be the game’s best hitter right now, if only he can stay healthy. He’s hitting .333/.488/.762 with seven homers and 17 RBI through 84 plate appearances. His .488 OBP and .762 slugging both lead the majors.

Arrighetti walked four, but he gave up just two hits and induced 20 whiffs against arguably the game’s worst lineup. It’s his fifth career 10-strikeout game. We’re not sure that means much going forward, considering that from here on in, he’ll mostly be facing teams that wouldn’t have Troy Johnston batting cleanup, but he does have another nice matchup coming up against the thrifty Guardians next week.

Bryan Abreu probably could have handled this one just fine, but he was instead utilized in getting four outs in the seventh and eighth. De Los Santos then retired Brett Sullivan, Edouard Julien and Brenton Doyle with a two-run lead in the ninth. With Josh Hader hopefully three weeks or so away, none of the Astros’ ninth-inning alternatives seem worth rostering in shallow leagues at this point.

Quintana returned from a hamstring injury tonight, so it’s OK to let him off the hook. Still, it might be that he’s about out of gas at age 37. His fastball averaged just 89.6 mph tonight, and he’s thus far struck out three of the 37 batters he’s faced this season. The Rockies will stick with him for now, but expectations should be very low. He’ll likely face the Dodgers on Monday.

Fermin exited Wednesday’s game after two innings. If he needs to miss a day or two, the Padres don’t really have any flexibility to call up a catcher without giving up on Nick Castellanos or Ty France. Their only position players with options are Jackson Merrill, Gavin Sheets and Fermin.

Castro was hit by a Spencer Arrighetti pitch, but X-rays were negative. He’s considered day-to-day. Tyler Freeman replaced him tonight and will probably start Thursday if Castro can’t go.

Johnston was hit by a Spencer Arrighetti pitch in the first inning Wednesday, though he remained in initially. If he can’t play Thursday, then it’s more likely Jake McCarthy will be in the lineup.

This was just unfair. With a night off from hitting, Ohtani was able to tear apart the Mets’ lineup. His 22 swings-and-misses were his most since joining the Dodgers and was just the sixth time a pitcher reached that mark so far this season. Coincidentally, his teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto did so last night against these same Mets. Nevertheless, it’s easy to forget how advanced Ohtani’s feel for pitching is considering how much praise he gets for his offense. He led with his fastball that sat around 97 mph and mixed in plenty of sweepers, splitters, and curveballs whenever he needed to. Possibly his most impressive sequence of the night, he threw his four hardest fastballs in his second-to-last inning after the Mets put runners on second and third with one out in a one-run game. All four of those fastballs were harder than 100 mph. Now through 18 innings this season, he’s struck out 18 batters and allowed just one earned run. Sometimes you just have to sit back and appreciate greatness. He’s expected to be back in the lineup on Friday night in Colorado and is scheduled to make his next start in San Francisco against the Giants.

What would we be saying about Rushing if he was on another team? This was just his fifth start this season and he already has four home runs and eight RBI. Each of his homer and double in this one were hit at least 104 mph and both came against changeups. It’s difficult to foresee him getting enough plate appearances on this stacked Dodgers team to be fantasy viable, but if he ever did he looks like he could be a star.

Francisco Lindor owes Williams one after the outing. To begin the eighth inning, Williams forced a weak groundball from Teoscar Hernández. It should have been a routine play, but Lindor waited back on it at shortstop and Hernández – who busted it out of the box – beat it out. Then there was a walk, a long single, and a loud grand slam from Dalton Rushing. Sadly, Williams has had tendencies to lose focus when things go wrong behind him and this looked like one of those times. This was also his first time pitching in nine days as the Mets are trapped in an eight-game losing streak. After not allowing an earned run up to this point, he now has a 6.75 ERA on the season. Ouch.