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It’s encouraging that this might not have been as bad as it looked, but there are surely tests to run. An IL stint would still seem to be the likely outcome.

After falling behind 3-0 in the third inning and staring down the barrel of their ninth straight loss, the Royals put together a scrappy comeback built on wild pitches and sacrifice flies to scratch and claw their way to a win. Isbel started their first game-tying rally with a double in the fifth inning and then scored the run that briefly put them ahead in the seventh. For as bad as this Royals lineup has been thus far, Isbel has been a spark plug out of the nine spot with a .276/.333/.431 slash line.

In the second inning, Coby Mayo unloaded on a middle-middle fastball from Bubic and parked it deep in the left field seats for a three-run homer. After that, Bubic faced just two batters over the minimum as he cruised through the sixth inning. He didn’t miss many bats, but didn’t give up many hard-hit balls either. He wound up with a quality start and his lineup came back to take him off the hook. He’s scheduled to face the Athletics and Mariners on the road in what should be a two-start week coming up.

This looked more like the Mets’ version of Helsley that we saw towards the end of last season. He could not find the strike zone and walked the first two batters of the inning. Then, he struck out Vinnie Pasquantino on a ball that got away from Adley Rutschman that pushed Maikel García to third base. Just a few pitches later, Rutschman couldn’t corral another pitch in the dirt and García came home safely. As ugly as it was, Helsley had been nearly unhittable to this point so there’s no reason to think this poor outing will derail him.

For a moment, Rutschman seemed like the Orioles’ hero in this one. His two-run blast in the eighth inning pushed them ahead after they slowly squandered a three run lead. They wound up blowing that lead as well, but it shouldn’t take away from Rutschman picking up right where he left off when he went on the injured list nearly two weeks ago. He now has a .938 OPS after 11 games this season. On the flip side, he still seemed a bit rusty behind the plate as Orioles pitchers threw four wild pitches. The last of which pushed the winning run home after Rutschman tried to back-hand it.

It continues to be a struggle for Baz. There was constant traffic on the bases against him and he couldn’t quite land his knuckle-curve where he wanted it. He did break off some nice ones low and below the zone, but hung far too many and they got pelted. In total, the struggling Royals’ lineup had 12 hard-hit balls against him, seven of which came off that knuckle-curve. To find some solace, he forced 13 swings-and-misses and did limit the damage against him. Three of the four runs he allowed came via sacrifice flies. Yet, two of those runners advanced to third on wild pitches he threw. The other stole third. Overall, it’s still a struggle for Baz who’s lined up to face the Astros next time around.

It’s not often we get a 1-0 pitching duel in Colorado. Tuesday was one of those rare days when offense was scarce. Machado drove in the only run of the game with a bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning. The 33-year-old third baseman has struggled to start the season, slashing .178/.326/.288 with two home runs, 10 runs scored, and 11 RBI across 92 plate appearances.

It’s Turang’s sixth career four-RBI game, though it’s the first in which he drove in four baserunners (as opposed to himself on a home run). He’s actually the first player this year to have a four-RBI game without the benefit of an extra-base hit. That’s not a particularly rare thing, though; it happened 11 times last year. Turang is batting .307/.430/.560 with four homers and 18 RBI in 20 games. With Turang, Nick Hoerner and Brandon Lowe off to great starts, it’s already setting up for a fun battle as to who will start at second base for the NL All-Stars. We can’t forget about Ketel Marte and a fun rookie in JJ Wetherholt, either.

Harrison gave up four hits, walked three and hit a batter, but it only amounted to one run. That came after he left with the bases loaded and none out in the fourth. Fortunately, Grant Anderson did a terrific job in stranding two of the runners then. Harrison struck out three, and his stuff seemed normal enough in spite of the multiple minor injuries. He’ll likely face the Pirates on Sunday.

It likely would have been Abner Uribe closing for Milwaukee tonight, but he wasn’t needed after the Brewers scored twice in the top of the seventh and seven times in the eighth to make it a 12-1 game. Megill averaged a season-low 96.3 mph with his fastball tonight. That’s 1.2 mph lower than his season average and 2.9 mph under his 2025 average. He was effective anyway, but that’s just not great.

All of the runs came in the second, which got started when Garrett Mitchell’s groundout was overturned into a single. A walk and three more singles, one of which was a bunt, followed. Montero caught a break on the last one, as David Hamilton was thrown out at home after Brice Turang found himself caught in a rundown between first and second. Montero allowed just one other hit and no walks outside of the second inning. His spring velocity boost failed to stick around, but he has a 3.68 ERA and an 18/3 K/BB over 22 innings in four starts. He’ll face the Reds on Sunday.