Carlos Santana

Guardians placed RHP Luis Ortiz on non-disciplinary paid leave

We don’t yet know the reason why Ortiz was placed on non-disciplinary leave, but we do know that he will be out through the All-Star break because of an MLB investigation. We’ll await more details, but Ortiz can be dropped in most leagues since he will be out for three weeks at least. He was supposed to start tonight against the Cubs, but now Joey Cantillo will instead.

Vince Velasquez threw 5 2/3 shutout innings for Triple-A Columbus on Wednesday.

Velasquez allowed three hits while striking out eight and walking two. He now has a 2.66 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, and 73/38 K/BB ratio in 64 1/3 innings in Triple-A this season. The Guardians haven’t needed much rotation depth this year, but Velasquez is certainly on the radar if they need another starter.

Guardians 1B/OF prospect C.J. Kayfus went 1-for-5 with a home run and three RBI for Triple-A Columbus on Wednesday. The 2023 third-round pick is now up to 11 home runs in his 52 games at Triple-A this season with 36 RBI and a .295/.384/.565 slash line. At this point, he might be forcing the Guardians’ hand to give him a shot against MLB pitching.

Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off single in the ninth inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday.

With the score tied at 4-4, Freeman singled in Shohei Ohtani to give the Dodgers the win on a day that will best be remembered for Clayton Kershaw picking up strikeout number 3,000. Freeman is now hitting .309/.381/.500 on the season, and it seems pretty likely he’ll be joining Kershaw in Cooperstown someday.

Matt Olson went 3-for-4 with a grand slam and a double in an 8-3 win over the Angels on Wednesday.

The Braves had a furious, two-out rally which led them to victory here and Olson put the exclamation point on it with his grand slam. After singles by Jurickson Profar and Ozzie Albies knocked Yusei Kikuchi out of this game with two outs in the sixth inning, Sean Murphy launched a three-run home run to give Atlanta their first lead. Then, Angels’ reliever Ryan Zeferjahn allowed a single to Michael Harris II and walked both ninth hitter Nick Allen and Ronald Acuña Jr. which set Olson up for his grand slam. It was his first RBI in over a week and first home run in two weeks as he and his Braves try to shake loose from the malaise that’s overcome their season.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand went 2-for-5 with his first career grand slam Wednesday in the Reds’ 8-4 defeat of the Red Sox.

The Reds were down 3-0 in the seventh when CES hit his sixth homer of the year with the bases loaded against Greg Weissert. The no-doubter left his bat at 109.1 mph and was projected at 439 feet. Encarnacion-Strand wasn’t even supposed to play tonight; he hurt his foot during the completion of last night’s suspended game this afternoon, but he was needed after Spencer Steer was scratched. The big game is very well timed for him, as the Reds infield is close to getting quite a bit more crowded with Noelvi Marte’s expected return from the IL.