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The first half is officially in the books, and the Chicago White Sox are in first place.

Sam Antonacci and Braden Montgomery homered, Miguel Vargas and Kyle Teel had multi-hit performances, and Noah Schultz threw five mostly stress-free innings as the Good Guys picked up their 50th win of the season, 9-1 over the Sacramento Athletics. The win lets them keep pace with the Cleveland Guardians at the top of the AL Central with fewer than 70 games left to play.

A six-run explosion in the first inning against A’s starter J.T. Ginn led the charge, sparked by Antonacci’s third leadoff blast in the last 22 days and punctuated by Braden’s drifting three-run shot six hitters later. By the time they tacked on three more in the fifth inning to bring the score to its final resting place of 9-1, the afternoon felt like a celebration of one of recent memory’s more remarkable first halves.

A sweep of the Athletics to ride high to the break feels like a fitting bookend to a half that began in earnest with the Sox three-game trip to Sacramento in mid-April. We didn’t know it at the time, of course, but it was a series with Athletics that lit a fire which has now grown into the club’s first legitimate contender in a half-decade. On April 17, they flew into Sacramento on the heels of getting dusted for three games at home by the Tampa Bay Rays, dropping them to 6-13 with a -40 run differential on the season. A thumping 9-2 win to kick things off at Sutter Home Park set the pace for a series win, and the rest is history.

Since that 19-game thumping to start the season, Chicago has built a 44-32 record (a 93-win pace), with a +75 run differential that’s comfortably in the Top 10 in the big leagues. It’s not an elite, world-beating pace, but it feels sustainable. And fully playoff-worthy.

The Sox put this one away early, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a moment of tension. Though the July heat had the ball flying out of the yard, Noah Schultz’s velocity coming out of the gate was middling, and two of the first three batted balls he allowed checked in north of 100 mph, including a 105 mph blast from Shea Langeliers that gave the A’s a brief 1-0 lead. Schulta had allowed at least three earned runs in six consecutive starts, and another shaky outing would not be the positive note the Sox pitching staff wanted to go into the break on.

Whether the offense’s outburst helped take some pressure off, or if it was always meant to be, Schultz settled in for one of his best outings as a big-leaguer. He needed just 74 pitches to get through five innings, scattering just two other hits and (perhaps most critically) successfully avoiding a walk for just the second time in his 11 outings. In today’s game thread, I questioned Schultz’s heavy usage of a sinker that to this point had failed to generate positive results. The answer was a season-low 10% sinkers and an aggressively changeup-heavy approach to right-handed hitters while continuing to get good results with his nasty sweeper against hitters of both hands.

Lots of broadcast time in both booths was deservedly dedicated to the Sox All-Star trio of Vargas, Munetaka Murakami, and Tristan Peters. This week will be the first time since 2006 that the South Siders have sent three hitters to the All-Star Game, when Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome and A.J. Pierzynski all made the trip to Pittsburgh on their behalf. Vargas did notch his 20th double of the season, but Murakami and Peters were held to a 1-for-7 showing otherwise.

Vargas’ double made him the sixth Sox player to reach 20 homers and 20 doubles before the break, joining Frank Thomas (1993, 1994, 2003), José Abreu (2014, 2019), Luis Robert Jr. (2023), Jermaine Dye (2008), and Magglio Ordoñez (2000). Colson Montgomery, perhaps the other major star presence in the lineup at the moment, had a muted 1-for-4 afternoon.

Today was a day for the All-Stars, but also for the Garrett Crochet trade. Six of the nine Chicago runs were generated by Teel and Braden, while Chase Meidroth made some nice plays at the keystone despite an 0-for-4 day at the plate. Teel’s two-run single in the first inning was the scoring bridge between homers from Antonacci and Braden, with Braden also breaking the scoring open in the fifth inning with an RBI single. Peters was responsible for one other run batted in on a fielder’s choice, and the final Sox run was charged to a wild pitch.

Perhaps sensing a vacation on the horizon, the Sox bullpen was uncharacteristically efficient this afternoon. Jordan Hicks continues to look like a completely new reliever since his latest IL activation, striking out the side in order in immediate relief of Schultz. He’s faced 27 hitters over his last seven appearances, and he’s struck out 15 of them against just two hits and one walk. His fastball velocity continues to be up roughly 2 mph from its pre-injury levels. If this is the Hicks we can expect in the second half, it’ll be some badly needed relief for a bullpen that’s already crawling to the finish line.

