Fantasy Sports

Neto’s three-run double in the sixth inning put the Angels ahead after being stifled all afternoon by Joey Estes. He’s had a sneaky solid season, with 10 homers, 10 steals, and 18 doubles. Hopefully Ron Washington decides to move him up in the batting order soon.

The Athletics keep losing, but Rooker keeps hitting. The double was his 32nd extra-base hit of the season and his OPS has climbed up to .845, 20th in the league among qualified players. Rooker could be in for a monster second-half if the A’s decide to trade him before the deadline.

Estes allowed just four base runners through his first five innings: back-to-back hits to start the game, a hit by pitch, and intentional walk. Then, he was pulled after a walk and single in the sixth inning and Austin Adams promptly imploded allowing five runs, two of which were charged to Estes. Otherwise, he mixed his four pitches well and can be a sneaky streamer against teams like the Angels.

This was Contreras’ first start of the season and he was stretched out to 61 pitches after not topping 50 yet this season. Working as a starter, he leaned far more on his slider than he had in his relief appearances and threw it more often than his fastball. Contreras used that slider as his primary pitch often last season in Pittsburgh as his fastball effectiveness waned. That fastball still isn’t great and he had trouble putting hitters away, as he seemingly always has.

The 34-year-old backstop got the scoring started in the ballgame with a 386-foot (107.2 mph EV) two-run blast off of Nationals’ southpaw DJ Herz in the second inning. He then singled and scored on an RBI knock by Jurickson Profar in the fourth. Higashioka then capped off the afternoon with a 390-foot (104.2 mph EV) grand slam off of Tanner Rainey in the eighth that made it 8-0 put the game out of reach. He’s now slashing .207/.240/.522 with eight homers and 20 RBI on the season.

As he’s done countless times in his legendary career, Altuve served as Houston’s primary offensive catalyst in this one, playing a key role in a four-run outburst in the seventh inning that ostensibly put the contest away. He got things going a couple frames earlier by reaching on a fourth-inning single before stealing both second and third base and scoring on Yainer Diaz’s run-scoring single. He also contributed a run-scoring single of his own in the ensuing frame before plating a run in the seventh inning courtesy of a fielder’s choice. The 34-year-old veteran fantasy stalwart has shown zero signs of slowing down and is really catching fire over the last few weeks, batting .365 (23-for-63) with three homers, 13 RBI and four steals over his last 15 games.

Arrighetti put together the strongest outing of his rookie campaign yet on Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, scattering three hits over seven scoreless frames, while recording his first-ever double-digit strikeout performance. The 24-year-old top pitching prospect generated 13 swinging strikes and finished with a near-elite 39 percent CSW. It’s notable that this unexpectedly brilliant effort comes after he was torched by the White Sox and Tigers, respectively, in his previous two outings. There’s definitely some streaming appeal here for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues, but he’s been the quintessential boom-or-bust dice roll over the last few weeks. He’ll square off against the struggling Blue Jays on Tuesday in his next outing.

Reynolds officially owns the longest hit streak of the 2024 campaign after a first-inning single on Wednesday afternoon against Reds starter Graham Ashcraft. It was his lone hit in five at-bats, but the fact that he got it out of the way right out of the gate took all of the drama out of this one. The 29-year-old outfielder is in the midst of a stellar stetch at the dish, batting .323 (40-for-124) with seven homers and one steal over his last 30 games.

After serving up six runs over four innings last Friday in relief against the Rays, Ortiz rebounded in this one by authored a brilliant performance against the division-rival Reds. He generated an eye-popping 19 swinging strikes, with seven of those coming on his slide alone, and finished with a robust 34 percent CSW. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen flashes of potential from the hard-throwing 25-year-old former top prospect, but he’s worth monitoring moving forward in the event that Pittsburgh starts to lean on him more as a traditional starter. The addition of a cutter to his arsenal this season has made him less reliant on his four-seam fastball/slider combo, especially against southpaws.

Kirby coughed up an early run-scoring single to Yandy Díaz, but managed to keep Tampa Bay’s lineup quiet from the third inning onwards to net his seventh win of the season. He induced 13 swinging strikes, including six on his four-seam fastball, and finished with a pedestrian 28 percent CSW. Of course, he also didn’t hand out a free pass in this one. It wasn’t his most dominant effort of the season, but was more than enough to lead Seattle to a much-needed win. The 26-year-old righty has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six consecutive starts dating back to May 29. He’ll carry a strong 3.35 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 96/9 K/BB ratio across 99 1/3 innings (17 starts) into a tough come outing on Wednesday against the Orioles.