MLB Player News

The 27-year-old left-hander scattered three hits on the afternoon and didn’t allow a base on balls. The lone tally against him came on a solo home run off the bat of Ralphy Velazquez in the third inning. Lodolo generated 17 swings and misses in the contest — nine of them on his curveball — while posting a strong CSW of 34 percent. He finishes the spring season with a terrific 2.45 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and a 16/5 K/BB ratio over 14 2/3 innings.

Bellozo will head down because the Marlins need some fresh arms after their extra-inning contest. The 25-year-old threw 4 1/3 innings in his start against the Pirates on Friday while allowing one run, and he should be back at some point in April for the Miami staff.

Robert Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada all worked in wins the previous two days, so Morejon was the choice for the save tonight. It should be a very rare save for the left-hander; Adam is definitely the primary fallback to Suarez in the ninth.

It was a grounder into the perfect spot to get past shortstop Orlando Arcia. We’re pretty sure the rest of the NL contenders were overjoyed to see the Padres keep Gurriel and Martín Maldonado as part-timers this year, but even at 40, Gurriel is still a fair source of singles. This one was clutch.

Schwellenbach struck out four and walked one. The Braves had to be tempted to send him back out for the seventh, but they couldn’t do so with him up to 90 pitches in his first start of the year. That the Braves held Schwellenbach back for game three means he’ll miss out on facing the Dodgers next week. He’s due to face Miami instead.

Vásquez wound up with more walks (four) than strikeouts (three), but he gave up just three hard-hit balls and the one that would have been a homer in most locales was a 395-foot double from Matt Olson in Petco. Vásquez will face the Cubs next. He’s not recommended even in NL-only leagues.

Arraez had just one three-game hitless streak in 2024, that coming against the Dodgers at the very end of the year. The Padres are expecting some extra production from him this year now that thumb has been fixed up, and he had a fine spring in hitting .349/.378/.512. One bad series surely doesn’t mean much.

The bad news is that Smith picked up the bruise on his quad. The good news is that it appears he avoided a significant injury. Smith will likely sit a day or two, but should be back in the lineup in the coming days; assuming there is no structural damage, of course.

Encarnacion-Strand’s homer off Spencer Bivens ended the scoring in this one. He also singled today, so he’s gone 2-for-4 in both Reds games so far. Injuries to Austin Hays and Spencer Steer (limited to DHing) mean that CES’s playing time isn’t in question at the moment. If he keeps hitting, it won’t be an issue later on, either.

Justin Verlander matched Lodolo for five, but the Reds pulled ahead in the sixth and hung on from there. Lodolo won despite striking out just one and giving up eight hard-hit balls, including a Wilmer Flores homer. It all worked out against a below average offense, but he’ll probably need to be a little better next time out against the Brewers.

It sounded like Terry Francona thought Tony Santillan was his best reliever, but he was used against the bottom of the order in the seventh today. Graham Ashcraft then pitched a scoreless eighth before Pagán got the ninth. Because he’s so homer-prone, Pagan is a scary choice as a closer, though he can still pitch a scoreless inning more often than not. Scott Barlow and Santillan would be our more trusted Reds relievers at the moment.