MLB Player News

Moncada hit a 370-foot blast in the third inning to put Cuba up 3-0 at the time. He also had a 103.4 mph groundout, giving him two of the eight hardest hit balls in the contest. Moncada claims he has dropped 20 pounds during the offseason to stay healthy this year. He will begin the season as the starting third baseman for the Angels and could be worth a roll of the dice in AL-only leagues or deeper fantasy formats.

Nootbaar was intentionally walked after hitting for Pedro Pagés in the sixth inning today. In a lefty-lefty matchup with Sam Moll in the eighth, he crushed an 83-mph sweeper 433 feet for his first homer of 2026 and 10th homer in 509 career plate appearances versus southpaws. No one would have been surprised in Nootbaar started slowly in his return from multiple surgeries, but he has two barrels and three hits through seven at-bats. Since he probably won’t start against lefties in the short term, his fantasy upside would seem to be limited. But we’ll see.

It’s the fourth time in five starts that Liberatore, whose velocity was down one mph today, has allowed at least three runs while getting no more than 15 outs. The Cardinals won anyway, so they’re 9-4 when he pitches this season, even though his ERA stands at 4.48 and he’s completed six innings only three times. He’ll pitch in Minnesota next weekend.

O’Brien is making things way too interesting of late, but he managed a scoreless ninth after allowing two singles and a walk with two outs in the ninth today. The walk today was O’Brien’s fifth in six appearances after he issued just two in his first 22 outings. He’s 16-for-20 saving games this season.

Lodolo gave up five singles in a three-run second inning. The third was a bunt, and the fourth was one that a better right fielder than Noelvi Marte would have caught. The remaining damage against Lodolo was a Jordan Walker homer in the fifth. He remained in to start the sixth, but he was pulled after a single and an Eugenio Suárez error. Fortunately, Tejay Antone halted the rally from there. Lodolo was pretty good in his previous two starts, but he’s still struggling to settle into a groove here after missing the first several weeks with a blister. He’ll take a 5.51 ERA into a home start against the D-backs next Friday.

Sam Moll then gave up two runs in the eighth to take a blown save and a loss. Tony Santillan is still the favorite for saves in Cincinnati right now, but Antone has been the team’s most impressive reliever with his 3.75 ERA, 12/4 K/BB and 58 percent groundball rate in 12 innings. The Reds have to closely monitor his workload after three Tommy John surgeries, but he should be in the mix for at least the occasional save until Emilio Pagán returns.

Walker’s 401-foot homer off Nick Lodolo was his 16th in 61 games. That matches his career high from his rookie season in 2023, when he played in 117 games. Walker is 8-for-13 in his last three games, taking his average back up to .301.

It wasn’t pretty, but Strider got the job done. There were not many clean innings as the command of his secondaries were not sharp. That’s a problem because Strider’s fastball remains an issue. Without the elite velocity or shape of yesteryear, that fastball doesn’t miss many bats anymore and forced a grand total of zero swings-and-misses in this one. He’s gotten by with his slider plus curveball and changeup especially against left-handed batters – and the Pirates’ lineup was nearly all lefties in this one – they just weren’t as sharp here. Strider will take a 4.00 ERA, 43 strikeouts, and 19 walks over 36 innings pitched into his next scheduled start against the Mets on the road.

The 36-year-old wonder continues to show no signs of slowing down with another save and scoreless appearance here. He’s only allowed two earned runs all season and they both came in the same appearance. So, 19 of 20 appearances without a run which has helped him to a gorgeous 0.87 ERA on the season along with 24 strikeouts and just four walks in 20 2/3 innings. Right now, he’s performing like one of the best closers in the league.

Smith came into this game without a hit in more than a week and was stuck in his first slump of the season. It seems like he ended that decisively with his two-run shot in this one that more or less ended Pirates’ starter Braxton Ashcraft’s outing and more or less put this game away. Still starting against all right-handed pitchers the Braves face, Smith has had a magnificent season to this point with six home runs, 28 RBI, a .309 batting average, and an .830 OPS through 52 games.

One fire lately, two more knocks here extended Gonzales’ hitting streak to eight games with multiple hits in four of those. His fourth inning double helped catalyze the only real rally the Pirates had in this game and he’s now up to a .315 batting average and .759 OPS on the season as an everyday player for the Pirates.