MLB Player News

Perez is back at DH and hitting cleanup on Saturday after sitting out Friday’s contest due to illness. The 35-year-old veteran backstop has started to show some real signs of life at the dish in recent days, so the hope is that the brief absence won’t disrupt his momentum.

Peña put one over the Crawford Boxes today, hitting a Brandon Sproat sweeper 392 feet to left. After going his first 17 games without one, Peña has homered in three of his last four starts to rebound to .273/.323/.420 for the season.

Lambert allowed five hits, walked three and struck out three with his velocity down a tad today. He has a 5.63 ERA and a 14/9 K/BB over 16 innings in his last three starts, though he’s won two of those anyway. He’s still securely in Houston’s rotation, and he’ll likely make his next start Friday at home against the A’s.

Sproat wasn’t actually too bad in striking out four and walking none today. However, he gave up two hits prior to Jeremy Peña’s homer in the third, and after he was pulled following a single, a groundout and a walk in the fifth, both inherited runners came around to score off Chris Rodriguez. Sproat has completed five innings in just one of his last six starts. Now 1-4 with a 6.24 ERA, his rotation spot is hanging by a thread. He’s in line to face the Giants on Thursday.

This was a tight game until the end. The Red Sox got one insurance run in the eighth to make it 3-1 and then broke the game open in the ninth, with Duran’s homer concluding the scoring. Duran is 16-for-46 with five homers and 13 RBI in his last 10 games, raising his OPS from .548 to .675.

The run came right away on back-to-back doubles from Travis Bazzana and José Ramírez to start the first, but it was smooth sailing after that. Gray fanned seven, including six with his sweeper. He’ll take a 3.06 ERA into his next start, which should be a fun one. He’ll pitch in Yankee Stadium for the first time since talking in a December interview about how much he hates the Yankees.

Messick matched his season lows with four strikeouts and five innings pitched today, but he always gives the Guardians a chance. He’s allowed two earned runs or fewer in 10 of 12 starts, and he’s eighth in the majors with a 2.21 ERA and tied for 11th with 74 strikeouts. His next start is a particularly advantageous one against the Rangers in Globe Life Field.

The double was originally ruled a homer, which would have been Wong’s first since Sept. 2024, but it was overturned. The ball hit the top padding on the wall, appeared to sink behind the wall, but then bounced back into play. It would have been his sixth career homer against Cleveland, which is kind of nuts. The only other team he has more than two against is Cincinnati (three in eight games), so it must be an Ohio thing. He has eight homers in 22 games against those two clubs and 15 in 359 games against everyone else.

It sounded like the original plan was to activate him Monday, but now Carpenter, on the IL with a strained shoulder, could rejoin the Tigers on Sunday. Gage Workman, Zack Short and Hao-Yu Lee are probably the candidates to be replaced on the Tigers’ roster. One will go for Carpenter, and another figures to exit to make room for Gleyber Torres sometime soon.

The Yankees did not replace him on the roster for Saturday’s game. Rosario figures to return Tuesday after the off day Monday.

Arenado is also likely sporting an elbow bruise after getting plunked as a pinch-hitter in Friday’s game. Nevertheless, he’s playing third base tonight.