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The Yankees starred in one of the most drab All-Star Games in recent memory, Cody Bellinger picking up MVP honors for his two-run single in the first while Ben Rice also drove in a run. It means we are just a day away from the second half kicking off, the Yankees starting a pivotal stretch of 66 games with a marquee series against the two-time defending champion Dodgers. Before we get to that, let’s take one last look back with our final Sequence of the Week of the first half, and Paul Blackburn’s first appearance in this series.

We join Blackburn with one out in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday, the Yankees five outs away from what looked at many points during the series like an improbable sweep of the Nationals. The late heroics by the offense was the story of that series, achieving three straight comebacks in the eighth inning or later to sweep a series for the first time since they were the Highlanders sweeping the Cleveland Naps in 1910. The bullpen is light a few arms, particularly as closer David Bendar had pitched three innings to secure saves in the previous two wins, so it’s more than likely that Blackburn will be asked to record the final six outs of this one-run game. He has already retired Curtis Mead on a popup to open the frame, the lefty already having tied the game with a pinch-hit solo home run off Tim Hill in the sixth. That brings the ever-dangerous two-time All-Star CJ Abrams to the plate, the lefty shortstop in the midst of a breakout campaign with 20 home runs before the break.

Abrams has done the lion’s share of his damage against the fastball, so it is no surprise to see Blackburn start this AB off with a curveball.

Ali Sánchez sets a target in the zone, encouraging Blackburn to make this pitch look like a strike out of the hand to fool the hitter into swinging at a pitch that will break below the zone. Blackburn achieves both objectives, making Abrams think it’s an elevated fastball, resulting in a swing that is almost a foot over the top of a pitch that pretty much ends up in the dirt.

After tricking the hitter so effectively, it’s only logical that Blackburn attempt to replicate his execution of the pitch until Abrams shows he can adjust.

Blackburn executes this pitch to a similar spot as the first one. However, it is apparent that Abrams is already beginning to make the necessary adjustment to the curve. You can see the way he delays his swing, getting his front foot down later to match the timing of the slower curve, and he drops the bat head more in anticipation of the downward break, allowing him to ground it foul.

Blackburn has two choices here following that swing. It’s clear Abrams is now hunting the curveball, so you either throw the pitch he is looking for but in an unhittable location, or you throw a different pitch type down the same tunnel to deceive the hitter into thinking it’s another curveball — think an elevated heater with the same high aiming point as those last two curveballs.

Blackburn opts for the former option, bouncing a curveball on top of home plate to see if he can get Abrams to chase for a third straight time. Abrams displays excellent pitch recognition to take this curveball given it looked like it was traveling right down the middle out of Blackburn’s hand.

Despite not getting the chase he was looking for, Blackburn opts to throw a fourth straight curveball.

The dangerous part of throwing so many breaking balls in a row is that each subsequent one needs to be a little better than the one before it to nullify the adjustment the hitter is making with repeated exposure to the pitch. Alternatively, you could try to sneak one to a location where the hitter isn’t expecting it, Blackburn attempting to back-door one for a called strike three. After seeing three straight curveballs over the plate but below the zone, Abrams is indeed fooled by this curve commanded to the corner up and away, and he’s just able to get off an emergency hack to foul off the pitch and stay alive.

After four straight curveballs, Blackburn finally picks his spot to switch things up with a changeup.

Even though he didn’t get the chase he was after, I love this pitch selection by Blackburn. It shows Abrams a secondary offering with less downward break than the curveball and a pitch that breaks away from the batter rather than toward him, meaning Abrams now can no longer automatically eliminate any pitch that starts out aimed in the region from up-and-in to middle-middle

Indeed, that changeup functioned as purely a setup pitch to boost the chase potential of the curveball.

Blackburn throws his fifth curveball of the encounter, and it is by far the best one he has thrown. It looks like a strike right down Broadway before dropping almost five feet during its path toward home, Abrams unable to check his swing in time on a pitch that lands in the dirt.

