MLB Player News

The Cubs’ starting pitcher corps has been depleted by injuries, so they called on Brown to return to their rotation and he delivered them four quality innings. He leaned on his knuckle-curve as his primary pitch and it forced five of his nine total swings-and-misses. Also, his fastball didn’t lose much velocity despite him throwing 46 pitches, the most he’s thrown in a single outing since March 31st. Javier Assad threw bulk innings in relief later in this game and it feels like these two could be in a piggy-back situation moving forward. If Brown sticks in the rotation for another turn, he’ll face the Braves in Atlanta.

The Phillies scored three times off Tanner Scott in the eighth. Sosa initially hit for Brandon Marsh against Alex Vesia in the sixth tonight, but he struck out then. He got another at-bat against a lefty in the eighth and made the most of it, hitting his third homer to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. In spite of that, he’ll likely be back on the bench Sunday with the Dodgers starting a right-hander in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Luzardo left down 2-1, but the Phillies came back to win 4-3 tonight. Luzardo has a 1.54 ERA over his last four starts, though he’s picked up just one win in the process. He’s looking at facing the White Sox in a home start next week. It seems like a fairly kind assignment for a left-hander with Munetaka Murakami on the IL.

Duran moved to 12-for-12 in save chances. He has a 1.53 ERA and a 26/5 K/BB through 17 2/3 innings.

Sasaki averaged 98.5 mph with his fastball and topped out at 100.4 mph in perhaps his most impressive MLB start to date. He walked only one and gave up three hits, one of which was a solo homer from Alec Bohm. Sasaki ends May with a 3.18 ERA and a 28/6 K/BB in 28 1/3 innings over five starts. He wouldn’t be the worst option in mixed leagues with a start at home against the Angels next week.

Scott came in with a 3-1 lead and gave up two singles and a homer to Edmundo Sosa in a rare bullpen misstep from the Dodgers. Scott is still sporting a 2.19 ERA for the year, and he should remain the favorite for saves in the pen until Edwin Díaz returns.

Woo, who threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of 23 batters, matched his season high for strikeouts and went without giving up a run for the fourth time in 12 starts this season. He’s 5-3 with a 3.34 ERA, and he’s due to face the struggling Tigers in Detroit next week.

The earned runs all came on solo homers, with Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone taking him deep in the second and Colt Emerson and Julio Rodríguez following with blasts an inning later. Nelson has now given up 15 homers in 65 1/3 innings this season after allowing 17 in 150 2/3 innings in 2024 and 17 in 154 innings last year. He came into the night on a streak of four straight quality starts, so he doesn’t have to worry about his rotation spot right now. However, he needs to improve on either his 19 percent strikeout rate or his 31 percent groundball rate in order to be useful going forward.

Rodríguez has homered in three straight games and has 10 homers in May, which is a new high for him in a month. As slow of a starter as he’s been previously, it would seem to bode well for him that he’s already up to .269/.326/.475 for the year. He has finishes of fourth, sixth and seventh place in the AL MVP balloting in his five years in the league. Maybe this will be the year that he challenges for first place.

Kurtz had a pair of soft singles in his first three at-bats and then launched a 410-foot homer his last time up. He has 10 homers this season, and he’s tied for ninth in MLB with 40 RBI. He’s first with a .432 OBP ahead of Yordan Alvarez at .419 and Mike Trout at .412.

Ginn struck out four and walked three. He gave up 10 hard-hit balls, but the Yankees wound up with only four singles and no extra-base hits off him. Ginn improved to 3-3 with a 2.87 ERA. In spite of that, he remains of little interest in mixed leagues in a tough situation for pitchers. He’ll start in Houston next week.