MLB Player News

Lombard drew the start at the hot corner for Wednesday’s Florida nightcap and put on an impressive display with a phenomenal barehanded play early in the contest before smacking a 108.8 mph double a couple frames later. The 20-year-old former first-round pick will open the year in the upper minors and could potentially arrive at Yankee Stadium before the regular season comes to a close.

Fortunately, the 31-year-old right-hander noted after the game that it’s just bruised and that he was able to avoid any significant injury. His performance on the field showed a bit of rust, allowing two runs on two hits and three walks over his 2 2/3 frames. He did punch out four batter in the contest though and threw 40 of his 63 pitches for strikes. He’s going to need at least another couple of starts in the minor leagues before he’s an option to join the Padres’ rotation.

He’ll throw at least one more time off of a mound before he progresses to facing live hitters. He appears to be right on schedule and the Rangers remain hopeful that he’ll be able to return at some point around the All-Star break.

Ragans gave up the lone run, a fourth-inning solo shot from Jo Adell. The game didn’t turn into a rout until after Ragans left and the Royals scored three runs in the seventh and four in the eighth. It was Ragans’ 11th career 10-strikeout game and first of 2026. An especially good sign was that his fastball averaged 96.5 mph tonight, an increase of 2.3 mph from where he was in his first five starts. He’ll pitch against Seattle next time out.

Urena gave up just three hard-hit balls tonight, but one of those was a 111-mph homer. The bigger problem, though, was that he was simply all over the place. He now has a 13/10 K/BB over 11 1/3 innings in his four appearances this season. The Angels might send him down after this, especially since they won’t need a fifth starter next time through the rotation.

Ouch. Brought in with the Angels down 8-0. Romano gave up a single, a double, a walk, another single and a HBP before being pulled. Second baseman Adam Frazier replaced him before his pitch count could get too high and, as you might imagine, allowed both inherited runners to score. Just one of the three hits against Romano came in a hard-hit ball. It wasn’t the nightmare performance that the line suggests, but that doesn’t change the fact that his ERA now stands at 10.13. He’s still probably the favorite for saves in the Angels pen for now, but it wouldn’t take much at all to change that.

The runs batted in all came in different at-bats. Two scored on the two singles, but he also had one on a fielder’s choice and the other on a bases-loaded walk. It was his first career four-RBI game. He’s simply filling in for Maikel Garcia right now, but he’s angling for more playing time with his .286/.400/.381 line in 25 plate appearances.

Two of Perez’s hits were soft liners, but the homer was cranked, leaving his bat at 111.2 mph. That’s nearly three mph higher than his previous season best of 108.5 mph. He now has four homers but just eight RBI and eight runs scored through 26 games.

Harper picked up his first two RBI of the night on an infield single and a sac fly. The third and fourth came in the 10th inning to break a 4-4 tie and gave Harper 18 runs driven in over the first month of the season. He also drew a walk and is now slashing .270/.357/.527 with six homers over an even 100 at-bats.

Elder struck out two against one walk while giving up six hits. It’s a solid outing despite the lack of swings and misses — Elder generated only six of them during Saturday’s outing — and it still sees his ERA rise from 1.50 to 1.95. He’s due for a clunker, but Elder has unquestionably done a nice job over the first month. He does have a potentially tricky one scheduled for Friday against the Rockies in Colorado.

Wheeler allowed just three hits in his first start of 2026, but he did walk three and appeared to be losing command as the start continued. Still, a solid outing that saw him generate 15 swings and misses while throwing 56-of-84 pitches for strikes. It is worth noting, however, that his velocity was down a good amount — 94.7 mph per four-seam fastball compared to 96.1 in 2025 — so that’s something to keep an eye on. Wheeler will be back on the mound Friday against the Marlins.