MLB Player News

With his Rockies up one, Johnston delivered a clutch, two-run knock to stretch their lead out. The Mets wound up responding with a rally of their own, but fell one run short. Just as he and his teammates have done all season, Johnston attacked a first-pitch fastball from Sean Manaea to get his big hit. On the season, he has a .317 batting average and .834 OPS as a pleasant surprise in the middle of the Rockies’ order.

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.

All of the runs came in the fifth, when Canning gave up four singles, a double and two walks before departing. The big blow was JJ Wetherholt’s groundball single to right with the bases loaded. Fernando Tatis Jr. was anticipating throwing out the runner from second at the plate, but instead the ball rolled under his glove for a Little League grand slam. Canning struck out five and allowed just two hits and no walks through four. This leaves him with a 6.75 ERA after two starts, but he’s pitched better than that suggests. He’ll face the Brewers next.

All four hits were singles and only one was a hard-hit ball, but his roll continues. Herrera is batting .320 with three homers and seven doubles in his last 20 games.

Machado seemed to have things turned around there for about a week, but now he’s back down to .195/.305/.344 on the season. His EV numbers are down some, and his strikeout rate is up some. He should still bounce back, but maybe not to his usual norms.

Vientos was practically the lone source of offense for the Mets here. His solo home run in the second inning stood as their only run until the top of the 10th when he hit an RBI double on the first pitch of the frame. After being lifted for a pinch runner, Carson Benge drove his replacement Vidal Bruján to give the Mets a valuable insurance run. That means Vientos had a hand in all three of the runs they scored in this win. While it doesn’t always look pretty, Vientos has four home runs, 11 RBI, and an .824 OPS over his last 15 games as he tries to reestablish himself as a true middle of the order bat.