MLB Player News

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford was moved into the third spot in the lineup Monday against the Padres for the first time this season, finishing 1 for 6 with one run and one strikeout. 

Manager Bruce Bochy was asked before the game why he used Crawford there.

"Crawford asked me the same thing," Bochy said. "I just said, 'Maybe I got into the wine too much last night.'"

Crawford is batting .314 (11 for 35) with two doubles, three RBI, three walks and five runs in his last nine games. He's batting .285 and slugging .421 through 68 games.

Diamondbacks infielder Cliff Pennington is not in the team's starting lineup Monday against the Marlins. 

Pennington will be replaced by second baseman Willie Bloomquist, who will hit second. Pennington is hitting .239/.312/.310 in 155 at-bats. 

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford had his modest hitting streak end at five games following a 0-for-4 performance Sunday against the Braves. However, he's hit safely in six of his last eight games, batting .345 (10 for 29) with two doubles and three RBI.

Crawford is batting .306 (15 for 49) in 14 June games. Unfortunately, he has just three RBI in his last 18 games and he hasn't homered since April 27. His home run drought has spanned 43 games.

Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada has begun fielding ground balls and doing water-aided running, ESPN New York reports. Tejada is still not ready for a rehab assignment, so it seems likely he will miss at least another two weeks, as a conservative estimate. He hit .209/.267/.262 before hitting the disabled list in late May.

The Padres have acquired infielder Pedro Ciriaco from the Red Sox for a player to be named later, MLB Network reports. Ciriaco hit .216/.293/.353 in 51 at-bats for Boston. The Padres will likely use him at second base as a fill-in for the injured Jedd Gyorko.

Dodgers infielder Dee Gordon started at second base for the first time this season with Triple-A Albuquerque Saturday.

With Hanley Ramirez blocking Gordon at shortstop, the Dodgers will look to expand the 25-year-old's versatility. He is hitting .297 with 14 RBI in 34 games in the minors.

"I haven't ever seen him over there," manager Don Mattingly said to MLB.com. "I hadn't heard anything about it until the other day."

As expected, the Mets placed shortstop Ruben Tejada on the 15-day disabled list with a quad injury Thursday, and called up Omar Quintanilla from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Tejada suffered the injury Wednesday against the Yankees. 

Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada is headed to the disabled list, according to a report by CBSSports.com Baseball Insider Jon Heyman.

Tejada left Wednesday's game in the ninth inning with the injury, suffered while chasing down a pop fly in foul territory.

Doctors will evaluate the right quad injury suffered by Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada Thursday morning, the New York Daily News reports. Tejada suffered the injury while sliding to avoid colliding with Mike Baxter in foul territory during a pop fly.

"He said he felt it running after the popup and that’s why he slid," manager Terry Collins said after the game. "He thought he could catch it, but he slid because his leg started to pull on him. He slid and then the groundball, obviously, you could tell something was wrong."

Tejada was sidelined for more than a month last season with a strained right quad.

Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada left Wednesday's game in the ninth inning after suffering a quad injury, the New York Post reports. He was 1 for 5 and scored a run before exiting the game.

Tejada was a candidate for demotion before the injury, and the team determines it's at least a little bit serious, he seems likely to hit the disabled list.