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Not like the Braves could really do worse against Michael King…

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for Austin Riley — he was hitting sixth or seventh for a long while, but then moved up to cleanup against a southpaw on Monday, and stayed there against Walker Buehler on Tuesday. With a right-hander on the mound in Michael King, he’s dropping to fifth. Mike Yastrzemski starts again at DH, as the Braves implicitly vote that a righty-hitting Brewer Hicklen is currently more palatable than a lefty-swinging Dominic Smith, even against a righty. One funny part of all this is that Mauricio Dubon drops to seventh for the first time in nearly two months of play. So, this will be the 82nd different lineup the Braves will have used in 101 games.

As for the Padres, it’s a familiar cast of characters for Martin Perez to tackle. Jase Bowen hasn’t played much at all (50 PAs so far) and gives them another righty bat, albeit one that hasn’t hit in those 50 PAs.

Everyone in this Braves lineup other than Jim Jarvis and Brewer Hicklen have faced Michael King, which makes sense given that he dominated the Braves a few starts ago. Still, no one has double-digit PAs against him other than Yastrzemski. The combined line is a .280 wOBA and .328 xwOBA in 59 PAs; if the Braves can manage something akin to that xwOBA, it may not be enough to win, but it’d probably at least feel decent.

Because Martin Perez has been around forever, a lot of Padres have a decent tally of PAs against him. Manny Machado has crushed him in 20 PAs, while both Ty France and Xander Bogaerts have been various flavors of decent in around 20 PAs each. In aggregate, we’re talking 92 PAs of .334 wOBA / .344 xwOBA with every batter in the lineup having faced him at least twice. I’m not sure that’s really predictive of an issue given that Perez is Perez, though.

Texas Rangers lineup for July 22, 2026 against the Chicago White Sox: starting pitchers are Tyler Alexander for the Rangers and Anthony Kay for the White Sox.

Texas looks to win this series against Chicago this evening. Cal Quantrill is expected to come in behind Tyler Alexander, who is the opener. Josh Jung, who left yesterday’s game due to a calf issue, says he’s fine and available, but he’s getting the day off. Wyatt Langford is at DH again.

The lineup:

Langford — DH

Foscue — 2B

Burger — 1B

Nimmo — RF

Duran — 3B

Cauley — CF

Diaz — C

Osuna — LF

Lopez — SS

7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +104 underdogs.

A very explosive seventh inning accounted for all but two of the runs today including a 2-run homer from Salvador Perez to tie George Brett’s franchise record. Kansas City scored five in that inning to complete the sweep 5-4 this afternoon.

Both the Royals and the Giants were unable to do almost anything offensively for the first two thirds of this one. In fact, through the first 5 innings Seth Lugo had faced the minimum thanks to a double play and Landen Roupp had faced one over the minimum for a total number of 31 plate appearances. Then the first run was scored without a hit in the 6th inning. Lugo walked Willy Adames to open the inning and then hit Drew Gilbert in the thigh when he squared to bunt. Not the best way to start out an inning. The nine hitter, Drew Cavanaugh, sac bunted to move those two free base runners into scoring position. Back to the top of the lineup and Luis Arraez who hit a flyout deep enough into center to score a run and move Gilbert to third. That one run was all they would get in the 6th.

Lugo gave up two more in the 7th when the offensive torpor lifted for both teams. It again started with a walk, this time to Rafael Devers. He was still at first base with two outs when Jung Hoo Lee drilled a ball into the right field corner for an RBI triple. It was followed by another hard hit ball from Willy Adames that bounced over the left field wall for a ground rule double and another score. Seth finished the day with 7IP, 3H, 2BB, 5K, 3ER. It was not a bad day though it did look like he was set up to take the loss.

