MLB Player News

Busch homered to tie things up in the eighth and then delivered a game-winning single in the 10th. It elevates his line to .229/.331/.366 in 131 at-bats. Busch’s bat speed and exit velocity numbers have plummeted this year, and the Cubs might be better off turning him back into a platoon guy at some point. The production, though, has gotten better so far this month, and it seems worth sticking with him in shallow leagues.

Coors was no issue for Cavalli. Eddy Yean and Max Kranick finished up the six-hitter after Cavalli got through seven in 90 pitches. It’s Cavalli’s first scoreless start this year, and he’s up to 14th in the majors with 127 strikeouts in 110 2/3 innings. He’ll face the Blue Jays next week.

Hughes has pitched well in all three of his starts for the Rockies, surrendering six runs in 16 1/3 innings, and he might be getting some mixed-league attention now if he pitched elsewhere. He’ll likely make his next start Tuesday or Wednesday in San Diego.

Abrams had three hits, all of them homers, in the first two games of the series, and now he has some singles to balance them out. After a down June, he’s opened July with a .356 average, six homers and 16 RBI in 15 games.

García has now matched his career high of 70 RBI in 45 fewer games than he played in two years ago (95 vs. 140). He’s tied for 18th in MLB in homers and is alone in sixth place in RBI.

Statcast thinks Julien is really unlucky to be hitting .215/.324/.300 in 249 plate appearances, but even if he had the extra 30 points of average and 100 points of slugging he deserves, according to their expected numbers, he still wouldn’t be helping much with his below average defense at second base. The Rockies might want to move on and give Adael Amador another try at some point.

Wetherholt’s sixth-inning blast against Angels starter Reid Detmers was the lone run for either side during a low-scoring affair in Los Angeles that featured just 10 hits combined. The 23-year-old has gone deep twice in six games since last week’s All-Star break. He’s putting together a sensational rookie campaign, slashing .257/.352/.403 with 62 runs scored, 15 homers, 40 RBI and 10 steals through 96 games.

O’Brien got the call to protect a narrow one-run lead in the final frame and made things interesting by putting the potential tying and winning runs on-base with only one out in the frame. He got into a jam by walking Jo Adell and Wade Mecker, but managed to pull off the high-wire act by striking out Oswald Peraza and Josh Lowe to extinguish the threat. It was a nice rebound performance after blowing a save earlier in the series.

It’s hard to imagine the Cardinals were expecting anything better than this as Dobbins scattered six hits and worked into the middle innings during his first big-league outing since July 7. The 26-year-old will stick around with St. Louis transitioning to a six-man rotation. He doesn’t offer stratospheric strikeout upside, but he’s probably going to be a viable option in deeper mixed leagues depending on matchups. He’ll square off against the Cubs on Tuesday in his next start.

Detmers deserved a better fate after limiting the Cardinals to just a solo homer by rookie JJ Wetherholt, which wound up being the difference in a low-scoring affair. He finished with six strikeouts and issued two walks. The 27-year-old southpaw has delivered back-to-back strong performances, allowing just one run with a 13/2 K/BB ratio across 11 1/3 innings since the All-Star break. He’ll square off against the Astros at home in his next outing on Tuesday.

Ekness showed some real potential with a 1.69 ERA across 5 1/3 innings for the Marlins before landing on the injured list with a right calf stain back in early June. He’s eligible to come off the 60-day injured list around the start of August.