MLB Wednesday scores, highlights, live team updates, news: Brewers spoil Alex Reyes' return
The 2018 All-Star Game is less than seven weeks away now, and, on Wednesday, MLB announced fan voting for the All-Star Game starters will open June 1. Prepare to stuff the ballot box, folks. Here is everything you need to know about Wednesday's MLB action.
Wednesday's scores
Brewers close out May with another win
So, the Brewers have had worse months. They closed out May with a win over the division rival Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon, improving their record to 19-7 for the month. The Brew Crew have the NL's best record at 36-20.
The hero Wednesday was offseason pickup Christian Yelich, who drove in one run with a ground ball and another with a mammoth solo homer. Here is Yelich's seventh dinger of the season:
Yelich went 2 for 5 in the game to raise his season batting line to .307/.372/.492. Fellow offseason pickup Lorenzo Cain went 1 for 4 with a walk Wednesday and is hitting .282/.390/.431 on the year. Those two have been dynamic atop the lineup.
At 19-7, the Brewers just posted their winningest month since going 20-8 in April 2014. Here are the team's last five months with 19-plus wins:
May 2018: 19-7
19-7 April 2014: 20-8
20-8 September 2012: 20-11
20-11 August 2011: 21-7
21-7 August 2008: 20-7
They still need another starting pitcher, but right now, the Brewers sure look like the class of the National League.
Reyes returns, but exits early
For the first time since September 29, 2016, top Cardinals prospect Alex Reyes took the mound in a major league game Wednesday afternoon. He underwent Tommy John surgery last spring and spent the last 14 months rehabbing the injury.
Reyes pitched well against the red hot Brewers in his return to the big leagues, allowing three hits and two walks in four scoreless innings. He struck out two and threw 73 pitches. Reyes was removed from the game because his velocity dipped, however. Check it out:
Alex Reyes saw his velocity dip during Wednesday's start. Brooks Baseball
By the end of his outing, tracking systems were classifying Reyes' fastball as changeups, which is never a good sign. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny smartly took the 23-year-old out of the game. And, thankfully, it appears everything is fine. Reyes feels good and no tests are scheduled at the moment.
Alex Reyes said he feels fine and isn't sure why his velocity dipped in those middle innings. Team noncommittal about whether he'll get further tests — Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) May 30, 2018
Reyes was electric during his minor league rehab assignment, striking out 44 in 23 scoreless innings. He did get stretched out to seven innings and 87 pitches, so it would appear his pitch count was not an issue Wednesday. That said, MLB pitches and minor league pitches are very different animals. Surely Reyes had some adrenaline pumping early against the Brewers. He might've emptied the tank early and run out of gas in the middle innings.
Either way, Reyes returned to the big leagues Wednesday and looked very good, even while his fastball velocity dipped in the middle innings. He could give the Cardinals a real nice shot in the arm the rest of the season.
Kluber fans 10 as Indians win fifth straight
Are the Indians finally getting hot? Well, maybe. Playing the White Sox has a way of making teams look good. The Indians blew the ChiSox out for the fifth straight win Wednesday afternoon -- they've outscored their opponents 43-25 in those five games -- to improve their record to 29-25. Four games over .500 matches a season high for Cleveland.
Corey Kluber started Wednesday's game and was marvelous, striking out 10 in six scoreless innings. He threw only 90 pitches as manager Terry Francona opted to give his ace a bit of a breather with a big lead. Save those bullets for another day, you know? Kluber's been unreal over the last 12 months now:
It's been basically one calendar year since Corey Kluber came off the DL to start last June 1.
Today, he made his 35th regular season start in that time. His numbers:
23-4 record
1.76 ERA
251 IP
164 H
312 SO
33 BB — Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) May 30, 2018
With Wednesday's outing, Kluber jumped over a couple of Astros and into second place on the AL ERA leaderboard. Justin Verlander (1.11) leads the league and Kluber (2.02) is now second. Not a bad follow-up to a Cy Young season, I'd say.
Keuchel, Severino square off
The Astros and Yankees will conclude their latest series on Wednesday night, and they'll do so by giving us a quality pitching matchup, as Dallas Keuchel will face Luis Severino.
Keuchel enters with a 3.39 ERA and 2.94 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 11 starts. His first outing against the Yankees this season saw him notch a quality start, as he allowed six hits and three runs across seven innings. Coincidentally, he lost that game to Severino.
In that contest, Severino threw the first shutout of his career. He struck out 10 and issued just one walk while permitting five hits. The Yankees would gladly take a repeat performance. Severino will enter with a 2.28 ERA and 4.05 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 11 starts.
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