Down 3-0, the Royals had Vinnie Pasquantino leading off in the 7th, which turned into the first real drama of the day. Vinnie hit a ball down the first base line into the corner for a double, but his slide into second was a bit awkward and Adames thought he had tagged him out. I don’t think he tagged him while he was off base but that did not matter since the umpire ruled he was pushed off and therefore safe. This led to some arguing from Tony Vitello who was ejected when he could not challenge the call. Next up was Salvador Perez who decided to make a little history happen. Salvy up with Pasquantino on second, he launches home run number 317 just to the right of center and tied George Brett for the most in Royals history!! It also cut the lead down, now 3-2, and there were still no outs and Landen Roupp was removed to bring in Sam Hentges.

Michael Massey was up next in the 7th and bunted, which Hentges fielded and threw wide of first allowing Massey to end up at second. After Isaac Collins grounded out, he moved to third on a Starling Marte groundball through the right side that Lee got to quickly to stop Massey from scoring. The Giants decided to bring in Keaton Winn and the Royals decided to pinch hit with Nick Loftin rather than having Josh Rojas face him. It was a good decision has Loftin singled to center and tied the game 3-3. The inning was still rolling, now first and second with one down. After another out, Starling Marte stole third which did not matter since Carter Jensen walked the bases loaded. And then to round out the inning, Lane Thomas hit a ball between second and first to score two more and give the Royals their first lead of the day. The team batted around and got five in the 7th, time for the bullpen to see if they could secure the win.

Daniel Lynch came in and threw a clean 8th to get three outs closer to victory and bring up Salvy to lead off the bottom half of the inning with a chance to break the record. He did not and instead struck out on three pitches. The Royals also came up empty in the inning, and the Royals went to the field three outs away from victory and a sweep.

Steven Cruz came on for the ninth looking for his first career save. He has been great recently giving up just one run in his last 12 outings. Cruz took care of Heliot Ramos and Devers quickly to get one out away from ending it. Then came mighty Casey, Casey Schmitt that is, to the bat. Schmitt took a 99 MPH fastball into the visitor’s bullpen to make it 5-4, but Lee popped out and that was that. The Royals got the win and the sweep, Steven Cruz has one career save, and Salvador Perez is tied with George Brett. It was a nice way to end the home stand.

Next up for the boys in blue is a road trip to Detroit, Minnesota, and Colorado. They won’t be back in Kauffman until August 4th, so Salvy is likely going to break the record on the road.

Remember when this was supposed to be a hard-fought series between the two hottest teams in baseball? It sure looks like a one-sided letdown to me.

The O’s again failed to quash Boston’s historic winning streak, which tied a franchise-best 14 games in a 6-3 Red Sox victory. Dean Kremer bombed immediately, coughing up four runs in the first, and the Sox cruised into the record books from there.

In the opener of this series on Monday, the Orioles, even in defeat, gave the Red Sox a heck of a scare. Whenever the Sox took a lead, the O’s would deliver a counterpunch, going toe-to-toe with the league’s hottest team right down to the final out. Defensive shenanigans aside, the Orioles at least made the Red Sox sweat.

But this game? Not so much. The Red Sox were in total control from the very beginning, and despite the O’s actually out-hitting them, the Birds never really felt like they had a chance.

The Red Sox took command immediately, torching Dean Kremer for four runs and five hits in the bottom of the first. The first two knocks weren’t especially well hit — a bloop into center, a slow roller to second — but Boston hitters stung the ball more as the inning went on. Willson Contreras lashed a single to left to load the bases, and a Caleb Durbin hit up the middle plated two runs.

Had Kremer been able to limit the damage at 2-0, things might’ve felt less bleak. He could not. With two outs, Jarren Duran lashed a triple into the right-field corner, bringing home another pair to make it 4-0. Because of course the guy with a .594 OPS delivered the big hit. Whatever devil magic has gotten into the Red Sox apparently isn’t going away anytime soon.

We’ve seen games this year where the Orioles fell behind early but rallied for a late comeback. This was not one of those games. Red Sox starter Jake Bennett, buoyed by his ample run support, never allowed the Birds to get particularly close. The rookie southpaw, who carried a 2.35 ERA into this game, put some traffic on the bases but mostly kept the O’s off the board.

