MLB Player News

Guerrero will start at third base and bat second Sunday against the White Sox.

Guerrero opened his career as the Blue Jays' No. 5 hitter, but after he offered little impact as a slugger over his first week and a half in the big leagues, Toronto has deployed him out of the two hole in the previous two contests. The lineup change appeared to pay dividends in Saturday's 7-2 loss, as Guerrero turned in the best performance of his young career by reaching base in all four plate appearances (two singles, two walks). The power should eventually show up for Guerrero, but the control he showed during his at-bats Saturday was encouraging as he put his exceptional plate discipline on full display.

O'Hearn is not in the lineup for Sunday's series finale against the Phillies.

O'Hearn started the last seven games at first base and went 6-for-25 with a double, home run and five RBI, but he was hitless with four strikeouts in the last three contests. Left-hander Cole Irvin will take the mound for the Phillies, sending the 25-year-old to the bench as he is 0-for-18 versus lefties this season. Hunter Dozier will cover first base in his absence for the Royals.

Alonso and the Mets won't play the Marlins on Sunday after the contest was postponed due to inclement weather in New York.

The two teams will make up the postponed game as part of a doubleheader Aug. 5. The Mets will return to action Tuesday for the start of a three-game set in Washington.

Cron went 4-for-5 with a double and a three-run home run in an 8-3 win over the Tigers in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.

After homering in the matinee, the first baseman really got rolling in the nightcap, taking Gregory Soto deep in the fifth inning to blow open what had been a 4-3 Twins lead. Cron now sports a .261/.318/.521 slash line through 35 games with nine homers and 26 RBI, but his playing time could take a hit once Miguel Sano (heel) rejoins the lineup later this month.

Diaz went 2-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI in a 7-2 win over the Yankees on Saturday.

Diaz hit a solo shot off CC Sabathia in the third inning and then capped Tampa Bay's scoring in the seventh with a three-run blast to essentially put the game away. The 27-year-old is slashing .267/.357/.550 with nine home runs, 22 RBI and a 20:24 BB:K over 35 games and should continue to be a mainstay in the top half of the Rays' lineup.

Dixon went 2-for-4 with a homer in the afternoon portion of Saturday's doubleheader against the Twins.

Dixon's homer, his second of the season, was a two-out solo shot in the second inning off Michael Pineda. He's now hitting .294/.314/.529 in 35 plate appearances but is striking out 42.9 percent of the time.

Cooper (hand) was reinstated from the 10-day injured list Saturday.

Cooper will hope his latest return from the injured list goes better than the previous one, when he appeared in just one game before bruising his hand. He'll head straight into the starting lineup Saturday, batting fifth and playing right field against the Mets, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald reports. Peter O'Brien (ribs) landed on the injured list in a corresponding move.

Bell went 2-for-4 against St. Louis on Friday, lifting his season batting average to .300.

He also made a key defensive play to help keep the Cards from scoring. Bell ranks eighth in baseball with an average exit velocity of 94.4 mph. He's hit nine homers, something that took him until Sept. 7 to accomplish last year. In fact, the first baseman didn't collect his ninth homer until the last day of May during his 26-homer rookie campaign in 2017. Provided he can stay healthy, the switch hitter is on course to set career highs across the board.

Goldschmidt went 3-for-5 in a loss to the Pirates on Friday.

Goldschmidt accomplished the relatively unlikely feat of generating a second consecutive 3-for-5 performance, a two-game surge that's already served to raise his season average 23 points to .263. The veteran's mini-breakout was a long time coming, as Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com reports Goldschmidt's second-inning run-scoring single Thursday snapped a run of 60 straight plate appearances without an RBI and his ground-rule double later in that contest ended a 13-game stretch without an extra-base hit. Part of the slugger's problems this season have stemmed in a drop in solid contact, with Langosch also relaying that prior to Thursday, his barrel rate (13.0 percent), average exit velocity (89.4 mph) and hard-contact rate (38.9 percent) were all down as compared to 2018.

Votto went 0-for-2 but drew two walks and scored a run in Friday's win over the Giants. He's hitting .206/.333/.333 in 150 plate appearances so far this season, despite hitting the ball with the same exit velocity as he has in the last two seasons, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports.

Votto's hard-hit rate is actually up to 36.1 percent, but he's also striking out 23.4 percent of the time, well above his previous rates. He had two hard-hit balls in the no-hitter by Mike Fiers earlier in the week, including a possible home run stolen by Ramon Laureano. "I really like how I've swung the bat in May, despite getting very few results," he said. "Sometimes that's how the luck goes. I felt I swung the bat very poorly at the very beginning of the year. I started transitioning to what I feel is an everyday, repeatable approach."