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Peter Lambert (W, 6-4) almost wasn’t a part of this team. He’s been their second best starting pitcher despite not making the team out of Spring Training.

Lambert was nails for the Astros yet again, in a terrific 7 inning performance in which he allowed just one run on 2 hits, he struck out 5 and did not walk a batter. He threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes, leading the Houston Astros (35-41) to a series-clinching 4-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers (30-44) at Daikin Park.

Jeremy Pena got the Astros on the board first in the bottom of the third with a 2-out solo shot to left for his 4th HR of the season, giving Houston a 1-0 lead.

The Astros would tack on 2 more in the bottom of the 5th. After Christian Vazquez singled to lead off the inning, Yordan Alvarez drilled a one-out RBI double to drive Vazquez home. After Christian Walker lined out, the Tigers replaced SP Casey Mize (L, 2-4) with Kyle Finnegan.

Isaac Paredes greeted Finnegan with an RBI double to score Alvarez, and make it a 3-0 lead for Houston.

In the 6th, the Astros loaded the bases for Jeremy Pena, who delivered an RBI single scoring Joey Loperfido to increase the lead to 4-0.

In the top of the 7th, the Tigers would finally get to Lambert, as Kerry Carpenter snuck a fly ball into the Crawford Boxes for his 10th HR of the season, cutting the lead to 4-1. That HR would not have been a HR in any other park except Daikin.

In the 9th, Josh Hader (S, 4) was brought in to close the game out. Hader was working on back-to-back days for the first time since coming off the IL. He allowed a solo HR to Kevin McGonigle that went all of 3 feet further than Carpenter’s Crawford Boxes special, and followed it up by striking out the next 3 batters on 14 pitches with 7 swings and misses. It was the first run Hader has allowed this season.

With the win, the Astros are back to 6 games under .500. They are currently 4 games behind the Seattle Mariners, who play later this evening. They are 2.5 games behind the Athletics for the final Wild Card spot in the American League. The Athletics also play later this evening.

NOTES:

Cristian Javier is expected to make one more rehab start before being activated. Javier pitched for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys last night, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits (including a HR) in 3.1 IP. He walked 1 and struck out 6.

Javier worked the first two innings primarily with a fastball at 92-93, hitting 94 once. In the last two innings of his appearance, his velocity deteriorated to 91-92.

Mike Burrows will have his next turn through the rotation skipped, and will be available out of the bullpen. He is ready to piggyback on Tatsuya Imai on his next turn in the rotation which is scheduled for Friday.

Astros probables for the upcoming series with the Cleveland Guardians that runs Fri-Sun:

Fri: Tatsuya Imai (3-3, 6.43) vs Tanner Bibee (2-7, 3.96)

Sat: Spencer Arrighetti (7-2, 2.57) vs Joey Cantillo (5-3, 4.38)

Sun: Kai-Wei Teng (3-6, 4.31) vs Slade Cecconi (3-5, 4.60)

Game Summary

Kyle Leahy battled spotty command in the early going. He ends up working through to a quality start with 6 IP, 3 runs allowed with 7 strikeouts. But the Cardinal offense musters but a single run on a ground, losing multiple runners on the bases in a game where there weren’t a lot of base runners. The Cardinals were outhit 14-6 on the day.

Pre-game notes

• Here we are again on a Wednesday. A day game. Getaway day. You probably don’t want to hear their record on such days.
• The Cardinals go for a home sweep over the San Diego Padres. Perhaps you would not like to hear their record on “sweep day”.
• It is also their fourth crack at vaulting to the mark of ten games over .500. You definitely don’t want to hear their record on days when they are 9 games over .500.
• So, with the odds stacked against them, Kyle Leahy toes the rubber and leads the team to battle against…TBA? Turns out to be Bradley Rodriguez as the opener. I expect him to be followed by Griffin Canning, who if I recall mesmerized in San Diego twice through the line-up and then blew up the third time through. That was a different line-up, though.
• Speaking of line-ups, today will be a typical L-R-L lineup.
• For those that track such things, Fangraphs now projects the Cardinals to win 84 games, which would be the result of a projection that has them playing slightly less than .500 baseball the rest of the way.
• Marinaccio is unavailable today. He pitched last night and takes his suspension day. Without him and Miller, the Padres bullpen seems short.

The first innings

The Padres came out swinging against Leahy. A fine stop by Blaze saved a bigger inning, but a Leahy walk complicated the inning and ultimately scored on a SacFly following an advancing single. I hate walks! Leahy navigates the first three innings, working around 3 hits and a walk, with a lot of hanging pitches that a poor offense could do little with. He did accumulate 4 K’s in the early going.

