Ezequiel

Tovar

Tovar was pulled from Wednesday’s game due to a left triceps contusion that he sustained when he was plunked by Michael King. It appears as though he was able to avoid any serious injury though and should be fine moving forward. He’s starting at shortstop and batting second against Jacob deGrom and the Rangers on Friday evening in Arizona.

The positive news here is that Tovar doesn’t appear to be dealing with anything serious after being hit on the arm by a pitch from Padres starter Michael King during Wednesday’s Cactus League contest. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now.

Chapman wasted no time winning the award for the first time in the National League in his first season with the Giants -- impressively beating out Nolan Arenado to do it. Here’s the full list of Gold Glove winners in the National League (along with how many times they have won the award): C: Patrick Bailey (1), 1B: Christian Walker (3), 2B: Brice Turang (1), SS: Ezequiel Tovar (1), 3B Matt Chapman (5), P: Chris Sale (1), LF: Ian Happ (3), CF: Brenton Doyle (2), RF: Sal Frelick (1), UT: Jared Triolo (1).

It’s pretty incredible that Tovar has been this solid with the entire league knowing that there’s absolutely no reason to ever throw him a pitch within the strike zone. He’s currently hitting .266/.293/.469 with 25 homers. If only he’d decided to steal 25 bases, too, he’d be quite a bit more famous.

Tovar got the Rockies on the board with a solo homer off Merrill Kelly in the sixth inning. The 23-year-old has homered three times in what has been a disappointing September, but he does now have a solid 24 homers on the year. This has been an uneven year to say the least for Tovar, but more than enough good to suggest he’s on his way to being a strong fantasy option for the next several years.

Tovar’s home run was his 22nd of the season. He hit a solo shot off Reynaldo Lopez in the sixth inning. The stolen base was his sixth of the season. Tovar had been struggling. He was hitting .190 with three home runs in 29 games since the beginning of August. Tovar is hitting .270 with a .762 OPS and 64 RBI on the year.

Tover badly needed this one. The 23-year-old is in the midst of a brutal month of August that has seen him hit .178 with 32 strikeouts in 21 games heading into tonight. However, facing Roddery Muñoz may have been the cure. Tover hit a solo home run off of him in the first inning and then followed that up with a two-run homer in the second inning. He’s now up to 21 home runs on the season and with an entire week at Coors Field coming up, he could turn around his August numbers.

The Rockies were shut out by Carlos Rodón and the Yankees’ bullpen in this one as Tovar accounted for their only extra-base hit and he and Jordan Beck were their only players to reach base twice. His walk was interesting, just his 18th of the season as his 3.2 BB% is tied with Cedanne Rafaela for the lowest by any qualified player in the majors.

Tovar put the Rockies on the board in the first inning with a solo homer off Paul Blackburn. The 23-year-old shortstop is up to 19 homers on the season while hitting .281/.304/.478 with 61 runs scored, 54 RBI, and four steals across 496 plate appearances.

Pitchers just can’t seem to sufficiently exploit Tovar’s tendency to swing at absolutely everything., He has a 39/2 K/BB in his last 28 games, but his numbers have held up anyway. The only disappointment here is that he’s a mere 4-for-8 stealing bases this season.