MLB Player News

Matt Svanson, who had been a popular sleeper candidate for saves in the Cardinals’ bullpen, came on in the sixth inning of this one and allowed three runs while recording only one out. After the Cardinals took the lead in the sixth inning, it was JoJo Romero to start the seventh, turning it over to Riley O’Brien for four outs and then ultimately to Stanek to get the final three. It wasn’t the smoothest of outings, as he issued three walks in the frame, but he struck out Joshua Palacios with the bases loaded to close it out. He could be worth a look if speculating on saves in deeper leagues.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine night off for the 32-year-old superstar. Expect Ohtani to be utilized off the bench if a high-impact late-game situation presents itself.

Sheets will get a breather in this one with a left-hander toeing the slab for the Giants. Luis Rengifo will function as the club’s designated hitter in his place and will bat second for the Padres on Thursday night in San Diego.

As has been the case more often than not lately, Ozuna finds himself on the pine with an opposing right-hander on the mound. Bryan Reynolds will serve as the team’s designated hitter while Jhostynxon Garcia will start in center field and bat ninth against Rhett Lowder and the Reds.

The 24-year-old right-hander was a 17th round pick by the Orioles from the 2023 draft class. Barnhart has made 31 appearances at Double-A Chesapeake this season, posting a 4.05 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and a 45/19 K/BB ratio across 40 innings. He’ll add bullpen depth in the upper minors for the Tigers.

The 31-year-old backstop had been designated for assignment by the Tigers earlier in the week, so they were content to flip him for anything that they could get at this stage. Rogers will add quality catching depth for the O’s.

Fernando Cruz got a huge double play ball in the 10th to send the game to the 11th, but he couldn’t come up big again after getting no lead to work with. Munetaka Murakami was intentionally walked to start the inning. Cruz struck out Miguel Vargas, but then Sam Antonacci collected an infield single. Cruz bounced back to strike out Colson Montgomery after falling behind 3-0, but he then walked Peters on four pitches. Peters, a very surprising AL All-Star, didn’t start the game against lefty Ryan Weathers, but he was in his second plate appearances off the bench. He’s hitting .095/.188/.119 in 48 plate appearances since the break.

The velocity spike Burke enjoyed a month ago hasn’t held up over his last three starts, but he’s remained awfully effective anyway. The scoreless outing today was his second in three starts, and he has a 1.42 ERA and a 67/9 K/BB in 50 2/3 innings over his last eight turns. With his peripherals backing up his success, he seems like someone who can be counted on in mixed leagues the rest of the way. He’ll face the Red Sox next week.

Weathers wasn’t as impressive as Sean Burke today, but he wound up with the better end result, completing one more scoreless frame than the White Sox’s right-hander. Weathers struck out four and walked three. He allowed nine hard-hit balls, but just two produced hits and one was a double-play ball. This makes three times this year that Weathers has completed seven scoreless innings, though he’s only gotten a win for one of those. He remains 4-7 with a 3.99 ERA through 21 starts. He’ll face the Cardinals next.

The one hit would have been a triple in a scoreless game leading off the sixth, but Domínguez badly overslid the bag at third, despite it not being a close play, and was tagged out. He was credited with a double, but it probably would have been a better day for him if he had just struck out again instead. He’s hitting .226/.268/.340 in 56 plate appearances during the second half.

Bregman smacked a one-out double off of Andre Pallante in the fourth inning and scored the Cubs’ first run on an error by Lars Nootbaar. He then poked an RBI double into right field off of Luis Gastelum to give the Cubs the lead in the 10th before scoring on Ian Happ’s RBI double. The 32-year-old third baseman is now hitting .248/.341/.381 with 11 home runs, 47 RBI and a pair of stolen bases in his first 487 plate appearances with the Cubs.