Trevor

McDonald

He struck out five. McDonald’s first scoreless start as a big leaguer comes after six straight losses and moved him to 3-6 with a 4.42 ERA through 11 starts this season. His strong groundball rate bodes pretty well going forward, but he’s still going to need to produce more strikeouts with his slider in order to turn into more than a bottom-of-the-rotation guy. He’ll face the Blue Jays next week.

McDonald allowed an unearned run to score in the first on a bases-loaded walk following a fielding error. More defensive troubles put a second unearned run on the board for Miami in the second inning. After a scoreless third, he loaded the bases with no outs to start the fourth before he was pulled at 69 pitches. All three inherited runners would come in to score. Confirmed that he’ll remain in the rotation, the 25-year-old right-hander will take a 4.73 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and a 42/18 K/BB ratio across 45 2/3 innings into a start against the Braves in San Francisco on Friday.

Houser has really struggled through his first 14 starts on the season, posting a 5.73 ERA, 1.58 WHIP and a 48/25 K/BB ratio over 66 innings. Any fringe fantasy value that he may have had in deeper mixed leagues or NL-only formats evaporates on this news. That means that Trevor McDonald will remain in the Giants’ rotation going forward.

Mahle threw just 33 of his 63 pitches for strikes and got three whiffs on 20 swings. His velocity was fine, sitting 93.2 mph on his four-seamer, which is better than we saw in recent MLB starts. However, given how inefficient he was, it would be shocking if the Giants brought him back later this week. We’d expect him to make at least one more start at Triple-A, which should allow Trevor McDonald to take another turn in the rotation.

McDonald allowed six hits, including a leadoff homer from Pete Crow-Armstrong, and walked three before being pulled. He fell to 2-4 with a 4.64 ERA, and he might soon return to the minors if Tyler Mahle’s rehab progresses as hoped. For the moment, he’s in line to start against the Marlins next week.

McDonald struck out six and allowed four hits and four hard-hit balls in one of his best showings to date. He has a 4.15 ERA and a 37/12 K/BB in 39 innings through seven starts. He’s in for a rematch with the Cubs at home next week, which might not be a bad streaming play if their bats are still slumbering.

McDonald has lost three in a row after going 2-0 in three starts to begin his career. Those who grabbed him for a two-start week will have to hope he fares better Sunday against the Cubs.

McDonald certainly deserved better in this one as he limited Arizona to just three runs while working into the seventh inning for the third time in five starts since joining San Francisco’s rotation back on May 4. He finished with six strikeouts and only issued two walks. It was an encouraging rebound effort after being tagged for seven runs over 3 2/3 innings against the White Sox his last time out. He’s posted a respectable 4.34 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 27/6 K/BB ratio across 29 innings of work. There’s a strong possibility he’s the odd-man out with Giants ace Logan Webb (knee) returning from the injured list later this week.

McDonald had his ERA down to 2.04 before giving up seven of the White Sox’s nine runs in the fourth inning took him all of the way up to 4.76. It was more about control than anything else; he hit two batters and walked another while giving up three runs in the frame. If he remains in the rotation, he’ll face the Rockies in Coors next time out. There’s some doubt about whether he’ll stick, as the Giants figure to active Logan Webb next week.

McDonald gave up 11 hard-hit balls but only five hits, none of which turned into more than doubles. He moved to 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA, which could make things interesting when Logan Webb returns. He doesn’t seem like a particularly good bet going forward, but neither does Aridan Houser nor Tyler Mahle. As things stand now, McDonald should start again next week against the White Sox.