Baseball Chatter 06/26

Zack Cozart expects to come back from the disabled list this week and Joey Votto promised Cozart that if he makes the All-Star Game he will buy him a donkey. A Jackass, for real. Have a listen and then go vote because lord knows Cozart needs a donkey. #VoteCozart

Cody Bellinger is one multi-home run game behind Mark McGuire for the most homers hit in a season by a rookie

Roberto Osuna has been dealing with anxiety, but it didn’t show last night when he struck out the side in a scoreless ninth inning

Matt Adams is hitting .294 with 11 home runs and a .993 OPS through his first 30 games in Atlanta

Julio Teheran’s fastball velocity is down, hitters don’t swing and miss as much, and his fly ball percentage is up.

Andrew McCutchen entered yesterday batting .269 on the season, but he’s hitting .385 since May 26, the second-best mark in the National League in that span. He doesn’t feel that the move to sixth in the order has been the reason for him hitting so well.

“Last year, pitchers didn’t have to adjust their approach, They had a game plan for me because of what the stats said. They’d go out and do it and say, ‘OK, cool. I can stay there.’ It was about me adjusting to them. Now, it’s about them adjusting to me. That’s the biggest difference, I think. I’m sticking with my approach, and they have to figure out the next move. It’s a game of chess. All that stuff is coming up now because I’m in a better spot. They’re pitching me roughly the same way, That’s why, the way I look at it, it doesn’t matter if I’m hitting third or sixth. They’re going to pitch to me how they pitch to me. It doesn’t matter where I am in the lineup.McCutchen

Trey Mancini hit his second home run in as many days and became the first Baltimore Orioles rookie to hit 14 home runs before the All-Star break.

Injury Updates

Carlos Rodon finally expects to return to the mound this week. to return to the rotation.

Addison Russell left the game in the fourth inning with sharp pain in his throwing shoulder. He has struggled with this issue at times over the past two seasons. He will miss at least one game.

Kyle Hendricks is not ready to throw from a mound yet and probably won’t return until after the All-Star break. Hendricks began a throwing program from flat ground Saturday that he plans to continue for several days.

Jacoby Ellsbury could be activated from the disabled list today. He played his second minor league rehab game with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre yesterday

Teams

The Braves have scored 128 runs over 23 games in June, tied with the Diamondbacks for fourth-most in the majors.

There were a total of eight wild pitches in the Rockies/Dodgers game last night, and the Dodgers are the first team since at least 1920 to score five runs on wild pitches.

The Dodgers tied their record since moving to the west coast, hitting at least one home run in 17 consecutive games. They will need to do it 24 games straight to tie their record in Brooklyn.

The Marlins have scored 12 runs on 21 hits in their past five games, but won three.