MLB Player News

DeSclafani (oblique) remains shut down while on rehab at Low-A Dayton, MLb.com reports.

DeSclafani experienced a setback during a rehab start Friday and departed the game with discomfort in his oblique. The right-hander doesn't believe he'll miss too much more time, however. "I'll be doing stuff again soon," DeSclafani said. "I need to get over this, over the hump with this thing. I'm not back to square one by any means. It's just making sure I don't go back to square one and being cautious with it." DeSclafani is yet to resume throwing of any kind since the setback, so at this point it's difficult to pinpoint when he might be able to return to Cincinnati. Once the discomfort subsides, he'll presumably require at least another couple of rehab appearances.

Nicolino (2-0) pitched six innings, allowing four runs, seven hits and three walks in Tuesday's win against the Diamondbacks.

The left-hander has now won his first two starts of 2016 after picking up just five in twelve starts last year. Nicolino strikes out very few hitters, but he's efficient (which gives him a chance to eat up innings) and good at inducing groundballs. The 24-year-old with a 2.70 ERA is reasonable add in NL-only leagues.

Corbin (1-3) pitched 5.1 innings, allowing three runs, five hits and one walk while striking out four Tuesday against the Marlins. He did not factor in the decision.

The left-hander had a rough first month of the season, going 1-3 with a 4.88 ERA and giving up seven homers in April. Tuesday's start was one of his better ones this season, and he left the game with a lead that the bullpen eventually lost. Corbin did, however, surrender another longball for his league-leading eighth homer allowed.

Thompson allowed one run on two hits over seven innings Tuesday for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He struck out four and walked two.

This was probably Thompson's best outing of the season thus far. He got 10 of his outs on ground balls. He is now 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA and a 22:10 K:BB in 26 innings. Thompson will likely be in consideration for a promotion to the majors the next time the Phillies need a starter.

Wacha (2-2) allowed one run on five hits and three walks and struck out eight but still took the loss Tuesday against the Phillies.

Wacha made one mistake, a home run allowed to Ryan Howard, and that was enough, as Aaron Nola threw seven shutout innings to saddle Wacha with an extremely tough-luck loss. After allowing four runs in 4.1 innings in his first start, Wacha has rattled off five consecutive quality starts to lower his ERA to 2.65. He has been especially nasty over his past two starts, with 17 strikeouts in just 15 innings.

Nola (2-2) held the Cardinals to just two hits and a walk over seven shutout innings in Tuesday's victory. He struck out seven.

Nola now has a streak of 20 scoreless innings dating back to April 22 against Milwaukee, a span in which he has allowed just six hits and three walks against 19 strikeouts. The Cardinals only swung and missed seven times at 111 pitches from Nola, but they didn't do much with their contact, generating 10 groundball outs. Nola's ERA is down to 2.93 as the former top-100 prospect is more than justifying the hype.

Finnegan (hamstring) is confident that he'll make his next start, as he actually pitched three innings after getting hurt Monday night, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

Finnegan was ordered not to run on the basepaths if the opportunity to do so came up. "He was very confident that it wasn't going to get worse," Price said. "However, understanding where we are, risk-reward didn't really make sense right here for one extra inning of pitching. I had already done it for three innings and it was a gamble for him to be out there. I don't think it's something we'll look at and go, 'Oh my goodness, he's going to be out.'"

Wainwright (2-3) allowed three runs on five hits and a walk over six innings to pick up his second straight win Monday against Philadelphia.

Wainwright also homered, a three-run blast in the fourth inning, his first dinger since 2012. He now has three quality starts, but all three have satisfied the stat's minimum requirements (six innings, three earned runs). Wainwright seems to have figured out the walk issue that plagued him in his first two starts (eight walks in 11 innings), but he still has yet to strike out more than five batters in a game and he has served up 41 hits in just 33.2 innings. Monday marked improvement for Wainwright, but we have seen only faint signs of the ace he used to be for the Cardinals thus far.

Gray (0-1) fell to the Padres despite striking out 11 in six innings Monday. He gave up just two runs on four hits and one walk, but was out-dueled by San Diego starter James Shields.

Gray came out jittery, allowing the first four Padres hitters to reach base with two runs crossing the plate. While he settled down and pitched magnificently from that point forward, those early struggles were enough to saddle the 24-year-old with a loss. Gray's ability to miss bats makes him an intriguing option in his next start Saturday in San Francisco.

Cueto struck out eight, but allowed six runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings in a no-decision Monday against the Reds.

Cueto gave up all his runs in an awful third inning during which he gave up a three-run Joey Votto homer and a Jay Bruce RBI triple. In his other four innings, Cueto was excellent, as he induced 15 swinging strikes and seven groundouts. Cueto's season has been almost perfect aside from two bad innings -- Monday's third inning and the first inning April 10 against the Dodgers, when he was touched up for five runs. In his other 40.1 innings this year, Cueto has allowed just six runs (1.33 ERA).