MLB Player News

Yates struck out two over a clean inning en route to his fifth hold in Wednesday's 2-1 win over Washington.

The 31-year-old now owns a 0.79 ERA and 11.1 K/9 over 11.1 innings. Brad Hand has been on a roll of late, so only an injury or a rest day would open up save opportunities for Yates. The veteran's excellent ratios and clear setup role make him a strong option in holds leagues, however.

Law was sent back down to Triple-A Sacramento on Thursday, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports.

Law has been bouncing between Triple-A and the majors over the first couple months of the 2018 season, having recently returned to San Francisco from the minors prior to Tuesday's game. During four appearances with the Giants, he's logged a pedestrian 7.00 ERA and 1.78 WHIP over nine innings of relief. Expect to see him back at the major-league level within the next couple weeks.

Vizcaino allowed one hit and struck out one in a scoreless ninth inning Wednesday to collect his sixth save of the season in a 5-2 win over the Rays.

After picking up only one save through April 24 and appearing to be in danger of falling into a timeshare at closer with A.J. Minter, Vizcaino has reeled off five saves in his last six appearances while lowering his ERA to 1.62. The 27-year-old is still walking too many batters, leaving him with a 17:10 K:BB through 16.2 innings, but as long as those free passes aren't coming back to haunt him, his spot in the ninth inning seems fairly secure.

Curtis was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Thursday.

Curtis allowed two earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out a pair over two innings of relief against the Giants during Wednesday's game, and will now head back to Lehigh Valley in exchange for Jake Thompson. During his brief stay with the Phillies, Curtis wasn't able to find the strike zone, walking a total of seven batters across just 5.1 innings. With the revolving door that is a major-league bullpen, expect to see Curtis back with Philadelphia at some point later on this year.

Morejon threw seven scoreless innings for High-A Lake Elsinore on Wednesday, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out seven.

This was the first time Morejon logged more than six innings in a pro start, and the seven strikeouts were one shy of tying his career high. The 19-year-old southpaw now boasts a 3.68 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 30:11 K:BB in 29.1 innings through six starts. He is the second youngest player in the California League and appears to be coming into his own as a pro.

Reyes (elbow) started High-A Palm Beach's loss to Jupiter on Wednesday and fired 3.1 scoreless innings in which he allowed four hits and a walk while recording six strikeouts.

The 23-year-old's long road back from February 2017 Tommy John surgery reached its most momentous milestone yet with Wednesday's outing. Reyes has been steadily making progress throughout the current calendar year, and Wednesday's appearance, in which he encouragingly worked up to 67 pitches, figures to be one of several at multiple levels of the Cardinals organization before he's deemed ready for activation.

Pivetta (2-2) earned the win Wednesday, pitching five shutout innings with seven strikeouts while allowing four hits without a walk against the Giants.

Pivetta's only real issue on the night was that he needed 96 pitches to get through the five frames, thus falling an inning short of a quality start. He gave up hits to two of the first three batters he faced, but was able to recover nicely from that point to allow just two more baserunners the rest of the way. It was a much needed bounce-back effort for the 25-year-old after giving up 10 runs over six innings in his past two starts. He'll carry a 4.15 ERA (3.27 FIP) and 9.7 K/9 into a start against the Orioles on Tuesday.

Johnson allowed six runs on three hits and three walks while recording just two outs in Wednesday's loss to the Phillies.

Johnson was all over the place, as he threw more balls (18) than strikes (17) and had a wild pitch to go along with the three walks. The 27-year-old had been fairly reliable this season up until Wednesday, but the ugly effort pushed his ERA to an ugly 5.60.

Jansen tossed a scoreless ninth for his sixth save Wednesday against Arizona.

Jansen hasn't blown a save since April 17 in San Diego and has allowed just one run on six hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in nine innings since. He needed just nine pitches to close things out Wednesday night. It was a slow start for Jansen -- he owned an 8.10 ERA and 1.65 WHIP after that last blown save -- but he looks to be rounding back into his old form.

Hand picked up his 10th save as he struck out two in a scoreless ninth Wednesday against Washington.

Hand has saved four straight games and is now 10-for-12 on the season. He has been on fire of late, with a whopping eight strikeouts in his last three innings. Hand posted mediocre strikeout rates working mostly as a starter in Miami, but has turned into an elite strikeout reliever in San Diego. After striking out 100 batters in consecutive seasons in 2016 and 2017, Hand owns a brilliant 14.8 K/9 in 17.2 innings in 2018.