In the Cardinals’ first, Herrera nearly decapitated the pitcher with a hit, then made two base running mistakes to remove the advantage. The first mistake was he started and stopped when trying to steal second, but got away with it when the C threw the ball into CF. Herrera was unable to advance (never make the third out at third base is a good rule of thumb). But, then he promptly ran into the 3rd out at third when Walker hit a nubber to the third baseman, who had to do nothing other than tag the incoming Herrera.

Griffin Canning indeed replaced Rodriguez in the second, and he mesmerized again. Through four innings, the Cardinals mustered 3 singles and a walk, none in the same inning.

The middle innings

More hits and more hanging pitches combined to add to the Padres score in the fourth inning. A double play builds Leady a pathway out of the inning, though. A single on a 0-2 count and a misplay by Church in CF scores a third Padre run in the fifth. It was scored a double, but it was a poor read and route taken.

Blaze Jordan gets his first MLB walk as he leads off the fifth. Church follows that with a single. Wetherholt advances them with an infield out. The Cardinals lose a runner at the plate on Herrera’s infield out. Burleson gets a nice 2-out RBI single, extending his hitting streak to 17 games. After five innings the score is 3-1 Padres.

Leahy ends up with a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth. Overall, he battles through six innings, giving up 7 hits, 1 walk and 3 runs. He recorded 7 K’s as well. 81 pitches. His command appeared to improve as he got deeper into the game.

In the sixth, Winn walks and gets picked off. Been difficult to get any offensive continuity today.

The decisive and bitter end

Svanson effectively pitches the seventh and 1 out into the eighth. Bruihl then comes in for the left-right matchups. Sure enough, he gets the RH hitter and loses the LH hitters. Hey, wait a minute….

Roycroft comes in for Bruihl. HBP on the first hitter but retires the next of a fly to left to end the 8th inning.

Very little occurred offensively in the later third. An eighth inning HBP on Herrera (again!) is quickly erased by a GIDP.

The Padres tack on runs in the ninth against Roycroft. In a surprising turn of events, Roycroft had an inning spin out of control. A single followed by another single off the wall by Tatis Jr. who was thrown out (by Walker) trying to make it a double but still garners the RBI, followed by another single and a long home run by Merrill. Then a walk. Roycroft was out on an island with no one warming. Then another walk. Then came an error on a routine grounder by Winn to continue the misery. A strikeout to the ninth batter of the inning brings a merciful end.

Nootbaar leads off the ninth with a single, but Winn quickly erases him with a GIDP. Pages ends the game with a ground out. Padres win 6-1. Back to 8 games over .500.

Post-Game Notes

• Check out Today on the Farm – Wednesday 6.17 for updates on MiLB action.
• The Cardinals head to Kansas City for that crucial cross-state, inter-league rivalry match-up with the Royals. Games are Thursday, Friday and Sunday with an odd Saturday off to accommodate a soccer game.
• It’s funny how a bullpen can go from over-used to well-rested and rusty in such a short span, huh? And back again…
• Have you noticed the trend of openers against the Cardinals? That seems to me to be a league-wide recognition of the top 3-4 hitters in the line-up. Teams find value in trying to neutralize them the first time through that line-up. Seems like the investment is a scripted one inning appearance with the chosen matchups and payoff is you give the starter a shot to go two times through the line-up and get deep enough into the game to avoid the chase/bridge guys and go straight to the leverage/closer guys.
• I think we need an update on Blaze Jordan’s defensive prowess at third base. He has been better than advertised.

The San Francisco Giants’ 7-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday was a story of two games. No, literally. A story of two games, played on two days. Two games that the Giants won, resulting in — stay with me — one game that the Giants won.

It began on Tuesday night when, against the the judgement of nearly everyone at the park, the game was started despite pouring rain in Atlanta. The rain seemed to benefit the hitters on each side, as they jumped on pitches that were lacking in their usual spin. Luis Arráez led off the game with a double, and moved to third when Bryce Eldridge singled. After an unproductive out by Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers loaded the bases with a walk, before a Jung Hoo Lee sacrifice fly put the first run on the board. In all, Grant Holmes threw 28 pitches in the first inning, and looked entirely uncomfortable in the storm, though his long, soaked hair looked fairly majestic.

