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Price managed the Reds from 2014 through 201 and has spent the last two season as a senior advisor to the Padres’ coaching staff. Last year, the Giants used 13 different pitchers to start games with a National League-leading 30 by openers (starts of three innings pitched or fewer, with one or fewer runs allowed). Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the team “might use openers when needed, but that is not their goal.” Presumably, Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn, and Ross Stripling could be in line for more win opportunities if this change in philosophy sticks.

Sale pitched well in this game, just not well enough to take down Davis Martin. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. Nevertheless, Sale’s velocity was up about two ticks across the board in his homecoming to the south side. While that helped his fastball miss bats, it may have also made it a bit erratic as he struggled more than usual to find the zone with it. In the end, this wound up as more of a good start than a great one for the Braves’ ace. He’s scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Giants and Brewers with both starts at home.

It was amazing to see Burger play such a huge role in a game that he didn’t even start. Pinch-hitting for Joc Pederson when a lefty reliever came in for the fifth inning, he wound up reaching base three times and drove home the tying run in each the seventh and eighth innings. The first of which came on a solo home run, Burger’s 11th of the season to go along with 41 RBI in what’s been a nice bounceback campaign.

Even with a two-run lead, it’s always scary to go for a save with the ghost runner looming on second base. After a lead-off single by Jac Caglianone, Latz tightened up and saved the game for his squad. He now has a sparkling 1.80 ERA as one of the more underrated closers over the first half.

Gore continues to frustrate. Six strikeouts and two earned runs is totally solid, sure. Yet, the Royals laced 11 hard-hit balls and the eight hits he allowed led to constant traffic on the bases. He didn’t have a single clean inning and as usual, didn’t have great command. He did work his cutter a bit more against right-handers, but too many weren’t in competitive spots. Still, that’s a fun development and something to watch moving forward. He’ll take a 4.18 ERA with 76 strikeouts and 33 walks over 71 innings into a two-start week coming up against the Twins and Padres.

This was a great back and forth game with Caglianone in the middle of a good chunk of the action. That’s easy to say when a player has four hits, but Caglianone doubled and then scored the first run, drove home the second, scored the go-ahead in the seventh, and singled in the 10th which would’ve drove home another if the Royals weren’t trailing by two and playing it safe. Suddenly, Caglianone has a .275 batting average and .802 OPS on the season and is hitting .360 over his last 15 games.

Pallante settled into this one nicely after being spotted a big lead early. He consistently challenged the Mets hitters with fastballs in the zone and they could not do much with them. In all, he forced 10 ground balls out of 16 total balls in play in his third quality start out of his last five outings. He now has a 3.88 ERA to go along with 56 strikeouts and 25 walks through 69 2/3 innings this season. Next up, Pallante is scheduled to face the Padres at home.

Walker got the Cardinals going early with a run-scoring single in the first inning. Later, he broke this game open with a three-run homer in the fourth to stretch the Cardinals lead out to 7-0. That home run was 17th of the season, which set a new career-high. His 52 RBI after this game also set a new career-high. Both of those marks were set in Walker’s rookie 2023 when he played 117 games. He’s played just a touch more than half that in what’s been a magical breakout season so far for the young slugger.

Alvarez launched a two-run homer here in just his second game off the injured list following a torn meniscus. Most amazingly, that injury only occurred four weeks ago and generally has a six to eight week recovery timeline. He will be a big boost to the Mets’ poor offense and his two-run shot here represented the only two runs they scored in this entire game.

Good grief. Starter, reliever, bulk pitcher, it doesn’t matter which role the Mets deploy Peterson in, he simply does not have it. He entered the game in the second inning and evaded trouble despite allowing two quick hits. Then, Nelson Velázquez and Jordan Walker each homered over the next two frames to put five runs off the board and another Cardinals’ rally in the fifth sent Peterson to the showers. Right now, Peterson has poor stuff and worse command. He and his 5.75 ERA should not be considered in any leagues.

This was yet another frustrating outing for Luzardo. His final line was solid, but he pitched with a comfortable lead from the third inning on and struggled with his efficiency. This was on display in the sixth inning. He had a six run lead, forced a groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to start the inning, and was at just 79 pitches. Then, he proceeded to walk both Ernie Clement and Kazuma Okamoto before giving up a run-scoring single and was pulled before completing the frame. He remains too reliant on his sweeper, which forced 10 of his 13 total swings-and-misses, when opposing lineups are stacked with right-handed batters. Again, this was a fine start, just one that he made more difficult than it should have been. He’s scheduled to face the Marlins at home next time out.