MLB Player News

Nate Pearson was sent down last night to make room. Assad, who will get the start against the Blue Jays tonight over the previously announced Ben Brown, is finally ready to go again after suffering an oblique strain in February and experiencing a setback while on a rehab assignment in April. He had allowed two earned runs over 11 innings in his three recent rehab starts.

Rea took over after rookie lefty Riley Martin worked a scoreless opening frame and finished with five strikeouts and didn’t hand out a free pass. He served up a three-run homer to Edmundo Sosa in the second inning, but managed to keep the Phillies off the scoreboard over his final five innings of work. The 35-year-old veteran swingman holds a 3.63 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 15/3 K/BB ratio over 17 1/3 innings of work. He’ll factor into Chicago’s pitching plan against the Mets on Sunday.

Contreras left the contest in the fifth inning with the Red Sox trailing by five runs at the time. He finished 0-for-1 at the plate. It doesn’t sound like a serious concern, but there should be an update on his status after the contest. The 33-year-old first baseman has gotten off to a strong start in his Boston debut, hitting .298 (17-for-57) with three homers and 11 RBI in 17 games.

The Tigers got both of their runs in the eighth, with the first coming after Zach McKinstry doubled and went on to score on a wild pitch. Dingler knocked in Kevin McGonigle after a walk. Dingler, who has been hitting fourth or fifth of late, is at .271/.364/.500 with 12 RBI in 57 plate appearances. He seems like a top-10 fantasy catcher right now.

This was quite the throwback game, as both Valdez and Cole Ragans, who went six scoreless, had successful outings while striking out just one batter apiece. The Tigers ended up winning 2-1, but since they didn’t score until the bottom of the eighth, the victory went to Will Vest. Vest actually struck out the side in his inning, giving him as many strikeouts as the game’s other five pitchers combined. Valdez should make his next start Sunday versus the Red Sox.

Lane Thomas singled and stole second, but Salvador Perez, Vinnie Pasquantino and Starling Marte couldn’t finish the job from there. The save is Jansen’s 479th, moving him past Lee Smith and into sole possession of third place on the all-time list. He’s probably not moving up from there — Trevor Hoffman is second with 601 saves, 51 behind Mariano Rivera — but he is eager to get to 500. He’s 3-for-4 saving games this year.

Ragans walked four and struck out only one. A mere four of the 44 swings against him produced whiffs. Still, it obviously worked out well enough tonight. It’s his lowest strikeout total in 61 starts since being traded to the Royals. He’s coming off the previous low of two, but that was because he was hit in the thumb by a comebacker and left in the first last week against the Guardians. One wonders if the thumb was a bit of a factor tonight, as he threw his slider about half as often as usual. Ragans is slated to face the Yankees on Sunday.

Torres nearly got one in the first, hitting a ball 386 feet off Cole Ragans. It was just a flyout, but the 101-mph exit velocity was his best to date this season, as was the 78.2-mph swing speed. In fact, just one of his 107 swings coming into the night had topped 75 mph, and his average swing speed was down about 2.5 mph from last year. Torres has been getting on base just fine for the Tigers, as he’s walked 12 times and scored 10 runs in 16 games. Still, he needs to show some power if he’s going to be helpful in fantasy leagues.