They didn’t need to crawl today. When Seranthony Domínguez delivered an all-too-rare 1-2-3 inning in relief of Hicks, things felt strangely right in the world. Tyler Schweitzer had the audacity to allow a hit in each of his two innings of work. I don’t think anybody in that ballpark or watching at home thought it mattered.

I’m just going to leave this here instead. Not updated to include today’s result.

That does it for the first half! We’ll be seeing you tomorrow evening to watch Munetaka Murakami compete in the Home Run Derby at 7 p.m. CT on Netflix, joined by Vargas and Peters at the same time on Tuesday for the All-Star Game itself on Fox.

Apologies, our latest free poll embed software has gone under. That’s two such programs going defunct under our feet. We’ll regather and figure out what to use going forward, and will likely still stick polls here for this game at some point over the break. So check back!

The Texas Rangers scored six runs while the Houston Astros scored five runs.

The Rangers led 3-0 early and then 4-1 late, holding that 4-1 lead into the seventh inning only for the Astros to tie the game in that ining and then take a 5-4 lead in the eighth because Texas was essentially forced into a quasi bullpen game while unfortunately also being quite thin in both available and reliable relief.

Nevertheless, No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka hit a two-out, solo home run to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth which allowed the Rangers to bring in their best reliever Jacob Latz and after a scoreless top of the ninth, they walked off a near-untouchable Josh Hader with three consecutive hits to begin (and end!) the ninth.

The Rangers go into the All-Star break leading the American League West and, hey, those Silver Boot dreams live on another day!

Player of the Game: Brandon Nimmo had three hits and the walk-off single but also big props to MacKenzie Gore for four innings of one-run ball after he asked to make the start on short rest after Jacob deGrom broke his ass or something.

Up Next: After a few days off for everyone other than All-Star Latz, the Rangers open the second half in Atlanta where they will take on the Braves beginning on Friday evening.

It’s Sunday once more, and you know what that means — it’s time for our weekly social media roundup! Earlier today, the first half of the season wrapped up, but before we turn our attention to the All-Star Break and beyond, let’s take a look back at this week’s social media spotlight. How has the squad been spending their time online? Let’s find out!

All-Star Invitations

Last week, Major League Baseball announced that a quartet of Yankees — Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, and Cam Schlittler — were headed to Philadelphia for the 2026 All-Star Game. Here’s the moment they found out:

A few days later, Rice accepted an invitation to participate in this year’s Home Run Derby, where his dad will be pitching to him.

Dave’s Thoughts

As usual, Dave Sims took to Instagram with his thoughts after this week’s slate of games.

Suzyn’s Day Off

Yankees radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman went back to her roots and caught Death of a Salesman and Oh Mary — and even got a chance to take a snap a picture of the sound board!

Honoring Service

The Yankees took some time this week to honor Holocaust survivor Sally Muschel and made a donation to the Carlos Rodón Foundation.

Some Photo Dumps

To wrap up the first half, here’s some photos posted this week, by Yankees past and present.

The Atlanta Braves took a 4-3 win against the St. Louis Cardinals, and though they didn’t win the battle, they’ve won the war… or at least avoided being swept after dropping the series. Does that still count?

The sunny days just might be here again.

The Cardinals kicked off their bid on the scoreboard after an RBI double from Alec Burleson to bring Jordan Walker in. The Braves would drive in three of their own soon after.

The most impressive one was from Brewer Hicklen, knocking in a 109.1 MPH double for the first RBI of his career to drive in Jim Jarvis to give the Braves a two-run lead.

Danny Young, who was slated to start for the Braves at the last minute, only saw the first inning after allowing the first run and a walk from Lars Nootbaar right after. JR Ritchie, who was the original starter, went in for him before the end of the first inning and stayed until the bottom of the sixth inning (4.1 IP/ 1 H/ 0 ER/ 2 BB/ 2 K).

Pitching is what almost got the Braves in trouble as the Bullpen gave up two more runs later in the bottom of the sixth inning, tying the two teams until the top of the ninth where the Braves got a run off a throwing error by Cardinals’ Masyn Winn from a Mauricio Dubón RBI single to bring Ozzie Albies in.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the first half of the 2026 season. Lots of positives, ran into struggles, but what team doesn’t? Now, it’s a matter of how they’ll get back on top in the second half, in the race to October.

