MLB Player News

Chisholm was 2-for-19 this spring before delivering a single and a 400-foot blast in his first two at-bats today. He was back in the third spot in the lineup in this one after leading off last night. The guess here is that he’ll probably lead off against righties initially, but it seems like Aaron Boone is still trying to figure out what would work best around Aaron Judge in the second spot. While Chisholm does run like a leadoff man, his career .311 OBP and .446 slugging percentage is more like what one would expect from a No. 5 hitter.

Sewald bounced back nicely from his struggles Friday when he took the loss against Atlanta. The 35-year-old vet didn’t allow a hit, and he threw 14-of-21 pitches for strikes. That’s three saves for Sewald, but if a situation presents itself Sunday, he likely won’t be available after working in back-to-back contests.

Soroka wasn’t nearly as dominant as he was in his win Monday over the Tigers, but five innings of one-run baseball are hard to complain too much about. He walked three with three strikeouts, but he also allowed six hits that were considered “hard” and didn’t exactly fool the Atlanta lineup before leaving. Soroka will look to miss more bats Friday, but it’ll be a tough matchup against the Phillies.

Tough to give up no earned runs and lose a baseball game, but it was Elder’s fault. Not only did the right-hander put the runners on, it was his error on a bunt from Jose Fernandez that scored the two runs. Still, this was an excellent start from the 26-year-old; one that saw him strike out eight and issue one walk. He generated 13 swing and misses, and he has yet to give up an earned run in his first two starts. It’s hard to take it too seriously considering how mediocre Elder has been, but the results are the results. He gets the Guardians on Friday.

The ball got the top of Emerson’s foot, just below the extension on his shin guard. Hopefully, the top prospect is day-to-day. He might have been in line to make his MLB debut next week if Brendan Donovan required an IL stint, but it looks like Donovan is going to be OK.

Brandon Lockridge pinch-ran for him after a fourth-inning single. A Frelick IL stint might get Luis Matos a look; he’s thus far been on the bench in four straight games since being acquired from the Giants.

It sounds like Donovan, who was relieved to find no problem related to the hernia surgery he had after last season, might be back in there Sunday or Monday. Leo Rivas is playing third base in his place tonight.

The hope for fantasy managers is that this type of effort finally gets Carpenter going after an ice-cold start to the year that seems to have cost him the leadoff spot. The 28-year-old slugger took Cardinals starter Dustin May deep for a two-run homer in the opening frame before adding a sacrifice fly a couple frames later. He stands to benefit from a run-producing opportunity standpoint hitting in the middle of Detroit’s lineup with young standouts Colt Keith and Kevin McGonigle getting on-base consistently.

Is the breakout finally happening? It’s way too soon to say anything definitive, but the early returns have been extremely encouraging. Walker’s fifth-inning grand slam off Tigers reliever Drew Anderson left his bat at 113.7 mph and traveled 459 feet into the left-field seats. It was his first career grand slam and trimmed St. Louis’ deficit to a single run at the time. The 23-year-old former top prospect’s three-hit performance raised his early-season batting average to .296 with two homers and eight RBI through eight games.

Flaherty continues to struggle throwing strikes and working through opposing lineups a third time. He was all over the place against his former team in this one, throwing just 47 of 86 pitches for strikes while handing out four walks and hitting three batters. He finished with six strikeouts but was unable to complete five frames against an underwhelming Cardinals lineup. He’ll bring a lackluster 7.56 ERA into a road tilt against the Twins on Thursday afternoon.