Vintage: Sandy Alcantara goes eight in victory

Waldschmidt didn’t seem ready the first time around, but he had dragged his strikeout rate under 20 percent in the three weeks since he returned to Triple-A. He’s probably not ready to hit homers in the majors, but if the Diamondbacks want to play him regularly, he might steal enough bases to be useful in 12-team leagues. Tommy Troy, Max Kepler and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. could all lose at-bats with Waldschmidt back.

That was the expectation all along, but the Angels finally confirmed it on Thursday. Rodriguez looked strong in his latest minor league rehab start, hurling 5 1/3 innings of one-run baseball at Triple-A Salt Lake. Fantasy managers may want to see how he looks one turn through the rotation before throwing him right back to the wolves.

Texas coughed up a 6-1 lead in the seventh but won the game on Wyatt Langford’s single in the bottom of the ninth. Foscue homered off Reid Detmers in the fourth and doubled in a run in the sixth. Both hits were off lefties, as is typical. He’s now hitting .367/.466/.796 in 49 at-bats against southpaws, compared to .216/.255/.353 in 51 at-bats versus righties. As a result, he’ll likely be on the bench Friday against Houston’s Hunter Brown.

Eovaldi had a 6-1 lead after six, but the seventh started with a catcher interference, a walk and a single, at which point Eovaldi exited. Peyton Grey came in and allowed all three runners to score while getting two outs. Tyler Alexander entered then and allowed both of Grey’s runners to score, making it a 6-6 game. Eovaldi still ends the first half on a four-game winning streak. He’s 9-7 with a 4.04 ERA overall. The 10 strikeouts were a season high. He fanned nine in each of his three previous starts.

Detmers served up homers to Brandon Nimmo in the first, Ezequiel Duran in the third and Justin Foscue in the fourth. All were hit at 104 mph, oddly enough. We’ll feel better about Detmers as a fantasy starter if and when he gets out of Anaheim. He closes out the first half with a 3-6 record and a 4.19 ERA despite an excellent 123/35 K/BB in 108 2/3 innings.

Yates came into a tie game in the ninth and gave up a groundball single, a sac bunt and then a long single off the wall in left to end the game. It was a tough break for a reliever who has been very good of late with little to show for it. It was the first run he’d allowed since June 22 and the first earned run since June 8. He’s still a candidate for saves in the Angels’ pen, though he has earned just two so far.

He had only one hard-hit ball, but Schanuel sent everything to the right spots tonight. It’s his second four-hit game as a major leaguer, with the other coming last July against the Mets. He’s hitting an adequate .269/.339/.393 on the season, but he still isn’t showing much in the way of upside.

Bauers broke the game wide open with his 391-foot (110.3-mph EV) three-run shot off of Andre Pallante in the third inning, increasing the Brewers’ edge to 6-0. His blast would prove to be the difference in the ballgame. Bauers also singled, walked and struck out twice in the ballgame, finishing the evening 2-for-4. On the season, he’s now slashing .268/.368/.505 with 17 long balls, 57 RBI and five stolen bases.

Turang came through with an RBI single in the third inning that increased the Brewers’ lead to 3-0. He then rode home on Jake Bauers’ three-run shot. The 26-year-old second baseman then went deep himself in the seventh inning with a 419-foot (103.4-mph EV) solo shot off of Luis Gastelum in the seventh that increased the Brewers’ lead to 7-4. Turang is enjoying a great first half, slashing .269/.361/.464 with 13 homers, 56 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 401 plate appearances.

Henderson struck out four batters on the evening while allowing only one base on balls. He allowed a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single off the bat of Lars Nootbaar. Henderson then ran into trouble in the sixth, exiting with two men on and one out — and both inherited runners immediately scored on a three-run blast by Jordan Walker. Henderson generated eight whiffs on 76 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 28 percent. The 24-year-old hurler finishes the first half with a 3-1 record, 3.18 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and a 34/7 K/BB ratio across 28 1/3 innings through his first six starts. As long as he stays healthy, he should have plenty of mixed league viability over the second half of the season.