MLB Player News
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Evan White 1B | LAA
Mariners' Evan White: In extended slump
White went 1-for-4 with an RBI ground-rule double in a win over the Angels on Wednesday, striking out in his other three plate appearances. He's now 1-for-18 with 10 strikeouts across five August games.
White's seventh-inning two-bagger Wednesday broke the 0-for-17 slump he'd opened the month with, a skid that's helped lead to a .125/.208/.229 season line. The rookie has only three extra-base hits (two doubles, one home run) on the campaign, and his mammoth 43.4 percent strikeout rate is naturally a major culprit in his struggles. With the Mariners' in a rebuilding mode, manager Scott Servais is still likely to give White a chance to continue working his way through his slump, especially considering the upside the 24-year-old demonstrated throughout his minor-league career, as well as the fact he's still adjusting to big-league arms after only having logged 18 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
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Yuli Gurriel DH | SD
Astros' Yuli Gurriel: Pummels second homer
Gurriel went 1-for-3 with a solo home run and a walk in Wednesday's 14-7 loss to the Diamondbacks.
Gurriel went yard in the eighth inning off Diamondbacks reliever Hector Rondon, but it was too little and too late to help the Astros turn things around. Gurriel has hit safely in six straight games, going 9-for-26 with two RBI and five runs scored in that span. The 36-year-old is hitting .286 with two homers, four RBI and eight runs scored across 51 plate appearances.
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Matt Olson 1B | ATL
Athletics' Matt Olson: Goes yard twice in win
Olson went 2-for-3 with two home runs, three RBI and a walk in Wednesday's 6-4 win over the Rangers.
Olson put the Athletics ahead with a two-run blast in the bottom of the first inning. That lead didn't hold, but he would later provide insurance with a solo shot off Rangers reliever Luke Farrell in the eighth. Olson now has three homers, nine RBI and six runs scored in 12 games this season despite a .179/.373/.410 triple-slash line.
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Luke Voit 1B | NYM
Yankees' Luke Voit: Smacks fourth homer
Voit went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the second game of the Yankees' doubleheader against the Phillies on Wednesday.
Voit sat out the early game of the doubleheader but performed well when he returned to the lineup. He provided the Yankees with an early 1-0 lead, taking Aaron Nola deep in the second frame to record his fourth home run of the campaign. While he's provided plenty of power early on, Voit has also struck out 39 percent of the time in 31 plate appearances this season.
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Luke Voit 1B | NYM
Yankees' Luke Voit: Sits for afternoon game
Voit is not starting the afternoon portion of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Phillies.
Expanded rosters mean the Yankees won't have to ask many players to start two games in one day. Mike Ford will be the first basemen for Game 1 of the doubleheader, but Voit will likely be in the lineup for Game 2.
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B | TOR
Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero: Two doubles in Tuesday's loss
Guerrero went 2-for-3 with a walk, two doubles and a run scored in Tuesday's 10-1 loss to Atlanta.
The 21-year-old has struggled to make hard contact to begin the season, so this performance was encouraging -- especially on a night when the Jays only managed five hits in total. Guerrero is hitting .219 (7-for-32) through eight games as he searches for a way to translate his dominant minor-league numbers to the majors.
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Rowdy Tellez 1B | ATL
Blue Jays' Rowdy Tellez: Not starting Tuesday
Tellez isn't in the lineup Tuesday against Atlanta.
Tellez has served as the Blue Jays' primary designated hitter to begin the season and is currently riding a four-game hit streak. However, Lourdes Gurriel will shift to designated hitter Tuesday with Anthony Alford taking over in left field and batting ninth.
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Yandy Diaz DH | TB
Rays' Yandy Diaz: Numbers down across board
Diaz, who's slashing .167/.359/.167 through his first 39 plate appearances of 2020, has seen a drop in several key batted-ball metrics thus far this season, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports.
The entire Rays offense has scuffled of late, scoring a total of 14 runs during a just-concluded five-game road trip. However, Toribio points out Diaz is one of the poorest performers at present, and the reasons for his struggles seem to at least partly lie in a lack of authority when making contact. The 28-year-old, who broke out for a career-best 14 home runs in 79 games last season, has an average exit velocity of 82.1 mph, a sharp drop from a figure of 91.7 mph in 2019. Diaz's hard-contact rate has also tumbled from 42.4 percent to 36.0 percent year over year, all factors which certainly seem to be playing a role in an unusually low .200 BABIP. Diaz has yet to log an extra-base hit after lacing 35 last season, but perhaps his 3-for-8 tally over the last two games is a sign a resurgence is imminent.
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Matt Olson 1B | ATL
Athletics' Matt Olson: On base four times in win
Olson went 1-for-3 with an RBI single, three walks and a run in a win over the Mariners on Monday.
As his line implies, Olson was a constant thorn in the side of Mariners pitching all night. The productive outing was an especially welcome sight for the slugger, for whom things had steadily gone downhill following a game-winning grand slam on Opening Night. Olson had come into Monday's game mired in an 0-for-14 slump that encompassed the previous four games, and even factoring in his production during Monday's rout, the 26-year-old's average and slugging percentage sit at an anemic .152 and .242, respectively.