In Case You Missed it

Making his first start since July 14 due to an ankle injury, Eduardo Rodríguez was nothing short of spectacular in a road outing against the White Sox on Saturday. Rodriguez picked up his 12th victory of the year after allowing only one run on three hits and a walk while racking up 12 punchouts across 5.2 innings during the Red Sox 6-1 win. Remarkably, 10 of Rodriguez’s strikeouts came over the first 12 batters he faced.

Andrew McCutchen debuted in pinstripes while Gary Sánchez returned to the Yankees lineup for the first time in over a month, but it was red-hot rookie Gleyber Torres that provided the offense in New York’s 2-1 win over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon. Torres launched a two-run shot to left in the bottom of the fifth which would actually be the only hit Tigers starter Daniel Norris allowed the Yanks through 4.1 innings. Over his last nine games, Torres has gone 14-for-30 with four homers.

Yet another big-name return to the field Saturday evening was that of Kris Bryant who had been out since July 23 due to a shoulder issue. The Cubs two-time All-Star went 2-for-4 with a double and run scored in a 7-1 win at Philadelphia. It’s been a bit of a frustrating campaign for Bryant due to multiple stints on the DL, but this is certainly an encouraging start to the final month of the regular season. Last September, he posted a strong .311/.413/.544 slash line with four home runs and nine doubles across 25 games.

Reds second-year righty Luis Castillo has been largely disappointing on the whole for fantasy investors, but on Saturday in St. Louis, he fully displayed the promise and upside he regularly showed during his impressive rookie season. Castillo stifled the Cardinals offense for 6.2 shutout innings, giving up only two hits and two walks while setting a new career-high with 11 strikeouts.

 

Sunday on the Hill

A couple of N.L. Cy Young contenders will be on the bump Sunday afternoon. First off, Aaron Nola will battle veteran lefty Jon Lester in Philadelphia. Nola’s 15 wins are currently good for second in the National League and he sports an outstanding 2.10 ERA to boot. The 25-year-old righty has been stellar on his home mound this season, boasting a 9-0 record with a 1.94 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 10.0 K/9 across 13 starts (88.0 innings.)

The other Cy Young hopeful that will go to work Sunday is Max Scherzer , who will take the mound in D.C. versus the Brewers as the only N.L. hurler with more wins (16) than Nola. Scherzer did not have his best stuff last time out, as he surrendered three earned runs on four hits (two homers) across 5.0 innings in Philadelphia this past Tuesday. That effort snapped a streak of 25 straight starts with at least 6.0 innings worked for the MLB strikeout leader (249) and was the first time in eight starts that he had given up more than two runs.

In addition to Scherzer and Nola, Shohei Ohtani is slated to make his much-anticipated return to the mound in Houston opposite Gerrit Cole in the Sunday night game. Over his first nine starts of the season between April 1 and June 6, Ohtani was regularly solid and sometimes flat dominant, posting a 3.10 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 11.1 K/9 across 49.1 innings. Due to a sprained UCL, the two-way rookie has not been on the bump since that stretch.

 

Streaking

Mitch Haniger (SEA) - 13 games - 18-for-56, .996 OPS, 4 HR, 3 2B

Hunter Renfroe - 9 games - 14-for-38, 1.175 OPS, 5 HR

Starling Marte - 8 games - 14-for-35, .947 OPS, 3 2B