Through the first five innings, the only runs Bennett allowed were on a gift RBI double in the third — when center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela lost a routine Tyler O’Neill fly ball in the sun, allowing Pete Alonso to score — and a solo homer by Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the fifth. In any case, the Red Sox quickly got both runs back against Kremer, first on a Duran sac fly in the third and then a Rafaela homer in the fourth.

Kremer ended up working six innings and giving up six runs. I wrote in the game thread, “If Kremer hopes to cool down the red-hot Red Sox, he’ll need to work a little further into the game than he has recently.” Perhaps I should have specified that he needs to both work further into the game and actually pitch well. My bad. But I will give him credit for saving the bullpen. The O’s needed only one reliever, Anthony Nunez, to finish the game, which leaves all of their high-leverage guys available for the nightcap of the doubleheader. Of course, that will only matter if the O’s actually have a late-inning lead to protect.

As for this game, Bennett began to tire in the sixth, giving up doubles to Coby Mayo and the scorching hot Encarnacion-Strand to make it a 6-3 game, and he departed after 5.2 innings. Normally I’d say that chasing the starter in the sixth inning is a moral victory, but the Red Sox have the best bullpen in baseball, so it wasn’t even that.

Sure enough, Boston’s lockdown relief arms shut out the Orioles the rest of the way. Justin Slaten worked 1.1 scoreless innings, Garrett Whitlock cruised through a perfect eighth, and closer Aroldis Chapman worked around a walk and a single to nail down the save in the ninth. As shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng threw out Pete Alonso for the final out, the Fenway Park crowd of 35,039 erupted, celebrating the franchise record-tying 15th consecutive win. I look forward to the Red Sox still finding a way to ruin their own season eventually.

The Sox will aim to break their record in the nightcap, scheduled for 7:10 pm. It sure would be nice if the Orioles found a way not to be on the wrong side of history.

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With 16 homers to his credit through just 95 games played this season, Spencer Steer is well on his way to topping 20 homers in a season for the fourth consecutive season. All four of those seasons have come with the Cincinnati Reds, as did a 28 game cameo with them the season before that homer streak began.

That’s a fun way to look at some pretty consistent production from the guy. It’s also a testament to just how much time has elapsed since the last Cincinnati Reds rebuild, as Steer – who came from the Minnesota Twins in a deal that sent Tyler Mahle the other way – was one of the first big pieces of it.

That rebuild simply hasn’t worked out.

The 2025 Reds snuck into the expanded playoffs, lost both games they played, and finished the year having won just two more games than they lost – and that is the peak the Reds got from this whole large-scale rebuild. Now, they’re mired in last place again and going nowhere in 2026, and the time has come to ship off pieces that have good present value for, ideally, a handful more that look to be promising down the road.

Steer has hardly been the problem with the Reds during this time. As complementary pieces go, he’s been perfectly fine, specifically with a bat from the right-side that can crush lefties and an ability on defense to be at least passable just about everywhere they try to play him. The problem for the Reds, though, is that he’s already been plying his trade that way long enough to earn $4 million in his first arbitration year this year, and that’s only going to escalate for the two additional years of team control that he has.

So, the question is this – is now the time for the Reds to trade Steer?

As market conditions go, he’s pretty ripe for the picking right now. Teams like the Mariners, Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies are all desperate for right-handed hitting help that can crush lefties, and Steer owns a 1.062 OPS in 96 PA against southpaws this season. You’d be hard pressed to find that who’s who of buyers interested in exactly what Steer provides at precisely the same time again, and there simply aren’t a ton of other obvious guys out there who are availble right now with the same set of abilities.

The Reds would be forfeiting the two additional years of team control by moving him, something they may well like to think is still a window for them to put together a contender. With Elly De La Cruz presumably around for those years and Hunter Greene pairing with Chase Burns atop the rotation it’s not unfathomable, but so much else about the rest of the roster needs fixing that moving a valued piece like Steer, now, might well land them multiple pieces who can help for two years and beyond.

