Daily Fantasy Baseball News June 30th

Not only was Abreu productive, but he was also clutch. His first long ball tied this game at two. Then, his run-scoring double tied it at three and nearly gave his Red Sox the lead before Kristian Campbell was thrown out at home. His eighth inning home run was less dramatic, just adding insurance to the lead. A funny note though, this was the third multi-homer game of Abreu’s career and all three have come against the Rangers. Nevertheless, his strong start has blended nicely into a tremendous season and the Red Sox would be hard-pressed to take his .980 OPS out of the lineup any time soon.

It’s never easy for Chapman who allowed a home run to Josh Jung and then let Corey Seager come to the plate as the tying run, but he managed to get the job done. He threw four pitches harder than 102 mph in this outing too, including a season-best 103.8 mph on his sinker. At times, he seems ageless and has a firm hold on closer duties in Boston.

Coming off his best start of the season last week against the Blue Jays, Houck just couldn’t keep the good times rolling. The Rangers put traffic on the bases in each inning besides the first, Houck was lucky to escape the third with just one run home after he made a throwing error, and Adolis García barely snuck a homerun around the foul pole in the fourth. Then, he was chased in the fifth after allowing two hits and a sacrifice fly. Again, Houck has refused to adjust against left-handed batters just throwing sinkers and sweepers to them repeatedly. His plan was simply to throw those pitches harder – they got up to 97 mph and 86 mph respectively – but that still puts him in a difficult spot against them. He’ll head to Detroit for his next scheduled start against the Tigers.

Francona added that Greene felt a grab, not a pop, while warming up for the fourth inning of Wednesday’s start against the Braves. The 25-year-old fantasy ace will undergo further evaluation and testing to determine the severity of the issue, but it sounds like the Reds don’t believe it’s too serious and there’s an outside chance he’ll make his next start. There should be a definitive update on his status at some point in the coming days.

Dropped to ninth in the order of late, Jung hasn’t been as bad as that ‘demotion’ would indicate. His power has lagged a bit – this homer was only his third of the season – despite him missing a week with an injury, but he’s barreling the ball better than he ever has in his career and dropped his strikeout rate for what would be the third consecutive season if he keeps it up. He’s a better option than his surface stats, especially in a weak third base landscape.

Mahle cruised besides for two solo home runs by Alex Bregmana and Wilyer Abreu in the fourth inning. That being said, Mahle did not have his swing-and-miss stuff working with a shocking zero strikeouts. He forced just four whiffs, which made this his third time in four starts where he forced six or fewer whiffs. While he still has a sterling 1.48 ERA, it feels as if some serious regression is coming soon. It may not come next start though, as he’s scheduled to face the Rockies at home at the front of a two-start week that will end with the Astros coming to town.