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Justin Wrobleski went deep yet again, as did Max Muncy in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, in a game delayed at the start by 80 minutes due to rain.

One week after striking out five in his All-Star debut in this same ballpark, Wrobleski struck out seven Phillies on Tuesday. He allowed two loud hits with two outs in the first inning, as a Bryce Harper double was cashed in by an Alec Bohm single. But that was the only run Wrobleski allowed in hia 6 1/3 innings, which actually lowered the left-handers average outing length this season from 6.422 innings per start to 6.417, third best in the majors.

Wrobleski has lasted at least six innings in each of his last five starts, and in 13 of 16 starts this season. He’s allowed zero or one run in 10 of his 16 starts.

Cey hey

Zack Wheeler has been a buzzsaw this season, with a paltry 2.16 ERA and 2.64 xERA after Tuesday night. He struck out nine and walked none in this one, with the only blemish coming in the fourth inning. One out after Andy Pages singled, Muncy homered, giving the Dodgers the lead.

Max Muncy gives the @Dodgers the lead with a rocket to straightaway center! pic.twitter.com/vF3dph0AAr

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

Muncy’s home run was his 19th of the season, second on the team to Shohei Ohtani. But it was also Muncy’s 228th home run as a Dodger, tying third baseman Ron Cey for fifth place on the all-time franchise leaderboard. Those two are tied for second among Los Angeles Dodgers, trailing only Eric Karros.

Most home runs, Dodgers history

• Duke Snider 389
• Gil Hodges 261
• Eric Karros 270
• Roy Campanella 242
• Ron Cey 228
• Max Muncy 228

Wheeler back on May 29 at Dodger Stadium allowed four solo home runs, including one by Muncy. The Dodgers have handed Wheeler his only two losses this season, scoring six total runs against him. In his other 14 starts, Wheeler is 10-0 with a 1.86 ERA, and the Phillies are 13-1 in those games.

The pitcher who got the win in both Wheeler starts was Wrobleski.

Tanner Scott got his first two batters faced to finish the eighth inning, then got into a jam with runners on second and third with one out in the ninth. Brandon Marsh hit a dribbler up the third base line. Though the game was in Philadelphia, this was a play right out of Chicago, finishing things off with a bizarre 2-5-6-4 double play, thanks to an all-time brain fart by J.T. Realmuto.

GAME OVER. pic.twitter.com/0XDJDcnIwZ

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 22, 2026

This was Scott’s second five-out appearance in nearly two seasons with the Dodgers, and his first such save.

Tuesday particulars

Home run: Max Muncy (19)

WP — Justin Wrobleski (11-2): 6 1/3 IP, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts

LP — Zack Wheeler (10-2): 7 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 9 strikeouts

Sv — Tanner Scott (15): 1 2/3 IP, 2 hits, 1 strikeout

Up next

One more game remains in Philadelphia, with Eric Lauer on the mound for the Dodgers on Friday night (3:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA), and right-hander Aaron Nola going for the Phillies.

The Mets beat the Brewers 4-0 on Tuesday night at American Family Field.

Here are some takeaways...

-- Christian Scott and Nolan McLean dominated on the mound in Philadelphia, so tonight it was Zac Thornton's turn to follow suit. The 24-year-old left-hander was spectacular yet again, as he held the Brewers to just three hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts over six shutout innings to earn his first career victory. 

-- Thornton was in some trouble in the bottom of the first, but he turned a comebacker into an inning-ending double play. He went on to face the minimum through five innings, retiring the next 13 hitters he faced in order before the Brewers put together back-to-back singles leading off the sixth. The youngster sweat that threat off too with a strikeout, baserunning miscue, and a deep flyout to left. 

-- Thornton is now down to a stellar 1.93 ERA over his first four big-league starts, and he hasn't allowed a run in 18 consecutive innings, which is the longest stretch by a Mets rookie since Steven Matz in 2016.

-- The Mets' offense was able to get Thornton a lead to work with just two innings into this one, as Jared Young lifted his seventh homer of the season into the visiting bullpen in right-center. Young also had a single across his four plate appearances, bringing his OPS to .761 for the year. 

-- New York had plenty of other opportunities against old friend Brandon Sproat. They stranded runners in the first, third, and fourth but were able to break through after he was pulled in the fifth. After a two-out walk, a hustle double from Francisco Lindor and a two-run double from Carson Benge made it a 3-0 ballgame. 

