Entering Sunday’s action, Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich were the league leaders in fWAR. As luck would have it, their teams were wrapping up a weekend series against each other. Yelich went 0-for-2 with two walks, but he came oh-so-close to hitting his 14th home run of the season. Unfortunately, the superstar on the other side was the reason he didn’t get it.

 

That over-the-wall grab kept the score 5-2 Dodgers in the bottom of the eighth. But four batters later the Brewers had two runners on base, and Eric Thames hit a three-run home run to tie it up. Josh Hader struck out the side in the top of the ninth, but before he struck out the third batter, this happened:

 

Pitching Performance of the Day

Three starting pitchers made it to double digits in the strikeout category yesterday, James Paxton (12), Stephen Strasburg (11) and David Price (10). The differentiating factor was their varying levels of efficiency. Each threw 100 pitches or more, but Price only made it through five innings while Paxton finished six. Strasburg averaged a tidy 13 pitches per inning as he threw 104 pitches over eight innings, facing the Marlins lineup a full three times through.

Strasburg has allowed four or more runs in three of his five starts, but he’s really only had one bad start. His four-inning outing against Philly in which he walked four and struck out only three was bad. But in his other four starts his K:BB ratio is 36:5. He was T23 among qualified starters in swinging strike rate entering the day, but he should move up that leaderboard as 10 of his 11 strikeouts ended with swinging strikes.

 

Hitting Performance of the Day

While Bellinger stole the show for the Dodgers, Joc Pederson had a hell of a day himself. Pederson homered twice off Brandon Woodruff with a couple singles tacked on to give him the lead in total bases for the day. Pederson now has 10 home runs on the year, and he’s on pace to destroy his previous single-season high, though that’s going to end up being true for plenty of guys given how the balls are flying this season. Nonetheless, Pederson is on pace for 560 PA, which would be his highest total since 2015. Even if he reverts to his career HR/FB rate of 19.8 percent as opposed to his unsustainable 30-percent-plus rate from this year, he’d end up with 32-33 home runs.

Game of the Day

The heroics in the Dodgers-Brewers game probably make that the game of the day, but since we already covered it, we’ll give a nod to New York’s 7-6 win over Kansas City. The Yanks had a 98.9 percent win expectancy when they led 5-0 after the Royals finished hitting in the seventh. However, the Royals scored six in the eighth to take the lead. New York tied it up in the bottom of the inning, but the Royals threatened again in the ninth. Billy Hamilton led off with a single then stole second and third and was there with only one out. However, Adalberto Mondesi struck out to make the second out, and Alex Gordon flied out to end the inning. The Yankees won on a walk off single by Austin Romine , who was also the man who drove in the tying run in the eighth. Here’s a look at the game graph courtesy of Fangraphs.

What to Watch for Today

After a 6-13 start, the Red Sox began to right the ship over the weekend with a three-game sweep of the AL East-leading Rays. However, they still haven’t won a game that Chris Sale has started as the man who has finished top six in Cy Young voting for six straight seasons currently has an ERA of 8.50. Sale’s fastball velocity is down almost three miles per hour from last year, and it has been extremely hittable as a result. The Sox will need Sale to build arm strength and stay healthy for a significant portion of the season to completely right the ship. Sale starts for the fifth time today in a friendly matchup against the Tigers who are just 14-for-70 as a team against left-handed pitching so far this season.