Chris Sale takes home spotlight honors with a dominating performance against the Blue Jays. He tossed six shutout innings and only allowed two hits while striking out 12. His dominance set the tone for the Red Sox and he picked up the win in their 5-0 victory. Sale had allowed five earned runs in each of his past three outings, but was able to snap out of in a big way yesterday. He led all players in DFS scoring on both DraftKings (39.1) and FanDuel (64.0). It was his eleventh start of the year in which he has reach double-digit strikeouts and he now has 172 punch-outs across 117.2 innings pitched. He will carry a 4-9 record and 4.05 ERA into his next outing. Fantasy owners should expect a big second half from the lefty.

Strong Outings

  • Brad Keller gave up four runs across 6.1 innings of work, but only two of the runs were earned and he struck out seven. He did give up a lot of hits, nine to be exact, but was able to work around them for the most part. He has now given up just a total of four earned runs in his last three starts, a span of 20 innings. He will carry a 4.18 ERA and 6-9 record into his next start.
  • Caleb Smith was solid in a no-decision against the Padres, firing five innings of two-run ball. He gave up five hits while striking out seven. He left with the lead, but the bullpen blew it immediately. He has pitched to a 3.71 ERA across three starts since returning off IL while striking out 19 across 17 innings pitched. He should have solid fantasy value going forward with his strong strikeout rates.
  • Trevor Bauer gave the Indians a quality start in a win over the Tigers, pitching 6.2 innings and giving up three runs. He gave up five hits while striking out 10. It was his third straight quality start and he has racked up at least nine strikeouts in all of those outings. He has at least eight strikeouts in 13 of his 22 starts this year. He will carry a 9-7 record and 3.67 ERA into his next outing.
  • Madison Bumgarner coughed up a run in the first inning, but pitched eight scoreless after that. However, despite going nine innings and giving up just one run, he was stuck with a no-decision. He gave up five hits while striking out six. Amazingly, Bumgarner only needed 94 pitches to get through the nine frames, meaning he easily could have gone back out for the tenth. He will carry a 5-7 record and 3.65 ERA into his next start.
  • Noah Syndergaard was also stuck with a hard luck no-decision as he and Bumgarner locked up in a pitching duel. Thor tossed seven innings of one-run ball on the evening. He gave up six hits while striking out eight. It was his eighth start with at least seven punch-outs. He will carry a 7-4 record and 4.36 ERA into his next start.
  • Merrill Kelly pitched very well in a tough match-up with the Brewers, hurling seven innings of one-run ball in a no-decision. He gave up three hits while striking out six. It was his fifth straight start with three or fewer runs against and eighth such start in his last nine. He has lowered his ERA from 4.83 to his current 3.77 mark in that span and the 30-year old rookie has been far more impressive than expected.
  • Zach Davies failed to strikeout a single batter, but he did manage to toss seven innings of one-run ball in a win over the Dbacks. He gave up five hits. Davies has given up a total of two earned runs in his last four starts, a span of 23.1 innings. His current ERA for July is 0.50. He will carry an 8-2 record and 2.79 ERA into his next outing.

Hitter Highlights

Kiké Hernández had a big game, going a perfect 4-4 with a pair of dingers and four RBI in the Dodgers 7-6 loss to the Phillies. Making it more impressive is the fact that both of his home runs came against Nola. He led all hitters in DFS scoring. Hernandez now has 16 long balls on the year with 51 RBI, but it comes with a poor .235 batting average.

Jorge Soler smacked another home run as part of a two hit, two RBI afternoon. He now has 26 home runs and 69 RBI to go along with a .248 batting average. He is having a big time breakout season and has already set career highs in home runs, RBI, runs, and doubles – all by a wide margin, except the doubles. He should be a reliable source of power and RBI the rest of the way.

Jurickson Profar only had one hit, but it was a two-run home run. Profar has moved into a part-time role, but has started the past two games and delivered three home runs and six RBI. He should be starting full-time, sure he got off to a rough start, but over his last 45 games he has hit .250 with 10 home runs and 28 RBI while going a perfect 3-for-3 on steals. For the year, he now has a .217 batting average with 14 home runs, 47 RBI, and six steals. In fact, he is 16-for-16 on steal attempts since the start of last year; maybe he should run more often.

Niko Goodrum had the only bash-and-dash game of the day, going 3-4 with a solo home run and a stolen base. He has eight hits in his last three games and is hitting .341 in July with two home runs and four stolen bases. Overall for the year, he is now hitting .248 with eight home runs and 11 stolen bases. He has a shot at a 15-20 season.

Alex Bregman went a perfect 2-2 with a solo home run, two walks, and three runs scored. He is now on a four-game hitting streak and is hitting .308 with three home runs in July. For the year, he is hitting .271 with 25 home runs, 61 RBI, 70 runs scored, and has stolen four bases. His steals are on pace to drop for the second straight year, but his home run total is on pace to climb for the third straight year.

George Springer finished 2-5 with a solo dinger. He now has 22 home runs across 66 games played, pretty impressive considering he had 22 home runs across 140 games last year. He is having the best year of his career, hitting .308 with the 22 dingers, 54 RBI, 56 runs scored, and five steals.

Yordan Alvarez went 2-4 with a double, a run, and two RBI. All this guy has done since being called-up is hit and drive in runs. Through 26 games and 103 at-bats since being promoted to the show, he is hitting .330 with nine home runs and 31 RBI. He’s only 22-years old and already has the look of a big time bat.

What to Watch for Today

A lot of good pitching/pitching duels are what to what to watch for today!

John Means (7-5, 2.94 ERA) vs. David Price (7-2, 3.16 ERA). Means will be looking to bounce back from a poor outing his last time out but, prior to that, he hadn’t given up more than three runs in any of his previous 10 starts. Price hasn’t given up more than two earned runs in any of his last five starts.

Patrick Corbin (7-5, 3.39 ERA) vs. Mike Soroka (10-1, 2.24 ERA). Corbin has given up a total of six earned runs across his last 34 innings pitched - five starts - and he has had at least seven strikeouts in all five of those starts. Soroka had a career high nine strikeouts across seven shutout innings in his previous start.

Mike Minor (8-4, 2.73 ERA) vs. Justin Verlander (11-4, 2.98 ERA). Minor has been roughed up for seven earned runs across 9.1 innings in his last two starts and has a tough match-up with the Astros (who scored four on him his last time out). Verlander hasn’t given up more than four runs in any of his 20 starts this year.

Jacob deGrom (5-7, 3.21 ERA) will take on the Giants in a juicy match-up. deGrom hasn’t given up more than three earned runs in any of his last 10 starts and he gave up two runs or fewer in nine of them. However, in classic Mets fashion, he is only 2-2 in that span.