MLB Player News

Hanifee’s departure at the conclusion of spring training means Enmanuel De Jesus and Brant Hurter secure the final two spots in Detroit’s season-opening bullpen. The 27-year-old righty made a career-high 54 relief appearances for the Tigers last year, finishing with a solid 3.00 ERA and 40/14 K/BB ratio across 60 innings of work.

Miller didn’t strike out a batter in this one. The righty allowed only one free pass on the night, but the Rangers made the most of the six hits they tallied against Miller. Wyatt Langford blasted a solo homer off him in the first inning to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead, and Jake Burger’s two-run homer in the fourth inning would push the Rangers’ lead to 3-1. The Rangers would plate two more runs in the sixth inning and eventually forced Miller from the game. The five earned runs Miller allowed were the most he has surrendered in any game this season. He’ll look to get back on track in his next start which is scheduled for Wednesday on the road against the Dodgers.

Rengifo was the hero here. He was called upon to pinch-hit for catcher Luis Campusano and he launched a back-door sweeper from Marlins’ reliever Tyler Zuber out over the right field fence. He’s now appeared in seven games since being picked up by the Padres after the Brewers released him and has gone 10-for-23 with two home runs.

This guy is simply different. It took him just 11 pitches to sit the Marlins down here. Seven of those 11 were fastballs and the slowest of which was 100.6 mph. That’s now 26 saves on the season without a single blown opportunity and if he really is on the trade block, his value just keeps going up.

In desperation-mode, the Padres didn’t seem willing to give Márquez a long leash in this one. There was no indication that he was injured, but was yanked after striking out Heriberto Hernández to start the third inning. A handful of left-handed hitters were due up next, so maybe that was all part of the plate. They limited him to 59 pitches in his last outing as well and this seems like it will be the norm moving forward. The left-handed Kyle Hart came in for two innings afterwards as the piggy-back option.

This man is on fire. Hernández launched his home run an estimated 423 feet with a 111 mph exit velocity and now has 14 home runs on the season. That’s tied for the team-lead and he only has a hair more than 250 plate appearances. Over his last 30 games, he has a .965 OPS and is top-five in the entire league in both barrel rate and hard-hit rate since June 1st. This strong play has forced the Marlins to push him up to the upper-third of their lineup in six straight games and he’s rewarded them with more strong play.

This was a new age ‘short starter game’ with Gusto and his counterpart Germán Márquez combining to throw 5 2/3 innings and 94 pitches. The old heads somewhere screaming at a cloud. Regardless, Gusto flashed some solid stuff with a lively mid-90s fastball that he kept up in the zone, sinker he did a good job to bury low, and deep array of secondaries that he landed for strikes. There could be some mild intrigue here if he eventually builds up to a full starter’s workload. He’s lined up to face the Phillies at home next time out.

Moreno two hits didn’t result in any runs being scored, but in the top of the seventh inning, his sacrifice fly to bring in Ketel Marte put the Diamondbacks up 3-2, which would end up being the final score. Moreno’s two-hit night pushed his hitting streak to five-straight games, and he is now slashing a blistering .394/.464/.493 in July with a week left to go in the month.

Sewald needed just nine pitches to get through this one. He used four straight fastballs to retire Jorbit Vivas to begin the inning and got Luis García to fly out in just one pitch on the following at-bat. A ground out by Keibert Ruiz would end the game for the Diamondbacks, who picked up their fourth-straight win and have now won 10 of their last 12 games. Sewald’s strong outing was an encouraging sign after he had allowed three earned runs in his previous two games combined.

Hollowell got the call from the bullpen to shut down things in the bottom of the 10th inning after the Cubs took a 3-1 lead in the top half of the frame. Back-to-back ground outs would allow Henry Davis, who began the inning on second, to come around and score, but Hollowell did his part to retire all three batters he faced.

Seigler started the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer off Trey Yesavage and just kept going from there. He had been hitting just .172/.246/.276 in 15 games since the Red Sox moved him to the leadoff spot at the end of June, though with the way the team has played, there wasn’t much reason to move him back down. He’s at .273/.336/.455 with three homers in 111 plate appearances overall.