The Mets' Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, won 10-5 today, and rehabbing big-leaguers Marcus Semien and Luis Robert Jr. both had big days at the dish.

This was Semien's first in-game action since he was placed on the IL nearly three weeks ago with a hip flexor strain. Meanwhile, Robert has been ramping up his workload since his minor-league assignment began at the start of July, having hit the IL in late April with lower back disc herniation.

Semien clobbered a three-run homer to left-center field in the top of the fourth inning. He was removed from the game midway through the game, having earlier smacked a single. He finished 2-for-3 with a strikeout swinging.

Marcus Semien with a three-run homer for Double-A Binghamton pic.twitter.com/vyjlcTs3pf

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) July 12, 2026

Robert played the whole game, taking six at-bats and recording two hits, including an RBI single, but also struck out three times.

Mets interim manager Andy Green, speaking before Sunday's game, explained the team's expectations for Semien and Robert moving forward, including the three-day MLB All-Star break between Monday, July 13 and Wednesday, July 15.

Green explained that the plan for Semien during that time is for him to "get some live at-bats against Clay Holmes... more rehab games is the most likely scenario starting on Friday."

When asked about how soon the Mets could see Robert's return to the lineup, Green responded, "We'll see how he feels. He'll also get some live at-bats against Clay during the [All-Star] break... then, there's a good chance he will play in a couple of more games [in the minor leagues]."

"Hopefully, at that point in time, [Robert] will be ready to go," the interim skipper concluded.

The Orioles finally did it. They finally won a fourth straight game in the 2026 season. It was long past ridiculous that they hadn’t, as the team had seven three-game winning streaks that they did not manage to turn into a four-or-more-game winning streak. The eighth time was the charm. They took out 96 games worth of frustration on the woeful Royals and came away with a convincing 8-2 win to sweep their final series heading into the All-Star break.

Although the final margin of victory was six runs, this game had a lot in common with games that the Orioles have lost earlier in the season. Starting pitcher Shane Baz was not able to complete the fifth inning due to an elevated pitch count. The Royals got their first run and a prolonged rally following a throwing error by Blaze Alexander at third base. This gave the Royals an early lead in the game. The Orioles offense wasted a couple of promising scoring chances in the early innings. There was a second O’s error later in the game.

They overcame all of that. One reason that they were able to do this is Baz. You’d always rather see the starting pitcher complete at least five innings, but this was a decent enough game from him. Baz’s 4.2 innings saw him strike out nine Royals batters and he did not issue any walks. That helped him mostly scatter the seven hits allowed without too much damage. Even the one earned run charged to Baz was a cheap chopper that cleared an inexplicably drawn-in infield.

Kansas City struck first, with a triple following Alexander’s error to score the game’s first run in the top of the second. Baz handled that one in a way that Orioles pitchers often haven’t this season, getting a strikeout for the third out to strand the runner on third base. The O’s did not stay in the hole for long. Alexander atoned a bit for the error by leading off the next inning with a single. With one out, Alexander was still on base for Leody Taveras’s fourth homer of the season, a convincing bomb to deep center field that gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

The lead did not last. As Royals starter Seth Lugo failed at the shutdown inning when his offense gave him the 1-0 lead, Baz couldn’t deliver one in the top of the third after the offense put him on top. KC’s star, Bobby Witt Jr., led off the next inning with a double, advanced on a groundout, then scored on a single. Baz held the line again, even after giving up another single to put men on first and third with only one out. He limited the damage and stopped a disaster before it could move any farther along.

The score stayed tied at 2-2 until the Orioles broke it open in the sixth inning. Both starting pitchers were out early. Lugo pitched just four innings and took 89 pitches to do it. Baz’s 4.2 inning outing saw him throw 104. After he gave up a two-out double in the fifth inning, that was all for him. Anthony Nunez was brought in to finish the fifth inning. He’s had some rough outings recently. This one went fine. Nunez struck out Vinnie Pasquantino to end that inning.

With both starters out by the end of the fifth inning, it was a battle of the bullpens from there. Kansas City came up short when the day went badly for their pitcher Matt Strahm. Many days this season have gone poorly for Strahm, who entered the game with a 5.81 ERA. Many days have gone poorly for many Royals relievers.

