MLB Player News

Tatis Jr. began this game on the bench, but the 25-year-old came up huge with a solo shot in the eighth inning off Tyler Rogers. The 25-year-old star has been able to homer 18 times and drive in 45 runs despite missing significant time, and four of those homers have come in September.

The Padres upped their lead from two runs to four in the bottom of the eighth, but they probably weren’t going to bring in Robert Suarez tonight anyway. Scott struck out three of the six batters he faced for his fourth save with the Padres and 22nd overall. He might wind up getting saves over the slumping Suarez in the postseason.

Peralta has been better than Jurickson Profar and far better than Jake Cronenworth these last two months, but he’s still iffy to be in the lineup whenever the Padres face a righty. He’s batting .286/.354/.496 on with seven homers in the second half.

Flexen dropped to 2-15, which is the same record Zack Greinke finished with last season. If he tumbles to 2-16 next week against the Tigers, that’d be the worst winning percentage for a starting pitcher with so many decisions since the great Jim Abbott went 2-18 in 1996.

Zach DeLoach followed Amaya in the seventh spot in the White Sox lineup and also struck out in all four of his at-bats. Amaya is hitting .217/.280/.239 in 50 plate appearances in his late audition. One imagines he’ll be one of the first players bumped from the 40-man once the season ends.

Donovan was hitting .373 in his last 17 games entering play Saturday. Maybe he was due for a hitless game, but he’s also hitting .265 with no home runs against left-handed pitching this year compared to .280 with 13 home runs against right-handed pitching. While the difference in average may seem negligible, with no home runs against left-handed pitching this year Donovan is tough to use in matchups against left-handed pitchers like Matthew Boyd on Saturday.

Ramirez’ home run was his 37th of the season. He hit a three-run shot off JoJo Romero in the eighth inning. Ramirez continues to have an excellent season. He’s hitting .276 with an .856 OPS and 112 RBI this year.

Helsley picked up his 46th save of the season in style. He lowered his ERA to 2.12 in the process. Helsley has been outstanding this year and certainly one of the best closers in fantasy.

Walker’s home run was his fifth of the season. He hit a two-run shot off Matthew Boyd in the fourth inning. Walker’s numbers on the season aren’t pretty, but he’s 15-for-59 (.254) with five home runs and 14 RBI in September.

Boyd gave up four hits, walked three and struck out six. Boyd hasn’t been able to complete five innings in each of his last three starts. He’s still providing some strikeouts, but the veteran hasn’t been efficient with his pitch count and isn’t sticking around in games long enough to get wins. He’s not a bad option if you just need a few strikeouts, though. The 33-year-old left-hander is set to face the Astros at home next weekend.

Mikolas gave up four hits, walked none and struck out four. The win was his ninth of the year. Mikolas isn’t a big strikeout pitcher so he needs to be stingy with baserunners and keep the ball in the ballpark to be effective like he was on Saturday. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened very often this year. He has a 5.35 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 118 strikeouts in 166 2/3 innings this year. The 36-year-old right-hander is set to face the Giants on the road next weekend.