MLB Player News

With Kyle Backhaus warming up behind him, Woodford retired three out of four batters for his third save in the last two weeks. He’s clearly the top right-hander in the Arizona pen right now, but Ryan Thompson has a good chance of overtaking him in the near future.

Troy homered to give the D-backs a 2-1 lead in the seventh. In the ninth, he opted to try to bunt for a hit with none on and two outs. He succeeded, and Ketel Marte followed with a two-run homer. The start tonight was Troy’s seventh in nine games since being called up (he actually arrived too late to start the first game). He has a .945 OPS, compared to .724 for Ryan Waldschmidt, and that could prove big with Jordan Lawlar and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. due back during the middle of the month.

Rodriguez endured an amusing sequence in the fourth, when Miguel Rojas challenged a pair of strike calls and both were found to have missed the zone by 0.1 inches. That put Rodriguez behind 3-1, but Rodriguez came back with an obvious strike and then another close call that Rojas again challenged. This time, the strike call stood, with about one-quarter of the baseball catching the corner. In truth, Rojas really shouldn’t have challenged any of them, considering there were two outs and none on at the time. The D-backs didn’t go ahead until the bottom of the seventh tonight, so Rodriguez remained 5-1 with a 2.24 ERA. Arizona did improve to 9-3 in his starts, however. Rodriguez will face the Nationals on Saturday.

Since taking his first blown save on May 13, Sewald has a win and six saves in his last seven appearances, allowing just one run in the process.

Sheehan allowed only one hit through five scoreless innings before giving up homers to Nolan Arenado in the sixth and Tommy Troy in the seventh. That might suggest he had another one of his typical in-game velocity dropoffs tonight, but he actually held up nicely there tonight; he averaged 95.9 mph with his fastball in the sixth and 95.4 mph in the seventh, compared to an average of 95.9 mph overall. Sheehan has allowed one or two runs in four of his last five starts, and his season ERA is down to 4.50. He’ll likely face the Angels on Sunday.

Vargas gave the D-backs a scare tonight after a hard foul off his shin sent him to the ground, but he was able to continue. Last year, he missed seven weeks with a broken foot sustained in similar fashion. The D-backs still need Vargas for now, as Pavin Smith is expected to be limited to DH duties for the foreseeable future. Vargas, though, has long since cooled off at the plate. He’s batting .193 with one homer and three walks over 114 plate appearances in the 28 games since he lost his season-opening 24-game hit streak.

Naylor departed just after hitting a solo homer in the seventh, with Patrick Wisdom replacing him at first base. The Mariners could use Luke Raley at first and Victor Robles in right if Naylor can’t go Tuesday.

How many Rangers fans wanted Duran DFA’d at some point during 2024 or 2025? Or for just the entirety of those two years? Duran has four homers and 32 RBI in 184 plate appearances this season after totaling three homers and 34 RBI in 504 plate appearances the previous two years. He’s been the Rangers’ regular shortstop with Corey Seager out, but he can simply move to second after Seager comes off the IL.

It’s his 100th career victory to go along with 69 losses. The key for deGrom this year is taking on NL teams, apparently. He’s faced four and gone 4-0, allowing just two runs in 23 2/3 innings. He’s 0-4 with four no-decisions and a 5.05 ERA against AL clubs. Unfortunately (not really), deGrom’s next start will come Sunday at home against Cleveland.

Latz, now sporting a 2.00 ERA in 27 innings, has needed only 21 pitches to get two saves the last two days. Still, he’ll probably be down on Tuesday after this. Jakob Junis might close then.

While it’s a third straight loss for McGreevy, this was a better performance than the other two, even if he did notch just one strikeout. Aided by two double plays, he got his 18 outs on 84 pitches. McGreevy is now 3-5 with a 2.98 ERA. He’ll take on the Reds on Sunday.