Here’s the full sequence:

I love the savvy Blackburn displayed against such a dangerous hitter. He clearly read the scouting report on Abrams’ propensity to crush the fastball, so he stuck with his two most platoon-neutral offerings in the curveball and changeup. It also helps that those two pitches have been his most effective weapons this season, the changeup holding hitters to a .105 average and .184 SLG against while the curveball has been even stingier, opponents batting just .087 and slugging .087 against the Uncle Charlie. The curveballs he threw in this encounter in particular make me excited to see him use the pitch more — in addition to his excellent command of the pitch to chase areas below the zone, it’s objectively one of the best curveballs in baseball. It sports the third-most downward drop vs. average of any curveball in MLB, allowing it to rack up a 45-percent whiff rate, 39.1-percent chase rate, and 37.1-percent put-away rate — all top-15 marks among all MLB curveballs.

It is no exaggeration to say that Blackburn has been one of the most effective pitchers in baseball over the last two months. He has pitched to the lowest ERA (1.16) in MLB since his May 16th appearance against the Mets among all pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched over that span. He has become Aaron Boone’s Swiss Army knife relief ace not dissimilar to the role Luke Weaver played in his first season with the team, though they profile very differently in terms of arsenal and pitching philosophy. My college John was one of the first people on staff to pick up on Blackburn’s surging form back in the beginning of June, and his words have proven prescient, Blackburn developing into one of the team’s most reliable relievers capable of pitching in a variety of roles.

1920
With the White Sox down to their last two outs in the ninth, trailing the Senators, 5-4, Joe Jackson capped a rally by hitting an inside-the-park grand slam past (or over) Washington center fielder Sam Rice. That score, 8-5, would hold up as a winner for the White Sox.

It was at least the sixth grand slam in White Sox history (definitive records go back only to the 1912 season), and strangely the previous two (Happy Felsch, 1916, and Eddie Collins, 1919) both broke open tie games late. Four of the six grand slams were inside-the-park.

Jackson would had a second (and final) grand slam on Sept. 11, 1920, a deep blast well out of Comiskey Park, in one of the last games of his career.

1980
Bill Veeck’s ownership syndicate accepted offers to buy the White Sox. Sox broadcaster Harry Caray was one of those expressing interest, along with millionaire Edward DeBartolo Sr. Veeck would accept DeBartolo’s offer a month later, but the deal would get nixed twice by commissioner Bowie Kuhn and the other owners. Veeckeventually sold the club to Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn in January 1981.

1990
It was one of the funniest moments in White Sox history, as utility player Steve “Psycho” Lyons made a mistake that wound up on every highlight show in the nation. In the fifth inning at Detroit, Lyons bunted his way on, with a diving slide at first base to beat the throw. He then called time and completely blanked out as he started to drop his pants to get the dirt out of them. (Fortunately, he was wearing sliding shorts.) When he realized what he was doing, Lyons quickly yanked his pants back up and turned beet red with embarrassment. 

After Lyons was forced at second base later in the inning and ran back to the dugout, female fans in the first few rows behind the Sox bench, among the 14,770 at Tiger Stadium that night, began waving dollar bills at him.

1992
With two singles in a 5-4 win over Milwaukee in 12 innings, Lance Johnson began what would become a 25-game hitting streak — at the time the third-longest in White Sox history (remaining fifth-best today).

Over the course of the streak, the White Sox went 15-10, as One Dog sprayed 43 hits (39 singles, a double and three triples) and swiped 16-of-19 bags, slashing .439/.477/.510. The amazing streak ran his batting average from .261 to .305 — no small feat 100 games into the season!

Johnson finished 1992 at a downright pedestrian .279/.318/.363, so slumps were forthcoming after this fiery run. However, taking into account his stellar defense, his final value for the season was a career-best 3.8, almost a win better than his previous best and setting the stage for a miraculously good 1993 season.

1995
The Rob Dibble experiment ended with the White Sox waiving the mercurial reliever. Dibble signed with the White Sox in 1995 after six years with Cincinnati, interrupted by a broken forearm in 1993 and rotator cuff surgery in 1994. He saw action in just 16 games with Chicago, pitching to a 6.28 ERA and 2.372 WHIP, for -0.2 WAR. He was suspended by the team at least once (criticizing 1995’s replacement players), and ironically at the end of July was picked up by the same Brewers team he threw at on June 29, getting ejected after just one pitch.

Dibble’s locker neighbor for the 15-game stint in Milwaukee that would mark the end of his career? The player he threw at back in June, Pat Listach.

