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OLDER
And so the weather affects this one!
Patrick Sandoval makes his Fenway Park debut for the Red Sox as the squad looks to keep this thing going! If…the weather decides to cooperate.
⚾️ Time: 4:10pm — Fenway Park, Boston, MA
📺 TV: NESN
📻 Radio: WEEI
Howdy, y’all? If you weren’t aware, the MLB Draft was this past weekend, and we had a good number of players get drafted. So, I thought I’d throw together a quick little recap of our newest #ProDucks. So, without further ado, here we go!
Round 3, Pick 103: SS Ryan Cooney, selected by the Toronto Bluejays
Round 5, Pick 137: P Cal Scolari, selected by the Chicago Whitesox
Round 6, Pick 187: SS Maddox Molony, selected by the Detroit Tigers
Round 8, Pick 253, P Miles Gosztola, selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers
Round 10, Pick 313, P Devin Bell, also selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers
Round 15, Pick 448, 3B Drew Smith, selected by the San Francisco Giants
Round 19, Pick 556, OF Jack Brooks, selected by the Washington Nationals
So, there we have it. Seven new Ducks into the MLB system, adding to the four from last year, and five in 2024. Which player do you think will have the best shot at making the MLB? Let us know down in the comments!
And, as always, ‘Sco Ducks!
The Mariners activated Julio Rodríguez from the 7-day IL ahead of this evening’s game against the Giants. Julio had been out since July 3, when Anaheim’s Nolan Shanuel threw the ball into the back of Julio’s head in an attempt to make a double play. Julio initially got up and sprinted to third base, looking very amped up. But it quickly became apparent that he was not alright, and he’s been recovering for the past two weeks.
There’s never a good time for a concussion, but the injury came at a particularly unfortunate time for Julio, who seemed to be regaining his timing after struggling throughout much of June. And while the injury lingered for longer than anyone would hope, it’s nice for him to have only missed one game of the second half since that’s traditionally what one might call Julio Season.
In a corresponding move, Miles Mastrobuoni was DFA’d. Among a bench full of players without options, this made the most sense because Master Bunny is the only lefty on a team that’s gotten lopsided. In addition, Mastrobuoni has already cleared waivers once this season, so there’s a reasonable chance the Mariners get to keep him again.
Julio will DH tonight as he eases back into things. Luke Raley will play centerfield because sometimes we like to have fun.
Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff is likely to miss the rest of the season in a massive blow for his team.
Woodruff, 33, told reporters Saturday that he was set to undergo right shoulder capsule surgery.
He previously underwent the same procedure in 2023 and rehabbed the injury for 20 months in that instance before returning.
Woodruff, though, said he is going under the knife this time “with the goal in mind of pitching again.”
“I’m not having a funeral or anything,” he said, via MLB.com.
Woodruff has been limited by arm and shoulder injuries this year and landed on the IL earlier in July due to his latest issue.
He’s pitched well in just nine appearances and 45 ⅓ innings this year with a 2.98 ERA.
Woodruff has spent his entire career in Milwaukee after being drafted by the team in 2014.
The former Mississippi State star made his big league debut in 2017 and established himself as a reliable arm for Milwaukee, as he earned All-Star nods in 2019 and 2021.
Woodruff’s injury is a tough blow to a red-hot Brewers team that leads the National League Central with a 60-37 record heading into Saturday’s action
And, across all of MLB, only the Dodgers have a better record than Milwaukee with the second half of the season still to play.
The Brewers will face the Marlins on Saturday and Sunday before hosting the Mets for a three-game series.
This morning an interesting report came out that the Nationals have been talking with other teams about Luis Garcia Jr. ahead of the trade deadline. Garcia’s name has not been mentioned as much in trade rumors as the likes of CJ Abrams or Foster Griffin. However, moving the first baseman at the peak of his value could make a lot of sense.
There have been no truly advanced talks yet, but it is now clear that Garcia’s name is out there. This would be an interesting move to make, and has its pros and cons. As mentioned in the Athletic article, losing Garcia could be a big blow to the clubhouse, which the front office is mindful of.
The 26 year old Garcia has become a leader in the clubhouse despite still being a young player. After all, Garcia is the longest tenured player on the Nats, having been with the club since 2020. Obviously, losing Garcia would be more than just a loss in the clubhouse. Garcia is having a career year on the field, hitting .284 with an .871 OPS and a career high 20 home runs.
