Fantasy Baseball

Martin’s magic just will not run out. He washed away a poor outing last time out against the Twins by going toe-to-toe with Chris Sale and out-pitching him. Martin scattered just six hits, only one of which went for extra bases, and was in control throughout. It was beautiful to see practically everything working for him too. Four different pitches – his fastball, cutter, curveball, and slider – each forced at least three swings-and-misses. He also navigated around 11 hard-hit balls, but it’s just been one of those seasons. On the year so far, Martin has a 2.41 ERA, 79 strikeouts, and 17 walks across 78 1/3 innings. He’s scheduled to face the Yankees and Tigers in a two-start week coming up with both starts on the road.

After both Grant Taylor and Seranthony Domínguez were needed to preserve an extra innings victory yesterday, Hudson came on for the save here. Despite not having strikeout stuff, Hudson now has a 2.32 ERA on the season. Just don’t expect him to get the bulk of save chances moving forward.

It was always going to be difficult for Montgomery to follow up his magic debut from Tuesday where he hit a walk-off home run. He did a decent job though with two doubles – each hit at least 98 mph – and the first of which came off Chris Sale. He looks like an exciting young player who could hit his way into a big league role for the foreseeable future.

Mateo had both the only extra-base hit and scored the only run for the Braves in this one. He also had three hard-hit balls and should find himself back in a starting role with Ronald Acuña Jr. headed back to the injured list and Mauricio Dubón shifting to the outfield, as he did in this game.

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.