2000
The astounding rise of 36th round draft pick Mark Buehrle was made complete on this day, when the southpaw was called up from Double-A Birmingham after just 36 career games in the minors (and 16 with the Barons). Buehrle was inserted into the ninth inning of an 11-5 win over the Brewers in Chicago.

Buehrle struck out the first batter he faced, José Hernández, and got a second quick out before Milwaukee touched him for a short rally and a run. Buehrle would start his next three games, then work out of the pen to finish the season. From 2001-on, Buehrle’s next 490 games in the majors were all starts, as he ran up 59.1 WAR in a career worthy of the Hall of Fame. He finished his career with 48.9 WAR with the White Sox, seventh-highest total for a pitcher in club history.

Commemorating that and more, in 2025 the White Sox placed a statue of Buerhle on the concourse at Sox Park.

2003
As the designated hitter for the St. Paul Saints (owned by Mike Veeck), Minnie Miñoso became the first player to be active in professional baseball for seven decades. Miñoso drew a walk in his only plate appearance, in independent Northern League play, at age 77.

2013
Chris Sale got the win, as the AL beat the NL, 3-0, at the All-Star Game from Citi Field in New York. Sale pitched the second and third innings, facing the minimum six batters and recording two strikeouts. His strikeout victims were Carlos González and Troy Tulowitzki. He got credit for the win when the AL took the lead and scored eventual winning run in the top of the fourth inning, when he was still the pitcher of record.

The initial showing of the Home Run Derby on Netflix drew an average of 5.3 million viewers, making the event the lowest-rated since 2003.

That rating is courtesy of Sports Business Journal, as Netflix has yet to release its viewership number.

The derby at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, which was won by St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker, changed its format this year from timed to swing-based.

Those changes to the format didn't impress viewers at all. Last year's derby, which was broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2, was seen by 5.7 million and drew 5.5 million in 2024.

In 2003, the event on ESPN was watched by 5.2 million people.

Here are some prospects who have stood out so far in the first half of the season!

Jason Schiavone – Schiavone has put together a breakout season. The 23-year-old catcher got off to a hot start in Asheville hitting .289 with 17 home runs in 35 games. He earned a promotion to Double-A where he’s hit 6 more home runs. Overall, he has a .996 OPS with 23 home runs and 21 stolen bases in 77 games. He’s also thrown out 50% of base stealers in Corpus Christi.

2026 Stats: 77 G, .270 BA/.423 OBP/.573 SLG, 14 2B, 23 HR, 60 RBI, 21 SB, 149 wRC+

Drew Brutcher – Brutcher was signed by the Astros in March of 2025 after he went undrafted in 2024. The left-handed hitter has had a big year starting in Asheville where he hit .266 over 33 games. He was promoted to Double-A where his bat exploded as he hit .350 with 10 doubles, 4 home runs in 29 games. He’s hitting .304 overall this season.

2026 Stats: 62 G, .304 BA/.421 OBP/.478 SLG, 16 2B, 3B, 7 HR, 51 RBI, 10 SB, 132 wRC+

Pascanel Ferreras– Ferreras was Mr. Irrelevant in the 2023 draft, but he’s been extremely relevant this season. He started in Double-A and hit .263 with 3 home runs and then was promoted to Sugar Land where he took off. In Triple-A, Ferreras has hit .366 with 11 doubles, 2 home runs and 27 RBI. He’s hitting .318 in 61 games this season.

2026 Stats: 62 G, .318 BA/.403 OBP/.474 SLG, 16 2B, 3B, 5 HR, 43 RBI, 8 SB, 133 wRC+

Xavier Neyens – Neyens was the Astros first round pick in 2025 and he’s been as advertised in the early going. The 19-year-old has connected on 14 home runs and drawn 79 walks in 68 games, good for a 25.9% walk rate, this season in Fayetteville. He’s also added 16 stolen bases and was recently promoted to High-A Asheville. More on him here.

2026 Stats: 68 G, .240 BA/.449 OBP/.462 SLG, 7 2B, 14 HR, 38 RBI, 16 SB, 154 wRC+

Anthony Huezo – Huezo was a 12th round pick by the Astros in 2023 and after having a mini breakout in 2025, he’s really performed well this season. In 71 games in Single-A, Huezo has connected on a system leading 20 doubles and 4 triples while also adding 14 home runs and 30 stolen bases. He just got promoted to High-A.

