Gage Jump shuts out Giants for five innings

Rafaela thought he just missed on the slam, spiking his bat on the fly to left. Colby Thomas really should have made the catch, but he didn’t time the play very well and had the ball go off his glove as he jumped at the wall. Rafaela had hit .355 in 32 career plate appearances with the bases loaded, but this was his first slam, and it put the Red Sox in position to claim a 10th straight road victory. Rafaela, who was dropped to fifth in Boston’s lineup with new arrival Curtis Mead hitting second tonight, is batting .278/.320/.442 in 414 plate appearances.

Tolle gave up homers to Tyler Soderstrom and Jonah Heim, but thanks to Ceddanne Rafaela’s slam in the sixth, he won for the sixth time this season to even up his record. He has a 3.32 ERA and a 103/27 K/BB through 95 innings. He’s looking at a showdown with the Dodgers next time out on Saturday.

Chapman allowed a single and had another batter reach on an error, but he fanned the other three guys he faced. With nine saves and one win in 10 appearances. he’ll be on the short list of AL relievers of the month for July.

Perkins was lifted with the shutout intact and two on with two outs in the sixth. José Suárez replaced him and then walked Wilyer Abreu before giving up a grand slam to Ceddanne Rafaela that accounted for all of Boston’s scoring on the night. As a result, Perkins dropped to 2-6 despite turning in his best outing of the season. He allowed just one hit and struck out four while throwing only 69 pitches to get his 17 outs. He’s of little interest in fantasy leagues, but he definitely deserved better tonight. He’ll face the Tigers this weekend.

Bolte is down to .243/.320/.322 with his groundball-heavy ways. We’d just as soon see the A’s stick with him the rest of the way, but if they get Denzel Clarke back next month, Bolte might receive some more Triple-A time. Ideally, that would come with some instruction on how to lift the ball more than one-third of the time. He needs to cut back on the strikeouts some, too, but that’s not the primary problem.

That has to be good for a little bump in trade value. Mahle struck out three and walked two in improving to 3-9 with a 4.96 ERA on the season. He’s due to face the Padres on Saturday, but that outing should be considered very tentative with the trade deadline coming two days later. Mahle won’t be any contender’s top target, but he might be able to help a club get to October, even if he won’t be much use then.

Even though he’s walked 22 in 31 1/3 innings, Miller is pretty clearly manager Tony Vitello’s most trusted reliever at the moment. That doesn’t mean he’ll get all of the save chances, since it will make sense to play matchups with him at time. Still, he’s probably a better use of a roster spot than Caleb Kilian in fantasy leagues right now.

Sproat got through six tonight for just the fourth time this year, but he did show some fatigue late; his fastball went from averaging 97.0 mph in the first to 94.2 mph in the fifth and 94.4 mph in the sixth. He dropped to 0-2 in four starts this month and 3-6 overall. The Brewers will likely keep him in the rotation for now and start him against the Angels on Sunday, but if they add a starter, Sproat could be pretty interesting coming out of the pen down the stretch.

McCray’s first at-bat tonight saw him crush a 111.1-mph line drive that turned into a double play. It topped his previous high EV as a major leaguer by 2.2 mph. His next at-bat was the homer, which left the bat at 101.9 mph and was projected at 406 feet. McCray was making just his third start since being recalled July 10, but he’d seem to have a case for more time in center at Drew Gilbert’s expense. He’d also be due a longer look if the Giants sell off multiple hitters at the deadline.

Hoerner hit a two-run homer off Hunter Dobbins to essentially put the game away in the top of the ninth. It was his first homer since way back on Apr. 21, when he hit his fourth in 23 games to start the year. It now seems pretty official that he’s turned things around after a two-month slump; he’s batting .432/.432/.545 in 10 games to start the second half, raising his OPS from .631 to .666.