MLB Player News

After dropping to the bottom of the order for a week, Semien has moved back up to the heart of the lineup as he warms up at the dish. Batting cleanup on Saturday against the Nationals, he drove in three of the team’s five runs. Semien doubled to bring home two runs in the first inning, one scoring on an error, then doubled again in the eighth to plate two more. The 34-year-old second baseman has collected multiple hits in four of his last eight games. Semien is hitting .213/.300/.312 with six homers, 22 runs scored, 26 RBI, and five steals across 253 plate appearances.

Bohm exited the contest shortly after he was hit in the rib cage on a pitch from Yu Darvish. The Phillies will probably take extra precaution with the All-Star break beginning after Sunday, but there should be more information on his availability before that contest.

Ogasawara is sent back to the minors a day after he allowed three runs in four innings against the Brewers. The 27-year-old will likely be back after the All-Star break, but a corresponding transaction to help the Washington bullpen will be announced before Sunday’s game against the Brew Crew.

Well duh. Skubal and Skenes have easily been the best pitchers in baseball this year, and the only way they weren’t going to start the Summer Classic was if they weren’t available. They are, so they will. Skenes has an ERA of 2.01 and 131/30 K/BB ratio in his 121 innings, while Skubal has forged a 153/16 K/BB with a 2.23 ERA. Both pitchers will likely go one inning — possibly two — before giving way to the other deserving hurlers.

Vaughn’s Brewers career couldn’t be off to a better start, as he’s driven in runs in all five games since debuting Monday. He had a total of eight doubles in 52 games this season before his two liners today. He would have scored the winning run, too, but the Brewers had Andruw Monasterio pinch-run for him before Caleb Durbin’s single (which would have been at least a double) ended it.

The runs scored on solo homers from Daylen Lile and Brady House. Woodruff’s velocity was down some today from his more adrenaline-filled debut Sunday, but even as he was averaging 92.2 mph with his fastball, he generated 13 whiffs and a 33% CSW in the 81-pitch outing. He should be OK to use in mixed leagues next time out, assuming that he will be held back to the series in Seattle starting July 21. If he pitches in the first series back against the Dodgers, that’d be a tough start.

The Nationals know they’re not getting much more than this from Ogasawara, who is still working his way back from an oblique injury, but they didn’t really have anywhere else to turn after Michael Soroka went down. Ogasawara has a 9.45 ERA and has pitched 6 2/3 innings in his two starts for the club.

The two-run lead was gone on an Andrew Vaughn two-run double before Finnegan even got an out. He did retire Jake Bauers afterwards, but after an intentional walk to Brice Turang, he gave up a game-ending hit to Caleb Durbin. Finnegan now has three blown saves since his last save way back on June 6, though he’s actually given up runs only twice in the span (the other blown save was a product of him allowing an inherited runner to score). It’s not his fault he’s on a bad team, but that should change soon. Of course, it is quite possible he’ll be traded to a team that would want him as a setup man.

Chourio has scored 10 runs and raised his OPS to .754 during a 10-game hitting streak. Fantasy leaguers were hoping for even more, but he’s been plenty valuable, in large part due to quantity. He’s seventh in the majors in plate appearances, which has helped him place ninth in runs scored and 18th in RBI, even though his OPS is only a little above average.

House would have been the hero today if Kyle Finnegan could have locked things down in the ninth, but it wasn’t meant to be in the 6-5 loss. His second homer was a two-run shot off Abner Uribe that gave the Nationals a 4-3 lead in the eighth. House is suddenly up to .270/.298/.393 through 22 big-league games, and any thought of sending him back to Triple-A for additional seasoning is gone for the moment.

Wood is 3-for-29 since his big five-hit game on July 3, and he struck out 12 times in his last five games. Hopefully, it’ll prove to a mini-slump, but if not, we’re just going to preemptively note that it wasn’t the Home Run Derby’s fault.