2026 Stats: 71 G, .247 BA/.350 OBP/.506 SLG, 20 2B, 4 3B, 14 HR, 44 RBI, 30 SB, 125 wRC+

Justin Thomas – Another pick from the 2025 draft, Thomas was an 11th round selection. For High-A Asheville this year, the 22-year-old is hitting .263 with 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 24 stolen bases. He’s also collected 57 walks and has a .880 OPS through 72 games this season.

2026 Stats: 72 G, .263 BA/.417 OBP/.463 SLG, 16 2B, 3B, 12 HR, 52 RBI, 24 SB, 121 wRC+

Will Bush – Bush has spent time at catcher and first base this season and got off to a nice start posting a .883 OPS in April. He slowed down with an injury but turned it on recently and now the 22-year-old has 10 home runs and a .855 OPS through 56 games in Double-A this season.

2025 Stats: 56 G, .268 BA/.401 OBP/.455 SLG, 7 2B, 10 HR, 33 RBI, 9 SB, 130 wRC+

Javier Perez – Perez had a mini breakout in 2025 and this year he has been phenomenal for the Woodpeckers. He leads the system in innings with 76.2 innings and 89 strikeouts while posting a 3.17 ERA. He’s shown off exceptional command as well walking just 13 batters, good for a 1.5 BB/9.

2026 Stats: 15 G, 3.17 ERA, 76.2 IP, 55 H, 27 ER, 13 BB, 89 K, .195 BAA

Cole Hertzler – Hertzler dealt with a few injuries early in his career but is healthy in 2026 and showing why he was a 5th round pick in 2024. The right-hander started in Asheville and had a 2.72 ERA over 10 starts. He was promoted to Corpus Christi where he has a 2.97 ERA over 5 starts. He’s also allowed just 34 hits in 62.1 innings.

2025 Stats: 15 G, 2.74 ERA, 62.1 IP, 34 H, 19 ER, 35 BB, 75 K, .162 BAA

Jagger Beck – Beck was signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2024 draft. The 19-year-old is having a breakout season so far posting a 2.91 ERA while striking out 62 batters over 52.2 innings. He’s also posted a 2.04 ERA across 10 games since May 5th. Strong season for the big right-hander. More on him here.

2025 Stats: 14 G, 2.91 ERA, 52.2 IP, 45 H, 17 ER, 26 BB, 62 K, 10.6 K/9

Nick Potter – Potter was a 5th round pick for the Astros in 2025 and while he was a closer in college, the Astros have moved him to starter with good results. So far this season, the right-hander has posted a 2.19 ERA while striking out 55 batters over 49.1 innings. He should be in High-A soon. More on him here.

2025 Stats: 14 G, 2.19 ERA, 49.1 IP, 32 H, 12 ER, 26 BB, 55 K, .192 BAA

The San Francisco Giants made a mild-mannered move over the All-Star break, quietly waiving right-handed reliever Eric Cerantola and outrighting him to AAA Sacramento. Cerantola, a fifth-round pick by the Kansas City Royals in 2021 who made his MLB debut earlier this year, had been claimed off of waivers earlier this month when Kansas City designated him for assignment. He appeared in two games for Sacramento before being waived, but, after being outrighted, he’ll surely appear in more.

It’s an odd move in that it brings the Giants 40-man roster down to 39 names, which is where it’s been for much of the season. Then again, perhaps the Giants figured that the All-Star break is the perfect time to sneak a player through waivers, since no teams are playing and thus incurring injuries and holes on the roster.

In other transaction news, outfielder Trevor Cohen — the organization’s third-round pick in the 2025 draft — is apparently joining teammates Gavin Kilen (their first-round pick in 2025) and Dakota Jordan (their fourth-round pick in 2024) in getting promoted from High-A Eugene to AA Richmond. They’re all scheduled to be with the Flying Squirrels when the Minor League season resumes tomorrow.

And in less happy transaction news, the Giants quietly released left-handed pitcher Juan Sánchez a few days ago. Sánchez nearly broke camp with the team after a stellar Spring Training in 2024, but has struggled with both injuries and performance since.