MLB Player News

It sounds like it’ll be another lengthy absence for Williams, who missed 3 1/2 months last year with a flexor tendon sprain. Williams was 3-10 with a 6.21 ERA this season, but the Nationals still appreciated his innings. Now they’ll either have to go to Cade Cavalli or Shinnosuke Ogasawara prematurely as they make their way back from injuries or turn to another struggling Triple-A starter. Brad Lord would be their best option to take over, but he’s the team’s most important reliever at this point and isn’t stretched out.

Misiorowski won’t get his scoreless month as a result of two singles and an RBI groundout in the sixth today. He had a no-hitter before that and was up to 29 1/3 scoreless innings in May. Overall, he’s allowed 11 hits, walked six and struck out 49 in 31 1/3 innings this month. Misiorowski averaged 101.1 mph with his 73 fastballs today and hit 100 on the gun 57 times. He’s now 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA, if he can stay healthy, the Brewers should have a real shot in October this time around. He’ll face the Astros this weekend.

Given what Jacob Misiorowski was doing to Cardinals hitters today, it was pretty easy to miss Liberatore setting a career high for strikeouts for a second straight outing. He’d never topped eight before fanning nine Pirates on Tuesday, and now he has 10 for the first time. His 17 whiffs were just two fewer than Misiorowski’s total (he also had two fewer strikeouts), and while he did give up seven hits, he actually allowed only four hard-hit balls. Liberatore dropped to 2-3 with a 4.76 ERA, but his stock is climbing as he misses more bats. He’ll likely face the Cubs on Sunday.

Vaughn has been a part-timer against righties since returning from a broken hamate bone three weeks ago, but he’s performing like someone who should be in there every day. He’s hitting .333/.424/.510 with just six strikeouts in 59 plate appearances.

Yelich homered off Matthew Liberatore in the first, going deep for the fourth time in 23 games this season. He later singled and should have scored in the eighth, but he botched the slide into home, with the cleat getting stuck in the ground in front of the plate. Yelich is batting .262/.326/.476 with 15 RBI through 23 games this season.

There’s no shame in having a rough game against Jacob Misiorowski, and, hey, Gorman did at least make him throw five pitches in his first at-bat before going down on three in each the remaining two. Gorman had a little six-game hitting streak from May 12-19 that included a homer, but in five games since, he’s 1-for-19 with nine strikeouts. He’s at .218/.303/.347 overall, and he still should be a candidate to be replaced by Thomas Saggeese or Blaze Jordan at some point.

Murakami’s homer off Zebby Matthews in the first had a 41-degree launch angle, but it still made it a couple of rows deep in right field. It’s his second homer this year on 20 flyballs with at least a 40-degree launch angle. The others all turned into outs, although one was a sac fly. Murakami is the first American Leaguer with 18 homers this year. He’s two behind Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead.

Brooks Lee homered for the Twins as the second batter of the game, but it turned out to be the lone run Minnesota would score. Kay went on to strike out five and walk one. The average exit velocity of his 17 balls in play today was an unusually high 97 mph, but it didn’t much matter. He’ll take a 3.96 ERA into his start against the Tigers on Saturday.

It’s Domínguez’s first save since May 13. He blew a chance four days later and had pitched just once in the last week, getting some work in with a scoreless inning in Sunday’s loss to the Giants. Grant Taylor is definitely a threat to Domínguez in the White Sox pen, but ideally, Domínguez would do well enough to keep the job and leave the White Sox free to use Taylor in tie games and for two innings at a time on occasion. Domínguez thus far is 11-for-14, with the White Sox going 1-2 in his three blown saves. He and Taylor, who pitched a scoreless seventh today, might both need Tuesday off after working the last two days, possibly creating a save chance for Bryan Hudson. Or perhaps the White Sox would risk using Domínguez for a third straight day.

He struck out six and walked one. All three runs came on homers from Munetaka Murakami and Drew Romo in the first two innings. Very encouraging was that Matthews averaged 96.2 mph with his fastball today. He was at 94.8 mph in his season debut 11 days ago, but he boosted that to 95.8 mph last time out and got it even higher today. If he stays in this territory, he should offer some mixed league value, though he’ll contribute more in WHIP and in strikeouts than in ERA. He’ll next face the Pirates on Saturday.

The throw to retire Orlando Arcia was impressive from a rookie who played more second base and left field than right field in the minors. At the plate, Nishida had a 102-mph groundball single, a routine flyout and a strikeout. He doesn’t offer a ton of fantasy potential, but he’ll probably play against most righties for now.