MLB Player News

Thomas got into eight games this season for the Angels and went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts at the plate before being designated for assignment back in August. The 29-year-old outfielder offers some speed and defensive ability, but hasn’t hit at all in a few brief stints at the highest level.

It’s Singer’s fifth career 10-strikeout game and first of this year. He was coming off an outing in which he held the Rays to one run in 7 1/3 innings, so this makes back-to-back excellent starts for a guy who had been 3-7 with a 5.61 ERA in 14 turns since the beginning of May. We wouldn’t typically recommend him in mixed leagues, but he seems like a solid choice next week with a road start in Pittsburgh on the schedule.

Pagán couldn’t find the strike zone initially and gave up a walk and two singles to start the inning, causing the Reds to get the bullpen stirring. Pagán, though, recovered quickly against the bottom of the Braves lineup, striking out Eli White and getting Luke Williams to hit a pointless sac fly. Jurickson Profar then grounded out to end the game. With Pagán and Tony Santillan, who threw a scoreless eighth today, both having worked three days out of four and five out of seven, the Reds might need to turn to Graham Ashcraft in a save situation Saturday.

Rarely in trouble today, Elder allowed one run on a single, walk, single combination in the sixth. The remaining run came in the seventh, when Elder retired two straight after a leadoff walk, only to get pulled with Will Benson coming up. Benson immediately hit a two-run homer off Dylan Dodd, leaving the Braves in a 3-0 hole. Elder dropped to 4-8 with a 6.03 ERA. He’ll face the Marlins next.

Benson probably wouldn’t have started today had TJ Friedl not needed one more day on paternity leave, and even if he had, he almost surely would have been lifted for a pinch-hitter when the Braves brough in Dylan Dodd to face him with a man on in the seventh. Instead, with his glove needed in center, he stayed in and hit his third career homer off a southpaw. Benson, who probably isn’t in line for much playing time going forward now that Noelvi Marte is frequently starting in the outfield, came into the day batting .183/.180/.317 with two homers in 61 plate appearances this month.

This just hasn’t been Riley’s year, though he did homer in back-to-back games against the Royals earlier this week. He’s struck 127 times in 101 games this season, compared to 118 in 110 games last year. His 28.5% strikeout rate is the ninth highest among the 156 batting-title qualifiers. Riley fanned 36.4% of the time in his 80-game rookie season in 2019, but he was at 24.6% in the five seasons coming into this one.