MLB Player News

It’ll be a small miracle if Jiménez doesn’t wind up aggravating the hamstring bad enough to go back on the injured list, but we’ll see. He’s batting cleanup tonight.

Rodón struggled once again to keep the ball in the yard, serving up a two-run homer to Noelvi Marte in the second inning before coughing up a solo shot to Stuart Fairchild a couple frames later. He kept Cincinnati’s lineup in check otherwide, allowing just one additional hit and three walks. The most encouraging development here from a fantasy standpoint was that he piled up an eye-popping 15 swinging strikes, and finished with a 33 percent CSW, despite some diminished velocity across the board. There’s still some work to be done here, but Rodón didn’t look completely cooked in this one, which qualifies as an encouraging development.

The assumption when Jones was pulled after just 78 pitches was that it was simply another way for the Pirates’ to manager the 22-year-old hurler’s workload, but it sounds like there was an injury issue at play as well. Jones told reporters after the game that he wasn’t too concerned about it, but the Pirates aren’t going to take any unnecessary risks with him. His availability for next week’s start against the Mets is completely in the air at this point.

Once again, Sale was magnificent in this start. The Giants were helpless against his vaunted slider as it earned five swings-and-misses and an additional 12 called strikes. He was ahead in the count all night and showed a willingness to use that slider in whatever count he needed it. His 11th win tied Seth Lugo for the league lead and he could be well on his way to his first Cy Young award at 35-years-old. What a remarkable season it’s been for Sale.

Iglesias continues to stymie the opposition despite not putting up the same gaudy strikeout totals as his other late-inning relief counterparts. His 21 saves are fourth most in the league while both his 2.27 ERA and 0.88 WHIP are lights out.

Riley’s fifth inning double off Jordan Hicks proved to be a decisive blow in this one. All in all, he had three batted balls hit at least 98.5 MPH and has pulled his OPS all the way up to .760 on the season.