MLB Player News

Crowe (5-8) allowed three runs on three hits and took a loss against the Brewers on Monday. He was charged with a blown save and recorded just one out.

Crowe served up a game-tying home run to Garrett Mitchell in the eighth inning followed by Keston Hiura's walkoff blast in the ninth. The 27-year-old righty saw his season ERA jump from 3.12 to 3.51 after the rough outing. Monday was his first save chance since Aug. 2 and his first blown save since July 29.

Lopez struck out one batter in a perfect inning and earned a save over the Red Sox on Monday.

Lopez needed just nine pitches to finish off the 4-2 victory. He picked up his first save since Aug. 19 and he's now converted 23 of his 29 chances this season. Lopez is sporting a 9:4 K:BB with a 2.45 ERA through 11 innings since joining the Twins.

Leiter (2-6) allowed an unearned run on one hit across 1.1 innings of relief to take the loss in extra innings Monday against the Blue Jays. He walked two and had no strikeouts.

Leiter took his sixth loss of the season, but he didn't pitch poorly, as both of his walks were intentional. His only real mistake was a walkoff single he allowed to Danny Jansen in the 11th inning, which brought home the runner that started the frame on second base. Even with the loss, Leiter has been outstanding recently with a 1.93 ERA and 14 strikeouts across 14 innings this month. The righty has settled into a regular bullpen role with the Cubs now that the likes of Scott Effross, David Robertson and Mychal Givens are no longer around.

Assad pitched five scoreless innings but did not factor into the decision in Monday's extra-innings loss to the Blue Jays. He allowed four hits and two walks, while striking out one.

Assad made his MLB debut last week and tossed four scoreless innings. He followed that up with another strong outing, though he does have just four strikeouts versus six walks in his nine innings of work. The 25-year-old managed a 2.95 ERA across 36.2 innings at Triple-A Iowa this season, so while he won't keep posting zeroes, he could have some sustained success at the MLB level, particularly if he can cut down on the free passes moving forward. Assad will look to keep rolling in his next scheduled start Sept. 6 against the Reds.

Manager Bob Melvin stated Monday that Martinez will continue to be his first choice in save chances, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports.

Martinez has been used as the team's top closing option since Melvin announced Josh Hader would get a break from the closer's role earlier in the month, and the skipper will continue his current bullpen strategy until further notice. Martinez is in the midst of an impressive scoreless streak, appearing in 10 straight games without allowing a run (13.2 innings).

Jimenez said Sunday that he's not expected to require surgery on his strained right shoulder and is optimistic that he'll be ready to go for spring training, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Jimenez's season came to an end Saturday, when the Athletics placed him on the 60-day injured list due to the shoulder injury. Fortunately, Jimenez looks like he'll be able to treat the injury through rest and rehab, but the time he'll miss down the stretch could prove costly in his bid to open the 2023 campaign as the Athletics' closer. When healthy, Jimenez had served as the Athletics' primary end gamer in 2022 and notched a team-high 11 saves to go along with respectable ratios (3.41 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 11 K-BB%), but his lack of extensive MLB experience and uncertain health coming off the shoulder injury hardly make him a safe bet to regain the closer's role next spring.

Triple-A Salt Lake reinstated Soriano (elbow) from its 60-day injured list Thursday and assigned him to Single-A Inland Empire.

Soriano is healthy again after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June, but the Angels will let him build back up at Single-A before potentially having him return to Salt Lake in September. Over his five outings this season -- one with Inland Empire and four in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League -- Soriano has compiled an 0.93 ERA and 1.03 WHIP across 9.2 innings.

Triple-A Buffalo reinstated De Leon (shoulder) from its 7-day injured list Sunday.

De Leon, who had been sidelined since spring training while recovering from the right shoulder injury, pitched out of the bullpen Sunday for Buffalo, covering 0.2 innings while allowing two unearned runs on one hit. The 30-year-old righty has seen spot action in the big leagues in five of the past six seasons, but his extended absence coupled with his lack of a 40-man roster spot means De Leon is unlikely to get the call to Toronto in September.

Alzolay (lat) struck out six and allowed one earned run on one hit and two walks over two innings in his rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Iowa.

Considering he needed 50 pitches to retire six batters, the 27-year-old wasn't especially efficient Saturday, but the nine swinging strikes he generated on the day were an encouraging sight. Alzolay, who has been on the injured list all season while recovering from a lat strain, will likely need to complete one or two more rehab starts before the Cubs activate him.

Winder (shoulder) will be activated from the 7-day injured list to start Tuesday's game at Triple-A St. Paul, Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com reports.

According to Park, Winder is scheduled to fire three innings in what will be his first live action since July 12. He also notes that if Winder does return to the big leagues down the stretch, he'll likely do so in an extended relief role, as there won't be enough time to stretch him back out to handle the workload of a starter.