MLB Player News

Goldschmidt hit his sixth home run of the season in Wednesday's loss to St. Louis.

Goldschmidt is now tied for the team lead in home runs with Welington Castillo, and he leads the Diamondbacks with 16 RBI. Still hitting just .250, look for Goldy to post MVP-caliber stats as his average continues to rise.

Bour is out of the lineup on Wednesday after sitting out Tuesday's game, Eric Stephen of True Blue LA reports.

Bour will be sitting out his second straight game since the Marlins are facing another southpaw from the Dodgers' rotation. He will be replaced by Chris Johnson at first base, who is slotted at seventh in the lineup. Throughout the 2016 season, Bour has only five at-bats against left-handers while earning 54 at-bats against right-handers.

Howard is not in the lineup Wednesday against the Nationals, Ryan Lawrence of the Philly Voice reports.

This comes as no surprise, as the Phillies are primarily playing right-handed hitters against left-hander Gio Gonzalez. Darin Ruf will take over at first base in his place.

Although he's hitting just .247 through 21 games, Goldschmidt has a .935 OPS with five home runs and 15 RBI.

The 15 RBI are tied for the team lead, while the five home runs are good for second. Goldschmidt also has an impressive 22:20 BB:K rate. Goldy is a career .298 hitter, so his average will likely climb, which will only boost his counting stats further. Simply put, it looks like another monster season for the 28-year-old if he stays healthy.

Bour is out of the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Dodgers.

Don Mattingly is looking to get as many right-handed bats into the lineup Tuesday to gain a platoon advantage against the dominant southpaw, Clayton Kershaw. As such, Chris Johnson will take Bour's spot at first base Tuesday but Bour will be available off the bench and figures to rejoin the lineup before the end of the series. That said, the Dodgers will start lefty Scott Kazmir on Wednesday, so Bour could be out of the lineup the next two nights.

Freeman has been dropped to sixth in the order for Monday's game against Boston.

Still mired in an early-season slump, Freeman enters play Monday night hitting .177/.311/.258 with a homer and five RBI through 17 games. With Freeman's drop in the order, the Braves are hitting Adonis Garcia third, while A.J. Pierzynski and Jeff Francoeur are hitting fourth and fifth.

Hoskins, 23, is batting .230/.304/.426 with three home runs and 10 RBI through 16 games for Double-A Reading.

Hoskins hit .319 across two levels last season, though it remains to be seen if he will be able to hit for average at the higher levels. He already has 18 strikeouts through 16 games, though he is not afraid to take a walk. Hoskins could be the eventual replacement for Ryan Howard, but that likely will not happen until 2017 at the earliest.

Freeman went 3-for-13 (.231) with a double and RBI over the weekend against the Mets.

The first baseman continued to express his frustration and even told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he seems to only be able to hit lefties right now, but Freeman appears to be slowly turning things around at the plate. His average is still just .177 and he hasn't hit a home run since Opening Day, but Freeman has hit safely in seven of his last nine games.

Carter went 6-for-11 (.545) with a home run, four doubles and two RBI in the Brewers' three-game series with the Phillies over the weekend.

Carter entered Friday's game with an .897 OPS, but exited the weekend at 1.050 -- the sixth-best mark in the National League. He has hit in only the fourth and fifth spots in the order for the Brewers this year, and will no doubt continue to do so while he's hot.

Rizzo went 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI against the Reds on Sunday.

That 3-for-38 slump seems to be over as, Rizzo feasted on the Reds over the weekend. In his last five games, he has five home runs and 10 RBI. For the year, he has eight home runs and 21 RBI, both second in the National League to Bryce Harper.