MLB Player News

As cold as Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe was to start the season, that's how hot he's been since.

Plouffe was batting a mere .133 with one RBI through nine games. He is 10-for-23 in six games since with two doubles, one homer, two RBI and an on-base percentage of .480. How does he explain that? Discipline at the plate.

"I think that's a product of laying off borderline pitches and getting myself into better counts," he told MLB.com. "If the pitcher sees you swinging at those borderline pitches, he's just going to continue to throw those and you're not going to have great at-bats. So if you're able to shrink the zone down, that helps. And when I'm going well, that's what I do."

Plouffe led the Twins with 80 RBI last year.

The Twins will be without three regulars in the starting lineup on Saturday. 

Shortstop Danny Santana, left fielder Oswaldo Arcia and center fielder Jordan Schafer are all out of the lineup. 

Eduardo Escobar will start his third game of the year at shortstop, batting eighth in the lineup. 

Eduardo Nunez gets his second start of the year in left, batting sixth. Shane Robinson starts for the sixth time in center, batting ninth. 

The Athletics placed Ben Zobrist on the 15-day disabled list with a left knee injury, the team announced on Saturday. Zobrist has battled the injury for several days and tested the knee at designated hitter on Friday night. 

To replace Zobrist on the roster, the A's called up Max Muncy from Triple-A Nashville. Muncy will make his Major League debut on Saturday, starting at third base and batting seventh for Oakland. 

To make room for Muncy on the 40-man roster, the A's designated pitcher Eury De La Rosa for assignment. 

Zobrist confirmed that he needs surgery on the knee and will be out four-to-six weeks. 

Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run and two RBI as his team was able to complete a sweep of the Orioles with a 7-6 victory Thursday.

Donaldson's two-run homer capped a three-run third inning, and the Blue Jays were able add on three more runs in the fourth inning and another in the fifth, the last of which proving to be crucial after the Orioles scored six runs in the final four innings. The third baseman has hit .349/.400/.635 with four home runs and 13 RBI in 63 at-bats.

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado went 2 for 4 with two home runs and four RBI in his team's 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays Thursday.

The Orioles found themselves down 7-0 after five innings, but Machado kickstarted the comeback with a solo home run in the sixth. After an RBI single brought the score to 7-3 in the ninth, the third baseman knocked his second home run of the game to cut the deficit to one run. However, that's as far as the Orioles were able to come, and the Blue Jays managed to complete the series sweep with the win.

"I'm just taking it day by day, one at-bat to the next," Machado said after the game, per MLB.com. "Forget about if I started off slow, if I started off hot, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, we still have 700 at-bats left. You gotta keep grinding every day."

Machado has hit .218/.281/.418 with three home runs, 11 RBI and two stolen bases in 55 at-bats.

Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson collected three hits for the third time in six games on Tuesday vs. Baltimore. He finished with one run, one RBI, one walk and two doubles.

After batting .192 in his first seven games, Donaldson is batting .483 (14 for 29) with three doubles, three home runs, eight RBI and eight runs in his last seven games. 

He has seven multihit games this season.

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado had his first multi-RBI game of the season during a 13-6 loss Tuesday at Toronto. He had a sac fly in the sixth inning and RBI groundout in the eighth inning.

Machado is now batting .276 (21 for 76) with one triple, one home run, seven RBI and eight doubles in 17 career games at the Rogers Centre.

Machado, who was hitless in his first five games this season, is batting .242 (8 for 33) with one double, one home run and six RBI in his last nine games.

Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe went 2 for 4 in Monday night's 7-1 loss to the Royals. 

Ploufe was the only member of the Twins to record more than one hit. He hit two singles and struck out once. He now holds a slash line of .233/.298/.442. 

Indians shortstop Jose Ramirez is just 1 for 13 with one walk against left-handed pitchers this season.

Ramirez hasn't put up great numbers overall but has been particularly bad against lefties while hitting .273/.304/.455 with one home run in 22 at-bats against right-handers. The Indians are squaring off against lefty John Danks Monday.

Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar was in the team's starting lineup for Sunday's game. Escobar had been questionable for the game with a toe injury. 

The toe forced Escobar out of Friday's game in the eighth inning, and he wasn't in the starting lineup on Saturday. He ended up pinch hitting in Saturday's game, however.