Garcia has been on a torrid run since the start of June, with an OPS of 1.087 and 15 of his 20 homers. He has been putting the ball in the air more consistently, and it has paid off in a big way. Garcia has always had a ton of talent as a hitter, but with a better coaching staff, he is finally putting things together.
That makes the decision to trade him an interesting one. At 26, this could just be the beginning for Garcia. However, he does have a fairly long history of mediocre production before this and cannot hit left handed pitching. There is a decent chance that this is the peak of his value.
One other thing that could make it easier to stomach trading Garcia is the fact that the Nats have ready made replacements waiting in the wings. We saw Abimelec Ortiz in the last game of the first half, and he looked like he could handle big league pitching. He also hit three doubles in his first game back in AAA. If you can get assets, ideally pitchers, for Garcia and have Ortiz slide in and deliver similar production, that would be a bargain.
The Nats could target high minors or even young big league pitching in a Garcia deal. If they could get a solid starting pitching prospect and a promising but unproven young reliever, this could be a deal that could help the Nats this year. With Ortiz waiting in the wings, Garcia is a player you can trade while not losing that much production. It would be tough to ask Ortiz to be as productive as Garcia has been, but he can give you about 85% of it.
Our guy Paul made an interesting mock trade with the Red Sox, who were brought up in that article. His trade sends Garcia to the Sox for Kyson Witherspoon and Eduardo Rivera. Just like my suggestion, that brings in a nice pitching prospect and a talented but unproven reliever.
I am not totally sold that Witherspoon would be on the table for Garcia, but I suppose it is possible. Witherspoon was the Red Sox first rounder last year, but has had an uneven first pro season after Boston tried to make some tweaks to his mechanics. However, the talent is still quite large. Rivera is a relief prospect who has made his MLB debut, and has loud stuff from the left side.
Both are a bit buried in the Red Sox loaded pitching core, but would be great fits in DC. If Witherspoon is unavailable, Marcus Phillips is another name that makes sense, especially if there is a third piece coming back to the Nats. Phillips is very similar to Witherspoon, as he has big stuff but uneven results this year in his first season of pro ball.
With Garcia, there could be a lot of interest due to his unique offensive profile. His combination of power and contact is rare. Other teams that would make sense for him include the Guardians, the D-Backs if they remain in the hunt and maybe even the Marlins.
Garcia has one year of team control after this season, which would appeal to teams as well. He is not just a rental, and is still very young. If the Nats wanted to do a combination of buying and selling, Garcia would make a lot of sense as a piece to move. Unlike Foster Griffin or CJ Abrams, they have an in-house replacement and Garcia could help them acquire much needed pitching help. There will be a lot on Paul Toboni’s plate as we approach the deadline, and this Garcia decision will be one of many that he has to make.
This will be a short recap, since nothing really of note happened.
Gavin Williams was, well, weird. 11 Ks in 6 innings, but gave up 3 HRs and 5 earned runs.
The offense did practically nothing. After Gavin gave up a 2-run homer in the 2nd, Kwan singled with two outs in the bottom of the 2nd. Jared Jones missed on a 2-2 fastball, and Bazzana laced a triple down the right-field line, scoring Kwan. For what it’s worth, it probably wouldn’t have been a triple if not for Kwan’s spectacular baserunning, getting from first to home on what was, in most cases, a routine double.
That was all.
Pirates starter Jared Jones went 5 innings, striking out 9, and giving up only that one run. The pirates bullpen pitched 4 scoreless innings, striking out 4.
The Guardians bullpen pitched 3 innings and gave up 2 runs.
The Guardians mustered up 7 baserunners today, and collected only one extra-base hit.
It’ll be Logan Allen tonight at 7:10.
SEATTLE — Landen Roupp didn’t want his night to end. But he didn’t put up a fight.
When just over two more innings represents a career high for a season, you learn to pick your battles over going back out for one more. Even in the case of Roupp, who shares the same bulldog mentality as Logan Webb and, on Friday, sure pitched like the Giants’ ace, too.
Roupp tossed seven shutout innings to help the Giants start the second half on the right note Friday in a 7-0 win over the Mariners. Still, he understood he had minimal leverage to persuade manager Tony Vitello to give him the chance of completing eight for a second straight start.
