MLB Player News

It’ll go down as a moderate oblique strain for Morel, who suffered the injury at some point prior to Friday’s season opener against the Rockies, and will likely be out until at least early May. The 26-year-old was expected to open the year as Miami’s starting first baseman after signing a one-year deal in the offseason. It’ll be a combination of Connor Norby and Deyvison De Los Santos splitting time at the cold corner during his absence.

Lindor’s home run was his 13th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Kyle Harrison in the fifth inning. Lindor made the play of the game when he had to dive to catch a line drive with the bases loaded and two outs in a tie game in the ninth inning. He’s 18-for-65 (.276) with four home runs and eight RBI over his last 17 games. He’s hitting .239 with a .756 OPS and 33 this year.

Harrison gave up six hits, walked one and struck out five. He now has a 1.88 ERA in 19 2/3 innings over four starts in August. Harrison has a 2.79 ERA in his breakout season. He’s lined up to face the Cubs on the road next week.

Thornton gave up seven hits, walked none and struck out four. The 24-year-old left-hander had a 3.94 ERA in four starts in August entering play Tuesday. Thornton isn’t a big strikeout pitcher, but his recipe for success against the Brewers was allowing no walks and keeping the ball in the ballpark. He has a 2.88 ERA. Thornton is lined up to face the Astros at home on Sunday.

Lukes hit a two-run single in the ninth inning, but was thrown out at second base while trying to stretch it into a double, which ended the game. He’s 7-for-28 (.250) with two home runs and seven RBI over his last eight games. Lukes is hitting .263 with a .691 OPS and 28 RBI on the year.

Albies also had a sac fly, because of course he did. Tonight’s was his 13th of the season, overtaking Henry Aaron and Del Crandall for the Braves’ single-season record (oddly enough, both of them did it in 1960). Vinnie Pasquantino in 2023 is the only other player to have 13 sac flies in a season this decade. Francisco Lindor, with 15 in 2016, was the last to have more than that. According to Baseball Reference, the record since sac flies were first tracked in 1954 is 19 by Gil Hodges in 1954.

Elder struck out five and walked none. He allowed eight hits, but all of them were singles. Elder was half-skipped in the rotation again last week, making the start tonight on eight days’ rest. He also pitched on 11 days’ rest in his final start before the break and 10 days’ rest in his first start after the break. It suggests he’s not quite 100 percent and hasn’t been for some time. However, he’s been more effective than not lately. He’ll take a 3.95 ERA into his next start, whenever that might come; the Braves probably won’t pitch him Sunday and they have next Monday and Thursday off, so they could give Elder another long rest if they’d like.

Shohei Ohtani hit the triple to the wall in left. It would have been a homer in 28 ballparks, according to Statcast. In Atlanta, it could have been an out, but Lane Thomas had it go off his glove while attempting a jumping catch. It proved no problem for Iglesias. He struck out Freddie Freeman, got Mookie Betts to ground out and, after an intentional walk of Max Muncy, got Tommy Edman to fly out to center to end the game.

All of the runs came in the first, and he actually should have given up one more, but a wild pitch that would have scored Michael Harris II was wrongly called a foul ball. After that, though, Glasnow was terrific. He allowed just two singles and walked none over his final four innings, and his stuff was excellent throughout. There’s no guarantee he’ll remain healthy in September, but if he does, he could be a top 20 SP for the month.

After coming into a 3-3 game, Scott gave up a double to Matt Olson and later a soft line-drive single to Ozzie Albies that plated the go-ahead run. It’s his first loss since June 3. Even if he wasn’t held back in the hopes of a ninth-inning lead materializing tonight, he’s still pretty clearly the Dodgers’ first choice to close right now.