Mauricio Dubon homers in loss to Padres

Pasquantino figures to make it back to Kansas City before next week’s All-Star break after hitting the shelf with a hamate fracture back in mid-June. The 28-year-old first baseman was the driving force being Team Italy’s remarkable run during the World Baseball Classic, but he’s dndured a down year at the plate, hitting .224/.309/.350 with six homers, 32 RBI and three steals in 68 games.

Sung-Mun Song gets a look at shortstop with Bogaerts taking a seat following 22 consecutive starts dating back to June 12. The 33-year-old veteran has hit .231/.321/.337 with 36 runs scored, eight homers, 33 RBI and 10 steals in 336 plate appearances through 85 games.

The Tyler Tolbert Game. The Royals’ speedy utilityman came into the day with no extra-base hits and one RBI in 43 plate appearances this season. Even in Triple-A, he totaled just two extra-base hits in 20 games. All three of his singles today were softly hit, but he got up to 96.5 mph of exit velocity on his double. His homer left the bat at 94 mph, but it carried 376 feet to left anyway. The Royals had Tolbert at shortstop with Bobby Witt Jr. DHing today. He mostly plays against lefties, but the Royals will probably make an exception and start him no matter who the Mets throw against the on Tuesday.

The Phillies had runners on against Cameron in every inning, loading the bases in both the first and second, but they couldn’t break through. In all, Cameron allowed six hits and walked five. Somehow, he gave up the two farthest-hit balls of the game, doubles from Alec Bohm (414 feet) and Trea Turner (406 feet), even as the Royals outhomered the Phillies 4-0. Encouraging was that Cameron’s fastball velocity was back up to 92.7 mph today. He’s averaged 92.4 mph this year, but he was down to 91.3 mph while giving up six runs to the Rays last time out. He improved to 5-6 with a 4.77 ERA ahead of his final start of the first half Saturday against the Orioles.

It’s hard not to wonder how much differently things would have gone if Trea Turner hadn’t botched an easy double play relay that would have resulted in Sánchez throwing 15 pitches in a scoreless first inning. He went on to give up six runs and throw 31 pitches in the frame. Still, as unfortunate as that was, it seemed pretty clear that Sánchez just didn’t have it today. He gave up three homers on his changeup, which is just nuts. It matches the number of homers he’d yielded on his previous 1,753 changeups since the beginning of 2025. Sánchez failed to last five innings for the first time since May 24, 2025 and gave up more than six runs for the first time since Aug. 2024. He’d never before surrendered three homers. The performance took his ERA from 2.00 to 2.62, dropping him from second to 10th on the MLB leaderboard. Sánchez is expected to make his next start Saturday against the Tigers.

Perez hit the ball hard all four times up today, with his lone out traveling 391 feet to center. Obviously, most of the Royals had a fun day in the 15-1 victory, but Perez really needed it; at .202, his average was in danger of falling back under .200. The homer was his first since June 18 and 11th overall.

Loftin had been 1-for-27 since going 4-for-6 with a homer the last time the Royals scored 10 runs on June 23. Five times this year, he’s started a game in which the Royals have gone on to score in double figures. He’s 13-for-23 with 10 RBI in those games, and he’s hitting .149 in 134 at-bats the rest of the time.

With his left shoulder leading the way, Hill crashed into the wall pretty good on Luke Maile’s homer in the first. However, he remained in both then and after getting checked at first base on following his single in the second. He wound up finishing the 15-1 loss with his first ever infield appearance after Garrett Stubbs, who had replaced Bryce Harper at first in the blowout, moved to the mound to finish out the game. He’d played the outfield exclusively in 666 minor league games and 198 as a major leaguer.

Sandoval is expected to make his Boston debut at some point later this week, most likely against the White Sox on Thursday, in place of an injured Connelly Early (elbow). The 29-year-old southpaw will be making his first start in the majors since June 21, 2024. He spent the last two years working his way back from Tommy John surgery. He’s always possessed enough strikeout potential to be interesting for fantasy purposes and he struck out seven over five shutout innings for Double-A Portland in his final minor league rehab outing over the weekend. A wait-and-see approach seems preferable for fantasy managers in shallow mixed leagues, but he’s a name to watch coming out of the All-Star break in deeper formats.

Gamboa retreats to the minors with Patrick Sandoval coming off the injured list. The 29-year-old lefty has allowed two runs over five innings across four relief appearances for the Red Sox this season.