“He made a comment today about not fighting to go back out there in the eighth,” Vitello said.
Instead, he handed the game off to Jason Foley, who touched 97 mph while tossing a scoreless eighth in his first big-league appearance since 2024. Caleb Kilian took care of business in the ninth, and the Giants finished what they hope is a preview of what’s to come in their final stretch.
Roupp, 27, figures to be a big part of the Giants’ second-half plans, especially if Robbie Ray and/or Tyler Mahle are pitching for different teams after the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
The young right-hander has looked the part of a No. 2 his past two times out. Before allowing two hits over seven innings against the Mariners, Roupp limited the Blue Jays to one run on three hits.
In that outing, 11 days earlier, Roupp was allowed to complete eight innings, a career high. That also put him on the doorstep of another significant milepost: He was less than 10 innings from matching his largest workload in one season — the 106 ⅔ he threw last year.
When his night was over Friday, Roupp’s inning total stood at 104.
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By the sounds of it, the Giants have no plans of lightening his load.
Vitello was asked after the game about his plans for Roupp in the second half, given the career high he is almost certain to blow past the next time he takes the mound.
“Let him pitch,” he said. “Try not to get in a fistfight in the dugout any time he comes out of the game.”
That’s music to Roupp’s ears.
“I don’t really like to take breaks,” he said. “It kind of just messes with my momentum and rhythm. … I feel good to go. I don’t really see anything stopping this.”
Roupp had plenty of downtime between his two most recent starts and said he felt a “little sluggish” when he took the mound in Seattle, even if it didn’t show. After starting 11 losses in a row, tying a franchise record, Roupp has used pretty much the same formula to correct course his past two starts.
“Just trying to pound the zone,” Roupp said. “Not really going for strikeouts much.”
For the most part, he has done a good job of generating early contact. That has allowed him to pitch deeper into games while limiting runs despite striking out less than a batter every two innings his past two starts, which could also bode well for his ability to continue to take on a larger workload.
“I think if you look at his whole body of work, he’s been great for us all year long,” Vitello said. “It’s just been a couple outings where his pitch count gets high on him because he’s not in the zone.”
The Giants opted to skip his last turn in the rotation before the All-Star break, a decision Vitello chalked up more to finding an opportunity for Carson Whisenhunt than giving Roupp a breather.
“Finding ways to get Wiz involved,” Vitello said, “is something we’re all thinking about in the back of our minds as we talk about the pitching staff.”
Soon enough, Roupp and Whisenhunt will likely be in the rotation. There should be no shortage of innings and starts to go around once the Giants’ sell-off commences.
In the meantime, Roupp found a creative setting to stay fresh during his extended layoff. While Webb was enjoying the All-Star festivities in Philadelphia and Vitello was relaxing on the beach in Cabo, Roupp stayed closer to home. He went to Santa Cruz with Casey Schmitt.
The teammates took in the boardwalk, mostly stayed away from the cold, seaweed-filled ocean water and played catch in the driveway of a friend’s house where they were staying.
“I guess it was good, in the long run, to take a break like that,” Roupp said, even though he added, “I would rather not” take another one.
The St. Louis Cardinals will play game 2 in Arizona Saturday afternoon as Dustin May takes the mound for the Cardinals hoping to win the series versus the Diamondbacks. Arizona will try to foil that plan by giving the ball to RHP Brandon Pfaadt. First pitch is set for 3:10pm central time in the desert. The game TV broadcast will be available through Cardinals.tv.
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The Orioles are in unprecedented territory, carrying a season-best five-game winning streak into today’s game. What do you say we make it six?
The Birds’ second-half opener last night wasn’t the most crisply played affair, with nine walks by the O’s pitching staff and a nearly non-existent offensive showing, but Taylor Ward’s dramatic, eighth-inning home run turned a sure defeat into a dramatic victory. The win leapfrogged the Orioles a half game ahead of the Astros in the crowded wild card race.
If the O’s hope to stay ahead, they’ll need to win at least one of their next two games in Houston. Preferably both! Today Trevor Rogers will make his first start of the second half, hoping to continue the roll he was on before the All-Star break. Since the start of June, the lefty has a 1.73 ERA in seven outings, going 4-1 with four quality starts. He’s shaved his once sky-high 6.96 ERA to a reasonable 4.48. If Rogers can hold Yordan Alvarez in check, he’s got a good chance to lower that mark even further.
