Top Stacks
Pirates vs Cole Hamels
Hamels has been AWFUL of late. Over his last 10 starts he is 2-5 with a 6.14 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP. The Pirates offense just scored four runs over give innings off lefty Jon Lester just the other night and Lester is enjoying a much stronger season than Hamels. Pirates outfielder Starling Marte needs to headline any Pirates stack as he is 6-for-15 with a home run in his career off Hamels. David Freese also has a strong BvP vs Hamels, going 5-for-16 with two doubles.
Top Targets: Starling Marte , David Freese , Francisco Cervelli , Jose Osuna
Secondary Targets: Jordy Mercer , Sean Rodríguez , Jordan Luplow
Game Stack
Royals and White Sox
I realize that both the Royals and White Sox have poor offenses, in fact the Royals might have the worst offense in baseball BUT tonight the Royals send Jakob Junis to the mound and his 25 home runs allowed this year and seventh worst ERA among qualified starters. The White Sox are sending Dylan Covey to the mound whose ERA had he qualified would rank among the five worst at 5.40. Either two very bad pitchers are going to shutout these bad offenses or two bad offenses are going to rake against these bad SPs. I will be looking for the over in runs scored tonight in this matchup.
Top Targets- José Abreu , Avisail García , Yoan Moncada , Whit Merrifield , Lucas Duda , Salvador Pérez
Secondary Targets- Brett Phillips , Adalberto Mondesí , Daniel Palka , Leury García , Nicky Delmonico
Contrarian Stack
Brewers vs Rich Hill
With Rich Hill being the top priced SP tonight it would make sense that stacking against him would be quite contrarian. He also held the Brewers to one run over six innings in an earlier start this season. The Brewers have yet to release their lineup but they acquired a power bat in Jonathan Schoop at the deadline and he could be playing tonight which will add pop against this left-handed pitcher. For me there is plenty of fire power in this offense to make me a bit uneasy to trust Hill whether it be Lorenzo Cain , Jesus Aguilar , Ryan Braun or the aforementioned Jonathan Schoop . Travis Shaw , Mike Moustakas and Christian Yelich , though lefties, could also do some damage here as well.
Top Targets: Jesus Aguilar , Lorenzo Cain , Jonathan Schoop , Ryan Braun
Secondary Targets: Christian Yelich , Mike Moustakas , Travis Shaw , Hernán Pérez
Player News
Gabriel Arias went 4-for-5 with a double in the Guardians’ 8-6 defeat of the Nationals on Wednesday.
Arias’s double was the hardest-hit ball of the game at 109.5 mph. He has a fine .287/.339/.452 line in 127 plate appearances, even though he’s sporting the worst contact rate (60%) and fourth-highest groundball rate (58%) among 161 qualified major league hitters. It’s certainly reason for some skepticism going forward.
Logan Allen yielded three runs in four innings Wednesday in a no-decision against the Nationals.
Allen gave up seven hits and walked four, so allowing only three runs was quite an accomplishment. Scoring all of their runs in the sixth, the Guardians ended up winning the game 8-6 even though the Nationals had more hits (13-10), more extra-base hits (4-2) and more walks (7-5). Allen remains 1-2 with a 4.33 ERA through seven starts. He’ll face the Brewers next.
Emmanuel Clase notched his eighth save with a scoreless ninth against the Nationals on Wednesday.
All three balls in play against Clase were hit hard, with one falling for a single. The right-hander struck out the other batter he faced. Clase has allowed two runs — one earned — over six innings in six appearances since his Apr. 20 blown save and subsequent shoulder scare.
Michael Soroka was charged with four runs in five-plus innings Wednesday in a loss to the Guardians.
Making his return from the IL, Soroka struck out eight through five scoreless innings. That’s how this blurb could have begun if Soroka hadn’t been allowed to start the sixth today. Still, there’s not really any blaming Dave Martinez here; Soroka’s pitch count was great, the Nationals bullpen is terrible and all but one of the team’s relievers worked in Tuesday’s doubleheader. Soroka faced four batters in the sixth, giving up two singles, hitting a batter and then surrendering a three-run double. It was still an encouraging day for him — he had a 38% CSW and he allowed just one hard-hit ball through five — but he’s probably not currently a mixed-league guy while pitching for a bad team. He’ll face his old friends in Atlanta next time out.
Jorge López was charged with three runs without retiring a batter in the sixth inning Wednesday against the Guardians.
He gave up two singles and a walk before being pulled after just eight pitches. López is actually 5-0 this season, but with his ERA up to 7.41, his roster spot might be in danger. He’s struck out only 10 and given up 14 runs in 17 innings.
Amed Rosario went 3-for-5 with a double, two RBI and a walk against the Guardians on Wednesday.
CJ Abrams, Rosario and James Wood all had three hits from the top three spots in the Nationals order today, but the rest of the lineup combined to go 4-for-21. For Rosario, it was a third three-hit game in 14 starts this season, and he has six RBI in his last three starts. Alas, the Nationals are set to face righties for at least seven games in a row now, so Rosario will probably spend a lot of time on the bench.