Cuban Players News for the 2024 Major League Baseball season. A compilation of several sources
Aroldis Chapman grabbed his ninth hold of the season.
Chapman returned to the field this Thursday after suffering a cracked nail last Sunday. In a 5-4 win against the Cubs, he pitched in the seventh inning, striking out two hitters on 17 pitches, 12 of which were strikes. His ERA dropped to 4.30 for the year, and he also got his ninth hold.
Randy Arozarena with one hit Thursday.
Arozarena went 1-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and a strikeout Thursday in a 7-5 victorya against the Red Sox. While his counting stats have been trending positively, Arozarena has still struck out at a 31.7 percent clip in May, leading to a .192 batting average for the month. Despite this, he still has 8 home runs, 18 RBI, 21 runs scored, and 7 stolen bases to his credit.
Yandy Díaz went hitless Thursday.
Díaz went 0-for-4 with a RBI Thursday against the Red Sox. Díaz started to turn his season around recently, but is still hitting only .247 across 196 plate appearances this season, and he's failed to record a homerun in his last 4 games. However, he's remained installed as the Rays' leadoff hitter and has struck out only 15.7 percent of the time so far this year, so there's reason to believe his results will even out over time.
Against the A's, Yordan Alvarez went hitless.
Alvarez went 0-for-3 with 2 strikeouts in Thursday's 8-1 win over Oakland and continued his unusual lack of offense. Alvarez was replaced by a pinch hitter late in the game. During the last three games, he has gone 1 for 11 with five strikeouts and no home runs or RBIs.
Andy Pagés was not in the lineup for Thursday’s series opener against the Reds.
Pagés got a night off to reset mentally after going 0-for-9 with six strikeouts over his last two games against the Giants. This was the first time the rookie from Cuba hit the bench since his major league promotion. As a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, he went 1-for-1 with a run scored. Pagés has performed exceptionally well in his first taste of the majors with a .267/.306/.446 line with four long balls and one swiped bag and should be expected to return to the starting lineup on Friday. It is only now that the rookie is experiencing his first major setback.
