Betting

“He got, I’d say, very good news,” Reds manager Terry Francona told reporters on Friday. “He’s about 90 percent healed, which is fantastic.” He added that De La Cruz will continue ramping up baseball activities and that they’ll make a decision on his next steps, including a potential rehab assignment, later this weekend. All signs point to De La Cruz making it back to Cincinnati before the end of June, which is right in line with his initial 2-4 week recovery timeline.

Braves manager Walt Weiss told reporters that Strider experienced shoulder and elbow soreness, which led to his early exit from the fourth inning of Friday’s start against the Mets after just 68 pitches. He experienced a significant velocity drop prior to exiting, which is never a good sign, especially for a pitcher with two elbow surgeries already on his resume. He was charged with seven runs on six hits, including three home runs, in the abbreviated outing. He struck out three and issued one walk. He’ll undergo imaging to determine the exact nature of the injury. There should be a definitive update on his status at some point this weekend. It seems highly unlikely that he’ll make his next start against the Giants on Thursday. The logical choice to fill his rotation spot would be top prospect JR Ritchie, who threw five scoreless innings following Strider’s departure.

Alvarez is on a different level right now. He became the first Astros player since Jeff Bagwell in 1994 to hit two home runs in the same inning, and Alvarez did so in the first. The second of which was a grand slam that capped off a legendary nine-run top of the first for the Astros where Alvarez drove home six of those runs. Those homers brought him to 24 on the season, which tied Kyle Schwarber for the league-lead. His 1.092 OPS also leads the league by a longshot and his .321 batting average is second in the AL. As of this moment, he’s the clear-cut MVP frontrunner in what’s been a sensational bounceback season after an injury-marred 2025.

Please, please let this be the sign that Bichette is finally turning the corner. After homering in his first at-bat on Thursday, he did the same here with a solo shot in the first inning against Spencer Strider. Then, he came up in the second with the bases loaded and blasted a grand slam. That made it three home runs in six at-bats after only having five all season before then. He chipped in a sac fly in his next plate appearance as well. While not as sexy as the home runs, it reminded us of the type of situational awareness Bichette has more so been known for in his career. He jumped up from a .607 OPS to a .635 OPS after this game alone and again, the hope is that he is finally getting himself back on track.

Arozarena went through strength tests afterwards and was encouraged. Victor Robles will probably get an extra start or two in his place this weekend.

If a player says something like that, it’s probably 90/10 going to lead to an IL stint. The Yankees figure to activate Jasson Domínguez from the IL if a move is necessary. He could play right with Spencer Jones starting in center.

Walker stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the seventh inning and laced a double to left center to bring in all three runs and put the Cardinals up 7-4. The 24-year-old righty continues to enjoy a career year and extended his hitting streak to nine games with his one-hit outing on Friday. Walker is slashing a blistering .348/.348/.587 on the month with seven extra-base hits and 12 RBI.

With two outs in the seventh inning and the Twins trailing 7-4, Clemens stepped to the plate with two men on and made the most of his moment when he blasted a three-run homer off reliever Ryne Stanek to tie the game at 7-7. It was the 10th homer of the season for Clemens, who has now homered four times in June and is slashing .303/.324/.667 on the month.

In addition to his two hits, Lawlar was also hit by a pitch in the sixth inning and later came around to score to tie the game at 2-2. The 23-year-old outfielder came up big for the Diamondbacks in the ninth inning when he singled to drive home Geraldo Perdomo and Ildemaro Vargas to extend the Diamondbacks’ lead to 5-2. This was Lawlar’s first game since returning from the 60-day DL. He did a little bit of everything in this one and provided a nice spark to the offense in his return. His progress will be worth monitoring as he looks to get back in the groove of things after an extended absence.

This was a jaw-dropping performance. There was never a moment where Misiorowski wasn’t in complete control and he was one Kyle Schwarber single away from throwing a perfect game. That inning ended with a double play so in the end, Misiorowski faced only the minimum 27 batters. He struck out eight of the first nine batters and in the first inning specifically, his fastball averaged 104 mph. Yes, 104 mph. Just completely ridiculous. It only took him 52 total pitches to reach that point too. From there, the Brewers had opened up a big lead and he was more shooting for outs rather than strikeouts, but this was still as dominant a start as we’ve seen from any pitcher in quite some time. Possibly most impressively, he mostly just leaned on that fastball. He threw it 73 percent of the time, it averaged 102 mph, and it forced 23 of his 25 total swings-and-misses. The final five he threw were all at least 103 mph and it looked like he had a few more scoreless innings in him if the game called for it. He didn’t have a single three-ball count. There were only five two-ball counts. It was the most strikeouts ever in a complete game with under 100 pitches, which is commonly known as a ‘Maddux’. He also threw the hardest pitch every recorded by a starting pitcher at 104.5 mph. It’s becoming difficult not to call him the best pitcher in baseball at this point with that kind of velocity, drastically improved command, a 1.34 ERA, and a 131 to 22 strikeout to walk ratio across 96 innings this season. Misiorowski is scheduled to send the Guardians to the buzzsaw next.