Chris Sale fans 10 in tough loss to Giants

Watson finds himself batting in the premium lineup spot for the second straight contest. The 23-year-old former first-round pick got off to a frosty start, but he’s now hitting .246 (14-for-57) with one homer and six steals in 17 games since arriving in the majors last month.

Palacios hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since getting into 51 games for the White Sox during the 2025 campaign. The 30-year-old corner outfielder got into 114 contests for Pittsburgh from 2023-2024. He’s merely organizational depth at Triple-A Indianapolis.

Culpepper was officially placed on the minor league injured list on Tuesday with a glute strain. It’s the same hip-related issue that forced him to miss time last month. The 23-year-old has certainly shown enough on the doorstep of the majors to warrant a call-up to the big leagues, but that won’t happen until he’s healthy again. He’s a worthwhile stash in deeper mixed leagues, but fantasy managers in shallow formats can probably find a better use for his roster spot.

Robinson will stick around as emergency organizational depth after being jettisoned from Los Angeles’ 40-man roster earlier this week. The 31-year-old backstop went 2-for-23 during an eight-game stint with the Dodgers. Eliezer Alfonzo will back up Dalton Rushing until Will Smith (neck) returns from the injured list.

Yelich’s second double broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh for what proved to be the final run of the game. The Brewers also beat the Cardinals 4-3 last night. For Yelich, it’s his first game with three hits since May 26 and his first game with multiple extra-base hits since May 18. He entered the day in a 5-for-47 slump that had dropped his OPS to .700.

Jordan Walker hit a two-run homer in the first and Iván Herrera followed with a solo shot in the third, but Misiorowski completely shut the Cardinals down afterwards. He allowed just one hit besides the homers, and he walked none. It’s his eighth 10-strikeout game of the season. Dylan Cease is alone in second place there with five such games. Misiorowski has 167 strikeouts on the season, which is 30 more than Cease and Cristopher Sánchez in second place. He’s the seventh starting pitcher to reach 10 wins this season. No starter has more, though Aaron Ashby has 12 in relief. Misiorowski is slated to pitch again Sunday against the Pirates.

Trevor Megill was due to have today off after throwing 31 pitches the last two days, though maybe, with the doubleheader, the Brewers would consider him in the nightcap. Aaron Ashby set up for Uribe in this one, so if the Brewers want to play it safe, it might be Grant Anderson or Jared Koenig on the mound in a save situation tonight. Uribe’s save today was his first since his inappropriate celebration against the Cardinals on May 19 resulted in a one-game suspension and cost him some standing in the Milwaukee pen.

It was Zimmermann’s first major league appearance since he made one start for the Brewers last year. He came in behind opener Matt Bowman to begin the second and held his own against Jacob Misiorowski before exiting a 3-3 tie after six. He’s out of options, so he might be DFA’d to allow the Cardinals to bring in a fresh arm.

Sending Crooks out to face Jacob Misiorowski for his first at-bats in five days wasn’t exactly fair, but that’s part of what hitting .164 gets you. Crooks was supposed to be the Cardinals’ most frequent starter behind the plate after he was added to the roster at the end of May, but the start today was just his fourth in the last 14 games. If he’s not going to play any more than this, the Cardinals might return him to Triple-A and bring back Yohel Pozo as a third catching option.

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told reporters there’s a chance Soderstrom is back “very soon.” The 24-year-old slugger has been out with a hip impingement since late June. It sounds like there’s a strong probability he makes it back to the Athletics lineup prior to next week’s All-Star break.