Jared Jones strikes out five in loss to Cubs

Game two featured just six hits, three apiece from both teams, and saw the Reds win despite getting struck out 15 times in eight innings by Gavin Williams and Daniel Espino. Bleday’s homer in the first inning was his lone hit in seven at-bats on the day. He’s batting just .187/.309/.362 in 201 plate appearances since the start of June, but with Spencer Steer out and the Reds likely to shed another position player or two before the deadline, his starting spot is probably safe.

Barely. With two outs and a man on second, Petey Halpin hit one to the wall in right center. It looked like right fielder Noelvi Marte’s ball to attempt to catch, but center fielder Dane Myers came flying in at the last second and caught it while crashing into the wall (and, for the first time in his career, without suffering a scary injury in the process). Pagan moved to 5-for-5 in save chance since coming off the IL. He seems like a trade candidate, but he’d be more attractive if he didn’t have a $10 million player option for next season.

Williams gave up a solo homer in the first and then wild pitched the second run home in the fifth and that was enough to keep him out of the win column with the Guardians getting shut out. What Williams did do tonight was fan at least 11 batters for the fourth straight outing. He’s just the 24th pitcher (13th different) in major league history to accomplish that. Oddly enough, three of the previous five pitched for Cleveland, Corey Kluber (five in a row in 2017), Trevor Bauer (2018) and Shane Bieber (2021) joined Chris Sale (five in 2018) and Gerrit Cole (five in 2019) in doing it in the last 10 years. Pedro Martinez holds the record, doing it in eight straight starts in 1999. Williams could next face the D’backs on Sunday or the Mets on Tuesday, depending on how the Guardians want to line things up with off days Thursday and Monday.

Seager played five innings at shortstop where he made one phenomenal defensive play in addition to launching an opposite-field homer in his final plate appearance. He’s probably going to need a couple additional tune-up contests, but there’s a chance he’s back with the Rangers by the end of the week.

Meidroth hit a two-run homer off David Bednar, which often can lead to something special. Unfortunately for Meidroth and the White Sox, it came with the White Sox trailing by three. The 25-year-old has homered nine times and driven in 40 runs while improving his slash to .276/.345/.396 on the campaign.

Bednar gave up a two-run homer to Chase Meidroth, but fortunately for him, fantasy managers and the Yankees it came with New York possessing a three-run lead. He did strike out three in the outing, but fantasy players would likely prefer a scoreless outing with no punchouts. Still, it’s another save for the 31-year-old, and Bednar is now up to 22 on the season.

If you take away the second inning, Kay was excellent. You cannot legally do that, and the southpaw allowed three runs in that frame; three more than Gerrit Cole allowed in his six innings, so it’s the fifth loss of the season for the 31-year-old southpaw. Still, this outing was better than the box score might suggest, and this was the first time in five starts that Kay has allowed more than two runs in an outing. He’ll be back on the bump Sunday against the Rays if there’s no change to the rotation order for Chicago.

Cole struck out seven over those six scoreless, and he allowed just four hits and a pair of walks while throwing 60-of-99 pitches for strikes. The 35-year-old veteran didn’t have the same swing-and-miss stuff he did against the Pirates when he whiffed 11 in his previous outing, but he was even more effective while lowering his ERA to 3.57 in the process. Cole has not pitched like a fantasy ace for the majority of 2026, but he has over his last few outings. He’s scheduled to face the Cubs on Sunday and will look to continue this impressive run.

Sogard got the call to fly cross country to join the Red Sox out in West Sacramento after Curtis Mead suffered a fractured wrist in his Boston debut on Monday. The 28-year-old got into 12 games earlier this season and offers some defensive versatility in a bench role.

It’s a brutal development for the Red Sox as Mead is out indefinitely and will fly back to Boston to visit a hand specialist to determine whether he’ll require season-ending surgery. The 25-year-old infielder, who was acquired from the Nationals for talented young lefty Connelly Early over the weekend, underwent an MRI that revealed the fracture after initial X-rays came back negative. It’s possible there was too much swelling for the fracture to show up on initial imaging at the ballpark after he was hit by a pitch during Monday’s series opener in West Sacramento. He suffered the injury during his second at-bat during his Red Sox debut. Fantasy managers should anticipate a lengthy absence and there’s a possibility his season is over.