The Orioles, against Astros righty Spencer Arrighetti, have eight of the same nine guys in the lineup as last night. The one exception is at third base, where newly recalled Christian Encarnacion-Strand makes his Orioles debut in place of Coby Mayo. This will be Encarnacion-Strand’s first MLB appearance in more than a year, since July 8, 2025 with the Reds. He’s never had much success at the major league level, batting just .233/.275/.404 in parts of three seasons with Cincinnati, but he was tearing up Triple-A Norfolk with 17 homers and a .555 SLG in 61 games. If he can play a decent defensive third base and hit a few dingers for however long he’s with the Orioles, I’ll take that.
At 17 letters, Encarnacion-Strand has the longest last name in Orioles history. So he’s got that going for him.
Orioles lineup:
DH Adley Rutschman
SS Gunnar Henderson
LF Taylor Ward
1B Pete Alonso
C Samuel Basallo
RF Dylan Beavers
CF Colton Cowser
3B Christian Encarnacion-Strand
2B Jackson Holliday
LHP Trevor Rogers
Astros lineup:
SS Jeremy Peña
DH Yordan Alvarez
3B Isaac Paredes
2B Jose Altuve
1B Christian Walker
C Yainer Diaz
RF Cam Smith
LF Zach Dezenzo
CF Lucas Spence
RHP Spencer Arrighetti
Here’s the good news: After winning a wild game last night, the Royals have a shot to take the series with a W this afternoon. The bad news: They’re going to have to do it with Randy Dobnak taking a turn in the rotation because Stephen Kolek needs a tune-up start for Omaha (also occurring today) before he’s ready to rejoin the Royals’ rotation following an extended stay on the Family Medical Emergency list to be with his prematurely-born baby daughter.
Dobnak has danced around trouble – allowing 9 hits and 4 walks while only striking out 4 in 9.2 innings – in 2 appearances for the Royals. If he earns at least one out today, it will be the most major league innings he has thrown in a season since 2021. He didn’t pitch in the bigs at all in ‘22 or ‘23, pitched 9.2 innings in ‘24, and only 5.1 innings last year. When the Twins called him up as a 24-year-old in 2019, it seemed like he could be a swingman in their rotation and bullpen for years to come but it just didn’t work out that way for him. The Royals, of course, acquired him for cash from the Mariners when he exercised an upward-mobility clause in his contract with them earlier this year. The Royals actually just sold Rudy Martin Jr.‘s rights to the Orioles for the same reason yesterday.
The Padres will send Griffin Canning to the mound. Canning is something the opposite of last night’s starter, Michael King. His K-BB% is better, but his LOB% is worse, so he carries an unwieldy 6.47 ERA despite a SIERA of 4.57. So, he’s the opposite of King in that he’s been unlucky, but the same as King in that his true performance has been closer to mediocre than the results would seem to indicate. Don’t ask me what the Royals might do about it.
Canning has seven pitches, though he only throws four of them more than 10% of the time, with three of those – his four-seamer, slider, and changeup – accounting for almost 3/4 of his pitches thrown. He doesn’t generally get anyone to chase his pitches. His slider and cutter can generate some whiffs. Batters don’t do well when they put the knuckle-curveball or sweeper into play. The changeup grades out the best of his pitches. It’s a mish-mash of stats that only tell you that he doesn’t seem to have a clear identity as a pitcher. That can be a problem for a good offense, but I could see how it would make it difficult for a bad offense to figure out a plan against him.
Speaking of bad offenses, the Royals will send out the same nine they used last night. I wouldn’t hate it if they did better with runners in scoring position before the tenth inning. Only time will tell if they can manage it.
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.
It’s rare that a Diamondbacks’ loss so thoroughly annoyed me as the one last night. It was bad enough dipping into the Gameday Thread during last night’s concert. But after we came home and I was watching the condensed version of the game to unwind… Well, it succeeded only in winding me up more. It felt, after sweeping the enemy in Dodger Stadium, that the D-backs had the chance to get on a roll, and I wondered if perhaps the All-Star break was coming at just the wrong time. For certainly, based on the evidence last night, this looked like an Arizona team which had forgotten entirely how to play the game over the four days off.
