Sandy Alcantara surrenders five runs, wins anyway

Meant to be tired after the Red Sox’s travel woes between Thursday and Friday, Gray lulled the Mets to sleep here. He didn’t have anything close to his best swing-and-miss stuff and only forced two whiffs, but showed great command of his sinker and used it to wriggle out of a few jams with some timely double plays. After this excellent start, he’ll close the first half with a 2.54 ERA, 85 strikeouts, and 24 walks across 95 2/3 innings. That is the lowest ERA by a qualified pitcher that did not make either All-Star team.

Abreu put this game to bed with a two-run homer in the ninth inning that stretched the Red Sox’s lead out to five runs and put the finishing touches on this stellar game. He’s now hit safely in eight of his last 10 games and is hoping to turn some of that contact into power with this being his first home run since June 23rd.

In a game where the Mets mustered 10 hits, only two went for extra-bases and they only scratched across two runs. Baty scored both of those and hit a home run in the process. He also had a 111 mph lineout and 106 mph single, accounting for three of their five hardest hit balls on the night. While he was an unmitigated disaster at the plate for the first few months of the season, he’s currently riding a 10-game hitting streak, stole a base in consecutive games, has loud tools, and has started 19 consecutive games.

McLean was thrown into the fire right away when Juan Soto dropped a fly ball against the first batter of the game. Then, with two outs, Masataka Yoshida slapped a weak double just inside the third base line that got caught on the tarp and two unearned runs came around to score. From there, McLean slammed the door. Carson Benge helped him out by throwing out a runner at home plate, but McLean did well despite again not having great feel for either his curveball or sweeper. Without those to lean on, he found success buzzing his four seamer at the top of the zone and it forced six of his eight total swings-and-misses. While it’s felt uneasy at times, McLean will close the first half with a 3.52 ERA, 125 strikeouts, and 39 walks through 107 1/3 innings pitched.

Chisholm golfed a Matt Krook sweeper into the second deck in right field, just fair, for his 13th homer of the season. The second baseman had slumped of late — he’s hitting just .186 over his last 30 games — and is still just under a .700 OPS on the season, but hopefully this gets him going in the second half. Someone get him on with Jimmy Fallon again.

Dominguez took a Zack Littell sinker out to right-center field to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning, then singled and scored in the ninth inning on Jazz Chisholm’s homer. The 23-year-old is now hitting .346/.393/.615 in his last seven games with two homers and a stolen base. He’s not exactly a must-roster at this point, but he’s a talented player getting a real chance with Aaron Judge out, and he may be getting hot at the right time.

Wood joined Keibert Ruiz in going back-to-back off Yankees left-hander Tim Hill in the seventh inning to give the Nationals the lead. He also scored on a leadoff double in the third, scoring on a Dylan Crews double play ball. Wood, now hitting .391/.588/1.087 in his last seven games, with four home runs and two stolen bases, is very good at baseball.

Sure. Krook entered the game with a 14.54 ERA and was just claimed on waivers from the Athletics last Saturday. Clayton Beeter came in during the eighth inning to extinguish Paul Goldschmidt and save Tom Cosgrove from a blown save. Instead of letting Beeter face Cody Bellinger, Jasson Dominguez and Jazz Chisholm, Drew Butera went to the left-hander. Weird how going to the guy with the huge ERA works out. Butera is the only one who knows how this bullpen will go, is one thing that’s clear.

He sat down six Nationals batters in order despite striking out nobody. The Yankees were taxed from a bullpen game last night and had already used Fernando Cruz, the other pitcher who didn’t throw yesterday, earlier in the game. Bednar came in with the Yankees behind 3-2 in the eighth, then Jazz Chisholm staked the Yankees to the lead in the ninth and Bednar was able to finish things off in the bottom of the inning for a win. Not exactly the save we were hunting for, but it surely doesn’t hurt your fantasy team.

He left with a one-run lead, turning it over to the Nationals bullpen after Carson Palmquist went three innings in front of him. Then what usually happens with the Nationals pen happened, depriving Littell of a win. Littell allowed a solo shot to Jasson Dominguez, but that was it. He finishes the first half with a 4.90 ERA. He has some deep-league streaming appeal going forward, especially if he keeps following.