-- Benge had a pair of knocks, Lindor had three hits for the second time in his last three games.

-- The Mets added an insurance run in a big way in the top of the eighth. Luis Robert Jr. had been hitless over his first seven at-bats since returning from injury until he absolutely demolished a second-pitch cutter 451 feet to the concourse in left for his third home run of the season. 

-- Luke Weaver pitched a scoreless seventh, Brooks Raley followed that in the eighth, then Devin Williams put the finishing touches on the victory in his first appearance back in Milwaukee. 

-- A.J. Ewing enjoyed another strong game on both sides of the ball. He had a hit and a walk across four plate appearances, stole his 11th base of the season, and also made a pair of outstanding plays to help Thornton in his first-ever big-league appearance in left field. 

-- Luis Torrens had two hits on the night; Marcus Semien had one but also booted a ball at second. 

Game MVP: Zac Thornton

The rookie southpaw was outstanding to earn his first career victory. 

Highlights

Jared Young hits a solo HR to give the Mets a 1-0 lead 🤩

His 7th of the year pic.twitter.com/Asc8B43mbd

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

A.J. EWING WITH THE DIVING CATCH IN LEFT FIELD 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ek5IuJPq2z

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

A hustle double for Francisco Lindor! pic.twitter.com/CyvVkll1fe

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

Carson Benge drives in two after Brice Turang can't get to it! pic.twitter.com/nNViA1EEBw

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A BLAST TO THE CONCOURSE 🤯 pic.twitter.com/OPNnCBCxRf

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

Francisco Lindor with his second three-hit game in his past three games! pic.twitter.com/IX208X04qU

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 22, 2026

What's next

Christian Scott takes the ball against Logan Henderson in the series finale Wednesday at 2:10 p.m.

Apparently the Rays needed to leave the country to get back on track.

Their offense perked up in their 7-1 win on Monday night, but it caught on fire – in a good, and not a dumpster way— tonight. Every player other than Taylor Walls had a hit, and even Walls still managed to score a run. After running through much of their bullpen, the Blue Jays ultimately brought in outfielder Myles Straw to get the last out.

The Rays started the game with a crooked number — 3 to be precise. Batting in the first against a surprisingly shaky Kevin Gausman, they scored three runs, all with two outs. Junior walked, and after that Cedric Mullins, Johnny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson all got hits account for the three runs.

In the bottom of the first, Rasmussen loaded the bases and I really thought we were back in the nightmare world of the Boston series where the Rays could never hold a lead for more than half an inning. But whatever wasn’t working — either with Rasmussen, or between him and Fortes (they seemed to take a while to get in sync) quickly got set right, and Rasmussen got out of the inning, and rolled through the Jays lineup until the sixth inning.

The Rays also threatened in the second and third innings, as Gausman’s pitch count mounted, although they did not manage to score. But I still want to focus on the third inning, when Chandler Simpson was nearly able to make runs happen. He successfully bunted for a single. The next hitter, Ben Williamson, hit a soft single to centerfield, which centerfielder Varsho bobbled so that Simpson could get to third. We could argue – and Brian Anderson did argue — that Simpson’s speed contributed to that bobble, because Vasho, worried about stopping Chandler at second, was too busy looking to second base to field the ball cleanly. Now Walls wasn’t able to get Simpson home, but nonetheless it’s an example of how his speed can become a weapon in a variety of ways. Unfortunately Simpson has a number of holes in his game; it’s not clear that his speed is enough to merit a starting outfielder role. But speed is a skill that is also so much fun to watch, so let’s enjoy it!

At any rate, the Rays drove Gausman from the game midway through the fourth, after Diaz reached on a single and Caminero on a walk. But the Rays still managed to score another run even with the new pitcher in place; Cedric Mullins, who had reached on a force play, stole second and the Jays (whose defense tonight was…not good!) threw the ball away trying to nab him. That was followed by another DeLuca single to score run number 6.

The Rays, whose offense was on life support a mere two and a half days ago, continued to pile on. Runs 6-8 came courtesy of Nick Fortes’ three-run homer in the fifth inning.

