MLB Player News

Belt is out of the lineup for Saturday's matchup with the Cubs.

Buster Posey will slide over to first base as a means of giving Belt the day off. Belt is 0-for-6 in his career versus Jon Lester, so albeit a small sample size, the day off can be considered well-timed. Expect him to return to the lineup Sunday.

McCutchen is not in the lineup Saturday against the Rockies.

McCutchen will get a rare day off as the Pirates go up against Colorado right-hander Tyler Chatwood. Starling Marte will get the nod in center field, while Matt Joyce starts in right and Gregory Polanco starts in left.

Ozuna launched his eighth home run of the year, a solo shot, in Friday's loss to the Nationals.

Batting a robust .386 with five home runs in May, Ozuna has been carrying the Marlins' offense for a couple of weeks. He remains one of the hotter hitters in the league and is now slashing .301/.348/.529 with 24 runs scored and 22 RBI over 153 at-bats.

Turner went 1-for-4 with a two-run homer and a walk Friday against the Padres.

Turner's second home run gave the Dodgers a one-run lead in the eighth inning of a game they'd go on to lose. He's only collected four hits in his last 28 at-bats and is slashing just .217/.314/.350.

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.