Ronel Blanco set to start for Astros on Monday

Teoscar Hernández’s turnaround seemed to lessen the chances of a De Paula promotion, but maybe it’s Shohei Ohtani’s condition that has opened things back up. The 21-year-old De Paula has hit .303/.401/.547 with 27 homers and 31 steals in Double-A this year. He’s yet to play in Triple-A. The Dodgers will likely give him starts against right-handers in an effort to see if he can be useful in October.

If people wanted to see some real scoring on Wednesday night, they should’ve tuned into Mets vs. Marlins rather than the opening game of the NFL season. Regardless, the Mets pulled out this 15-14 thriller with a huge boost from the bottom of their lineup. Torrens drove in four runs from the ninth spot, Christopher Morel three after coming in for the injured Brett Baty who plated one of his own hitting eighth, and A.J. Ewing with two RBI from the seven-hole. That’s a whopping 10 RBI from the bottom third of their lineup. Otherwise, Torrens raised his OPS to .701 with another strong game as he has put together a truly phenomenal second half. Since the All-Star break, he’s slashing .296/.359/.592 – that’s a .951 OPS – with six home runs and 19 RBI in 24 games as the Mets’ part-time catcher

This save from Myers was not about him challenging Kodai Senga for the Mets’ closer role to end the season. More so, he was the sixth reliever they were forced to turn to in this chaotic 15-14 win which literally took all hands on deck to come away with. He still closed the door though and has leaned on his splitter heavily since coming back from the minor leagues to positive results.

One poor inning sunk Stock’s night here. He breezed through the first three innings before trouble found him in the fourth. To start the frame, he plunked Otto Lopez. Then, a walk and three singles brought home three runs and already at 80 pitches, Stock wouldn’t come back out for a fifth inning. He did allow nine hard-hit balls along the way too, so it wasn’t a bad spot to pull him. He’s scheduled to make another – likely abbreviated start – at home next week against the Orioles.

Marsee was a true pest as the Met and Marlins played one of the wildest games of the year. Twice the Mets pulled away with huge leads and both times the Marlins made them sweat it out. Marsee was a central reason as to why with a single to start their rally when down 8-0 in the third, a two-run, two-out single to knot this game at eight in the sixth, and a single to cut the lead to 15-14 in the ninth. It would wind up as too little too late, but Marsee has hit a groove lately. Over his last 30 games, he has a .314/.421/.480 slash line with three home runs and three stolen bases as he tries to salvage his poor season.

The Mets jumped all over Junk for six runs in the second inning that included five consecutive hits to start the frame. He came back out for the third inning, and promptly gave up a two-run home run to Christopher Morel. His ERA jumped by more than half a run from 4.00 to 4.54 after this implosion, but he was likely able to avoid a loss after the Marlins stormed back from their 8-0 deficit to take him off the hook before blowing the game again later on. Regardless, it may be difficult to trust him in his next scheduled start against the Diamondbacks on the road despite their offensive deficiencies.

It was nice for Jax to quell the concerns after his rough return from the injured list last week with a strong start here, but he still wasn’t completely back to form. His command was off in general and he hung far too many breaking balls, the Braves just didn’t do much with those mistakes. His velocity was also still down about a tick compared to his season averages and he only forced four total swings-and-misses. Back to those breaking balls, the Braves found it easy to spit on practically every one that Jax threw out of the zone and he’ll need to get more whiffs on them if he wants to truly return to form. He’s scheduled to face the Athletics at home next time out.

Recently back off the injured list, Mesa Jr. continues to hit. This home run was his 11th on the season in just 189 at-bats. He was also docked for a caught stealing in this game, but that was on an odd play where he tried to scamper home after a pick-off throw to first and was thrown out. Regardless, he’s a strong deep league option to close the season in an everyday role for the Rays hitting near the middle of their order.

Baldwin turned on a sinker low and in from Griffin Jax for a 419 foot moonshot in the fourth inning. Otherwise, the Braves struggled to get anything going against Jax or the Rays’ bullpen. Nevertheless, that was Baldwin’s 23rd home run of the season to go along with 71 RBI, a .271 batting average, and .805 OPS as one of the most productive catchers in the game.

Back after a six week layoff with a knee injury, López was hit hard by the Rays. They rallied for two separate three-run innings where López struggled to end the threats. In the second, Liam Hicks hit a solo home run with one out before allowing a single then brutal two-out walk followed by a double-steal and flare from Jorge Mateo that plated two runs that should never have scored. After that, he let the first batters he faced in the fourth reach base and three wound up scoring. He leaned more so on his slider than usual as he often fell behind in the count and was chasing whiffs, but it didn’t help much. Next up is a matchup with the Cubs in Wrigley Field.