In the bottom half of the inning, it became abundantly clear that the struggles in the top half had been due to the weather, as Adrian Houser immediately suffered the same fate. The first batter he faced, Drake Baldwin, absolutely annihilated the baseball, hitting one of the longest home runs in the Majors this year (473 feet!!!), despite it being his first at-bat in roughly a month.

A single, a walk (by former Giant Dominic Smith), and another single (by former Giant Mauricio Dubón) later, and Atlanta had not just equalized, but taken a 2-1 lead. Houser, like Holmes, had thrown 28 pitches in the first inning, and looked equally uncomfortable in the downpour.

Yet the game continued into the second inning, where the wetness continued to favor the hitters. Casey Schmitt led off with a single, and Drew Gilbert followed with a walk. Following an atrocious at-bat by Daniel Susac (a three-pitch strikeout that featured two failed bunts, and a whiff at a pitch in a different area code), Arráez loaded the bases with a Sandovalian golfed single. In one of the best at-bats of the season, Eldridge tied the game by working a walk, which featured a tremendous ABS challenge. Chapman, having failed in his prior attempt, exacted revenge this time around, successfully achieving a sacrifice fly (though sacrifice liner is a more accurate term, with Dubón making a brilliant catch in center to rob Chapman of a hit).

With that, the Giants not only led, but won the first game 3-2.

That was all the baseball that would be played, though we didn’t know it for a while. The rain had stopped, and the game had not entered a delay, but the baseball was over. The grounds crew took the field in an attempt to restore the soaked infield, and they stayed there for a good 45 minutes. At no point did the game ever officially enter a rain delay, to the confusion of the fans at Truist Park and the ire of the broadcasters and reporters in attendance. Finally, roughly an hour and a half after play had been paused (but not delayed!), it was announced that the game had been postponed, and would resume on Wednesday before the scheduled game.

In doing so, a gift was handed to Robbie Ray, a player in dire need of some help. Because the game was postponed after it began, the lineups were already set … which means Atlanta’s lineup was full of left-handed hitters to combat Houser. Ray, who doesn’t get to face left-handed hitters all that often, found the tonic he was searching for in Atlanta’s arrangement.

He struck out his former teammate Mike Yastrzemski to begin the second half of the first game, and then struck out Ha-Seong Kim, en route to a three-up, three-down first/second inning. He handled the third easily, giving up just a walk. In the fourth, he set down the side in order on just 12 pitches, finishing things off with another strikeout of Yastrzemski. He opened the fifth with back-to-back strikeouts, before issuing a walk that he easily worked around. Only eight pitches were required for a dominant sixth.

Ray was cruising, and he was cruising for the first time in a while. It was a delight to see. He resembled the Ray of early last year, who was both dominant and unfazed. In the seventh, he gave up a leadoff double, but looked completely unbothered, never letting the runner reach third while striking out Yastrzemski for a third time, and also the ever-dangerous Baldwin.

After opening the eighth with an out, Ray ceded a single to Matt Olson. With 94 pitches thrown, Tony Vitello deemed that a good enough effort for Ray, who left the mound having thrown 6.1 scoreless frames, while allowing just four baserunners and striking out eight.

It was a performance worth admiring, even if such performances are a little bittersweet right now. Ray finding his form doesn’t really help the Giants this year, given the hole they’ve dug; right now his success correlates mostly with the return the Giants will get when they presumably trade him next month.

So until then: enjoy the strikeouts, and enjoy the grunts.

While San Francisco opted to move up their scheduled Wednesday starter (Carson Whisenhunt has been recalled from AAA Sacramento to pitch the evening game), Atlanta chose to keep their rotation in order, and handle Wednesday’s resumption with a bullpen game.

For a while, it worked. James Karinchak handled the third inning, and set down the Giants in order. Dylan Dodd came on for the fourth, and did the same. With a pair of lefties due up in the fifth, the southpaw Dodd was given a second inning, and that’s where the Braves’ plan went awry. He retired Eldridge and Chapman easily, but Devers had different plans. Despite generally struggling against lefties this year, Devers jumped on a 1-1 sinker at the top of the zone, and comfortably cleared the fence with it.

What came next was even more surprising: on the very next pitch (a nearly identical pitch, I might add), Lee followed Devers and did the exact same thing.

It was a stunning sequence of events, and the context from the broadcast only made it more stunning: it was the first time since Barry Bonds and A.J. Pierzynski, a whole 22 years ago, that a pair of Giants lefties had gone back-to-back off of a left-hander. What a beautiful thing.

