MLB Player News

Simon is up with Oneil Cruz on the concussion injured list. The 25-year-old was claimed off waivers from the Marlins in August, and will likely work in a reserve role while with Pittsburgh.

Jansen was checked on by a trainer earlier in the frame, but managed to stay in. He recorded two quick outs before issuing a four-pitch walk to Mike Trout, which led to his removal from the contest. Brenan Hanifee came on to record the final out following his departure. The 38-year-old veteran stopper will undergo further evaluation and possibly imaging to determine the severity of the issue. Kyle Finnegan would be the next man up should Jansen require a trip to the injured list.

Early picked up his fifth win of the season in this one, turning in yet another solid start against the Braves after allowing two earned runs over five innings earlier this month. Early threw 65 of his 97 pitches for strikes and managed to keep the Braves in check despite allowing leadoff walks in the first two innings. The lefty closes out the month of May with a solid 3.07 ERA while going 3-1 in his starts. His next start is scheduled for Tuesday against a suddenly hot Orioles offense.

Henderson is desperately trying to fight his way out of this early season malaise. This was his third multi-hit game out of his last seven and he’s now hit six home runs over his 30 games. That’s all great, but the issue has been truly stringing these strong games together and finding a way to get his on-base skills back to the elite place they once were. He may be a bit too focused on lifting the ball with a fly ball rate much higher than both his career and the major league average. That’s come with a slight increase in his swing tilt and attack angle while he’s chasing pitches out of the strike zone far more than ever before. The home runs are great, we just need to see more consistency.

It’s a full-blown miracle that Gibson escaped this start with just the one run on his ledger. There was only one inning in which he did not allow a baserunner and worked around multiple on three separate occasions. He also got two double plays on timely cutters, neither of which were those innings with multiple base runners. That cutter was something he went back to a few times when the going got tough and while it was often hit hard, it helped him get the job done. His stuff is legit despite some shaky results at the big league level so far, so keep a close eye on whether or not he sticks in the Orioles’ rotation for another turn.

Aranda extended his on-base streak to eight games with another solid showing. Ironically, he had two of the four hardest hits in a game which his Rays lost 11-2. Those are the breaks sometimes. On the season, he has a .286 batting average, .860 OPS, nine home runs, and 41 RBI in a tremendous encore to his breakout last season.

Matz had nothing in this one. The first six Orioles he faced all reached base and five of them came around to score in the first inning. Gunnar Henderson had the big blow with a two-run homer on a changeup that may as well have been on a tee. Past that, Matz didn’t have any type of command of that changeup or his sinker and turned in his worst start of the season. He’ll take a 4.67 ERA and 35:17 strikeout to walk ratio over 44 1/3 innings into his next scheduled start against the Tigers.

Elder kept the Red Sox off the board for the first three innings despite allowing six runners to reach base over that span. In the fourth, things caught up with him a bit after he allowed a leadoff single to Masataka Yoshida to start the inning and followed that up with a walk to Mickey Gasper. Yoshida would come around to score on a fielding error, which was followed by an RBI single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. Elder would allow two more batters to reach base and runs to score before being pulled. This was easily the worst outing of the season for Elder, who hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his previous nine starts. He’ll draw another tough matchup in his next start, which is scheduled for Tuesday against the Blue Jays.

Torkelson went deep off of José Soriano in the second inning to push the Tigers’ lead to 2-0. It was the eighth homer of the season for Torkelson, who also doubled twice in his powerful display at the dish. It was a much-needed big night for Torkelson, who entered the day with a .198 average and a .373 slugging percentage. He’s now hit safely in five of his last six games, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for him at the plate.

Not great. Jansen was lifted from the ninth inning of a save situation after issuing a two-out walk to Mike Trout. There should be an update on his status shortly. Brenan Hanifee came on to record the final out following his departure.

Cano loaded the bases in the eighth inning before coming out of the contest. It certainly sounds like a potential injured list situation.