MLB Player News

Story is absent from the lineup for Thursday's game in Houston, Christopher Smith of The Springfield Republican reports.

Story had started each of the last four contests but will sit out Thursday's afternoon game. Pablo Reyes is covering shortstop and Luis Urias is at second base.

Downs was recalled from Triple-A Rochester on Thursday, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.

Downs was just sent down Sunday but is back in the big leagues to take Stone Garrett's (fibula) spot on the roster. The 25-year-old infielder will bring some versatility off the bench.

Tovar is absent from the lineup for Thursday's game in Tampa Bay, Patrick Lyons of TheDNVR.com reports.

It's the first time Tovar hasn't been in the lineup since he was on the paternity leave list back in late June. Alan Trejo will get a start at shortstop.

Turner went 1-for-5 with a solo homer and an additional run scored in Wednesday's 8-6 loss to the Giants.

Turner went back-to-back with Kyle Schwarber against Alex Cobb in the sixth inning, cutting the Phillies' deficit to 4-2. Turner has now hit safely in five straight games and has three long balls in that span. Over his last 18 contests, the 30-year-old Turner has gone 25-for-73 (.342) with a 1.015 OPS, boosting his slash line to .250/.303/.405 on the season with 15 homers, 72 runs scored, 49 RBI and 22 stolen bases across 558 plate appearances.

Adames went 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBI and two runs scored in Wednesday's 8-7 win over the Twins.

Adames took Emilio Pagan deep in his third at-bat of the game to bring the Brewers back within a run of Minnesota. The shortstop then came through as the hero in the bottom of the tenth, driving home the game-tying run before coming around to score the winning run himself on a Brice Turang infield single. Adames has now homered in three of his last four games and has multiple hits in three of his last five to go along with nine RBI and four runs scored. He's also driven in at least one run five straight contests.

Marte started at third base, batted leadoff, and went 0-for-4 with an RBI in the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader sweep of the Angels. He did not play in the matinee.

Marte's eighth-inning groundout produced his first big-league RBI since being called up last Saturday. The righty-hitting infielder was moved up from the bottom of the order to the leadoff spot, as injuries forced manager David Bell to make a change against left-handed starters. Most recently, Kevin Newman (oblique) or Stuart Fairchild (concussion) batted atop the order against southpaws. The manager opted for Marte, in just his third start in the majors, against Angels lefty Reid Detmers in Game 2 on Wednesday.

McLain went 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBI and a stolen base in the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader sweep of the Angels.

McLain had himself a day, going a combined 3-for-8 with a home run, three RBI, two stolen bases and five total runs across both games. Batting second or third in the order since being called up in May, McLain is second on the club with 63 runs scored over 85 games.

Anderson went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored Wednesday against the Mariners.

Anderson returned from a five-game suspension and immediately slotted back into the leadoff spot. His power production remains disappointing, though he's maintained a .287 batting average with 10 runs scored, nine RBI and two stolen bases across 27 contests since the All-Star break.

Witt went 2-for-3 with a solo home run and a walk in Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Athletics.

Over his last 12 games, Witt has put up seven multi-hit efforts with six homers, 13 RBI and three stolen bases. The shortstop's fifth-inning blast provided the last run of the game Wednesday. He's up to 26 homers, 81 RBI, 37 stolen bases, 73 runs scored and a .280/.320/.506 slash line through 126 contests. All of those except his run total are improvements on his numbers from 150 games as a rookie last year.

Story went 2-for-5 with a double, one RBI and a stolen base in Wednesday's 7-5 extra-inning win over the Astros.

Story had hit a skid over the last week, going 2-for-28 with 10 strikeouts over his previous seven games. He still struck out three times Wednesday, but he was a little more productive at the plate. The shortstop is batting .212 with no home runs, four steals, five doubles and three runs scored over 13 contests this year, with his RBI in this game being his first of the campaign. He missed over four months to begin the season while recovering from elbow surgery, so it's not a surprise for him to be struggling a bit.