MLB Player News

Sale will take the mound Monday for a simulated game, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports.

Sale will throw three innings of 15 pitches apiece as he's eased into game action, and his spring debut won't happen until this coming weekend. The Red Sox have held most of their rotation back until this week. Rick Porcello made his debut Sunday with David Price (Tuesday) and Nathan Eovaldi (Wednesday) beginning their Grapefruit League seasons later in the week.

Smyly allowed one run on three hits while striking out four over 2.1 innings Sunday against the Giants.

Smyly, who is attempting to return from Tommy John elbow surgery, ran his pitch count up to 50 and has three more starts to get it up to 90 pitches heading into the regular season. In three spring starts, Smyly has allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out seven over 5.1 innings.

Miley allowed two runs on four hits and one walk while striking out three over 3.2 innings Sunday against the Nationals.

The Astros are pleased with Miley's performance through three spring outings. He's allowed two runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out five over 8.1 innings.

Giolito allowed three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three over 4.2 innings Sunday against the Athletics.

Giolito was tested after giving up home runs in each of the first two innings, but he didn't unravel like he did last season. He got through the last 2.2 innings without incident. "I'm not stressing anymore with runners on base," Giolito told Madeline Kenney of the Chicago Sun-Times. "If I walk a guy -- I walked three today -- it's not eating at me like it would last year where I'm now thinking about something that happened in the past verses the next pitch. My focus is much more onto every single pitch, one at a time verses this inning is getting out of hand, things are getting out of hand." It's looking like Giolito will get plenty of opportunities to maintain his composure with runners on base. The right-hander's allowed 17 baserunners over 9.1 spring innings.

Blackburn was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas on Sunday, Jane Lee of MLB.com reports.

Blackburn threw the ball well early in camp, but he's been sent to Triple-A where he'll open the 2019 campaign. He's surfaced in the major leagues with the Athletics in each of the last two seasons yet struggled to a 7.16 ERA with 19 punchouts over 27.2 innings last year.

Lively was optioned to Triple-A Omaha on Sunday, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports.

Lively was claimed off waivers by the Royals in September and was solid in spring training with two runs allowed on five hits over six innings. The 27-year-old had a 5.64 ERA, 1.85 WHIP and 27:15 K:BB over 30.1 major-league innings last year.

Rodriguez exhibited a more aggressive approach in Saturday's game against the Mets, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports. He allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out three over four innings.

Rodriguez was called out by manager Alex Cora after his previous start when he lasted just two innings. The manger felt Rodriguez was nibbling too much and needed to attack hitters. "That's something I know I need to do," Rodriguez said. "If somebody says something I know I need to do, you can see it in the past, the last years, that's trouble I have, getting deep in the games. So that's something I came to this spring training to work on, no matter who says it." Getting four innings at this stage of the spring is about right for any starting pitcher, so from that perspective, Saturday's outing was successful.

Whitley allowed one run on two hits and one walk while striking out six in Friday's game against the Cardinals.

Whitley got to face serious major-league talent and gave up a first-pitch home run to Matt Carpenter before settling in. He fanned Paul Goldschmidt twice and Paul DeJong. "There were definitely some positives I could take from it, along with some negative," he told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. "I seem to dwelling on those a little bit more than I should be, but I was pretty happy with last night. I was able to execute two-strike pitches pretty well and get a decent amount of strikeouts. That was pretty big, something I hadn't been doing a lot the last two outings. That's a positive I could take away." He's performed well overall this spring, but Whitley is not expected to be part of Houston's staff to start 2019.

Perez threw four scoreless innings with three strikeouts in his third spring outing Saturday. He reached 97 mph with his fastball and averaged around 95 mph for the second straight start, MLB.com reports. "Before, I just used my arms," Perez said. "Now, I'm using all my body, and you guys can see the results."

Perez averaged just 92.7 mph with his fastball last season and threw just four pitches faster than 96.5 mph. He has a 2.00 ERA and seven strikeouts with one walk in nine innings so far this spring. While it's a small sample size, his improvement in velocity and the tweaks the Twins have made to his delivery show promise. He's the leading candidate for the fifth starter role, but may begin the season in the bullpen with the Twins likely to go with a four-man rotation in early April with several off days.

Bundy allowed six runs on six hits and one walk across 1.2 innings during Saturday's spring game against the Rays.

Bundy did not record a strikeout but still managed to exit the game with a lead as the Orioles erupted for eight runs in the top of the second inning. The 26-year-old has yet to find his footing this spring with 10 runs and 15 hits given up through 6.2 innings (three starts).