MLB Player News

Harper went 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, a home run and two RBI in Monday's win over the Padres.

Teenage phenom Juan Soto homered on the first pitch of his first big-league start and mimicked Harper's hair flip when he got back to the dugout, so the man himself had little choice but to respond with a blast of his own. Harper's .231 batting average and .196 BABIP on the season remain far below his usual standards, but there's still plenty of time for them to improve, and his 14 home runs put him in the National League lead.

Meneses was named the International League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks Monday.

Meneses earned the award by hitting .478 with four homers and a 1.712 OPS over seven games. He still has all the indicators of a Quad-A player, as he's a right-handed first baseman who's having success in the minors as a 26-year-old. The only way to escape that fate is to hit and keep hitting, and Meneses has done his best so far this year, hitting .355/.400/.636 with seven homers in 35 games. He's firmly blocked at first base at the major-league level by Carlos Santana, but he has played one game in right field this year so he has an outside shot to factor in the mix there for the Phillies with both Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr struggling.

Ozuna went 2-for-3 with an RBI single, a walk and two runs in a win over the Royals on Monday.

Ozuna received a day off Sunday and saw the surging Tyler O'Neill start in his stead in left field, but the slugger was back in his usual spot Monday while O'Neill shifted to right and sent Dexter Fowler to the bench. Ozuna responded by breaking out of the 0-for-20 slump that had encompassed his previous five games with his fifth multi-hit effort of May. The 27-year-old continues to struggle with his power numbers despite the fact his hard contact rate remains at a career-high 47.8 percent following Monday's contest.

Carpenter went 3-for-4 with a double, a solo home run and two runs in a win over the Royals on Monday.

Carpenter's second consecutive three-hit tally finally vaulted his average back up over the Mendoza Line for the first time since April 2. The veteran infielder's six-game heater consists of a .542 average, seven doubles, Monday's homer, four RBI, two walks and five runs, and Carpenter is also making hard contact at a whopping 68.2-percent clip during that stretch.

Ohtani (4-1) got the win against the Rays on Sunday giving up two earned runs on six hits over 7.2 innings, striking out nine and walking one in a 5-2 victory for the Angels.

Coming off a dominant 11-strikeout effort against the Twins, Ohtani was superb on the mound again, and the 23-year-old has now yielded just three earned runs and posted a phenomenal 20:3 K:BB over his last 15 innings, bringing his ERA down to 3.35 and his WHIP to 1.07. It's stating the obvious at this point, but the fact that he's putting up those numbers as a pitcher while also slashing .321/.367/.619 at the plate is nothing short of ridiculous and a show of prolonged two-way dominance that is simply unprecedented in the modern era. The main question now is whether the Angels will eventually decide to rest him less frequently and give him more at-bats between pitching starts, which would allow him to make even more of a fantasy impact at the plate.

Belt went 2-for-4 with a three-run home run and two runs in the Giants' 9-5 victory over the Rockies on Sunday.

Belt has been one of the league's hottest hitters of late as he's now left the yard five times in his last seven games to bring his home run total on the year to 11, already just seven shy of the number he posted in his injury-shortened 2017 campaign. His slash line now sits at a ridiculous .313/.413/.594 through 160 at-bats. While expecting him to maintain that 1.006 OPS over the course of the entire year might not be realistic, Belt certainly looks like he's primed for a career-best campaign at the plate at age 30. This explosive effort also means he can safely be considered over the knee issue that kept him out of the lineup on Friday.

Carpenter went 3-for-4 with a double and a run in the Cardinals' 5-1 victory over the Phillies on Sunday.

It's been a season of struggles at the plate for Carpenter so far, but he's showing signs of life lately, as this three-hit effort gave him 10 knocks in his last 24 at-bats with three multi-hit performances in his last five games over that time. The fact that his average still sits at .194 coming off the mini-hot streak is a testament to how much he's been struggling in the early going, so hopefully this is a sign he can finally start to get his paltry .672 OPS back up toward his career mark of .829.

Martinez went 2-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI, two runs scored and one walk in Sunday's 5-0 victory over the Orioles.

Martinez hit a solo home run in the second inning followed by a two-run blast in the fifth which gave Boston a 5-0 lead. He's been tearing the cover off the ball through 45 games this season, putting together a .343/.397/.680 batting line and showing impressive power with 15 home runs and 41 RBI. Martinez is showing no signs of slowing down as the Red Sox head to Tampa Bay for a three-game series.

Cabrera (hamstring) took two rounds of batting practice Saturday and will do so again Tuesday when the Tigers are in Minnesota, George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press reports.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Miggy still has to run the bases and be able to take grounders at first base before he's activated, and the Tigers haven't yet unveiled any plans for him to do so.

McCutchen (knee) is out of the lineup Sunday against the Rockies, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

McCutchen suffered a bruised knee on a slide Saturday, and it only makes sense that the Giants would hold him out through Monday's off day. If the knee is still barking come Tuesday, the Giants could opt to DH McCutchen for the two-game set in Houston.