Strahm struck out Samuel Basallo, the first batter he faced, and then things went off the rails. He walked Alexander, allowed a single to pinch hitter Tyler O’Neill, then another single to Taveras, easily scoring Alexander from second base to put the Orioles ahead for good at 3-2. They kept pouring on the hits for good measure: Another pinch hitter, Jeremiah Jackson, delivered an RBI double. Strahm balked in another run, then couldn’t stop Jackson from scoring from third as Gunnar Henderson hit an infield chopper off the back tip of home plate.

That was the end of the line for Strahm. His replacement only ended the inning after Pete Alonso hit an RBI single and made an ill-advised decision to try to stretch it into a double. That happened a lot in this series.

Because this is still the 2026 Orioles, there must be a cruel barb even in this moment of modest triumph where the team has achieved something positive. In the seventh inning, immediately following Basallo hitting a homer (his 16th of the year!) to make the game 8-2, Alexander was hit by a pitch by Royals reliever Lucas Erceg. The 1-2 pitch was inside and appeared to bounce off of Alexander’s arm before hitting one of his hands.

Alexander started shouting at Erceg, who shouted back, and the benches emptied, bullpens trotted in, and warnings were issued. No one punched or shoved anyone and the incident subsided without escalation.

The damage, however, was done. Alexander was lifted for a pinch runner, and after the game, manager Craig Albernaz revealed that the Orioles infielder has a non-displaced fracture in his left hand. It’s not immediately clear how much time he will miss as a result of this injury. The team has the next few days off to figure out what to do about that bad news. Orioles fans have one more grievance to lay at the feet of the Royals franchise.

Nunez, Grant Wolfram, Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia, and Andrew Kittredge combined for 4.1 scoreless innings across the bunch of them. This parade from the bullpen allowed only two hits and did not walk anyone. It sucks that even this feel-good win has had bad news come out of it.

It’ll be Friday at 8:10 Eastern before this show resumes. The Orioles will be in Houston after the break, the first part of a two city road trip. If they can keep the good feelings going through that road trip, this season might end up staying in a good direction at last. If not, well, that’s a familiar 2026 feeling.

**

It is a longtime tradition on Camden Chat to nominate a Most Birdland Player of the game after each victory. What is “Most Birdland”? Each person must decide for themselves. Sometimes, this is the game’s most valuable player. Other times, it is not. Let us know your pick in the comments below.

Dustin May did not have the kind of start that Chaim Bloom would likely have wanted him to have as the St. Louis Cardinals approach the upcoming trade deadline, however he kept the team in the game despite walks and a costly wild pitch. The St. Louis Cardinals would eventually make a game of it, but it would slip away in the 9th inning.

Jordan Walker showed off his defense skills that are now borderline elite as he tumbled into the netting for the final out in the top of the 1st inning.

The St. Louis Cardinals offense had a decent start to Sunday’s game versus the Braves before the bats went silent. In the top of the 1st inning, After his fine defensive play in the top of the 1st, All-Star Jordan Walker drew a two-out walk and stole second to get into scoring position. Alec Burleson made that pay off when he drove a 94 mph sinker off the left field wall for a double scoring Walker and giving St. Louis an early 1-0 lead.

The Atlanta Braves would pull even in the top of the 2nd inning as Dustin May would be punished by walks to the first two batters of the inning, Smith and Riley. Jarvis laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. May struck out Hicklen for the second out, but then threw a wild pitch past catcher Jimmy Crooks scoring Smith and tying the game at 1-1.

While the St. Louis Cardinals bats went quiet during the middle innings, Atlanta took the lead in the top of the 4th inning when Dustin May hit Austin Riley with a pitch. Two batters later, Hicklen singled moving Riley up to scoring position at second. He would then score on a single by Drake Baldwin giving the Braves a 2-1 lead. That would end Dustin May’s outing as he only lasted 4 innings while walking 4, striking out 4 giving up just 2 hits and 2 earned runs.

Justin Bruihl would enter the game in the 5th inning when he would keep Atlanta from scoring, but that would not be true of his time in the 6th inning when he would give up back-to-back doubles to Jarvis and Hicklen increasing the Braves lead to 3-1. The fact that the Cardinals only had one hit through the first 5 1/2 innings didn’t help the St. Louis cause.

