MLB Player News

Matt Duffy got all the hard parts out of the way, but wound up falling a single short of hitting for the cycle on Sunday in the Giants' victory over the Rockies. 

Duffy tripled in the first inning, doubled in the third and homered in the sixth. In his last at-bat, he hit into a double play to end the seventh inning. 

The third baseman has gotten a hit in nine of his last 10 games, and more importantly, has scored 11 runs in his last six contests, providing a huge spark at the top of the Giants' order. 

Duffy is now hitting .303 with eight homers and 37 RBIs on the year. 

Nolan Arenado was a one-man wrecking crew for the Rockies, but it wasn't enough to keep them from dropping a 6-3 decision to the Giants on Sunday. 

Arenado opened the scoring with a two-run blast off Madison Bumgarner in the first inning and closed the Rockies' offense with a solo blast in the ninth. The third baseman now has 24 homers on the season, and is tied with Bryce Harper for the third-most in the majors. Arenado has 12 home runs in June and eight in the last week of play. 

With three runs driven in, Arenado now has 68 for the season, passing the injured Giancarlo Stanton as the top run producer in MLB. 

Braves second baseman Jace Peterson smacked his third home run of the season Sunday to help defeat the Pirates 2-1.

Peterson hit the solo home run off Vance Worley in the seventh inning. It was his only hit in five at-bats during the game.

Prior to Sunday's performance, Peterson was hitting .175 with five doubles and six RBI in his last 11 games.

Indians third baseman Giovanny Urshela is not in the lineup for the second game of Sunday's doubleheader.

Urshela went 1 for 3 in the first game earlier in the day, which extended his current hit streak to six games.

Over the last six games, he's hitting .286 with six hits in 21 at-bats.

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado connected on his 15th home run of the season during Sunday's 4-0 win over the Indians.

Machado hit the solo shot off Trevor Bauer in the sixth inning. He finished the game 2 for 4 with one RBI.

Prior to his two-hit game Sunday, Machado was hitting .429 with one home run and seven RBI in his last eight games.

Josh Donaldson had another big day for the Blue Jays on Sunday, cracking his 18th homer of the season to power Toronto to a victory over the Rangers. 

Donaldson opened the scoring for the Jays with a fourth-inning home run to left field, which also gave him 48 RBIs on the season. Donaldson added another hit to raise his average back over the .300 mark at .301. 

The Blue Jays' slugger has hit safely in eight of his last 10 contests, but this was his first home run since June 10, a span of 14 games. 

Pirates first baseman Pedro Alvarez is not in the starting lineup for Sunday's game. 

Alvarez has started 61 games this year, including the last five and eight of the last nine. 

He'll be replaced in the lineup by Sean Rodriguez, who starts at first for the seventh time this year. 

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado increased his current hitting streak to 14 games on Saturday. Arenado went 1 for 4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored in the 7-5 loss to the Giants.

Over the 14-game stretch, the star third-baseman is batting .370 with seven home runs and 18 RBI. 

The Braves scored four runs in a loss Saturday at Pittsburgh. Second baseman Jace Peterson was responsible for three of them with one swing of the bat.

Peterson cut the deficit from 6-1 to 6-4 with a bases-clearing double in the seventh inning to drive starter Charlie Morton from the game. He added a single in ending a hitless streak that had reached 17 at-bats and lowered his average from .284 to .264, its lowest point in three weeks.

He has certainly hit in the clutch. He entered Saturday hitting .321 with two home runs with runners in scoring position and is now 7-for-11 with the bases loaded. He has an explanation.

"You kind of put a little more grit into it," he told MLB.com. "When you've got runners out there, you want to get them in."

Hot-and-cold Pirates first baseman Pedro Alvarez is hot again. He ran his hitting streak to five games in a Saturday victory over Atlanta with two hits.

Alvarez doubled in two in a five-run first and added a single to give him seven hits in his last 10 at-bats. He has six RBI during that stretch after enduring a 2-for-17 slide.