MLB Player News

Altavilla was in White Sox camp this spring as a non-roster invitee after signing a minor league deal over the offseason. The 32-year-old right-hander didn’t make the team and was cut despite a 2.79 ERA in Cactus League outings. Altavilla is back as organizational relief depth at Triple-A Charlotte.

Herrera has now homered twice in his last three games while hitting safely in four of his last five. Herrera singled in the fourth inning to drive home Pedro Pagés to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead, and then smacked a two-run blast in the eighth to give the Cards a healthy 9-3 lead. Friday marks Herrera’s first multi-hit game of the season. While he’s starting to show a little more consistency at the plate, we need to see a few more games like Friday’s before assuming he’s out of this early slump.

Alvarez smacked a 378-foot homer into deep right-center in the third inning off Kyle Leahy for his eighth homer of the season and his second in three games. The left-handed slugger is now slashing .333/.479/.750 on the season and is tied with Aaron Judge for the league leader in home runs.

Lambert, who was called up to make the start on Friday, surprised with eight strikeouts, tying for the second-most strikeouts in his career. Lambert ran into trouble early in this one. The righty allowed three of the first four batters he faced to reach base, with an RBI single by Jordan Walker giving the Cardinals their first run on the day. After escaping the second inning unscathed, Lambert hit back-to-back batters to start the third inning, and then walked Alec Burleson to load the bases with no outs. He would then fire back-to-back strikeouts but was tagged for two more runs courtesy of an RBI single by Masyn Winn. He would pitch a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth to close out what was an up-and-down night in his first big league appearance since 2024. If he gets the nod again, Lambert will be on track to start on Wednesday at the Guardians.

Leahy made it through the first two innings without much of an issue, but the righty surrendered two solo homers in the third inning to Christian Vázquez and Yordan Alvarez to give the Astros their first two runs on the night. Leahy would get touched up for another solo homer in the fifth inning courtesy of Jose Altuve, but was solid when he was able to keep the ball in the park. Leahy has pitched five innings in three of his four starts this season, but is carrying a 5.21 ERA into his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday against the Marlins.

Mitchell singled home Gary Sanchez in the fourth inning to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead, kickstarting a three-run fourth for the Brewers. In extras, Mitchell all but put the game out of reach for the Brewers when he doubled to drive in Joey Ortiz and Jake Bauers to put the Brewers up 7-4 in the 10th. Mitchell has four hits in his last 13 at-bats and has also drawn four walks in his last four games.

Lopez hit a one-out triple in the fourth inning and came in to score on a sac fly by Owen Caissie. Then, in the sixth inning and with a runner on second, Lopez smoked a 425-foot blast to deep center field for a two-run homer, cutting Milwaukee’s lead to 4-3. He remains sizzling hot at the dish, hitting safely in his last six games while going 10-for-24 with three extra base hits and six RBI.

Junk pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, but loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. After putting Luis Rengifo on first via an HBP, Junk then allowed a single to Garrett Mitchell, which scored Gary Sanchez from third. An RBI by Greg Jones on a fielder’s choice, followed by Rengifo coming around to score on a throwing error, suddenly gave the Brewers a 3-0 lead. Junk would return to pitch a scoreless fifth and was pulled with one out in the sixth inning after walking Jake Bauers and allowing an RBI double to Rengifo to bring home Bauers on the next at-bat. Junk has allowed three earned runs or fewer in three of his four starts. His next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the Cardinals.

Crow was solid in his MLB debut, allowing just five total baserunners on the evening and two runs. Crow retired eight of the first nine batters he faced, and didn’t allow his first run until the fourth inning, when Owen Caissie drove in Otto Lopez on a sacrifice fly. Crow would be charged with one more run in the sixth inning, after he left with one out and a runner on second. That runner would come in to score via a two-run homer by Lopez, which cut the Brewers’ lead to 4-3. Two of the four hits Crow allowed went for extra bases, but he was in command of the strike zone all night, throwing 71.4 percent of his pitches for strikes while walking only one batter. If he sticks around to make another start, Crow would be on tap to face the Tigers on Thursday in Detroit.

After a few rough outings last week, Bednar has now picked up saves in back-to-back outings while striking out four of the seven batters he faced. The lefty allowed a leadoff walk to Carter Jensen to start the ninth inning, but followed that with a lineout by Lane Thomas and back-to-back strikeouts to end things. Bednar’s six saves on the season puts him in a four-way tie for the most of any pitcher to start the year.

This was a classic Webb start. Despite constant traffic on the bases and the need to work out of trouble, he still found a way to finish that sixth inning. Sadly, a quality start was in sight before a two-out single by José Tena pushed the Nationals’ fourth run across in the sixth. One cause for relative concern, Webb allowed a whopping 14 hard-hit balls in this one and only forced 5 swings-and-misses. We’d like to see him flip-flop those numbers moving forward. He has a tall task next time out which is scheduled to come against the mighty Dodgers.