The Cardinals second hit of the game would be a screaming single off of the bat of Jordan Walker two pitches after he was knocked down by Braves reliever Dylan Dodd in the bottom of the 6th inning. Alec Burleson flied out to right for the first out, but then Lars Nootbaar walked and Masyn Winn singled to load the bases for St. Louis with just one out. Oli Marmol chose to pinch-hit Bryan Torres for Blaze Jordan, but he unfortunately struck out on 4 pitches. That left José Fermín as the man with the make-or-break at-bat and fortunately he chose “make” with a clutch 2-strike single into center driving in Walker and Nootbaar tying the game 3-3 after 6 innings.

Gordon Graceffo had entered the game to get the last out of the top of the 6th inning and also handled the top of the 7th inning against Atlanta. It would take him a grand total of 5 pitches to get three groundouts and shut down the Braves in the 6th. Can’t ask for anything more efficient than that. Ryne Stanek was handed top of the 8th inning responsibilities. He gave up a two-strike hit to White who hit one of the end of his bat barely landing past JJ Wetherholt in right-centerfield. Ryne then coaxed a harmless pop-out from slumping, but still dangerous Austin Riley. Stanek then struck out Jarvis and got a weak groundout from Hicklin to end the Braves 8th keeping the score tied.

After the Cardinals failed to grab the lead in the bottom of the 8th inning, it was JoJo Romero brought in to keep the game tied in the top of the 9th inning. He faced the top of the Braves lineup and got Drake Baldwin to fly out to deep center. Ozzie Albies turned on a 93 mph Romero sinker that didn’t sink enough and drove it into the left field corner for a one-out double. JoJo was able to nurse a weak groundout from Matt Olson for the second ou t, but Albies advanced to third on the play. Michael Harris II sold the umpire that he was hit by an 0-2 Romero pitch which was somehow upheld on a challenge even though the replay looked like the ball clearly did not hit Harris II. Great acting job, though. Oli Marmol got tossed for giving the umpires an earful. The replay officials saw something, so I guess we have to trust that they saw something many of us didn’t. Unfortunately, Dubon grounded out to Masyn Winn who’s errant throw sailed past Alec Burleson that allowed Albies to score giving (literally) the Braves a 4-3 lead in the top of the 9th. Romero walked White which loaded the bases for Austin Riley who flew out to Nootbaar in center to end a top of the 9th that could have been worse, but sure should have been better.

The Cardinals could manage nothing in the bottom of the 9th inning which resulted in a very disappointing way to enter the All-Star break even though it was a series win against the NL division-leading Atlanta Braves. There will be plenty of Cardinals to keep track of early this week as Jordan Walker will participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday night and three Cardinals are on the NL All-Star roster for Tuesday’s game.

In all my time at South Side Sox, this is the sort of draft I’ve been waiting to cover for the White Sox, one where the club just kept digging up quality picks even late in the draft, as opposed to going completely off of the MLB board by, like, the fourth round. The South Siders struck once more in the 15th (!) round, taking a flier on MLB’s No. 250 talent, high-powered lefthander Cameron Johnson of the University of Oklahoma, with the No. 435 pick in the 2026 MLB draft.

The hits really do just keep coming for the White Sox this year, as Johnson brings a massive fastball that touches 99 mph and sits mid-90s.

But (c’mon, it’s the 15th round, there’s gotta be a but) Johnson has had some issues with control, so much so that despite an improved regular season in 2026 he sat out nearly all of the postseason as the Sooners made their run to the NCAA title.

I mean, Johnson is a bit of a mess. He had never before even been allowed to see regular starter’s innings in his career until 2026 — and that really is the crux of his improvement. But over 15 starts for the Sooners, he remained all over the place: a 6-1 record but 43 walks against 72 Ks, and still putting himself in enough compromising counts to get hit pretty hard (4.36 ERA, 1.547 WHIP).

Still, Johnson’s raw makeup is to dream on. As a 15th round gamble, he’s absolute gold.

The 2026 White Sox draft storystream contains all of our draft content.

LSU has seen it’s 5th player drafted in the 2026 MLB Draft as Santiago Garcia goes to the Toronto Blue Jays in the 12th round at #372 overall.

The LHP transferred from Oregon after the first to years of his career and became the top lefty option for the Tigers out of the bullpen. He threw 22.2 innings with a 5.96 ERA, striking out 35.

There was slight hope that he could return to Baton Rouge and improve his stock with an extra year of eligibility under the new 5-for-5 rule, but left-handed pitchers that throw in the mid 90s typically don’t get passed on very much.

Garcia is the 5th player drafted from the 2026 LSU roster.