MLB Player News

Caballero delivered the big blow in a comeback victory for the Yankees that truthfully never should have happened. An infield fly fell for a hit with one-out in the ninth and a walk followed. Then, with the runners in motion, Caballero roped a single to left-center field. Both Mike Trout and Bryce Teodosio trotted after the ball like it was the third inning and Austin Wells aggressively rounded third and headed home. The cut-off throw came in to the shortstop and Wells wound up beating the following throw home by half a step. All in all, it was a nice moment for Caballero who’s been ice cold to start the season with a .186 batting average to this point just as Anthony Volpe has recently begun a rehab assignment.

Devers’ homer was a one-out-of-30 ballparks, according to Statcast, traveling a projected 399 feet to dead center in San Francisco. That’s still nice hitting, but it likely would have produced a double elsewhere. Devers now owns an eight-game hitting streak, though this is his first multihit game since it started. He’s batting .348/.385/.696 since the calendar changed to May.

Ray walked four, but the only damage came from a Marcell Ozuna homer in the second. That’s been kind of the pattern for Ray, though; he’s given up eight homers but only 14 runs in 45 2/3 innings. Ray moved to 3-4 with a 2.76 ERA. He’ll face the Dodgers on the road next week, making him benchable in mixed leagues.

It’s definitely encouraging how Kilian was used tonight, even if it wasn’t quite a save situation. However, his performance wasn’t great, and fellow closing candidate Keaton Winn turned in a strong seventh for his eighth hold. Ryan Walker did not appear, as it was Matt Gage who had the eighth. Kilian now possesses a 1.59 ERA, while Winn is at 2.76. Kilian will almost certainly be unavailable Saturday after throwing 35 pitches tonight, so maybe Winn or Walker will get a save chance.

Mlodzinski got the job done, but that he allowed 11 hard-hit balls and generated whiffs on just three of 33 swings while striking out one was pretty discouraging. He fell to 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA through 40 innings. There’s a good chance he’ll wind up back in the pen at some point before the season is out, but he’ll definitely keep starting for now and he’s got a very tasty matchup at home next week against the Rockies.

Freeman improved to 5-for-15 with three homers and two doubles off Sale in his career, which is awfully impressive for a left-handed hitter. The only other lefty with three career homers against Sale is Eric Hosmer, and he had 52 at-bats to get there. Freeman had been without a homer since Apr. 6. He’s at .278/.342/.444 for the season, and he still figures to pick it up from here.

Sheehan was lifted from a 1-1 game, but if he had finished the fifth (and everything else had worked out the same), he could have gotten the win with the Dodgers going ahead in the bottom of the inning. Still, if Sheehan wants to pitch deeper into games, he needs to be a better job of maintaining his stuff. By inning tonight, his fastball averaged: 96.1 mph, 94.4 mph, 94.8 mph, 92.4 mph and 93.1 mph. It’s the kind of thing that makes one wonder if his future is in the pen. He’ll take a 4.79 ERA into his next start, presumably Thursday against the Giants.

Scott needed 11 pitches to retire pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer, Drake Baldwin and Ozzie Albies in a two-run game. 18 appearances into his season, his ERA stands at 1.65 and, with just eight hits and two walks allowed, his WHIP is an outstanding 0.65.

Sale did his part in striking out seven and amassing 17 whiffs, but the Braves couldn’t support him tonight like they have for much of the season. As a result, he dropped to 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA. He’ll take on the Cubs as the Braves continue this rough stretch of the schedule next week.

All four hits were singles, but all left the bat at over 105 mph. Harris, who opened the year batting eighth and ninth, was in the cleanup spot tonight for the third time. He didn’t really have anyone to drive in with the three guys ahead of him going 0-for-12, but that won’t happen often on this offense. Harris has a real chance of finishing the season as a top-10 fantasy outfielder.

Jackson Merrill’s fourth-inning single was the only hit the Cardinals could muster. With his velocity up by about one mph, McGreevy got 17 whiffs tonight and bested his previous high for strikeouts by two. He’s now 3-2 with a 2.18 ERA on the season, though this is really the first time he’s looked like someone who can back that up. He entered the night with a 16 percent strikeout rate, a 4.38 SIERA and a 5.77 xERA. We still wouldn’t want to use him in mixed leagues next week in Sacramento against the A’s.