Betting

Rodriguez was dominant against the Pirates on Tuesday, spinning seven scoreless innings on 103 pitches, 65 for strikes. He scattered two hits and issued three walks while striking out seven batters on 15 whiffs. The 33-year-old left-hander ends the day with a 2.50 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, and a 29/19 K/BB ratio across 39 2/3 innings. He’ll take on the Mets in Arizona on Sunday.

Olson has been on fire at the dish. He kept it going on Tuesday with a base hit and a run scored in the fourth inning before taking Andrés Muñoz deep for a solo homer in the ninth to give the Braves the lead. It was his sixth home run in nine games. The 32-year-old slugger is up to 13 while hitting .308/.392/.695 with 35 runs scored and 33 RBI across 166 plate appearances.

Rodríguez heads back to the minors to clear a rotation spot for Carlos Rodón (elbow) to return from the injured list this weekend. The Yankees will bring up some bullpen help until then. The 22-year-old pitching prospect walked four batters and allowed three runs over 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday in a no-decision against the Rangers. He figures to get another shot in New York at some point later this summer.

DeGrom struck out seven but gave up two homers tonight. He allowed four runs through six, yet he was left in to start the seventh anyway and was charged with two more runs then after giving up two singles (the latter being a bunt) and leaving with one out and runners on first and second. It’s the first time that he’s allowed six runs in a game as a Ranger. He did so 10 times as a Met, most recently in 2019. He’ll take a 3.11 ERA into Sunday’s start versus the Cubs.

Okamoto launched a solo shot off Drew Rasmussen in the first inning for his 10th home run of the season. After struggling a bit to begin the year, Okamoto is now 8-for-21 in May with five home runs, seven runs scored, and eight RBI in five games. He’s been hitting well for longer than that, but we seem to be in the eye of the storm for his hot stretch right now. The rookie is now slashing a respectable .244/.327/.489 on the season, and earlier concerns about him being a bust have quieted considerably.

This didn’t look good at all. Pagán hobbled off the mound and went to the ground clutching his left hamstring after throwing his first pitch of the ninth inning of a tie ballgame. The 34-year-old was carted off the field after several minutes. There should be an update on his status prior to Wednesday’s contest, but it certainly looks like an injured list situation. Tony Santillan or Graham Ashcraft would likely be next up for saves in Cincinnati.

There has been some steady progress in the underlying metrics for Rafaela this season. He’s chasing less outside of the zone and making more contact, but the impactful swings have not been there, so it was nice to see this game from him today. He took Framber Valdez deep in the first inning for his second home run of the year and then added an RBI single in the third inning as well. He’s getting caught stealing too much to begin the season, but new Red Sox manager Chad Tracy has been hitting Rafaela near the middle of the lineup, so that should be a real boon to his counting stats. He remains a hold in all fantasy formats.

Abreu got the start against left-hander Framber Valdez and has been getting far more playing time against lefties this season. He delivered too, with his fifth home run and second stolen base of the season. The 26-year-old is slashing .311/.393/.485 on the season and is a fixture in the middle of the Red Sox lineup. He looks like a major steal from fantasy baseball draft season.

For the first time this season, the Red Sox used an opener ahead of Brayan Bello. However, Jovani Moran struggled in that role, so when Bello entered the game in the second inning, he began with the ninth hitter and then immediately faced the top of the order anyway. Perhaps it was more about facing a Tigers team that was downtrodden after losing their ace pitcher. Whatever it was, this was easily Bello’s best outing of the season. He threw 70 percent strikes and attacked lefties with more four-seam fastballs and fewer cutters. He also went to the sweeper more than usual against righties, and it had a 21 percent swinging strike rate on the day. The strikeouts are a bit unsustainable considering he only had 10 whiffs all game, so we wouldn’t go ahead and say that Bello is “fixed,” but he may be on the radar in the deepest formats this weekend against the Rays.

Hicks drilled a two-run single to right-center field against Orioles starter Chris Bassitt with two outs in the second inning before taking reliever Grant Wolfram deep for his eighth round-tripper of the season. The unheralded 26-year-old backstop should be able to find enough at-bats between first base and catcher to be a fantasy-relevant option in all leagues the rest of the way. He’s off to a really strong start this season, hitting .321 through 33 games. He’s currently tied with Matt Olson with a major-league leading 32 RBI during that span.