MLB Player News

McCutchen went 2-for-5 with a homer and two RBI against the Rangers on Friday.

Both of his hits were of the opposite field variety, a good sign, though he whiffed his other three trips to the plate. In fact, his current strikeout rate (23.3 percent) is much higher than his career rate (17.6 percent) and his .811 OPS is the lowest in eight seasons.

Stanton (side) did some work in the batting cage prior to Friday's game against the Braves, MLB.com reports.

Stanton took 15 swings off a tee and did some soft-toss work in the batting cage prior to the series opener in Atlanta, but remains without a definitive timeline for a return. He's batting just .214/.326/.481 on the season with 12 home runs and 26 RBI in 43 games.

Ruf went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI for Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Friday.

Ruf is hitting .256/.292/.628 with five home runs in 43 at-bats since being sent back to minors earlier this month. Tommy Joseph has gotten off to a solid start in the majors, so it may be a while before Ruf gets another opportunity with the Phils.

Ozuna went 3-for-4 with an RBI in Friday's 4-2 loss to the Braves.

The 25-year-old continues to wield one of the hottest bats in the majors, now slashing .426/.455/.734 over 94 at-bats in May. The performance marked Ozuna's fifth straight multi-hit effort, while extending his streak of reaching base safely to 34 games.

Martinez went 1-for-5 with a triple and an RBI Friday against Oakland.

Martinez has been tearing the cover of the ball of late with a six-game hitting streak, and he's hit safely in nine of the past 10 games. The power-hitting outfielder has four home runs, a total of nine extra-base hits and 10 RBI over that span.

Blackmon went 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run Friday against the Giants.

The center fielder has been pretty hot of late, with hits in nine of the last 10 games and a .333 average over that span. Blackmon now has a five-game hitting streak to his name, and five of his 15 hits have gone for extra bases, so he's been doing a lot of damage at the top of the lineup in recent weeks.

The Indians are hopeful that Brantley (shoulder) will be able to ramp up his rehab work soon, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. "He'll take some dry swings today and might do some tee work depending on how he feels," said manager Terry Francona. "We haven't been real aggressive with this. We wanted to let this anti-inflammatory shot really do its work. Now we'll start to ramp him up. Like we said all along, we want him to get better and stay better. So we've been a little bit cautious the first nine or 10 days back into it."

The Indians figure to proceed with caution to make sure Brantley's able to avoid any further setbacks once he's back in the lineup but he doesn't appear to be near an imminent return given his current status.

Soler was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI in the Cubs' win over Philadelphia on Friday afternoon.

He got things started with a run-scoring single in the first inning, and then helped ignite a four-run fourth inning with a solo home run, his fifth of the season. Unfortunately, he also struck out twice, certainly a contributing factor in his disappointing .214 average.

Belt (ankle) is expected to return to the lineup for Saturday's matchup with the Rockies, Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reports.

Belt suffered a mild ankle sprain Wednesday, which will cause him to sit out of Friday's series opener. Fortunately, manager Bruce Bochy indicated that he expects Belt to start Saturday. He has been mired in a bit of a slump recently with just two hits in his last 24 at-bats.

Belt (ankle) is not in the starting lineup for Friday's game against the Rockies.

After suffering a mild ankle sprain in Wednesday's contest, manager Bruce Bochy decided to give Belt another day off to get his ankle completely up to speed. Buster Posey will slide over to first base to replace him while Trevor Brown assumes the catching duties.