Brian McCann homered on a big night vs. his old team, Stephen Drew also went deep and Masahiro Tanaka stifled the Braves in the Yankees’ 12-5 win on Wednesday night.

Daniel Hudson tossed a pair of scoreless innings in a Minor League game on Wednesday as he continues his comeback from a pair of Tommy John surgeries. “Arm feels good,” Hudson said. “We’ll see how it feels the next couple of days and go from there.”

Brandon McCarthy wouldn’t offer a “dead-arm” excuse for his shaky outing on Wednesday. “Physically, everything was fine,” McCarthy said after allowing six runs on eight hits in four innings during a 7-5 loss to the Cubs. “I struggled mechanically, and my stuff didn’t do what I wanted it to do.”

It may have been a Minor League game, but it was a big deal for Brad Ziegler, who on Wednesday made his first appearance in a game since undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee last September.

The Dodgers assigned six more players to Minor League camp, including top shortstop prospect Corey Seager.

Internally, the Braves think they project to be better than anticipated, squeaking past .500 and maybe getting into the National League Wild Card mix. Externally, little is expected of these Braves, and that’s just fine.

The Marlins on Wednesday reached an agreement with left fielder Christian Yelich on a seven-year contract extension worth $49.570 million, a source has told MLB.com.

The Solano brothers combined to give the Marlins an eighth-inning lead and Reed Johnson tacked on an RBI single for an insurance run in Miami’s 5-4 win over the Nationals on Wednesday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla.

Although he might be running out of time to play himself onto Boston’s Opening Day roster, Red Sox outfielder Rusney Castillo took a small step forward on Wednesday, participating in a pair of Minor League games at the Red Sox’s spring complex. Castillo had been dealing with a strained oblique that has kept him out of action for the first two weeks of the Grapefruit League schedule.

Manager Joe Maddon met with Kris Bryant on Wednesday to make sure the Cubs’ top prospect understood the need to be patient both with his playing time this spring and the regular season.

Entries are underway through April 16 for Major League Baseball’s annual Honorary Bat Girl Contest, which will recognize one fan per MLB club who has been affected by breast cancer and has demonstrated a commitment to battling the disease.

A’s closer Sean Doolittle expects to resume throwing next week as he continues to work his way back from a slight rotator cuff tear and soreness in his left shoulder.

Evan Longoria and James Loney each homered for the first time this spring to lead the Rays to a 9-3 victory over the Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

The sound off the bat was unmistakable, one crack of solid contact after another. It repeated for close to an hour through Joker Marchant Stadium while players filed in for a late-morning workout Wednesday. It was the sound of Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera using the late start to get in early batting practice with Yoenis Cespedes.

One day after making his Grapefruit League debut behind the plate, the Orioles’ Matt Wieters has been shut down from catching for a week because of tendinitis in his surgically repaired right elbow.

Agent Scott Boras has made it clear that he believes Kris Bryant should be on the Cubs’ Opening Day roster, and the team’s top prospect says he appreciates having a “bulldog” speak up for him. The Cubs, on the other hand, aren’t ready to say where the third baseman will open the season.

All 30 Major League clubs return to action today for a full slate of games across the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. A couple of former Cy Young Award winners are scheduled to pitch in Florida, including Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia, who will see game action for the first time this spring.