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Burns carried a shutout into the sixth inning before surrendering a two-run homer to Jonathan Aranda. The hard-throwing 23-year-old righty has allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of his five starts at the outset of the season, while completing five frames every single time. It’s fair to say he’s exceeded expectations after a rough spring training where it looked at times like he wasn’t going to make the season-opening rotation. He’ll carry a strong 2.57 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 30/11 K/BB ratio over 28 innings into a tasty home matchup against the Rockies on Tuesday.

Now this is Gerrit Cole. He was utterly dominant facing just three batters over the minimum and forcing 15 swings-and-misses. He got some help from his defense too when Aaron Judge threw a strike to nail Michael Massey at home plate. After that, just one more Royal reached scoring position as the righties had fits trying to put a bat on Cole’s slider and lefties the same with his changeup. It was all held up by his fastball that consistently sat around 97 mph and Cole was able to spot it wherever he wanted. This looked like one of the best pitchers in the league, as Cole has been for the better part of the last decade. Keep an eye on his workload, as he hasn’t gone above 80 pitches yet in two starts off the injured list. He’s scheduled to face the Guardians next time out.

Rice had been considered ‘cold’ coming into this series against the Royals without a multi-hit game in slightly over a week and only two extra-base hits over that span. Oh, the horror. Now, over his last two games he’s gone 5-for-9 with a double, a triple, four RBI, and four runs scored. He’s also pushed his OPS back over 1.000, re-joining Yordan Alvarez as the only two qualified hitters to clear that plateau.

Things have finally – hopefully – begun to turn for Pasquantino. Before this contest, he’d hit safely in five straight games with two doubles and two walks over that span. Then, another hit-less night here pushed his average back below the Mendoza line. Also, a game like this where he only swung-and-missed one time, but also didn’t have a hard-hit ball sort of underscores what could be his problem this season as he’s shortened up his swing and lost plenty of bat speed in the process.

Cameron cruised early in this one, going nine up and nine down in his first go around the Yankees’ lineup. Then, they started to see him better and scratched two across in the fourth inning. The top of that lineup came back around to start the sixth, Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice reached again to start it, and Cameron was pulled before Aaron Judge got to see him a third time. Overall, his fastball was hit hard as he threw it a lot low in the zone and the command of his changeup wasn’t up to his usual standards. Still, we’ll take a start like this in a tough matchup as Cameron heads into a two-start week against the Reds and Twins with both starts coming on the road.

Meidroth added to the barrage of runs the White Sox scored on Wednesday when he smacked a grand slam in the seventh inning off Twins reliever Travis Adams to push the White Sox’s lead to 13-1. It was the fifth homer of the season for Meidroth and his first career grand slam. He has now hit safely in five-straight games and has posted multiple hits in his last three games.

Sandlin’s second pitch of the game was blasted 438 feet into the stands by Byron Buxton. Sandlin would retire the next three batters he faced in the inning, and went on to pitch five-straight scoreless innings to pick up his first career win in his MLB debut. The rookie showed good command all night, throwing 41 of his 61 pitches for strikes while not allowing a walk. If he draws another start, Sandlin would be slated to take the mound on Monday against the Twins, again.

After notching three strikeouts in the first inning, Prielipp got hit around a bit in the second inning, giving up four singles, with the most costly coming on a two-RBI knock by Sam Antonacci. Prielipp would run into more trouble in the third inning after allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base, only for Colson Montgomery to drive home Miguel Vargas to put the White Sox up 3-1. Prielipp would be pulled with two runners on and one out in the fifth innings, but wound up being charged for two more runs after exiting. After a strong start to his season, Prielipp has now allowed 11 earned runs in his last two starts. He’ll get a chance to make up for this disastrous outing in his next start, which is scheduled for Monday at home against the White Sox.

Happ got the Cubs going in this one with a two-run single in the first inning that instantly put Pirates’ starter Bubba Chandler on the ropes. Then, his three-run homer in the seventh gave them a lead and set up what turned into a six-run inning. This was the most RBI that Happ has had in a single game since July 4th, 2024 and brought his season total from 21 to 26 in one fell swoop. That’s the kind of heroics the Cubs needed to finally break their 10-game losing streak.

All of the damage to Taillon came via the homerun ball in this one. Brandon Lowe got him for a three-run shot in the third inning on a first-pitch fastball that he golfed over the right field fence. Then, Konnor Griffin did the same on another first-pitch fastball hit to practically the exact same spot. After those, it pushed Taillon’s league-leading mark of 19 home runs allowed. The next closest pitcher has only 13. Proceed with caution ahead of a two-start week against the Athletics and Giants.

Lowe was almost the entirety of the Pirates’ offense with a three-run shot in a game where they only scored four total. He’s now hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and both his 14 home runs and .914 OPS lead all second basemen by a wide margin. He appears to be something of a league-winner thus far.