Cam Schlittler fans eight in loss to Dodgers

It’s a massive relief that Kurtz appears to have avoided serious injury after he was drilled by Red Sox starter Patrick Sandoval in the first inning. It’s a bit unclear whether he already underwent X-rays, but the fact that the Athletics are calling it a contusion is a massive relief. He’s presumably day-to-day heading into Thursday’s series finale.

This was a big game for Manzardo who hasn’t had many of those so far this season. He did well to sit back and let Brady Singer implode in what became a four-run fifth inning by drawing the first of two bases loaded walks. Then, he hit a long home run in the seventh that helped lengthen the Guardians’ lead. At 425 feet, it was his second longest homer on the season and his second blast in three games. Manzardo’s starting spot may be tenuous with the trade deadline coming up and his disappointing .681 OPS on the season, but there’s a chance the Guardians look to upgrade different parts of the roster and leave first base to him.

This is an odd line to see with Cantillo seemingly facing no trouble yet not getting the chance to complete five innings and earn the win. He fell behind the eight-ball with a 26-pitch first inning where he only faced five batters and it continuously took him a long time to get outs. That’s the nature of the beast with Cantillo being so curveball heavy – it had a 48% usage rate here, a shade lower than its season-high – and threw more than half of his total pitches outside of the strike zone. Hopefully he can be more efficient in his next scheduled start against the Mets.

This was a bad, bad game for De La Cruz. Not getting a hit is fine, that happens to great players all the time. Yet, he hurt his team with sloppy defense here. This game unraveled for the Reds when the Guardians put up four runs in the fifth inning and that frame started with De La Cruz misplaying a ground ball. Then, he had an opportunity to erase his mistake when the next ball was hit at him, but tried to flip it with his glove to start a double play and it was off target. Mistakes like this happen too often for a player of De La Cruz’s caliber. He’s still having an excellent season for our purposes with 18 home runs, 18 stolen bases, and an .842 OPS through 88 games.

Singer stumbled in this game partially due to his own struggles and also because of two costly misplays by Elly De La Cruz. First, he booted a ball to start the fifth inning. Then, he tried a glove flip to start a double play immediately after, but it was a bit off target and developed too slowly. From there, Singer imploded. He walked three of the next five batters and gave up a run-scoring single between them. He struggled to find the zone all night with just a 39% zone rate and 58% strike rate as he simply could not place his sinker where he wanted to. That’s a tough end to July after Singer put up a 2.77 ERA with 23 strikeouts and seven walks through 26 innings up to this point this month. His next start will be determined by whether or not he is dealt before Monday’s trade deadline.

Smith-Shawver heads back to the minors after allowing two runs over 4 1/3 innings during his season debut against the Mets in the opening contest of Wednesday’s doubleheader. There was some hope that he would stick around after serving as the club’s 27th man for the twin bill. The 23-year-old former prospect showed some intriguing stuff in his return from last year’s Tommy John surgery, flashing a mid-to-upper 90’s heater with a much harder splitter and slider combination. There’s enough intrigue here that fantasy managers should keep him on their watch lists heading into the final two months. It’s possible he’s brought back to the big leagues to take the ball against the Marlins next week.

This didn’t look good at all. Kurtz was in a great deal of pain after taking a pitch off the left arm from Red Sox starter Patrick Sandoval in the opening frame. It appeared to hit him somewhere in the forearm just above his wrist. He managed to stay in the game initially before being replaced by Jeff McNeil at first base in the second inning. The 23-year-old offensive force will head for further evaluation, including X-rays, to determine whether he suffered any fractures. There should be an update his status following the contest.

Sale’s phenomenal season hasn’t been talked about enough. He faced just two batters over the minimum and didn’t let a single runner into scoring position as he decimated the Mets here. His fastball and slider combined to force 14 swings-and-misses and many of those were very ugly chases. They say father time is undefeated, but the 37-year-old Sale now has a 2.08 ERA with 143 strikeouts and 26 walks across 117 innings this season. If not for Jacob Misiorowski, those would be clear and obvious Cy Young numbers. He’s lined up for a two-start week coming up against the Marlins and Yankees.

Iglesias only needed eight pitches to lock down this save and help the Braves avoid a sweep. This was a nice bounce back after blowing his last save opportunity – which only scored due to an error anyway – as Iglesias has been one of the league’s most steady closers with 22 saves and 2.37 ERA.

There were very few opportunities for offense in this 1-0 win for the Braves. Olson drove in the only run though and has had a phenomenal season in total with 28 home runs, 66 RBI, a .264 batting average, and .866 OPS. Look for him to continue to produce at a high level as we come to the home stretch.