MLB Player News

Soler went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs Friday against the Giants.

Soler's third blast added a run in the eighth inning and gave the Cubs a six-run lead in an easy win. He now has a modest three-game hitting streak that has raised his batting average to the .200 mark for the first time in more than a month.

Pederson is not in the lineup for Friday's game against the Padres.

He will sit in favor of Trayce Thompson in center field with Christian Friedrich due up for San Diego, as is typical whenever the Dodgers face a lefty. Pederson has logged all of 14 at-bats against southpaws so far this season, with his lone hit against a left-hander going for a home run.

Carpenter went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a homer, six RBI and two runs against the Rockies on Thursday.

No, this game wasn't played in Coors Field, but you could be forgiven for suspecting that the Rockies brought the thin air with them. Carpenter's average is still lingering at a career-low .259, but that's the only mark against him -- after all, he's sustaining last year's power outburst while refining his plate discipline back to its pre-2015 level.

Stanton struck out in all four of his plate at-bats during Wednesday's loss to the Phillies, wrapping a hitless three-game set with the division rivals.

It's been quite the streaky start to the season for Stanton, who is batting just .098/.196/.195 in his last 12 games (41 at-bats). In the 11 games prior, he belted seven home runs while slashing .395/.531/.1.026. The power production is as expected overall, but with a meager .221 average and .335 OBP, the slugger has been more of an all-or-nothing proposition in 2016.

Harper walked four times and struck out in his other plate appearance Wednesday against the Mets.

The net effect was that he only scored one run despite the Nats putting up seven on Bartolo Colon and the Mets staff. Harper's been racking up walks fiendishly, which is curious for a guy who's only hitting .254. Sure, he hit .330 last year, but when you take a look at Harper's last 20 games this season, the picture you get is of a guy who hasn't been very effective when he's actually been pitched to -- he has just a .167 average despite having drawn 32 walks in that span. Not to take anything away from him, but giving him the steroid-era Barry Bonds treatment just might be overkill.

Cespedes went 2-for-4 with a solo homer that accounted for all the Mets' scoring in a 7-1 loss to Washington on Wednesday.

Incredibly, Cespedes is actually outperforming his magical late-2015 run with the Mets here in his first full season under the bright lights of Broadway (or, well, Queens). His OPS is a shining 1.024, thanks in no small part to all the homers he's been slugging -- so many that his stats in 92 games as a Met would be a fantastic whole season for most players. Since donning the orange and blue at last year's trade deadline, Cespedes has hit 30 homers and driven in 77 runs.

Soler is out of the starting lineup Wednesday against the Brewers.

This is the third consecutive game that Soler will take a seat on the bench. He's been having massive troubles at the plate as of late, and it seems that manager Joe Maddon is trying other lineup options to get more productive bats in the Cubs order. Kris Bryant will take over in left field while Tommy La Stella fills in at third base.

McCutchen is 5-for-12 with a double and two homers against Wednesday starter Julio Teheran.

The center fielder is slashing .327/.365/.571 in his last 11 games and yet still hasn't really gone on one of his patented hot streaks. McCutchen hopes to continue his success Wednesday against Teheran.

McCutchen went 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBI in Tuesday's 12-9 win over the Braves.

McCutchen was one of seven Pirates to finish with multiple hits on the evening. After a mediocre April, McCutchen is beginning to settle in nicely in May, hitting 18-for-60 (.300 average) to go with three homers, eight RBI and 10 runs over 14 games this month.

Pederson went 2-for-4 with two home runs, his seventh and eighth of the season, and three RBI in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Angels.

Pederson's weak .250 average is fairly compensated by his great .368 OBP and .548 slugging percentage. His plate discipline is also above average as he's walking 15.2 percent of the time and holds a nice 0.49 BB/K. The young outfielder has plenty of areas that he can improve in (like his terrible 63 percent contact rate and 31.2 percent strikeout rate), but there is no reason to believe that Pederson won't get better as he is still adjusting to major league pitching.