The Giants continued to rely on the long ball, getting their next run in the eighth inning, when Willy Adames took Anthony Molina deep for an awe-inspiring 424-foot solo bomb. By the time the ninth inning rolled around, not only did the Giants have a cozy lead, but they had scored all of their resumption runs on homers.

That would finally change in the ninth with a rally befitting the start of the game on Tuesday: Arráez and Eldridge hit back-to-back singles, with the former scoring on a Chapman ground ball, locking in the final score at 7-2.

Meanwhile, the bullpen held strong enough. Dylan Smith took over when Ray departed with one on and one out in the eighth, and quickly got out of the inning, though he did give up a single. Smith stayed in for the ninth and impressively struck out Riley, as he looked to be cooking.

It came to a screeching halt after that, though, when he gave up a single to Yastrzemski, before issuing a four-pitch walk to Kim, who currently boasts an .089 batting average. Even with the five-run cushion, and even with another nine innings to cover in a few hours, Vitello decided to take no chances, and brought in his recently-appointed closer, Caleb Kilian.

I’ve had my quips with Vitello opting to name Kilian the closer, but one of my favorite things is when the Giants make me look dumb. And Kilian made me look dumb. With two on and the top of the lineup stepping up, Kilian pounded the strike zone with a flurry of unhittable pitches, striking out Baldwin and Eli White to end the game.

It might have taken a few days, but the Giants won, and even managed to look great doing it.

As expected, the Atlanta Braves are likely going to take things very cautiously with Ronald Acuña Jr. and his most recent Grade 1 hamstring. Walt Weiss spoke with the media following Wednesday afternoon’s tough loss against the Giants and he was asked about Acuña’s status at the moment. If you were thinking that Acuña would be making a quick return, you can probably put a pause to that speculation right now.

Weiss said Acuña is a “long way” from returning. Because the hamstring strain is in the same spot, the Braves will be more cautious than they were when Acuña missed nearly three weeks with the previous strain

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 17, 2026

As frustrating as this is to see, it’s likely the right decision. While it’s hard to predict injuries, this is the safer route than rushing to get him back out there. Despite the current rough patch that the Braves have hit, they’re still comfortably ahead in the NL East and 20 games over .500 so they can afford to give Acuña as much time as he needs to get fully healthy again. It’s what I suggested in earlier posts about him and it’ll likely be the path that the Braves take when it comes to getting theri star outfielder right again.

So yeah, it’s a bummer but it’s likely the right path for the Braves to take. I’d imagine that we’ll probably see Acuña back in action after the All-Star break, maybe a little bit sooner if he’s further along in his recovery thane expected. We’re definitely not going to be seeing him in the field for the rest of June and it’s looking likely that he’ll be out for most of July as well. Again, it’s rough but it’s the sensible course of action.

Meanwhile, we also got some news on who the 27th man will be for the second game of today’s doubleheader. It’ll be Jair Camargo, who will likely serve as the emergency catcher while Sandy León likely starts tonight’s game as the catcher. If Drake Baldwin does play, it’ll likely be as the DH.

Cookie Carrasco and catcher Jair Camargo (27th man) will join the Braves roster for the second game. Camargo provides length in the pen. Camargo’s presence will allow Baldwin to stay in the DH spot if something happens to Leon in the second game

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 17, 2026

Also, Carlos Carrasco is back with the big league Braves. Welcome back, Cookie — hopefully the DFA cycle continues to work out for both parties since it’s almost certain that it’ll be happening again at some point in the near future. For now, the Braves have covered themselves depth-wise for tonight’s night cap and hopefully the decisions will help to yield results for Atlanta as they attempt to get this series evened up.

As another Cleveland outfielder hits the IL, Kahlil Watson gets his shot at a big league debut.

Chase DeLauter and his broken rib will spend some time recovering, joining José Ramírez and Angel Martinez on the IL. These are severe blows to the Guardians’ offense. The team needs to be aggressive about trying any and all solutions, which is why I’d like to see plenty of Cooper Ingle and Ralphy Velazquez in left field and even some Juan Brito and Angel Genao at third base in Columbus. In addition to those moves, giving Kahlil Watson a look makes sense.

