MLB Player News

Indians first baseman Carlos Santana is not in the starting lineup for Tuesday's matchup with the White Sox.

Santana was scratched from Monday's lineup with back spasms and finds himself on the bench for a second straight day on Tuesday. He has hit .220/.365/.341 with four home runs and 20 RBI in 123 at-bats.

Santana said his back has improved, but he is still a couple days away from returning, reports Ohio.com.

"They're working on him a bunch and he's doing better," manager Terry Francona said. "We've got to get him to the point where he feels he won't set himself back."

The Indians are underdogs (+120) in Chicago, per VegasInsider.com.

Blue Jays outfielder Chris Colabello went 0 for 2 with three walks in his team's 10-6 win over the Angels on Monday.

Colabello has been on a roll since being called up, and he's made 13 straight starts while bouncing between left and right field. Though his OPS fell under 1.000 for the first time this season on Monday, he has still hit .396/.453/.542 with one home run and six RBI in 48 at-bats.

Indians first baseman Carlos Santana has been scratched from the lineup for Monday's game against the White Sox due to back spasms, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Santana was slated to bat second against White Sox lefty Chris Sale, against whom he's 10 for 27 in his career, but he'll instead take a seat with the back issue. Brandon Moss will get the start at first base in his place.

The Indians are underdogs (+112) in Chicago on Monday, per VegasInsider.com.

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu is cruising along again this season and has nearly brought his average back up to .300 on the year. After dropping down to .267 early in May, Abreu has slowly worked his way back up to .295 with a .496 slugging percentage and a .368 on-base. 

Abreu has six home runs and 22 RBI in 129 at-bats this season.

Indians first baseman Carlos Santana is 0 for 14 over his last four games.

The first baseman has drawn five walks during that stretch, incluidng four on Wednesday. The team gave him a break on Sunday after he had played every inning of the season at first base up to that point.

Santana has hit .220/.365/.341 with four home runs and 20 RBI in 123 at-bats.

It's no longer an experiment. Kole Calhoun is now the permanent cleanup hitter for the Angels.

That was the pronouncement of Mike Scioscia, per the Orange County Register. Calhoun is back in that spot for the Monday game in Toronto after batting cleanup in five consecutive games in late April and early May.

Calhoun has certainly not hit for the power one might expect from a cleanup hitter. He has just three home runs - none since April 23. But he has been productive. He has 18 RBI in 129 at-bats and a strong slash line of .302/.359/.434.

The Angels have flipped players in two prominent lineup spots for Monday's matchup with the Blue Jays, as shortstop Erick Aybar will lead off while right fielder Kole Calhoun bats cleanup.

Aybar will lead off for the ninth time this season. He's spent most of the year batting fifth or lower, but he was the team's cleanup hitter on Saturday for the first time this season and reprised the role Sunday.

"What Erick doesn't bring in patience, working counts, he brings in just athleticism and still gets on base at a rate which hopefully will set the table for Mike (Trout) and Albert (Pujols) moving forward," manager Mike Scioscia said, per MLB.com. "And also, we have Johnny Giavotella pushed back to ninth, to try to connect him with Mike. Hopefully there will be some table-setting there that's happening, and we'll get to the big guys in our lineup. "

Calhoun has made 28 starts in the leadoff spot, but he did bat cleanup five times in a row starting on April 30, with Aybar serving as the leadoff man in all five games. The team went 1-4 during that stretch, losing four straight games before going back to Calhoun at the leadoff spot.

"As much as we really like Kole in the leadoff spot, and in front of Mike, I think what we're presented with right now just makes the most sense to go with it this way," Scioscia said. "Guys have had a lot of time to get into their game and aren't there yet, so we need to start to take a little pressure off our pitching staff."

The Angels are road favorites (-123) in Toronto on Monday, per VegasInsider.com.

Astros first baseman Chris Carter went 1 for 4 at the plate in Houston's 6-5 win over the Blue Jays on Saturday.

Carter, who also struck out three times, ripped a three-run home run off of Jeff Francis in the sixth inning, his sixth of the season.

"We need (Carter) to be productive," manager A.J. Hinch said to the Houston Chronicle. "Unfortunately in baseball when you look at averages and you look and the season as a whole it might look ugly for him for a while.

"It's taken (Carter) a lot of at-bats to get into this range numbers wise in terms of batting average, on-base percentage, things like that. So if you can really evaluate based on quality plate appearances, you're starting to see two out of four, three out of four. We'd like to get four out of four out of him on a nightly basis rather than look at the whole season, see that his numbers are down and then come to a conclusion that way."

Carter is now hitting .158 with 16 RBI in 119 at-bats this season. He has also struck out 54 times in 35 games this season.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said he's thinking about moving up shortstop Erick Aybar in the lineup to leadoff while dropping down right fielder Kole Calhoun towards the middle, reports the Orange County Register.

Aybar, who's primarily hit fifth or sixth this season, has been on a recent tear, batting .417 (15 for 36) over his last 10 games.

Calhoun has hit leadoff in 25 of the Angels' 34 games this season, hitting .314 with three homers and 18 RBI.

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu is out of the starting lineup for the first time this season on Wednesday, the team announced. 

Abreu will be replaced by Adam LaRoche at first with Melky Cabrera taking the third slot in the batting order.

"I would prefer to continue to play, stay in the lineup, but Robin made the decision to give me the day off," Abreu said through an interpreter. "I have to be ready just in case the team needs to me for an at-bat or something."

Abreu is hitting .288 with six home runs and 20 RBI in 118 at-bats this season. The White Sox are currently the underdogs (+110) against Milwaukee.