MLB Player News

It’ll be Tyler Samaniego taking the ball as Boston’s opener before turning things over the Bello for a multi-inning outing. It’s the fourth time he’s followed an opener in his last five starts. The strategy has seemingly worked for the Red Sox as Bello has been much more effective in those relief outings than as a traditional starter. His odds of factoring into the decision are also exponentially higher when entering the contest later, which is a bonus for fantasy managers.

Loftin will miss Kansas City’s final two games of the season while on paternity leave. The 28-year-old finishes with a .240/.322/.388 slash line with 42 runs scored, a career-high eight homers, 45 RBI and four steals in 426 plate appearances over 118 games.

Lonsway returns to San Francisco’s bullpen for their final two games of the season. The 27-year-old lefty allowed three runs over two innings against the Diamondbacks in his major-league debut last month.

Marte wasn’t going to pitch again after allowing two runs over five innings against the Dodgers on Friday. The 31-year-old compiled a respectable 4.44 ERA across 24 1/3 innings for the Giants over the last month.

Cruz struck out against Justin Verlander in his lone plate appearance prior to exiting the contest. He appeared to suffer the apparent lower-body injury when he went down awkwardly while trying to make a sliding catch in shallow center field in the early stages of the game. There should be an additional update on his status shortly.

Stowers remains out of Miami’s lineup for the second straight contest after experiencing abdominal pain during their previous series in Chicago. It’s challenging to gauge the severity of the issue and whether he’ll be able to come off the bench this weekend. There should be some additional clarity on his status before the season concludes.

It’s a bit perplexing the Marlins basically elected to play with a shortened bench during the final week of the regular season. Edwards is sitting out his sixth consecutive game due to an ongoing left thumb issue on Saturday afternoon. It’ll be rookie Jared Serna drawing another start at second base in his place.

Jung is done for the remainder of the season, and is presumably headed to the injured list, after suffering a fractured right hand when he was hit by a pitch during Friday’s game against Minnesota. It’ll be Alejandro Osuna getting into the lineup at DH with Ezequiel Duran taking over at the hot corner.

Max Muncy is also taking a seat with lefty Matt Wilkinson serving as San Francisco’s opener. It appears to be a routine off day for Freeman, who missed time with a right knee issue a couple weeks ago. The 37-year-old veteran has already played 152 games this season, hitting .290/.364/.432 with 74 runs scored, 16 homers, 70 RBI and seven steals in 654 plate appearances. It’ll be Enrique Hernández and Miguel Rojas at the infield corners in this one.

Romo returns to the big leagues for the first time in nearly a month with veteran Jake Rogers away from the club on paternity leave. The 25-year-old backstop hit .141 (25-for-177) with seven homers and one steal in 60 games for the White Sox earlier this season.

Rogers will miss Chicago’s final two regular-season contests while on paternity leave. He should make it back in time for the start of the postseason next week.