MLB Player News

Barco set a franchise record with 25 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings over six starts this season at Double-A Altoona to earn a promotion to the doorstep of the majors. The 24-year-old southpaw, who was a second-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, recorded a 34/7 K/BB ratio during that span. He’s not a highly-touted pitching prospect from a scouting standpoint, but the impressive results are impossible to ignore. He profiles as a strong back-end rotation starter for the Pirates once he’s ready to ascend to PNC Park.

Díaz clobbered a leadoff homer to right field off Angels starter Walbert Ureña before putting the exclamation point on the multi-homer outburst by walloping a go-ahead two-run blast to left-center field off Ryan Zeferjahn in the seventh. The 34-year-old on-base machine continues to serve as Tampa Bay’s primary offensive catalyst this season as he’s up to 10 round-trippers while also hitting .313/.392/.523 with 36 RBI across 51 games.

The amazing part here is that Martinez’s ERA went up after limiting Los Angeles to just a pair of run-scoring singles over seven frames. The 35-year-old veteran continues to thrive in his Tampa Bay debut, allowing two runs or fewer for the 11th consecutive start to open the season. He’ll carry a sparkling 1.62 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 41/12 K/BB ratio across 66 2/3 innings into a home matchup against the Tigers on Wednesday.

Severino didn’t look like himself in the opening frame, giving up four runs including a three-run blast to Paul Goldschmidt. He also had this start moved back a couple of days earlier in the week, so it’s possible there was an underlying injury concern already at play. Don’t be surprised if Severino winds up spending some time on the injured list over this one.

Venable also noted that it’s likely Murakami would require a stint on the injured list and will miss a couple of weeks. Fantasy managers will have to wait and see what the imaging shows, but it sounds like the 26-year-old slugger will be shelved for a bit to start the month of June.

Okamoto jump-started Toronto’s eventual comeback win by taking Orioles starter Trevor Rogers deep to left field in the seventh inning. It was his 12th big fly of the season and second round-tripper in his last three games. The 29-year-old rookie has had some up-and-down stretches during his stateside debut, but he’s shown an ability to consistently hit for power as a potential middle-of-the-order run-producing threat for the Blue Jays.

Basallo drove in a run with a sacrifice fly his first time up in the contest before hammering a hanging curveball from Blue Jays reliever Austin Voth in the fifth inning to extend Baltimore’s lead to five runs at the time. It was his ninth big fly of the season and fourth time he’s gone deep in his last 11 games since May 16. He’s cooled off a little bit recently, but Basallo has been on a tear in recent weeks, hitting .351 (34-for-97) with six homers and 20 RBI over his last 30 games.

Guerrero came through with the biggest hit of the night for Toronto, capping off a remarkable five-run comeback in the late innings with a go-ahead two-run single into the left-field corner off Orioles reliever Yennier Cano in the eighth inning. The 27-year-old franchise cornerstone isn’t hitting for the caliber of over-the-fence pop that fantasy managers were anticipating with just three homers through 56 games.