Amidst a wild night of games with 55 home runs launched, it makes sense the wildest one occurred in Coors Field. Underscoring why bullpens matter, the Rockies and Padres made some history with a record setting come from behind win by San Diego:

 

Mike Dunn started the ninth inning with a six run cushion then left with his team only ahead by two runs. He also contributed to the Hunter Renfroe three-home run party serving up Renfroe’s second of the night:

 

Which culminated in Renfroe’s blast in the 12th, putting the Padres ahead for good. Hidden beneath the loss, Wade Davis suffered his first blown save of the season. Since returning from the injured list, he’s logged 3.2 innings in four outings giving up seven hits, three earned runs and one walk with three strikeouts for a 7.36 ERA along with a 2.18 WHIP. Less than optimal.

As for Renfroe, over his last 162 games he’s hit 44 home runs and has 21 this year. He finished last night with four hits and five RBI. Manny Machado added four hits of his own with his 13th home run driving in two. Fernando Tatis Jr. racked up two hits in the ninth inning and continues to be a spark to this offense. For the Rockies, Charlie Blackmon tallied four hits in seven at-bats with three runs, a double and his 15th home run. This marks back-to-back games with four hits for Blackmon. He’s hit safely in six of seven games off the injured list with 10 runs, five home runs, 11 RBI and a .469 average (15-for-32) in them.

Eloy Jimenez continues to emerge for the White Sox proving patience pays with talented rookies. Jimenez went 3-for-5 with two home runs, his 10th and 11th, driving in a career high six against the Yankees. He’s already accrued two multi-homer games facing New York plus he’s hit five home runs over his last six games with 11 RBI walking three times with only two strikeouts. Jose Abreu moved atop the RBI leaderboard in the American League as well.

A double dong game for J.D. Martinez in Baltimore. He drove in three along with drawing two walks. Martinez has three multi-home run games this year and of his 13 career games with them, five took place against the Orioles. Jackie Bradley Jr. extended his hit streak to five games with his seventh home run.

Grand slams also were in play with Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos launching them last night. Odor went 1-for-2 with his eighth home run driving in four and walked three times. Over his last seven games, Odor owns a .991 on-base plus slugging percentage and could be heating up. Chirinos knocked in six runs and has hit 10 of his 12 home runs versus right-handed pitching this season with a .292 isolated power. And a different rookie also showed off his power:

 

Yordan Alvarez homered for the third time in only four games since his promotion plus hit two singles with exit velocities over 110 MPH.

Just when it seemed safe to ignore Jake Bauers, he recorded the second cycle in two days (Shohei Ohtani on Thursday):

 

Bauers finished with four hits and four RBI with the ninth cycle in Cleveland history and first since Rajai Davis in 2016.

Paul DeJong homered in both the suspended game from Thursday and last night’s game against the Mets leading the Cardinals to wins in each contest.

Stay hot Scott Kingery. Kingery racked up three hits, including his eighth home run. Over his last 30 games, Kingery’s scored 19 runs with eight home runs, 19 RBI, two stolen bases and a .327/.357/.673 slash line. In this same game, Freddie Freeman launched his 19th home run and currently pacing towards 44 this year with a 1.000 on-base plus slugging percentage.

Shrouded by Josh Bell’s breakout, Colin Moran continues to produce. He drove in a career high five runs and hit his 10th home run. Moran’s pacing towards 23 home runs and 94 RBI, in only 444 at-bats.

 

Starting pitcher spotlight: Scherzer shines again

Rolling to the 87th career double digit strikeout game of his career, Max Scherzer evened his record with his fifth win striking out 10 Diamondbacks over seven innings.

 

Scherzer also passed Warren Spahn and Bob Feller on the all-time strikeouts list in this outing with 2,584 in his career. Limiting Arizona to three hits, both earned runs occurred on solo home runs while Scherzer yielded one walk. He generated 23 swinging strikes and 19 called of his 104 pitches for a robust 40.4 called plus swinging strike (CSW) percentage.

Owning Kyle Gibson can be frustrating, but he fired eight shutout innings giving up two hits while striking out six en route to his seventh win. He only needed 87 pitches with 11 swinging strikes and 17 called for a 32.2 CSW percentage in a nice bounceback game.

 

Here’s more notable performances from Friday night:

  • Eduardo Rodriguez, Boston: 102 pitches, nine swinging strikes, 15 called, 23.5 CSW%. Rodriguez won his seventh game and recorded his sixth quality start of the season. He worked seven innings and of his 13 career games lasting this long, Rodriguez owns a 1.13 ERA with a 0.77 WHIP in them.