The Blue Jays ended the shut out in the bottom of the sixth inning that to some BABIP magic. Ernie Clement led off with a blooper that fell between DeLuca, Aranda and Williamson (and should have been caught, probably DeLuca needed to call off the others). George Spring hit a legit double, and then Varsho chopped a ball into the ground. It took a long time coming down to Aranda, playing behind first base, but still I think Aranda should have been able to beat Varsho to the bag. But he didn’t, and that chopped infield single ended Rasmussen’s otherwise strong outing.

The Rays bullpen — Sulser, Kimbrell and Cleavinger — were terrific, and the Rays offense continued to roll, adding another four runs in the ninth inning. The big hit there was Yandy’s three run homer, an appropriate way to celebrate his 1,000 major league game:

Of course Yandy’s home run was hit to the deepest part of the park, how emblematic of Yandy’s career.

Overall, the Rays got 21 hits, including four for Simpson and three for Fortes. Savor this dominant win!

The Atlanta Braves took an 8-3 loss against the San Diego Padres in game two of their four-game midweek series.

After an RBI single from San Diego’s Ty France to drive Fernando Tatis Jr. in for the first run, the Braves answered back with an RBI triple from Jim Jarvis to bring in Mauricio Dubón and Brewer Hicklen. This gave the Braves a 2-1 lead.

The Padres wouldn’t let that lead go on for too much longer as they responded with five more of their own, and set the tone with a homerun from Manny Machado in the top of the sixth inning for a 6-2 lead.

Hoping to clinch a come-from-behind victory like they did the previous night, another run from Jarvis off a balk gave the Braves one more run to advance to three total. It was too late, however, as they couldn’t muster a surge of consecutive runs to end the night.

The Padres finished with a 474-foot two-run homer from Tatis Jr. in the top of the eighth inning to seal the deal with an 8-3 win.

The focus shifts a bit to pitching. In Reynaldo López’s 10th start and 23rd appearance of the season, his consistency has been one of his upsides. Tonight showed differently (4.1 IP/ 9 H/ 5 ER/ 3 BB/ 6 K/ 2 HR). It doesn’t help that his last start against the St. Louis Cardinals also resulted in a shaky stat line.

Jr Ritchie came in to relieve López, pitching through 3.2 innings, but gave up three runs of his own with four total strikeouts.

Though pitching was a major aspect in the loss, the blame can’t all be put on that area. The bats were not ready today, and only Jarvis was awake to knock in some runs for the night.

The Braves will have to pull through in tomorrow’s start to build the momentum back and avoid dropping the series as they did in June with a clean sweep to send Atlanta out of Petco Park.

The offense looked solid coming after the break. Now it’s just consistency with execution that’ll have to stay in place.

The Jays haven’t, obviously, been good this season. This week has felt like the bottom finally falling out, though. They’re now equidistant between the third wildcard and last place in the American League. Their run differential is tied with the last place Angels. It hasn’t been fun to watch, but after months of thinking they might still pull something off in a weak league, at least now there’s clarity and they can focus on getting whatever they can before the deadline the Monday after next.

As a bonus, Daulton Varsho crashed hard into the wall chasing a ninth inning home run. He stayed in the game, but was in visible pain legging out a ground out in the next half inning. Hopefully it’s just a bruise.

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Kevin Gausman had another bad day at the office. He got the first two Rays in the first, but then a walk and three back to back hits, including a Cedric Mullins double, staked the Rays to a three run lead. It was all they’d need. Gausman got out of it and worked through jams with men on first and third in the second in each of the second and third innings to keep Toronto in range, but then a single and a walk knocked him out of the game with one out in the fourth. Mason Fluharty took over and got the second out, but then Yandy Diaz was able to come home on a Brandon Valenzuela throwing error trying to catch Mullins stealing second. A Jonny DeLuca single plated the Rays’ fifth and closed the book on Gausman. All told, he surrendered five runs, four earned, on nine hits and two walks, striking out just one. Not ideal for his trade value.

Lazaro Estrada took over and gave up three more runs in the top of the fifth on a pair of singles and a home run. With the game now firmly in mop up territory, he stuck around for the sixth, getting through it cleanly. Patrick Corbin pitched a couple of solid relief innings, allowing one hit and striking out three. In the ninth, though, the Rays decided to pour a few more on. Three singles and a Yandy Diaz home run scored four, making it 12-2. With the lead now at 10, Myles Straw was able to take over. He was the most effective pitcher of the night for Toronto, giving up just a soft line single and getting a pair of ground outs.

