Grant Taylor tosses two scoreless to pick up win

He struck out one and walked one while throwing 62 percent of his pitches for strikes. The bigger news was that Bloss saw 94.9 mph on his sinker and 96.3 mph on his four-seam fastball, which were both up by about three mph. He struggled to command the sinker, but that kind of velocity bump, which he held throughout the game, would be big news for the 25-year-old right-hander. He could be an option in the Blue Jays’ rotation after the break.

Veen is now hitting .322/.400/.588 with 14 home runs, 55 RBI, and 14 steals in 75 games at Triple-A. He’s being a bit more aggressive than he has been in recent seasons, so even though his swinging strike rate remains a similar 11.5 percent, he’s making more contact and more contact in the zone than before. He deserves another shot at MLB at-bats, but with Jake McCarthy, Brenton Doyle, Mickey Moniak, and Cole Carrigg also in the outfield mix in Colorado, the team likely needs to make a move at the trade deadline.

Wallner is now hitting .282/.376/.607 with 15 home runs, 42 RBI, and a 49/17 K/BB ratio in 42 games since being demoted to Triple-A. Yes, the strikeouts remain a bit of an issue and probably always will, but the 28-year-old has consistent power that teams covet. It might make sense for the Twins to use this hot stretch to give him MLB at-bats and see if they can trade him at the deadline to a team that wants a left-handed power bat off the bench.

That homer extended Sirota’s on-base streak to 68 games. The 23-year-old is hitting .324/.484/.547 with seven home runs, 25 RBI, and three steals in 38 games at Double-A after being promoted following 35 games at High-A. He has emerged as a top-15 prospect in all of baseball and looks like a major steal for the Dodgers, who drafted him in 2021 only to see him choose to go to college, and then have the Dodgers trade Gavin Lux to the Reds for him in January 2025.

Montes and 2B/OF prospect Michael Arroyo are being promoted to Triple-A Tacoma, according to MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer. Montes is the Mariners’ third-ranked prospect and MLB Pipeline’s 26th overall prospect, while Arroyo is the team’s fourth-ranked prospect and MLB Pipeline’s 43rd overall prospect. Montes hit .236/.365/.554 with 25 home runs and five steals in 78 games at Double-A. That came with a 30.5 percent strikeout rate, 18 percent swinging strike rate, and 62.5 percent contact rate, so those numbers will need to improve in Triple-A before he has a legitimate shot to crack the MLB roster.

Cherington mentioned that both players “are progressing well in Florida, but both will be sidelined until after the All-Star Break.” The team hopes that they will both be back in the lineup “not too long after the break.” Cruz has been out since June 10th with non-displaced fractures in his hand. He was originally expected to miss “at least one month,” which will be in the middle of this week. He could likely begin a rehab assignment in the next couple of weeks and, assuming he can swing without pain, be back in the Pirates lineup soon after. With both Horwitz and Cruz back, the Pirates may have to be creative to find at-bats for surging Esmerlyn Valdez and Tyler Callihan.

Smith-Shawver allowed two hits and didn’t walk a batter while striking out five. There is no Statcast data at the park, but reports are that he sat 96 mph on his four-seam fastball and touched 100 mph. He threw 34 of his 47 pitches for strikes in what was an incredibly efficient outing. The Braves will move him up to a higher level and presumably try to get him around 60 pitches next time out. Now would be the time to stash him in fantasy leagues since he could return to Atlanta in two weeks. Remember that he had a 3.86 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, and 22 percent strikeout rate in 44 innings for Atlanta last year, so we’d recommend stashing just in deeper formats for right now.

We know Snell threw a bullpen on June 26th, and it appears that he threw another one this weekend, but there aren’t many more details about how many, or what type of, pitches he threw. We would still assume that he will begin facing live hitters if this next bullpen is successful and then begin a rehab assignment. All of that seems to indicate that we could be looking at an early August return for Snell, if all goes well.

The Red Sox are referring to the visit as more about “peace of mind,” but it’s obviously concerning that Anthony has made no substantial progress since spraining his wrist and tearing a ligament in his ring finger over two months ago. The 22-year-old will see Dr. Gary Lourie, who is a hand specialist and Braves’ head team physician.

The homer was his 13th, so power production hasn’t really been his issue. However, Duran came into this one hitless in his previous four games. It was his first multihit game since June 16 and his first time reaching base safely three times in a game since May 30. His OBP is sitting at .259, compared to .346, .342 and .332 the previous three years.