  • Steven Brault, Pittsburgh: 90 pitches, 12 swinging strikes, 14 called, 28.9 CSW%. Brault won his third decision working around eight hits in six shutout innings with six strikeouts.

  • Lucas Giolito, Chicago White Sox: 104 pitches, 14 swinging strikes, 20 called, 32.7 CSW%. Giolito now leads the majors with 10 wins. He logged six innings allowing four hits, an earned run and four walks with six strikeouts. Giolito’s the second pitcher to win eight straight starts with five or fewer hits in each since 1920 joining Randy Johnson who did it in 1999 and 2000.

  • Gerrit Cole, Houston: 100 pitches, 16 swinging strikes, 17 called, 33 CSW%. Cole racked up 10 strikeouts in six innings giving up three hits, two earned runs and two walks for his sixth win. Cole leads the American League in strikeouts (140) and recorded double digit strikeouts in 16 of his 47 starts with the Astros.

  • Rich Hill, Los Angeles Dodgers: 99 pitches, 14 swinging strikes, 18 called, 32.3 CSW%. Hill won his fourth straight start lasting seven innings allowing seven hits, three earned runs and striking out seven.

 

Bullpen Notes: Blown saves litter the landscape

Not only did Wade Davis blow a save as highlighted above, Hector Neris suffered his first blown save melting down in Atlanta. Neris allowed a lead-off single to Dansby Swanson but struck out Freddie Freeman and induced a ground out by Josh Donaldson. However, a walk to Nick Markakis prolonged the inning leading to a double by Austin Riley and the game winning single by Brian McCann driving in two runs.

Edwin Diaz started the suspended game on the mound. Diaz blew his third save in the rain on Thursday night then took the loss coughing up a home run to DeJong in the ensuing inning. He finishes this game with four hits, three earned runs and a walk. The five home runs yielded by Diaz through 27.2 innings this year matches his total from last season.

 

Here’s the rest of the high leverage moments from Friday:

  • Jordan Hicks secured his 14th save with a clean inning after DeJong’s go ahead home run. John Gant gets the win in the full game on Friday working three innings.

  • Pressed into duty by the Nationals, Sean Doolittle pitched with a four run lead to preserve the win for Scherzer. Doolittle’s pacing towards 70 appearances this year. Stay tuned.

  • Drew Smyly and Rogelio Armenteros each recorded three innings saves. Smyly allowed three hits, an earned run and a walk with five strikeouts during his transition to the bullpen. Armenteros made his major league debut with three shutout relief innings giving up two hits with three strikeouts for the Astros.

  • Save number seven for Taylor Rogers in his first outing since June sixth due to back stiffness. If he can stay healthy, he’s the arm to own in the Twins bullpen barring a trade.

  • Kirby Yates did not record a save and coughed up the first home run against him this year working with a four run lead in Colorado. Yates gave up the home run to Blackmon. Still not much to worry about here, unless the Padres decide to sell high on Yates.

  • Surging to his 20th save, Kenley Jansen struck out the side against the Cubs. He’s notched eight saves in a row. Over his last 10 games has limited opponents to four hits, one walk, no runs and recorded 16 strikeouts in 10.1 innings.

  • Will Smith pleased scouts with his 17th straight save this year striking out Christian Yelich and Mike Moustakas in the process. His price just went up.

 

What to watch for…

With a split slate of games, injury news will need to be monitored. Both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Byron Buxton left their games early last night after being hit by a pitch. While X-rays proved to be negative, monitor each situation closely.

Both Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge played at Triple-A last night during rehab outings. With the Yankees reeling, they could provide a spark in the days ahead if healthy.

Charlie Morton will try to win his ninth game facing the Angels this afternoon. Speaking of the Angels, more help could be on the way for their offense:

 

Another Giant potentially on the trade block, Madison Bumgarner will try to improve his stock at home versus the Brewers.

Shane Bieber and Pablo Lopez highlight the 6:10 (EST) start time.

In the night slate, Jake Odorizzi will look to tie Giolito with his 10th win and gets to face a reeling Royals lineup. Sean Newcomb tries to cement a spot in the ever evolving Braves rotation facing Aaron Nola. Plus, Frankie Montas and Walker Buehler also toe the rubber trying to stay hot.

Be sure to stay with Fantasy Alarm for all the latest updates across all platforms to stay ahead of the competition.

 

Statistical Credits:

BaseballSavant.com

Fangraphs.com

MLB.com - Game Notes