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Suzuki added that Kikuchi has opted for the rest and rehabilitation route instead of undergoing shoulder surgery, which likely would’ve been season-ending. The 34-year-old southpaw, who hit the injured list with shoulder inflammation over the weekend, will need to build up his stamina and workload from the ground floor once he’s cleared to resume throwing in a couple weeks. It’s relatively safe to assume he won’t return until sometime around the All-Star break in July. It’ll be Sam Aldegheri getting the first opportunity to replace Kikuchi in Los Angeles’ rotation when he takes the ball against the White Sox on Tuesday night.

Harper homered off Luis Severino in the third for the game’s only run through six innings. The Phillies then exploded for eight runs between the seventh and eighth to turn it into a laugher. It’s Harper’s 31st career two-homer game and first since last August. He has nine homers this year, and he’s up to 13th in the majors with a .948 OPS.

Sánchez had been more good than great since striking out 10 against the Rangers on Opening Day, so it was nice to see him dominate tonight. Coming into the game, the league was hitting .287 against him with a 45 percent hard-hit rate against him, compared to .226 with a 40 percent hard-hit rate last year. Tonight, with his velocity up about 1.5 mph from his season average, the A’s were 3-for-27 against him.

The Phillies wanted Duran to work tonight after activating him earlier in the day, and that meant having him pitch the ninth ahead by nine. Duran wasn’t sharp, but that’s no harm done. However, since it did take him 27 pitches to get through the frame, it’ll be interesting to see if the Phillies are willing to use him on Wednesday.

Severino gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out three. He’s allowed exactly one earned run in each of his last three starts, a stretch that has dropped his ERA from 6.20 to 4.15. Next up for him is another road start against the Orioles.

The A’s were down only 1-0 went Leiter entered to start the seventh, but it was 4-0 when he departed and 6-0 by the time the inning ended. The showing pushed his ERA up to 7.98, so it’s probably a good bet that he won’t be adding to his save total of two any time soon.

The deal is now official. Kranick will factor into Washington’s relief mix at some point later this season as he continues his rehabilitation process from last year’s elbow surgery. The 28-year-old was putting together an extremely encouraging Mets debut with a 3.65 ERA across 37 innings last year before requiring season-ending surgery.

It’s fair to say that Rutledge didn’t live up to the lofty expectations that come with being a first-round draft pick as he posted a bloated 6.29 ERA across 103 innings in the majors from 2023-2026. The 27-year-old former pitching prospect could attract some interest on waivers as a reclamation project, but that seems unlikely.

It’ll go in the books as an encouraging rehab debut for Hader, who threw nine of 16 pitches for strikes, and averaged 94 mph on his sinker. He finished with one strikeout and wound up facing just three batters after a one-out walk was erased on a caught stealing. The 32-year-old upper-echelon closer will return to Houston’s bullpen sometime around mid-to-late May after making a couple additional rehab outings.

Rodón gave up seven hits, including a pair of home runs, and threw 83 pitches (49 strikes) in his likely final rehab outing. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters earlier on Tuesday that the 33-year-old southpaw will make his next start in the majors if everything checks out fine afterwards from a physical standpoint. He’s in line to make his season debut against the Brewers on Sunday and should obviously be rostered in all fantasy formats.

Cole struck out four and didn’t hand out a free pass. He gave up seven hits, including a homer to White Sox top prospect Caleb Bonemer. No word on his fastball velocity since there’s no public Statcast data in the lower minors. The 35-year-old veteran had no trouble pounding the zone with 49 of his 69 pitches going for strikes. His latest rehab outing came after Yankees manager Boone told reporters earlier on Tuesday that he remains “a ways away” from returning to New York. He’ll need a couple additional outings before he’s ready to make his season debut later this month.