MLB Player News

Harbin is currently on the 60-day IL with a lat injury and had a 4.69 ERA in 63 1/3 minor league innings last year. The Pirates needed room on the 40-man roster for Chris Devenski.

This was the good version of Pallante. His slider forced seven swings-and-misses as he dotted in beautifully low and below the zone and played it well off his sinker for the righties and fastball for the lefties. He also got the Pirates to hit into lots of harmless contact, whether it was lazy pop-ups or ground balls. He’ll take a 3.73 ERA into his next start against the Brewers.

The box score won’t tell you that Nick Yorke hit what was nearly a walk-off home run off O’Brien with two outs in the ninth before Nathan Church leapt up to rob it. Watching on hopelessly, O’Brien could not believe his eyes. If that ball wasn’t caught, O’Brien may have blown his third save in his last four tries. It was though and O’Brien’s eight saves trail only Mason Miller and David Bednar so far this season.

One the league’s sneakiest best run producers at the minute, Burleson’s two-run homer here gave him 22 RBI on the season so far. That put him right between Munetaka Murakami and Mike Trout, who’ve combined to hit 22 home runs. This home run was just Burleson’s fourth. The top of this Cardinals’ order has been far better than expected and Burleson is reaping the rewards of taking so many plate appearances with runners on base.

Horwitz breathed some life into his club with his fifth inning solo shot when they were down 3-0. The Pirates’ offense still stalled after that, but Horwitz has heated up of late. He’s hit all three of his home runs this season in his last 15 games and has a .919 OPS over that stretch with more walks than strikeouts. If nothing else, he’ll always be able to crush right-handed pitching.

Watching Chandler so far this season has been like pulling teeth. He’ll blow a hitter away with a 99 mph fastball at the letters, then miss with his next pitch by about two feet. It’s frustrating to see a pitcher with such good stuff be so inconsistent with their command. At least his fastball has been in the zone more – it had a 69% strike rate here – but his misses with it are so bad that hitters are rarely chasing it and his secondaries remain unpredictable. He’ll try again to right the ship in a two-start week coming up against the Diamondbacks and Giants.

Olson is locked in right now. He came to the plate with his Braves down one against Kenley Jansen and smashed a walk-off, two-run shot. Earlier in this game, he also had batted balls hit at 111.5 mph and 108.9 mph. Again, he is on fire with a .306 batting average, 1.087 OPS, and nine home runs through nearly one month of play.

Ritchie was not as sharp here compared to his debut last week. In that start, he commanded both his curveball and changeup very well against their lefty-heavy lineup. Here, he didn’t have a great feel for either and struggled overall. The Tigers either threatened or scored a run in each of the first four innings and it took some nifty work by Ritchie to even hold them to three runs. He did have that unearned run on his ledger, but that came via his own throwing error on a pick-off attempt that brought a run home. If he gets another turn in the rotation, it would come next week against the Mariners. The Braves’ staff has plenty of moving parts right now though so keep track of any news that trickles out.

Well, at least it was over quickly. Jansen faced two batters, didn’t retire either, and squandered a one-run lead in the process. His game-losing pitch to Matt Olson was especially rough: a cutter that spun in the middle of the zone like it was on a tee. This is not consecutive blown saves for him after closing out five in a row.

All this kid does is hit. Two more base knocks brought his batting average up to a crisp .333 – which is fifth-highest in the league – one month into his career and it feels like this train is not stopping any time soon. Between his swing decisions, batted ball quality, and athleticism this is a superstar in the making. His combined four home runs and stolen bases have his fantasy profile lagging a good bit behind his real-world value though.

Although he gave everyone a late scare, it’s another incredible start from the back-to-back defending Cy Young award winner. Ozzie Albies hit a two-run home run as the game’s third batter. Then, Skubal faced one batter over the minimum for the rest of his outing. Oddly, he leaned on his slider to steal strikes early in the count before mixing his fastballs and changeup to finish them off. Skubal did have something go wrong just before he finished the seventh, leading to a visit from the trainer, but he said after the game that he felt fine. He’s lined up for a beautiful two-start week coming up against the Red Sox and Royals.