MLB Player News

Matz was burned by the long ball in this one, serving up round-trippers to Elly De La Cruz, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Dane Myers. He’s coughed up five homers already in just 24 1/3 innings. The 34-year-old lefty has struggled to work into deep into starts, pitching beyond the fifth inning just twice in five starts. He’ll carry a pedestrian 4.81 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 25/10 K/BB ratio into a road matchup against the Guardians on Monday.

Chourio also walked. It was the first game of the season for Chourio after missing six weeks to begin the year due to a hand fracture, and outside of the fact that the Brewers didn’t win, it couldn’t have gone much better. Two of the hits were doubles, and both of those extra-base hits were clocked above 108 mph in exit velocity. Chourio probably won’t hit 1.000 on the year, but the 22-year-old offers enormous upside in his right-handed bat, and more games like this are likely.

It sounds like a trip to the injured list for Cameron, who has struggled to an inflate 5.40 ERA across 31 2/3 innings this season. It’ll be Stephen Kolek (oblique) coming off the injured list to take his spot in the rotation.

O’Brien got the final two outs after the Brewers made it a save situation with two runs in the ninth. He needed only three pitches to get those final two outs, and it give him 10 saves on the season while lowering his ERA to a solid 2.12.

Leahy was able to procure five strikeouts despite generating only seven swings and misses. He allowed six hits and two walks, but the right-hander was able to keep the Brew Crew from scoring for the first five frames before surrendering a run in the sixth. The 28-year-old has not been effective for most of the year, and it’d be a mistake to believe he repeats this effort against the Padres on Saturday.

Patrick struggled to find the zone consistently, and issued three walks against four strikeouts while also surrendering seven hits. The 27-year-old was coming off a strong outing against the Diamondbacks where he gave up just two runs over five innings, but he’s now allowed four runs in two of his last three outings while seeing his ERA pushed to 3.45. It would be a mistake in process to stream Patrick on Sunday against the Yankees.

Witt’s homers have all come in his last eight games after he went his first 27 without one. Tonight’s was a 107.1-mph rocket off Tanner Bibee to put the Royals on the board for the first time in the fourth.

Wacha settled for three strikeouts in a game in which he got misses on just two of 39 swings, but aside from David Fry’s homer in the second, he mostly generated soft contract. His season BABIP is all of the way down to .231. He’s bettered the league average there in four straight seasons, but never by nearly this much. He’s 3-2 with a 3.05 ERA, and he’s scheduled to face the Tigers next time out.

Bibee faced just one over the minimum through three, but the fourth started with a Bobby Witt Jr. homer and just kept going from there. The Royals managed four more hits, two of them on grounders. One of those skidded off the second base bag and went right between the legs of Travis Bazzana. Bibee was then pulled before the start of the fifth. He struck out four tonight and had a 31 percent CSW. He just couldn’t stop the bleeding when he needed to. He’ll take a 4.58 ERA into his start against the Twins this weekend.

Fry’s start against Michael Wacha tonight was just his third of the year versus a righty. He’s batting .262/.392/.500 in his 51 plate appearances, so he might be in line for more playing time at the expense of Kyle Manzardo and Rhys Hoskins.