There was hardly an aspect of the Diamondbacks game which was even adequate. Sloppy defense. Poor approaches at the plate (and never mind the 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, they seemed especially poor with a runner on third and less than two outs). Issuing free passes in key situations. Even the ABS challenges were woeful, allowing home-plate umpire Bill Miller to get away with the single most skewed pitch-calling (click on “Favor (Home)” to sort by that) of the season so far. Indeed, there just only one worse game all of last year – when there were no ABS challenges available to mitigate this level of official incompetence.
Hopefully, things will go better today. Merrill Kelly’s start was actually one of the lesser problems. While he did the five and dive, two of the three runs he allowed came courtesy of Marte’s first-inning gaffe and were unearned. So his ERA dropped to 5.20, the lowest it has been since May. We’ll see if Brandon Pfaadt can join him on the recovery train. Since returning to the rotation, he’s 3-0 with a 1.72 ERA and a FIP under three. Especially with the news about Zac Gallen, it looks like Pfaadt will be a key component of the rotation for the rest of the season. If he can pitch like it again today, we will be all the better for it.
Given how much the White Sox have crushed right handed starters recently, Sox fans seeing another righty on the schedule may well go, “Oh, yesss!!” Then when they see who it is, they may well go, “Oh, noooo!!!” And then, when they look at recent stats, they’ll be back to, “Oh, yesss!!” again.
That’s because the Blue Jays are starting Shane Bieber, whom Sox fans are bound to remember from his Cy Young and multiple-All Star years in Cleveland. But lately, Bieber has been more Justin than Shane, thanks to injuries.
Bieber was outstanding for two starts in 2024 before departing for Tommy John surgery. Then he was just so-so after coming back late last season. And then he had another elbow injury this spring which kept him out until June 23, since which he has been absolutely horrible — 26 hits, seven of them homers, in just 17 2/3 innings, to go along with ten walks, adding up to a 7.64 ERA and 2.04 WHIP.
The Sox counter with the righty who had been their star earlier, but Davis Martin has himself struggled some lately, raising his ERA a point in the past month, His last time out, Martin gave up five runs in four innings against the Red Sox — but maybe all he needed was a nice relaxing time between starts, provided thanks to the All-Star break.
With right handers on the mound, both teams have gone to lefty-heavy lineups, though the Blue Jays are limited from that side.
First pitch is scheduled for 2:07 Central (:07 must be a Canadian thing), with the Rogers Centre roof expected to be closed because of wildfire pollution. Usual broadcast suspects instead of the greed fest last night that put the game on Apple TV.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing in a Saturday matinee matchup against the Cleveland Guardians in their first series back after the All-Star break.
Braxton Ashcraft is taking the mound in his first start in the second half. Ashcraft finished the first half of the season with a start on July 11 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched five innings and gave up five hits and five earned runs, but the Pirates rallied late with four runs in the seventh inning to beat their NL Central rival 7-6.
Ashcraft has arguably been the best starter for the Pirates so far this season. He is 9-3 with a 3.49 ERA. Pittsburgh has won each of Ashcraft’s last five appearances, which sets him up well for today’s game against the Guardians.
Cleveland is handing the ball to a third-year pro, Joey Cantillo, who’s 8-4 with a 3.56 ERA. Cantillo won his last start back on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, pitching five innings, giving up six hits and one run, and earning a 5-2 victory on the road. The Guardians are keeping Cantillo on his normal rest for this start, opting to give other starters more time to recover from the first half of the season.
Location: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH
Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh
Pitching Matchup: Braxton Ashcraft (9-3, 3.49 ERA) vs. Joey Cantillo (8-4, 3.56 ERA)
BD community, this is your gameday thread. Chime off in the comments section below.
San Diego Padres (48-49) at Kansas City Royals (39-59), July 18, 2026, 1:10 p.m. PST
Watch: Padres.TV
Location: Kauffman Stadium – Kansas City, MO
Listen: 97.3 The Fan
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Texas Rangers @ Atlanta Braves
Saturday, July 18, 2026, 3:10 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)
Truist Park
LHP MacKenzie Gore vs. RHP Owen Murphy
Go Rangers!