So, what say you? Is now the time to move Steer if you’re the Reds, knowing there’s a defined market for what he provides even though the Reds have him under control through 2028?

Let us know in the poll below!

The Red Sox will not be defied by weather or competition. The wins just keep coming.

Boston rolled out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning and rode that momentum to a 6-3 victory over the Orioles in the opening game of the doubleheader. Jake Bennett did enough to win and the offense set the tempo with the fast first-inning start. 

Here’s three takeaways from Wednesday afternoon’s win. 

CALEB DURBIN STAYS RED HOT

Durbin already made his mark on the series with Monday’s game-winning solo home run to clinch the 14th straight win. He started a multi-hit performance Wednesday with a two-run single that kickstarted the scoring. 

With the recent media support from ownership, Boston’s third baseman continues his remarkable season turnaround with a real offensive presence in the lineup. Durbin has hit .298 with nine homers and a .894 OPS since June 1. 

BENNETT STAYS SOLID
All things considered, the young left-hander gave the Red Sox another impactful start.

Getting the ball for the second straight doubleheader opener, Bennett entered after 13 innings of scoreless work in his previous two starts. The lefty allowed three runs in 5 ⅔ innings against the Orioles and left with the lead. The bullpen held it down from there, earning him the win. Bennett holds a 2.58 ERA through his first 10 MLB starts. 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? 

The Red Sox have lost just two games since June 25. The remarkable run completely turned the narrative of one of the most rollercoaster seasons in recent memory. Now, Boston turned back the clock 80 years to join an elite company with the 1946 team featuring Ted Williams and other legends.

A win tonight would put the 2026 Red Sox in a remarkable class of their own.

With a first-inning blitz and yet another effective pitching performance, the Boston Red Sox tied an 80-year-old franchise record for most consecutive wins.

The Red Sox won their 15th consecutive game Wednesday, July 22, scoring four first-inning runs and easily suppressing the Baltimore Orioles in a 6-3 victory in Game 1 of the teams' day-night doubleheader.

Now, the 1946 Red Sox have company - at least for a few hours.

They set the franchise record for consecutive wins with a team centered around Ted Williams, who returned from three years of service during World War II to win the American League MVP, hitting 38 home runs and leading the major leagues in seven significant offensive categories.

These Red Sox don't have such a future Hall of Fame luminary. But they have shown the gumption to overcome a miserable start and start exploiting a less-than-mediocre AL.

"This incredible magic carpet ride continues!"

The @RedSox win 15 IN A ROW! pic.twitter.com/1Q4bOAwF7O

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

Wednesday, they rapped four consecutive hits in their first five batters, including a two-run single from Caleb Durbin, who'd provided their 14th consecutive victory July 20 with an eighth-inning home run. That was more than enough for rookie left-hander Jake Bennett, who improved to 6-3 with a 2.58 ERA with 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball.

Red Sox pitchers have posted a 2.05 ERA in their 15-game winning streak.

When will the Red Sox try for 16 straight wins?

Boston won't have long to ruminate on its franchise-tying streak. The Red Sox and Orioles play the second game of their day-night doubleheader at 7:10 ET Wednesday, offering an immediate chance for a record-breaking 16th win in a row. The Red Sox named Eduardo Rivera their starting pitcher, while the Orioles will start ace Kyle Bradish. Lefty Ranger Suarez is feeling under the weather.

Where does the Red Sox's streak rank?

Boston's 15-game run ranks tied for fifth since 2000, equaling the 2000 Atlanta Braves and 2001 Seattle Mariners. They still have plenty of work remaining to equal Cleveland's record 22-game streak in 2017. The Red Sox do, however, own the second-longest streak for a team that was at least 11 games under .500 when it began.

The 1916 New York Giants won 17 consecutive games after a 2-13 start.

What is the Red Sox's record?

Their 15th straight win gives Boston a 52-48 record, a practically literal turnaround from the 37-48 mark before it began. At the moment, they are six games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and have a two-game lead for the final AL wild-card berth.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boston Red Sox tie 80-year-old record with 15th consecutive win