MLB Player News

Fedde and Andre Pallante will toe the rubber to close out a three-game series against the Twins before Miles Mikolas and Matthew Liberatore kick off another home series against the Angels early next week. It’ll be Opening Day starter Sonny Gray wrapping up that set.

Horwitz opened the scoring in the second inning with a two-run double off of Casey Mize. He then smacked a one-out double in the fourth inning and scored on an RBI single by Bryan Reynolds. The 27-year-old first baseman also reached on a wild pitch after striking out in the sixth and came around to score on another RBI knock by Reynolds. For the season, he’s now slashing .249/.318/.348 with a pair of homers and 19 RBI in 201 plate appearances on the season.

Pham plated Bryan Reynolds with an RBI single in the fourth inning that extended the Pirates’ early lead to 5-0. He also tacked on a run-scoring double in the sixth inning that made it a 7-3 ballgame. While he has been hitting better over the past few weeks, the 37-year-old outfielder is slashing just .254/.320/.353 with four homers, 27 RBI and three stolen bases on the season.

Bednar came on with an 8-5 lead to protect and made things interesting by issuing a leadoff walk to Trey Sweeney. After retiring Colt Keith on a fly ball he allowed a one-out single to Gleyber Torres that brought the tying run to the dish. Not to worry though as he rebounded to strike out Wenceel Perez and Riley Greene in succession to close it out for the Pirates. The 30-year-old stopper now holds a 2.31 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and a 48/10 K/BB ratio over 35 innings on the season while converting each of his first 15 save chances.

Keller racked up five strikeouts on the evening while issuing three free passes. The only blemish on his day came on a three-run blast off the bat of Jake Rogers in the fifth inning. Aside from that, he was terrific. The 29-year-old right-hander generated 10 swings and misses on 89 pitches on the night — five of them on his fastball — while registering a CSW of 22 percent. He’ll look to keep the good times rolling as he brings a 3.53 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and a 97/30 K/BB ratio (125 innings) into Monday’s matchup against the Giants in San Francisco.

Rogers finally broke through and got the Tigers on the board with a 407-foot (101.2 mph EV) three-run shot off of Mitch Keller that pulled his club to within two runs at 5-3 in the fifth inning. That would be as close as they would get. The 30-year-old backstop finished the night 1-for-3 and is now hitting .167/.282/.306 with two homers and 11 RBI on the season.

The 28-year-old right-hander punched out five batters on the evening while issuing one base on balls. The Pirates jumped on him for a pair of runs in the second inning on a two-run double by Spencer Horwitz. They then tacked on another run in the third and two more in the fourth before chasing Mize from the game. He got 10 whiffs on 86 pitches on the night, registering a CSW of 26 percent. He’ll look to bounce back as he carries a 3.40 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and an 82/23 K/BB ratio (92 2/3 innings) into Sunday’s matchup against the Blue Jays.

The controversy over Sánchez not being added to the NL All-Star team — he was pitching the Sunday before the game and wouldn’t have been used anyway — never should have arisen, because he very obviously should have been on the club in the first place. This makes six straight starts in which he’s allowed exactly one run, and he’s pitched at least seven innings in five of those games (six in the other). He’s 9-2, he’s eighth in the majors with a 2.40 ERA and he’s 10th with 134 strikeouts. His total of eight homers surrendered is also tied for the fifth lowest mark among ERA-title qualifiers.

Fitts struck out four and walked none, but he gave up homers to Max Kepler and Kyle Schwarber. Even a reasonably good outing from Fitts wouldn’t have done much for the Red Sox with the way they looked against Cristopher Sánchez tonight. Fitts figures to make another start Monday against the Twins, but if the Red Sox are serious about contending, there’s a good chance he’ll be supplanted by a trade deadline pickup after that.

Kepler’s homer against Richard Fitts checked in at 107.7 mph. He’s batting just .207/.305/.372, but his exit velocity numbers are all better than his career marks, and it’d be reasonable to expect some improvement over the final two months.

That’s eight strikeouts in two days for Anthony, though at least his one ball in play in the series against the Phillies was a double. Also, he’s faced two of the NL’s best pitchers (Zack Wheeler on Monday), and he’s hardly looked overmatched on the whole. His current 26.7% strikeout rate is probably about what should have been expected from his first month and a half in the majors.