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American League

Angels

• Yusei Kikuchi went back to his old mechanics with some improved results.

After struggling in his first four starts of the season, the left-hander turned it around by striking out eight over six scoreless innings in a 4-1 loss to the Padres on Saturday night at Angel Stadium. And Kikuchi said it happened after he reverted to a similar arm angle to last year after experimenting with a higher release point through his first four starts.

“I went over my mechanics this week and I think that brought me good results,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Koki Goto. “Going into this season, I raised my arm angle to become a better pitcher, but for the first four games, it didn’t work out well, so I brought back last year’s form. I tried to recall the drills I did, and I think that brought me good results.”
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He also did it with better velocity, as his four-seamer reached as high as 98.6 mph and averaged 96.4 mph, which was 1.3 mph higher than his season average. He also threw it 45 percent of the time, which was way up from his season average of 25 percent.

As long as Kikuchi throws strikes (1 BB with his new arm slot), he can be an effective pitcher. His problem is that he’s had two, four-walk games so far this season with 9 ER in 8 IP.


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Blue Jays

• Nathan Lukes has been dealing with vertigo.

Lukes visited with a Phoenix-area vertigo specialist Friday morning and doubled down on some head-movement exercises that can help alleviate the symptoms, which include dizziness, unsteadiness and nausea. Since arriving in Arizona, he’s had a couple of “the better days with my vision that I’ve had in the past month,” which played a big role in him getting better results.

“I don’t know where (the vertigo) came from and how it happened, but it’s hard to hit when the world is spinning and when you feel like you could throw up at any second,” said Lukes. “I never want to take myself out of the game, whether I’m feeling good or feeling bad. So, I’ve been grinding.”

• Eric Lauer 라우어 threw with the flu for a couple of starts.

Eric Lauer has struggled in his last two outings, but it’s difficult to put much weight on those, given that he went through a rough path with a flu bug and didn’t have his normal velocity

The drop in velocity is obvious.

During those two starts, he allowed 9 ER in 7 IP. In his first and last start, he allowed 5 HR in 10 IP.

Guardians

• The team wants Travis Bazzana to have more consistent at-bats before promoting him.

Of course, that’s a small sample and those are surface-level numbers. Antonetti noted the Guardians will study “underlying indicators” to determine what might translate at the big-league level. Bazzana’s scouting report has long included high-level plate discipline and swing decisions, but lately, it seems as though he has been more aggressive at the plate. It’s one thing to draw a bunch of walks in the minors, but when big-league pitchers attack the zone, will Bazzana be able to inflict damage? He smoked a double and a homer to the opposite field Saturday before getting an off day Sunday.
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Bazzana, in the near future, should simplify things on the middle infield.

“He’s continuing to progress and build consistency with his at-bats,” Antonetti said.

Yankees

• George Lombard Jr. is getting some third base reps to potentially play there in the majors.

Lombard, The Athletic’s No. 24 overall prospect, will make his third start of the season at third base with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole on the mound for his first rehab start Friday night at Double-A Somerset.

Lombard will be playing the position in part in deference to Anthony Volpe, who is rehabbing and starting at shortstop. The Yankees could have started Lombard at second base instead, as he has played all three positions. The 2023 first-round pick is considered a high-level defender, and the organization believes his glove is major-league-ready.

“As far as the defending goes,” Double-A manager James Cooper said, “we thought last year the defense was ready to play in the big leagues. … We just need everything else to catch up to the defense.”

Ryan McMahon, the Yankees’ regular third baseman, has been a major disappointment this season. He’s hit .119 (5-for-42) with no home runs, 2 RBIs and a .379 OPS in 17 games. He’s struck out 16 times.

National League

Cardinals

• The team might be going with a six-man rotation once Hunter Dobbins comes off the IL.

The club may look to implement a six-man rotation during its stretch of 17 games in 17 days that starts on Friday. That would be the most non-disruptive way to give Dobbins an opportunity to start games for St. Louis and compete for a rotation spot. But any decision to change up the rotation is now more complicated than it was a few days ago.

Cubs

• Alex Bregman is trying to lift the ball more.

Still, the results just aren’t coming. It’s not hard to find the culprit. Bregman’s groundball rate of 47.8 percent is nearly a dozen points higher than his career average.

One can hardly get the question out before Bregman chimes in.

“Way too high,” Bregman said when his groundball rate was brought up. “Get the ball off the ground! Disconnected, bats being left behind me, contact point is deep. When I’m good, I get the ball out front. It’s poor mechanics right now that I’m working through. But I’m going to get it.”

Diamondbacks

• With Lourdes Gurriel Jr. off the IL, the team’s plan is to start him most days.

The Diamondbacks have Monday off before starting a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox, and Lovullo anticipates Gurriel being in the lineup for all three of those contests.

“This is tied into the medical team, and we’re still going to be very guarded with him,” Lovullo said. “We don’t want anything to go backwards with his knee.

“But the volume from the time he steps on the field, how many full-out sprints does he make, what’s that distance, how many catches does he make, does the knee swell up, those types of things, we don’t anticipate that being an issue. … We feel like he can play two in a row here, off day and then go three in a row. We will make adjustments depending on how he’s feeling or volume, and also we’ll make some DH days there as well.”

Dodgers

• Shohei Ohtani might continue to only pitch when he starts and not DH.

After a dominant outing on the mound, Shohei Ohtani addressed one of the biggest talking points from the night — not serving as the designated hitter while pitching.

Speaking with both English and Japanese media, Ohtani made it clear this wasn’t random, but part of a bigger plan focused on health, efficiency, and long-term success.

Giants

• Because Daniel Susac is hitting, he and Patrick Bailey might start splitting the catcher duties 50/50.

The Giants initially planned for the right-handed-hitting Susac to serve as Bailey’s backup and draw most of his starts against left-handed pitching, but the Rule 5 Draft pick has made it hard for the club to keep his bat out of the lineup after hitting .563 (9-for-16) with a 1.338 OPS and five RBIs over his first eight games.

Bailey, meanwhile, is batting only .128 with a .308 OPS and no extra-base hits over 15 games this year, a prolonged slump that has become difficult for the Giants to absorb given their wider offensive struggles this year. San Francisco entered Friday averaging an MLB-low 3.05 runs per game, leading manager Tony Vitello to suggest that the club could “get into an every-other-day situation” with Bailey and Susac moving forward.

“It was just a day-by-day decision,” Vitello said Friday. “You guys have asked about it a million times. I’ve been as honest as possible and talked about Patty being what he is. He’s still a Gold Glove guy. He’s our guy. There’s nothing controversial to anything. We’ve stood by him and played him a bunch. Right now, he’s not playing as well as he can capably play. That’ll work itself out over due time. And the other guy [Susac] is obviously swinging a hot bat right now but also gives you a really good at-bat. It’s a good, complementary 1-2.

Padres

• Griffin Canning is close to returning to the team.

Nonetheless, help might be on the way. Griffin Canning has made three rehab appearances already. On Friday, manager Craig Stammen noted that Canning was on a progression akin to a full Spring Training. Using that same metaphor, Stammen said Canning was, in theory, built up to mid-March.

It stands to reason, then, that he’s only a couple weeks away from joining the Padres. Could they ever use him.