It is expected to be a busy July as far as trades go with the elimination of the August trade deadline and the July 31 date being the last day teams can make a swap. While not the most exciting name, there was a notable transaction yesterday as the Red Sox traded for Andrew Cashner and cash for a couple of prospects. Cashner has a sub-4.00 ERA on the year, but a SIERA north of 5.00 isn’t a positive sign of things to come. But the Sox haven’t been able to find a reliable fifth starter, and Cashner should be able to fil that role by eating some innings.

 

Pitching Performance of the Day

There was some thought to going with Noah Syndergaard here, but his impressive stat line (7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 9 K) isn’t as impressive when you consider it came against the Marlins who rank 28th in wRC+ vs. RHP. Trever Bauer, on the other hand, performed well in a tough matchup against the Twins who rank third in wRC+ vs. RHP. Bauer led all starters with 11 strikeouts yesterday and was tied with Patrick Corbin for the most swinging strikes generated with 21. Bauer allowed three runs and took the loss, but it was still arguably the best pitching performance of the day given the matchup.

 

Hitting Performance of the Day

Only two players who started yesterday had a wOBA north of 1.000 for the day, and both played at Coors Field. On the home side, Daniel Murphy went 4-for-4 and added a walk to reach base in every plate appearance. He homered and added three singles with two runs scored. On the other side of the game, Phillip Ervin went 6-for-6 and was tied for the day’s lead in total bases with nine. Ervin scored once and drove in three runs. Ervin has a .357 average in 61 PA this season, but his BABIP is a ridiculous .559, and he’s striking out well north of 30 percent of the time.

 

Game of the Day

The Nationals entered the ninth inning down by a run, and their chances of winning were just 3.5 percent after the first two batters were retired. But Anthony Rendon extended the game with a single and on the very next pitch Juan Soto flipped the script.

 

Both teams trail the Braves by a considerable margin, but they’re squarely in the hunt for Wild Card spots. Only a game and a half separated them before yesterday’s game, and the Nats extended their lead to two and a half games as opposed to only having a half game on the Phils entering today’s game.

What to Watch for Today

José Berríos versus Shane Bieber is a pretty good afternoon pitching matchup on today’s slate, but the week will end with David Price against Hyun-Jin Ryu on Sunday Night Baseball. Ryu has a ridiculous 1.73 ERA on the season, and Price hasn’t been bad himself with a K-BB% that’s actually half a percentage point better than Ryu’s.