NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
Shortstop Dansby Swanson ended up missing only 11 games when the Braves sent him to Class AAA Gwinnett (Lawrenceville, Ga.) in late July, but the time away seems to have helped.
Swanson had a .287 on-base percentage when the Braves sent him down but reached base at a .424 clip in his first 17 games after returning to the big-league team.
The time away might have helped his confidence after he struggled for the first four months of the season, but The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reported that Swanson also made subtle changes, including standing closer to the plate.
“Just works better with what I feel like I want to do,” Swanson told the newspaper. “I don’t want to, like, talk about what I’m trying to do every time I go up there, but it gives me a better sense of confidence being up there.”
Swanson returned to Atlanta sooner than expected because
Johan Camargo’s knee injury left the Braves in need of a shortstop.
Left-hander A.J. Minter, a second-round draft pick in 2015, topped out at 98.7 mph and struck out two of the three batters he faced in his major league debut against the Seattle Mariners.
“He was good, and he’s going to be a guy who will be pitching meaningful innings,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s that guy.”
Miami Marlins
Giancarlo Stanton’s remarkable power run hasn’t happened in a vacuum. With 29 home runs in a span of just 45 starts, Stanton made a run at history while also giving the Marlins a shot at a wild-card playoff spot.
The Marlins had won nine of their last 10 games in which Stanton homered when he hit No. 50 on Aug. 27 in a 6-2 win against the San Diego Padres.
The home runs left Stanton on pace to finish the season with 63, and the Marlins climbed over .500 for the first time since April 26. “It’s been incredible,” manager
Don Mattingly said. “He has fueled this run. After the (AllStar) break, he has been a terror.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Marlins are just the 12th team this century to get back to .500 in a season in which they had fallen as many as 13 games below break-even.
The Marlins could get first baseman Justin Bour and lefthander Wei-Yin Chen back at some point in September. Bour has been on the disabled list since July 25 because of a strained muscle in his right side, and Chen hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since May 1 because of an elbow injury.
New York Mets
First came the injuries and then came the trades, as the Mets shed most of their veteran players as a result of this disappointment of a season.
Then came two more big injuries, and the best two remaining hitters in the Mets’ lineup went down on back-to-back days.
Michael Conforto dislocated his left shoulder and tore his posterior capsule during an Aug. 24 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The next night in Washington, Yoenis Cespedes strained his right hamstring and also went on the disabled list.
Conforto, who hit .279 with 27 home runs in a bounce-back season, will miss the rest of the year and might need surgery. Cespedes, who has played in 81 games after signing a four-year, $110 million contract, also is out for the year.
The Mets’ injury woes didn’t stop there. Third baseman David
Wright, who hasn’t played all season, had to halt a rehab assignment because of shoulder pain.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Mets seemed to have too many outfielders, with Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Conforto and Cespedes. Now all four are gone — Bruce was traded to the Cleveland Indians, and Granderson was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Brandon Nimmo, Juan Lagares and newly promoted Travis Taijeron figure to get plenty of playing time. Manager Terry Collins said he also could use Jose Reyes in the outfield.
The Mets activated Jeurys Familia from the disabled list, although Collins said he would continue to use A.J. Ramos as his closer for the time being.
Philadelphia Phillies
When the Phillies called up
Rhys Hoskins to the big leagues Aug. 10, it took him four games to get his first hit. Once he got that one, Hoskins didn’t stop, and most of his hits left the park.
Hoskins needed fewer games (17) to get to 10 home runs than anyone else in big-league history. He got there by homering on seven consecutive days the Phillies had games, though he homered in just one game of the Aug. 22 doubleheader vs. Miami.
“You get into the zones, you know,” Hoskins said. “You can’t really explain it.”
The power hasn’t come as a total surprise. Hoskins hit 29 home runs in 115 games at Class AAA Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Pa.), where he was leading the International League at the time he was called up.
Hoskins hit his 11th home run Aug. 27 and also started a triple play.
“We talked over the winter about getting professional hitters,” manager Pete Mackanin said. “He looks like a professional hitter.”
Right-hander Vince Velasquez, limited to 72 innings this season because of injuries, was diagnosed with a vascular issue that could require surgery. The problem in Velasquez’s right armpit caused numbness in his right middle finger.
Washington Nationals
Ryan Zimmerman spent three seasons dealing with injuries, but this season he was one of the few Nationals regulars who wasn’t hurt.
Then Zimmerman hurt his left triceps on a headfirst slide Aug. 24 in Houston. The injury did not appear serious, but it did knock Zimmerman out of the lineup for a couple of games.
Manager Dusty Baker said Zimmerman could have played Aug. 26 and actually was ready to pinch-hit if necessary. Baker wanted to make sure he would be ready for one of the games of the Aug. 27 doubleheader.
With Zimmerman out, Baker used a lineup Aug. 25 against the Mets that included just one player — second baseman Daniel Murphy — who started on opening day.
The Nationals did get some good injury news: Right-hander Max Scherzer and left fielder Jayson Werth both were activated from the disabled list. Werth promptly homered in his first game since June 3. uRight-hander Stephen Strasburg, who missed nearly a month because of a nerve impingement in his right elbow, limped off the mound in his second start back when he got a cramp in his left calf. Strasburg said he was not worried about his latest health issue.
“It turns your stomach.”
Mets manager Terry Collins, on watching Michael Conforto collapse at the plate after he dislocated his left shoulder and tore his posterior capsule on a swing Aug. 24 against the Arizona Diamondbacks