MLB Player News

Robertson earned his second save of the season with a perfect ninth inning against the A's on Tuesday.

Following Jimmy Rollins' go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth, Robertson made quick work of the A's, retiring the side on 13 pitches. Robertson issued a leadoff walk in his first save chance Monday, but then went strikeout, flyout, groundout to end it. He only pitched on three consecutive days twice last season.

Ballew was released by the Astros on March 31.

The 24-year-old right-hander has 32 career saves in the minors, but his success in the lower levels did not translate once he reached Double-A, as he went from striking out over a better per inning to just 7.68 K/9 with Double-A Corpus Christi last season. Ballew is now free to sign elsewhere as a free-agent.

Betances recorded just two outs, allowed three unearned runs, and was charged with the loss Tuesday against the Astros.

It was a rough Opening Day outing for Betances, as he also walked two and was responsible for the error that made the runs unearned. He also struggled a bit out of the gate last season as well before rebounding with a dominant campaign, so he should still be fine.

Colome (1-0) surrendered three hits, a walk and a strikeout over two scoreless innings in Tuesday's 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays.

The presumptive closer while Brad Boxberger (abdomen) remains sidelined, Colome secured the victory after an application of the new slide rule resulted in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion both being called out. It was Colome's first appearance of the new season, and he looked sharp while getting 23 of his 34 pitches into the strike zone. The hard-throwing 27-year-old figures to get plenty of opportunities in the late innings over the next several weeks.

Giles gave up a solo home run to Didi Gregorius on Tuesday, but he struck out two during an otherwise clean eighth inning in the Astros' 5-3 win.

With the Astros holding a three-run lead entering the eighth inning Tuesday, manager A.J. Hinch deployed Giles as his setup man before turning to Luke Gregerson in the ninth inning. The home run Giles allowed may be a sign he hasn't shaken off the spring rust just yet.

Kimbrel made his regular-season debut for Boston on Tuesday, striking out two and walking one in a non-save situation.

We got to see Boston's optimal late-game relief plan play out Tuesday, with Junichi Tazawa (two strikeouts) in the seventh, Koji Uehara (one strikeout) in the eighth, and its new closer in the ninth. If Tazawa and Uehara can pitch as they did Tuesday, Kimbrel will be in line for many saves in 2016. The question remains if Boston has enough starting pitching beyond ace David Price to put manager John Farrell in a position to optimally deploy the bullpen.

Smith (forearm) threw out to 120 feet Tuesday and will need to repeat that before pitching off a mound in the bullpen, the Boston Globe reports.

Smith has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a flexor-muscle strain that cropped up Mar. 21 and does not have a timetable for his return. Injuries like his can take anywhere from a month to two months. In the meantime, the Red Sox have Matt Barnes in the bullpen to replace his innings.

Manager Bob Melvin said Graveman (illness) "should be good to go" for his start Thursday against the White Sox, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Graveman is the latest to catch the flu bug that's going around the A's clubhouse, and Melvin said the right-hander had a rough night Monday night. It sounds like the team still expects Graveman to take the hill for Thursday's early-afternoon game, but we may not get confirmation until early Thursday morning.

Graveman is day-to-day with an illness, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

According to Slusser, Graveman is dealing with an illness that is similar to what caused Sonny Gray to miss his start Monday. Graveman isn't scheduled to take the hill until Thursday, so it's possible that his ailment won't cause his start to be skipped, but he will be a pitcher to monitor over the next two days.

Graveman, who won a rotation spot despite an 18:11 K:BB and 4.73 ERA over 26.2 innings this spring, is on track to make his first start of the regular season Thursday against the White Sox.

A spring training darling in 2015, Graveman spent most of the season in the Oakland rotation en route to posting a 4.05 ERA and 1.42 WHIP over 21 starts. Most of his success comes when he's getting opposing hitters to pound the ball into the ground, but he'll need to take a step forward from last season in order to retain one of the five starting spots all season for the A's.