Losing a player due to injury this season feels inevitable. Last night, Miguel Cabrera ’s season ended due to a ruptured biceps. Although it seems like he’s injury prone, Cabrera did not incur his first disabled list stint until 2015. However, lingering back issues provided caution to those drafting this preseason making Cabrera an intriguing target for a bounce back season.
Cabrera will finish with a very respectable .299/.395/.458 slash line but only three home runs in 38 games. With Detroit about to endure a potential rebuild, Cabrera’s contract could evolve as an albatross to the franchise. He’s due to earn $30 million from 2019 through the 2021 seasons. Then $32 million in both 2022 and 2023. Cabrera will turn 36 next April.
That Just Happened
For the second straight night, Mike Trout launched two home runs in Safeco Field. He’s the first player to hit two home runs in back-to-back games at the stadium, beating the Mariners to their own record. Also, this marks the first time in major league history two teams have provided multiple home run hitters in consecutive games. On Monday, Nelson Cruz matched Trout’s two homer game with one of his own. Last night, both Mitch Haniger and Ryon Healy recorded two-home run outings as well. Seattle will be happy when Trout leaves since he’s hitting a robust .636 (14-for-22) against them this year with eight runs, three doubles, a triple, five home runs, eight RBI, three walks and a stolen base. Trout resumed the major league lead in home runs (23), runs (56) and walks (54). He may make it in this game.
Red alert for Mike Foltynewicz. He left Tuesday’s game after five innings with tightness in his triceps. Foltynewicz had thrown five shutout innings with six strikeouts pushing his season total to 94 over 79 innings. When asked by reporters to rate his pain level, Foltynewicz responded one out of 10, hopefully this will be true for his owners.
Unlike Miguel Cabrera ’s rare visits to the disabled list, Trevor Cahill will head there once again with an Achilles issue. Cahill seems like a speculative add every year only to have his time cut short by injury. Sometimes the song remains the same. Chris Bassitt will take over his turn in the rotation for Oakland.
Although many seem to believe Aaron Nola ’s on the precipice of a breakout, he’s been very good dating back to last year. Nola won his eighth decision this year striking out 10 Rockies while yielding four hits and one earned run last night lowering his ERA to 2.27 in the process. Over his last 32 starts, Nola’s (17-8) with 227 strikeouts, 55 walks and a 2.68 ERA in 208 innings. Teammate Seranthony Dominguez notched his third save giving up a hit with a strikeout. The Phillies deploy the closer by committee approach but it’s tough to ignore Dominguez in this bullpen. He’s saved three games and worked more than one inning in seven of his 10 appearances so far with a 22:1 K:BB, 1.42 ERA and 0.42 WHIP. That’s good right?
Stay hot Evan Gattis who recorded two more hits and his 11th home run. He’s nine for his last 24 (.375) the last six games with three home runs. Over his last 14 games, Gattis has hit seven home runs with 20 RBI. Carlos Correa made his first start in four games returning from a sore side with his 11th home run as well. Those spending big FAAB on Héctor Rondón had to love seeing Ken Giles record his 11th save giving up a hit with two strikeouts.
Breakout the Dodgers bats. They won for the eighth time in 10 games so far in June and have hit 29 home runs in them. Perhaps there’s a correlation? Here’s a quick recap of last night’s hitting heroes:
Max Muncy homered for the fourth straight game, is hitting .375 this month with six home runs and nine walks.
Joc Pederson hit his eighth home run, seventh in June and has 13 hits his last 27 at-bats (.481).
Yasiel Puig also launched his eighth home run, is 15 for his last 36 (.417) and hit three in June.
Entering Tuesday’s interleague tilt with the Nationals 13 for his last 43 (.302), Didi Gregorius crushed two solo home runs (12, 13) providing most of the Yankees offense and his 14th multi-hit game of the season. He’s been a streaky producer so ride the wave. Speaking of streaks, the Yankees bullpen has accounted for a cumulative 21.2 straight scoreless innings. Dellin Betances has whiffed 15 over nine scoreless innings allowing one hit and Aroldis Chapman recorded his 18th save while pacing towards his first 40-save season.
With the game trending towards bullpens, both Tampa Bay and San Diego won games on Tuesday without a traditional starter. The Rays used six pitchers, none throwing more than 32 pitches and limiting the Blue Jays to one run. For those interested, Sergio Romo turned in his second save giving up a hit. As for the Padres, five pitchers combined for a shutout in St. Louis with no pitcher throwing more than 36 pitches. Kirby Yates notched his 11th hold and Brad Hand his 20th save with the two splitting time of late in high leverage.
Not only did Kelvin Herrera blow his second save of the season, his no walks allowed streak was snapped at 124 by Joey Votto . Herrera walked two resulting in only the third run he’s allowed on the year raising his ERA to 1.05 and first run since May 15th. A blip for Herrera who will look good in a different uniform with the trade deadline 48 days away. As for Votto, he’s on a 20-game on-base streak hitting .378/.498/.500 in it and tripled in three runs leading the Reds to a win in extra-innings.
Shrouded by the Paul Goldschmidt revival, Ketel Marte ’s also on a heater. Marte went 2-for-2 last night with a triple, three RBI and a walk. Over his last 14 games, Marte’s hitting .378 (17-for-45) with 12 of his last 15 hits going for extra-bases (Six doubles, three triples and three home runs) and 14 RBI.
Another day and another save for every day Edwin Díaz in Seattle. Diaz fired a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts and has whiffed 42.3 percent of hitters this season (58 strikeouts of 137 total batters faced). This save marks the 13th time he’s faced the minimum batters in a save and Diaz ranks second to Craig Kimbrel in this statistic who has done it 15 times.
Burning Questions
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Will Josh Donaldson return to the Blue Jays lineup on Wednesday?
Can Jacob deGrom win his fifth game? He only owns a tidy 1.57 ERA this year with not much to show for it.
How will Mike Montgomery pitch in Milwaukee? Could he keep a spot in the rotation with Yu Darvish on his way back?
Baltimore will use its bullpen against Chris Sale , good luck?
Should the Dodgers stay hot and torch Cole Hamels , will it reduce his trade price with them looking at him?
There’s day baseball, so it’s a good day. Be sure to check back later for Fantasy Alarm’s Closing Bell to stay ahead of your competition.