Bobby Witt Jr. homers twice in loss to Rays

It’s the fourth straight Mariners game to end in a shutout, and they were on the right side of three of them (they beat the Angels 1-0 on Thursday, lost to the Jays 2-0 on Friday and won 11-0 on Saturday). Hancock was originally supposed to piggyback with Logan Gilbert on Saturday, but the Mariners scratched that the night before and Gilbert went out and pitched one-hit ball for seven innings. Now, Hancock has gone seven scoreless for the first time. He previously pitched six scoreless innings twice and seven innings of one-run ball once. He struck out five and generated 14 whiffs today, finishing with a 32 percent CSW. The Mariners probably won’t engage in any funny business in the rotation this week with six games in a row after the off day on Monday. Just like this weekend, they’ll likely go with Luis Castillo on Friday, Gilbert on Saturday and Hancock on Sunday against the Rays.

The unearned run was a product of Ernie Clement committing an error prior to Mitch Garver’s two-run homer in the third. Yesavage racked up seven strikeouts, his second highest total of the year. He allowed just three hits. He still hasn’t surrendered more than five hits in any outing this year, and he’s given up a total of eight in 18 1/3 innings over his last three outings. He’s 4-4 with a 3.31 ERA, and he’ll finish off the first half with a start in San Diego next weekend.

After doing a nice job while Cal Raleigh was on the injured list (.238/.304/.476 with three homers in 15 games), Garver, who was starting for the first time in seven days, is back to playing pretty seldomly since Raleigh returned. The homer today was his first this season with Raleigh on the active roster. He’s hitting just .194/.325/.330 overall.

Kirk is batting .204 with one homer and five RBI in 16 games since returning from a fractured thumb. He did have four hard-hit balls in his previous start on Friday, but in addition to striking out once, his balls in play today were hit just 62, 48 and 80 mph.

Casas still hasn’t played since suffering a ruptured patella tendon last May. As he was making his way back from that, he suffered an abdominal strain during the first week of this season. He resumed swinging in the second half of June, but now his return is on hold again.

Fairbanks had an earned run taken away because the scorekeeper determined it was a passed ball from Joe Mack that allowed the run to score. It was still an awful effort from Fairbanks, and it didn’t even come in a save situation, so there’s no benefit for those who roster the 32-year-old. He’s now allowed runs in four straight appearances, and his ERA has blown up to an ugly 6.84. It still seems likely that Fairbanks will get the save chances for Miami, but this is a situation worth monitoring.

A fascinating baseball game. The A’s trailed 8-0 at the end of seven with Eury Pérez throwing a perfect game, but after Pérez was pulled, the A’s got back in the game and then some; thanks in large part to Heim. His grand slam made it an 8-5 game in the eighth, and he hit a two-run single off a wholly ineffective Pete Fairbanks to draw the A’s to within a run. Heim has been a solid bench bat for the Athletics in 2026 with nine homers and a .241/.300/.490 slash.

Hernández gave the Marlins an early 1-0 lead with his solo shot, and then hit another one in the sixth. He also single and drew a pair of walks, so a nifty overall day for the 26-year-old. He’s now homered 11 times in 2026, and he’s done so with a slash of .234/.314/.457. Those numbers show the flaws in Hernández’s game, but also why he has a chance to be a pretty good one over the coming campaigns.

It makes back-to-back games where Lopez has picked up three hits and a homer. The 27-year-old also doubled and drew a walk, and in the process saw his slash improve to a remarkable — and totally unexpected — .346/.376/.520 on the season. Even if there was to be some substantial regression after the break, what Lopez has done over these first 90 games cannot be ignored. He deserves more respect for his first three months.

Jump was bad from, well, the jump; allowing a homer in the first and two more runs in the second. He gave up three more in the third, and to say he didn’t match the effort of Eury Pérez — who threw seven perfect innings — is quite the understatement. Jump has struggled in his last two outings while allowing 11 runs, and will try and rebound from those disappointing efforts against the White Sox in Chicago this weekend.