MLB Player News

Verlander continues to make strides toward a return to the Tigers’ rotation. If all goes well with Monday’s outing, there’s a chance that he could return for next weekend’s series against the White Sox. It’s unclear if the Tigers plan to go to a six-man rotation or if they’ll work out a piggyback situation with a pair of their starters upon Verlander’s return.

Clemens’ home run was his 24th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Troy Melton with two outs in the first inning. Clemens has five home runs and 17 RBI in his last 19 games. He’s hitting .238 with a .768 OPS and 70 RBI this year.

Jeffers’ home run was his 13th of the season. He hit a three-run shot off Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan in the sixth inning. Jeffers has three home runs and seven RBI in his last two games. He’s hitting .278 with an .891 OPS and 49 RBI this year.

Melton gave up six hits, walked one and struck out four. He fell to 7-4 with the loss. Melton hadn’t allowed more than four runs in any of his 16 other starts this year. He has a 2.20 ERA. Melton is lined up to face the Guardians on the road on Sunday.

Prielipp gave up three hits, walked one and struck out five. He improved to 4-7 with the win. Prielipp followed Andrew Morris, who pitched an inning as the opener. He was excellent after having a month to forget in August, when his ERA was 7.76 in five starts. Prielipp has a 5.28 ERA. He’s lined up to face the Tigers on the road next week.

Pickney’s return to the minors seems to further signal that James Wood (oblique) is coming off the injured list prior to Wednesday’s series finale against Atlanta. The 25-year-old hit .273 (6-for-22) with one homer and one steal during a 13-game stint with the Nationals after being called up in early August.

Stowers’ home run was his 17th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Randy Dobnak in the fifth inning. It was Stowers’ first home run in eight games since returning from a hamstring injury. He’s hitting .245 with a .793 OPS and 57 RBI this year.

The game ended on an Osleivis Basabe error with two outs in the ninth; he made a diving play at third on Rafael Flores Jr.'s grounder but still had plenty of time to make a good throw. Instead, he bounced it, and Rafael Devers failed to make the pick at first base, allowing Lowe to score from third. Lowe previously hit his 29th homer in the seventh inning. It’s his first four-hit game of the year.

All of the runs came in the second inning. Incredibly, the Pirates picked Skenes up, scoring nine times in the third to knock Logan Webb out of the game and take an 11-5 lead. Skenes, though, was lifted one out shy of qualifying for the win after allowing a single and a double in the fifth. Skenes’ bad inning was the product of a walk, three singles and a Rafael Devers homer. He finished with four strikeouts. It’ll be another outing in which his expected numbers weren’t as bad as his actual ones, but no one much wants to hear about that at this point. He’ll take a 3.97 ERA into Sunday’s start against the Angels.

Montgomery has collected four of his six wins and six of his seven saves since the All-Star break. He remains the Pirates’ preferred choice to close right now.

I’s the second shortest start of Webb’s career. He’s gotten nine outs or fewer six times in 202 career starts. Three of those have come since the beginning of July; he allowed seven runs in three innings at Coors Field on July 3 and five runs in 2 2/3 innings against the Red Sox just two starts ago. The rest of the outings in that span have been pretty good. Even with the five-run game, he had a 2.83 ERA in August (nine runs in 28 2/3 innings). All nine hits he allowed tonight were singles, and five came on non-hard-hit balls. It’s a little disturbing that he couldn’t stop the bleeding while retiring zero of the seven batters he faced in the third, but it’s probably not a major cause for concern. And, miraculously, he avoided a loss tonight. He’s the second starter this year to give up nine runs and not lose, joining the Royals’ Seth Lugo. The last Giants starter to give up nine runs in a non-loss was Kevin Correia on Apr. 20, 2004.