Ryan Johnson limits Tigers to one run in victory

This was a box score gem when in reality, Twins’ fans were pulling their hair out watching it. Dobnak let up 11 hard-hit balls and only four turned into hits. To be fair, most of them were hit on the ground as he did an excellent job of keeping his sinker, sweeper, and changeup down. It’s been a great five-game run for Dobnak in his return to the bigs with just three earned runs across 26 innings, just gear up for some regression.

Tolbert was everywhere in this one. He homered off Joe Ryan in the third inning to break a scoreless tie and scored again during their two-run rally in the fifth inning. He stole a base later on and has made the most of his opportunity to play more with Bobby Witt Jr. on the injured list. In his last seven games spanning nine days, he has two steals, one home run, and four runs scored.

Lee manned the two-hole in the Twins lineup in their first game without Byron Buxton, who went back on the injured list with yet another right hip injury before this game. Lee couldn’t muster a single hit or hard-hit ball in a game where the Twins had 14 as a team. He’s struggled to a .687 OPS over his last 30 games and will need to pick up the slack without Buxton.

Yikes. Ryan followed up his stinker against the Guardians last week with another tough start after being pushed back with arm fatigue. This one wasn’t as bad as that eight run, six homer implosion, but still poor against a lackluster Royals lineup that was missing Bobby Witt Jr. They scored in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings and made plenty of hard contact on the way. In all, Ryan allowed 11 hard-hit balls and this rough patch is the last thing the Twins need as they try to fight for a Wild Card spot. His velocity was in line with his season averages though, so hopefully this is not a health issue. He’ll look to right the ship in a rematch against these same Royals next time out that will begin a two-start week where Ryan will also face the Brewers.

Snell threw a staggering 45 of 60 pitches for strikes and looked completely unhittable against low-level minor league hitters. He allowed just one baserunner over four frames. His next steps and return timeline remain murky since the Dodgers appear to be slow-playing the process in an effort to have Snell ready for the home stretch and postseason. The 33-year-old former fantasy ace is coming off nanoscope surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow back in mid-May. It’s challenging to forecast his next steps, but he should be close to making it back to Los Angeles.

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.