MLB Player News

Peña’s injury was originally described as knee tightness, but now the Astros are saying it’s a grade one hamstring strain. That’s not ideal, but Peña still might make it back around the end of the month. Until then, the Astros will be able to play Isaac Paredes and the rest of their infielders regularly, with Carlos Correa starting at short. Joey Loperfido figures to get more time in left with Yordan Alvarez DHing most games.

The game ended on an Osleivis Basabe error with two outs in the ninth; he made a diving play at third on Rafael Flores Jr.'s grounder but still had plenty of time to make a good throw. Instead, he bounced it, and Rafael Devers failed to make the pick at first base, allowing Lowe to score from third. Lowe previously hit his 29th homer in the seventh inning. It’s his first four-hit game of the year.

All of the runs came in the second inning. Incredibly, the Pirates picked Skenes up, scoring nine times in the third to knock Logan Webb out of the game and take an 11-5 lead. Skenes, though, was lifted one out shy of qualifying for the win after allowing a single and a double in the fifth. Skenes’ bad inning was the product of a walk, three singles and a Rafael Devers homer. He finished with four strikeouts. It’ll be another outing in which his expected numbers weren’t as bad as his actual ones, but no one much wants to hear about that at this point. He’ll take a 3.97 ERA into Sunday’s start against the Angels.

Montgomery has collected four of his six wins and six of his seven saves since the All-Star break. He remains the Pirates’ preferred choice to close right now.

I’s the second shortest start of Webb’s career. He’s gotten nine outs or fewer six times in 202 career starts. Three of those have come since the beginning of July; he allowed seven runs in three innings at Coors Field on July 3 and five runs in 2 2/3 innings against the Red Sox just two starts ago. The rest of the outings in that span have been pretty good. Even with the five-run game, he had a 2.83 ERA in August (nine runs in 28 2/3 innings). All nine hits he allowed tonight were singles, and five came on non-hard-hit balls. It’s a little disturbing that he couldn’t stop the bleeding while retiring zero of the seven batters he faced in the third, but it’s probably not a major cause for concern. And, miraculously, he avoided a loss tonight. He’s the second starter this year to give up nine runs and not lose, joining the Royals’ Seth Lugo. The last Giants starter to give up nine runs in a non-loss was Kevin Correia on Apr. 20, 2004.

An unusual night for Cruz; his hits were all singles, and only one, a 106-mph grounder, was a hard-hit ball. It’s both his fifth career four-hit game and four-RBI game. He’s batted .311 with three homers and 12 RBI in 12 games since coming off the injured list.

Hill is hitting a nice .342/.426/.474 in 47 plate appearances since debuting three weeks ago. With limited power, his fantasy upside is pretty limited, but if he does some running, he could offer value in deeper formats. He’s 1-for-1 stealing bases so far.

Loftin’s home run was his seventh of the season. He hit a solo shot off Marlins reliever Tyler Zuber in the ninth inning. Loftin hit just .200 with one home run in 25 games in August. He’s hitting .237 with a .718 OPS and 41 RBI this year.

Dobnak gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out six. He fell to 2-3 with the loss. Dobnak had only allowed three runs in the first six innings, but was charged with another three runs after allowing three hits to begin the seventh inning. Dobnak has a 2.65 ERA, though his xFIP is 4.15. He’s lined up to face the Blue Jays at home on Sunday.

Phillips gave up one hit, walked two and struck out four. He improved to 4-6 with the win. Phillips had a 3.86 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 21 innings over five appearances in August. His scoreless outing was his first scoreless appearance since July 8 against the Mariners, when he also tossed five scoreless innings. Phillips has a 3.43 ERA. He’s lined up to face the Cubs at home on Sunday.