With players starting to fatigue, it becomes a delicate time of year navigating injuries. Unfortunately, the full Tuesday slate featured some situations which will need monitoring. Starting with Gerrit Cole , a late scratch for Game 2 of a doubleheader in Chicago. Not only did Cole not make his start, his next one remains in doubt due to a hamstring injury. Cole’s won 10 straight decisions with a 1.98 ERA over his last 14 starts. Rookie sensation Fernando Tatis Jr. left last night’s game with lower back spasms. Perhaps from carrying the Padres offense, however stay abreast of updates regarding his back going forward. Avisaíl García tweaked his right oblique on a swing in this same contest. It’s being reported Garcia’s tweak will not require an injured list stint but soft tissue injuries can be tricky. Last, but certainly not least:

A spark plug atop the Mets lineup and competing for the batting title, an injured hamstring for Jeff McNeil could be costly. Like the players above, more news will surface throughout the day but his owners will need to keep track of McNeil’s progress from this injury. For some good news, Corey Kluber recorded four innings during his rehab outing at Double-A Akron giving up two hits, one earned run and a walk with six strikeouts. Sean Manaea racked up 10 strikeouts against one walk allowing a run over 5.2 innings at Triple-A. Both pitchers could rejoin their staffs soon, providing their owners a boost down the stretch. 

Starting Pitcher Spotlight: Flaherty extends his scoreless streak

Continuing his hot second half, Jack Flaherty fired seven shutout innings in Kansas City moving his scoreless streak to 23 innings:

Over seven starts since the break, Flaherty’s logged 45.1 innings with a 0.79 ERA, 0.73 WHIP and 56 strikeouts. 

Domingo Germán notched his major league leading 16th win going seven innings allowing five hits, two earned runs and one walk with seven strikeouts. He’s won four straight decisions. German tossed 93 pitches generating 21 swinging strikes (14 with his curve) and 13 called for a 36.6 called plus swinging strike (CSW) percentage. 

Here’s the other notable starting pitcher performances from yesterday:

  • Zack Greinke , Houston: 102 pitches, 10 swinging strikes, 23 called, 32.3 CSW%. Greinke recorded his 12th win giving up seven hits, two earned runs and two walks with six strikeouts in Game 1 of a doubleheader. 

  • Iván Nova , Chicago White Sox: 103 pitches, five swinging strikes, 19 called, 23.3 CSW%. Nova fired a complete game yielding four hits, one run (zero earned) and one walk with three strikeouts. Nova’s logged two complete games his last five starts with a 0.49 ERA, 17:6 K:BB and lowered his ERA from 5.86 to 4.51 over his last 37 innings. 

  • José Quintana , Chicago Cubs: 110 pitches, 16 swinging strikes, 23 called, 35.5 CSW%. Tough luck loser Quintana struck out 14 allowing five hits, two runs (one earned) and a walk in six innings. Quintana set a career high and tied a Cubs record for strikeouts in a game by a southpaw. His last three outings results in 26 strikeouts in 19 innings with a 1.89 ERA and two wins against one loss. 

  • Dustin May, Los Angeles Dodgers: 90 pitches, eight swinging strikes, 17 called, 27.8 CSW%. May gets his first major league win tossing 5.2 innings giving up three hits, one earned run and one walk with five strikeouts. 

  • Chris Sale , Boston: 108 pitches, 18 swinging strikes, 26 called, 40.7 CSW%. Sale became the fastest pitcher to reach 2,000 strikeouts in this outing needing 1,626 innings to do so. Pedro Martinez previously held the record (1,771.1 IP). In this outing Sale did not get the win due to his bullpen, but worked 6.2 innings yielding five hits, five runs (three earned) and walked two with 12 strikeouts. 

Bullpen Notes: Hader scuffling

Slumps can affect pitchers as well as hitters. Josh Hader admitted to such in post-game interviews. 

One of baseball’s most dominating relievers, Hader continues to serve up home runs while struggling of late. Last night, Hader coughed up the lead resulting in his fifth blown save on a home run by Marwin Gonzalez . Two of the three runs were charged to Drew Pomeranz who gets tagged with his 10th loss. As for Hader, he’s given up a home run in each of his last three appearances and four of his last six. Plus, Hader’s yielded at least a run in four straight games and in five of his last six. There’s a chance he’s still pitching through a lingering back issue, but with Milwaukee fighting for a playoff spot, the timing of Hader’s slump could not be worse. 

Here’s the rest of the high leverage events from Tuesday:

  • Sam Dyson returned from the injured list with his 18th hold striking out one in the eighth inning for Minnesota during their comeback win over the Brewers. Sergio Romo recorded his 19th save with a clean ninth. 

  • Save number 21 for Héctor Neris working around a walk with one strikeout in a scoreless outing. 

  • Providing Sean Doolittle with much needed rest, Daniel Hudson scattered three hits in 1.1 scoreless with two strikeouts for his first save with the Nationals and third this season. 

