Josh Hader throws hitless ninth for save

Altuve got the Astros on the board with his 11th homer of the season; a solo shot off MacKenzie Gore in the fourth. The 36-year-old has shown some decent pop, but he’s mostly scuffled in the first half of 2026 with a .235/.307/.404 slash.

Nimmo’s RBI triple — his fourth three-bagger of the season — would give the Rangers a 4-1 lead. The Astros were able to comeback and actually take a 5-4 lead before Texas tied the game in the ninth on a Kyle Higashioka homer, and Nimmo cemented the win with the walk-off off Josh Hader. He’s now driven in 34 runs in his first season with the Rangers, and he’s slashing a respectable .263/.331/.425 to end the first half. You can do a lot worse.

It’s the first loss of the season for Hader. The 32-year-old gave up a pair of hits without recording an out, and then an RBI single from Brandon Nimmo gave the Rangers the win. Even with the struggle Sunday, Hader still has an ERA of 1.17, and to say he’s in no danger of giving up his closing gig is the understatement of understatements.

It’s a small sampler because of injury, but it’s probably not a good sign when three innings of three-run baseball sees your ERA actually drop to 9.98. It was his first start since returning from the shoulder strain, and it somewhat predictably didn’t go well as he allowed four hits and three walks to go with four strikeouts. It remains to be seen if Javier will remain in the rotation. It should be not be that same type of situation for fantasy managers who streamed Javier on Sunday.

Gore volunteered to start Sunday’s game on short rest, and it went as well — if not better — than could be expected. He blanked the Astros over the first three innings, with the only blemish a solo shot from Jose Altuve in the fourth. He gave up just one more hit along with a walk while striking out four. It’s not a great fantasy outing, but one that the Rangers should be pretty thankful for. Gore will be back on the bump after the All-Star break.

Alexander is “going to miss some time” according to manager Craig Albernaz The 27-year-old has been a quality contributor for the Orioles since the start of June, but now will assuredly be placed on the injured list prior to Friday’s game, and Baltimore will have to turn to Norfolk for a replacement.

Monasterio came up with the bases loaded against Devin Williams in the ninth and worked a walk even after declining to challenge a called strike on a clear ball to begin the at-bat. That gave the Red Sox their first run before Jarren Duran tied the game with a shallow flyball. Before that, Monasterio had Boston’s only extra-base hit of the game off Zach Thornton. He’s 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBI the last two days, raising his OPS from .629 to .694. The win was Boston’s ninth in a row, with sweeps over the Angels, White Sox and Mets. It’s the first time since 1977 that they’ve gone 9-0 on a road trip.

After calling up Brayan Bello, the Red Sox hinted before the game that this could be a short start for Tolle and that obviously turned out to be the case, even though Tolle was plenty effective with his 66 pitches. Tolle finishes off the first half with a 3.11 ERA and an 87/25 K/BB in 84 innings. Throw in his three Triple-A starts and he’s at 99 innings for the season. He finished at 108 last year in his first season as a pro, so there might be more managing of his workload going forward.

Bello hadn’t pitched in 11 days and wasn’t particularly effective during his stint in Triple-A, but one would never know it from his performance today. After taking over from Payton Tolle in the fourth, he faced 14 batters and got 13 outs. A solo shot from Francisco Lindor accounted for the only damage. Bello seemed likely to return to Triple-A after pitching today, but following such a nice showing, we’ll have to wait and see. He could start the fifth game after the break if Ranger Suarez isn’t ready to come off the IL.

The Red Sox used Aroldis Chapman in a tie game in the ninth, and he got the win after the team scored in the top of the 10th. Whitlock then retired Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Bo Bichette in order. He has a 2.18 ERA and a 37/6 K/BB in 33 innings this season. Whitlock is likely one of the pitchers the Red Sox will consider moving if they opt to sell at the deadline, but a nine-game winning streak to end the first half has made it more likely that most everyone is going to stick around.