Meanwhile, the offence was on Drew Rasmussen but couldn’t capitalize. Nathan Lukes, Ernie Clement, and George Springer each singled in the first to load the bases, but a pop out and a strikeout prevented any runs. Valenzuela walked in the second. They couldn’t get anything done in the third or fourth, but Myles Straw added another single in the fifth. Finally, in the sixth, Clement got another hit, Springer doubled to move him to third, and a Daulton Varsho single plated the lead runner, knocking Rasmussen out of the game. Reliever Cole Sulser got Kazuma Okamoto to ground into a double play, but at leas that plated Springer.

At that point they went back to sleep, going down in order in the seventh, eighth, and ninth.

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Jays of the Day: Absolutely not, no.

Less So: Gausman (-0.20), Okamoto (-0.11 and an error), and really everyone else except Clement.

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Since we’re all having so much fun, we’ll play the Rays two more times. The next one is tomorrow at 7:07pm ET. Griffin Jax (5-7, 4.08) takes the mound for the Rays. The Jays haven’t announced a starter, but Spencer Miles (4-2, 3.52) will probably do the bulk of the pitching, either off the bat or following an opener.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to rebound from yet another tough loss Monday night with a Tuesday night clash versus the Los Angeles Angels. Matthew Liberatore will start for the Cardinals while the Angels will give the ball to Walbert Ureña. First pitch is scheduled for 8:38pm central time at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.

• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: LHP Kohl Drake (No. 58)
• Recalled from Triple-A Reno: RHP Gerardo Carrillo (No. 68)
• Optioned to Triple-A Reno following last night’s game: RHP Juan Burgos
• Placed on the 15-day injured list: RHP Drey Jameson (right hip inflammation, retro to July 20)

Another debutant on the 2026 Diamondbacks! That’s seven all told, so we’ve already crushed the line for that in Place Your Bets, which was originally set at a mere 4.5. Drake becomes the third starting pitcher to reach the majors this year for Arizona, following Jose Cabrera and Mitch Bratt. There have also been four position players: Jose Fernandez, Ryan Waldschmidt, Tommy Try and LuJames Groover. Drake was originally drafted by the Rangers, in the 11th round of the 2022 draft, but came over to the D-backs in the trade for Merrill Kelly – the same deal also gave us Bratt, and David Hagaman, who has a 3.19 ERA in High-A ball this year. Not a bad little haul.

To be fair, Drake has struggled a bit in Reno – though who doesn’t? His ERA with the Aces across 16 starts and one relief appearance is a meaty 6.92, with a K:BB of 60:31 across 66.2 innings in Triple A. But it’s perhaps significant that at home, he has a batting average against of .321, more than ninety points higher than Drake has posted away from Reno. He had a particularly good outing his last road game, tossing five shutout innings of one-hit ball in Tacoma, with no walks and six strikeouts. So there’s quality there. He just needs to tap into it more consistently. He turned 26 on Friday, so should be entering his prime.

Also, just before going to press, Drey Jameson was put on the IL with a hip issue, and Gerardo Carillo will consequently have a shot to become debutant #8! Finally, I’ll just leave this here:

From the A’s :
Kuroda-Grauer was injured last night after fouling off a pitch in the fifth inning. He underwent emergency surgery to repair a ruptured testicle last night at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix and is resting comfortably.

— Jody Jackson (@Jody_Jackson) July 21, 2026

Thoughts and prayers… [Shifts uncomfortably in his seat]

Game two of the three-game series between the Athletics and the Arizona Diamondbacks will take place tonight at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. The A’s took the opener last night 5-2 behind Joshua Kuroda-Grauer’s first MLB homer and a 4-5 night by Tommy White.

Taking the mound tonight for the Athletics is 26-year-old righty Jack Perkins. Perkins is 2-5 with a 6.87 ERA this season with seventy-two strikeouts in 57.2 innings. He’ll go up against 26-year-old righthanded rookie Kohl Drake who is making his major league debut tonight. He was called up today from the D-backs AAA affiliate Reno Aces.

Drake will face off against this lineup for Mark Kotsay’s A’s:

Perkins will go up against this lineup for the Diamondbacks:

Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA

Listen:
Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, A’s Cast

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