Watson is a 23 year-old left-handed hitter whom the Guardians acquired from the Marlins in 2023 for Josh Bell. Watson put up a 123 wRC+ (.382 wOBA, .321 xwOBA) in Columbus, with a 28/14.6 K/BB%. He has a 26.8% out-of-zone swing rate and a 12.6% swinging strike rate. He has a 72% contact rate and an 82.6% in-zone contact rate. The concerns with Watson are, indeed, if he will chase and whiff too much to be an effective ML player. He has made his noise mostly at Columbus with an OPS over 1.000 at that hitter’s park, but he does still have a .762 OPS on the road. His game will be to play good defense, take enough walks to earn himself a few pitches to hit, and to do maximum damage on those pitches when he sees them; we need that .236 ISO to show up in some form or another to compensate for what is sure to be a healthy amount of strikeouts. Watson is no sure thing as a prospect, but he has shown enough to earn himself a look as a strong-side platoon outfielder on a team in dire need of help roaming the grass.

Reports are mixed on his defense. He has looked mostly competent in center field, but is not the defender there that Petey Halpin is, for sure. He also has had pretty extreme splits vs. LHP, but that’s why we have Stuart Fairchild, folks! Watson is known to be a passionate and competitive ballplayer which can provide a needed push for a locker room that has to be a little down right now.

Welcome to the big leagues, Kahlil! We are desperate for a spark on offense, and everyone will be hoping you can provide it.

The finale and rubber-match of a three-game series in Houston, in which the Tigers blew a golden opportunity for a series victory on Tuesday night, saw them struggle against a solid-but-not-great starting pitcher and lose the game by a 4-2 score.

Casey Mize, who just returned from the Injured List with a right adductor strain in the groin (ouch), made his tenth start of the season for the Tigers. He was put on the shelf in late May and was recativated today; he spent a couple of weeks on the IL a month earlier for the same affliction. When he’s been healthy this season he’s been fantastic, with a WHIP under 1.00 and only a pair of home runs given up. Stop pulling that groin, young man! (Take that any way you like.)

Facing Mize and the Detroiters for the Astros was Peter Lambert, who’s in his first year in Houston. He’d been up-and-down with the Rockies since 2019, so a return to (almost) sea level was probably a welcome development. His season so far has been pretty solid, but like his colleagues on the ‘Stros, he walks too many batters. He seems to have genuinely found a home in Houston’s rotation, though, which is nice for him.

Both pitchers were in control early on; through two innings each team only had one baserunner, although the Astros had some hard contact with only a harmless double to show for it. What wasn’t so harmless was Jeremy Peña’s fourth home run of the year with two out in the third to put Houston up 1-0.

The Astros loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the fourth and Jake Meyers at the plate, but Mize made Meyers fly out harmlessly to centre and the quandary was quelled. Lambert, however, was rolling: through five innings he only gave up a Dillon Dingler single and had Tiger hitters flummoxed with a half-dozen different pitches. It’s like that thing you hear about occasionally, the “paradox of infinite choice.” Remember when there were three television channels? You found a show to watch. Looking at an endless scroll of streaming-movie choices? Impossible to find anything you like. Something like that.

Houston extended its lead in the fifth with a single-productive groundout-double combination to go up 2-0. Plenty of long at-bats, plus it being Mize’s first start back from being on the IL, shortened Mize’s start; he exited after the second out in the fifth in favour of Kyle Finnegan with a runner on second. The change did not do the Tigers good, as Finnegan surrendered an RBI double to Isaac Paredes to put the lead at 3-0.

Houston went up 4-0 in the sixth after a double, a pair of walks and a single; it would’ve been 5-0 but Meyers was thrown out at home on the relay from Kerry Carpenter.

And since baseball kinda works this way, Carpenter smacked a solo home run in the top of the seventh to narrow the gap to 4-1.

Leading off the ninth, Kevin McGonigle hit his own solo home run off tough lefty Josh Hader for a 4-2 score. Nice to see the Kid taking a tough lefty oppo to stay hot. But from there Hader slammed the door on the Tigers and that was the end of the proceedings.

Final score: Astros 4, Tigers 2

Injury News and Such

• In case you missed it, Gleyber Torres is back on the IL with his oblique, something that flared up with a swing-and-miss on Monday night. My goodness, what a season it’s been for him.
• In other, weirder injury news, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reported that Wenceel Pérez was injured after Tuesday night’s game after a plyo band — basically a bungee cord used for workouts — hit him in the face. No word on whether it was his own or someone else’s. We thought nothing could surprise us anymore this season, but the creativity on display is unmatched.
• Colt Keith missed Tuesday’s game due to wrist discomfort, but he was back in the lineup today.
• On this day in 1579, Francis Drake claimed modern-day California for England. The most recent episode of Map Men, in its hilariously British-humour kind of way, tries to answer the question of who circumnavigated the Earth first, Drake or Ferdinand Magellan (spoiler: neither, probably). Both those voyages sounded pretty miserable.