  • Both bullpens struggled in Cleveland with Nick Wittgren taking his first loss serving up the go ahead solo home run to Jackie Bradley Jr. Brandon Workman gets his ninth win and fifth blown save giving up the lead in the bottom of the ninth on two hits. Andrew Cashner notched his first career save allowing a hit and striking out two in the 10th inning. Baseball…

  • Perhaps some clarity in the Atlanta bullpen? Mark Melancon secured his second save, and first with the Braves, with a scoreless ninth striking out two. 

  • Carlos Martínez allowed a hit but recorded the last two outs for his 13th save. 

  • A high wire act with Will Smith navigating around three singles and walking in a run but only gives up one earned en route to his 29th save. 

  • Locking down his first save in almost a month, Felipe Vázquez retired the only two hitters he faced for his 22nd save. It’s his first since July 16th. 

  • Emilio Pagán notched his 13th save striking out four in 1.1 innings of work. Nick Anderson gets his fourth win with a clean inning and three strikeouts. Anderson’s retired 18 in a row with 14 strikeouts. 

Hitter Highlights: Devers in the record books

Not only did Rafael Devers go six-for-six, he’s the youngest player in 110 years to accomplish it along with racking up four doubles. 

Normally a three-home run game would take center stage, but Kyle Seager may be used to playing second fiddle in his own family. Regardless, he went off on Tuesday night: 

Seager’s third home run proved to be a wall scraper, but it’s still his first career three home run game and he tied his career best with six RBI. Over his last 18 games, Seager’s hitting .374 with three doubles, a triple, eight home runs, 16 RBI and an on-base plus slugging percentage north of 1.200. Not too shabby. Teammate Tom Murphy launched two solo home runs as well in this contest. 

Stay hot Will Smith , no, not the closer. Smith the catcher went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI in Miami during a Dodgers rout. He’s hit three home runs in his last two starts and through 23 games in the majors owns a .324/.375/.817 slash with nine home runs. Cody Bellinger (39), Corey Seager (10), Justin Turner (20) and Matt Beaty (6) also homered. 

Staying with a hot hitting catcher theme, J.T. Realmuto tallied two hits including his 16th home run driving in two last night. In August, Realmuto’s slashing .317/.408/.585 with 10 runs, five doubles, two home runs, seven RBI and three stolen bases in 41 at-bats. 

Back from an injury scare, Juan Soto started on Tuesday hitting his 25th home run letting his owners take a collective sigh of relief. 

One cannot stop Giovanny Urshela, one can only hope to contain him, or at least if one pitches for the Orioles. Urshela racked up his second straight three-hit game and owns a .514 (19-for-37) average his last nine games with 14 runs, four doubles, seven home runs and 15 RBI. 

Shrouded by Bo Bichette ’s hot start, Teoscar Hernández hit his 15th home run over his last 43 games last night. It’s his 19th of the season and his last 25 games yields a .291 average with four doubles, 11 home runs, 20 RBI along with 15 walks. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a double in his four at-bats. He’s 34-for-his-last-89 (.382) with nine doubles, five home runs and 26 RBI his last 23 contests. 

Carlos Santana homered for the third straight game and hit safely in 11 of his last 12 going 16-for-41 (.390) with 14 runs, four home runs and 12 RBI. More importantly, Santana’s walked 12 times against eight strikeouts in this stretch. 

Another day, another Ronald Acuña Jr. tidbit. Acuna Jr. launched his 34th home run among his two hits, two runs scored and RBI on Tuesday. He only needs two more stolen bases for a 30/30 season. For those hoping for a 40 home run and stolen base season, Barry Bonds passed the 30/30 threshold on September 15th in 1996 representing the latest it happened en route to the feat. There’s plenty of time for Acuna Jr. 

Bryan Reynolds went 3-for-4 scoring three runs and hit his 13th home run of the season. He leads all major league rookies in hits and hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games. Josh Bell stayed hot hitting his 31st home run, and fourth in three games moving within one of the franchise record 32 set by Bobby Bonilla in 1990. 

What To Watch For

For starters, injury updates on all of the players covered in the Round Up’s opening paragraphs. 

In a loaded split slate, Shane Bieber will try to quiet the Boston bats and extend his hot start to the second half. Houston should bounce back from its Game 2 loss to the White Sox facing Ross Detwiler . Calling a George Springer leadoff home run. Plus, a nice duel could be on tap in Washington with Trevor Bauer facing Stephen Strasburg . 

During the night games, Cole Hamels returns to Philadelphia matching up with Aaron Nola in a pivotal game for each team. Clayton Kershaw gets to face the Marlins with an extra day of rest. Stream dream Dillon Peters will try to suppress the hot hitting Pirates opposed by Chris Archer . 

Be sure to stay with Fantasy Alarm to remain ahead of the competition across all fantasy formats. 

 

Statistical Credits:

BaseballSavant.com

Fangraphs.com

MLB.com - Game Notes

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