JJ Bleday absent in first game of doubleheader

Byron Buxton had three hits including a double and a walk in the win over the A’s Monday. Even with the big game, Buxton is 7-for-36 (.194) with no home runs and one RBI in 10 games since being activated from the injured list. He’s hitting .256 with an .836 OPS and 46 RBI this year.

They considered using DeLauter at DH tonight before deciding to play it safe. Angel Martínez had a double in four at-bats in his place.

Springs gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out three. He fell to 3-12 with the loss. Springs pitched slightly better in his last start, but overall he hasn’t looked particularly sharp in either of his two starts since returning from the injured list. He has a 6.08 ERA. Springs isn’t a recommended fantasy option in his next starts against the Orioles at home on Sunday.

Raleigh homered in the first and fifth innings off Zack Wheeler and in the seventh off Chase Shugart, driving in four runs in the process. He walked in other plate appearance in the third. Raleigh had 21 career multihomer games coming into the night, including 11 last year, but this is his first in a miserable 2026. It lifted his OPS from .579 to .618, his highest mark since May 5. He now has 17 homers and 51 RBI through 98 games. It’ll be interesting to see if this gets him pushed back up some in the order after he hit sixth tonight.

He struck out five. Gilbert struggled a bit to get through five with a nice lead, but did wind up picking up his third straight win and 11th overall. Gilbert had excellent velocity all night and ended the outing with a 40 percent CSW on the 50 fastballs he threw. Depending on whether the Mariners want to use six starters this week, Gilbert will either face the Blue Jays on Sunday or the Red Sox next Monday.

Wheeler walked two and gave up a three-run homer to Julio Rodríguez and a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh in the first. He fared better afterwards, but he did walk three more batters (the second of those walks included two balls that would have been overturned had anyone challenged). The fifth, though, saw him give up two more homers right away, with Raleigh going deep for a second time. Wheeler gave up four homers for the third time in his career and five walks for the 11th time. He also walked five against the Jays three starts ago after never having done that since 2019. It’s bizarre to see him struggling like this, but nothing seems especially off. If something is troubling him, it’s not really showing up in his velocity or spin rates. He’s due to face the Angels on Sunday.

Matthews gave up six hits, walked one and struck out seven. He improved to 8-8 with the win. Matthews is 4-0 with a 3.65 ERA in four starts in August. He has a 4.86 ERA on the year. Matthews is lined up to face the White Sox at home on Sunday.

Rodríguez’s three-run homer off Zack Wheeler to get things going in the first seemed really big at the time, though he obviously ended up being overshadowed by Cal Raleigh tonight. The homer gave Rodríguez just his second multi-RBI game in two months. He’s now locked down a fifth straight 20-homer season to start his career, which is quite impressive, but everyone was expecting more from him than a .249/.312/.413 line through 121 games.

Turner got hot in the second half of July, but it didn’t last, and he is batting .167 in his last 10 games. His defense might be acceptable if he was hitting, and his lack of offense would be acceptable if he was showing a solid glove. As is, though, he’s a liability right now, and while it still seems likely that he’ll figure it out at some point, it’s really too late to salvage his regular season.

Kelly’s home run was his eighth of the year. He hit a solo shot off Diamondbacks reliever Taylor Clarke in the sixth inning. Kelly’s home run followed Michael Conforto’s homer as the two went back-to-back. He’s hitting .262 with a .722 OPS and 45 RBI.