It was a night for juiced baseballs at Tropicana Field last night…But I suppose someone told the Tampa Bay Rays they weren’t allowed to use them, too.

The South-Siders from Chicago rolled into St. Petersburg and rolled through one of our favorite marshmallow tossers, Nick Martinez (6 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks),  for 4 HRs in a 6-1 White Sox victory.

Miguel Vargas (23rd HR), Colson Montgomery (25th HR), Mister Slap-Hitter Andrew Benintendi (11th HR), and the not-so-homegrown hero, Munetaka Murakami (24th HR), led the charge, and led Nick Mart to his 3rd loss of the year.

But who says the balls are juiced?

Well, with 3785 total home runs across MLB this season, and with roughly 50-60 games left for each team, I’m going to guess our hitters aren’t going to have a tough time continuing to ‘juice up’ the baseball, and eclipsing the highest home run season total from the last 5 years (5940 in 2021).

Did anyone else hit any home runs on our final, July evening of the 2026 season? Well…

Here’s what else I saw in Fantasy Baseball last night…

Will Warren – 6.2 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 8th win. This one only took him 88 pitches and was his longest outing in 18 starts (he threw 7 innings on April 18th). Regular readers of the Top 100 Starting Pitchers article will know how much I’ve been going back and forth between this guy and Ryan Weathers. Anything can happen with next week’s trade deadline looming, but I’d be surprised if one of these guys wasn’t a headlining piece used to net the Yankees another big bat like Hunter Goodman.

Amed Rosario – 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 10th HR. Batting .235. It’s usually a large or an extra large when we discuss the Yankees’ offense, but today we’re stuck with Amed.

Spencer Jones – 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 4th HR. Batting .236! “YES! You see how good this guy is?! And he had 14 home runs in AAA! With 10 steals! You know you want him! But it’ll cost ya!” That’s Brian Cashman yelling out his office window to any MLB general manager that has top-tier talent to trade, and is ready to listen. Hey, it worked for Jesus Montero (RIP).

David Bednar – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, and his 23rd save. ERA at 2.68. WHIP at 1.06. I mean, I get that the Yankees should be looking to shore up the back end of the bullpen, but the relief artist formerly known as David-sh*t-the-Bednar has been pretty solid this year.

Shota Imanaga – 6.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 9th loss. That line is almost identical to his opponent’s, but it’s tough to win when your team doesn’t score any runs. Follow me for more cutting-edge, informative analysis!

Paul Skenes – 4 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision. En bee dee. Just 10 earned runs in his last 9.1 IP. Uh…at least the strikeouts are still there? *dodges flying PNC donut burger dipped in a cup full of IC Light* 

Jake Mangum – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, his 3rd home run, and his 20th SB! Batting .304. A slam and legs from the most giggle-inducing named outfielder since Rusty Kuntz! 

Brandon Lowe – 3-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 2nd SB! Batting .257. A double and legs from…uh…Nate Lowe’s former teammate? Ya, that definitely sounded more exciting in my head. 

Hunter Greene – 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, the no-decision, and one trip to the top of the Reds’ trade-bait board. On the surface, a 6.83 ERA and 1.37 WHIP aren’t going to net Cincy much of a return, but if a contender wants to send a boatload of prospects for a live arm with an injury history, apparently Brad Meador is waiting by the phone. EDIT: Apparently, as of late last night, the Reds have told teams Hunter Greene is ‘no longer available’. Riiiight. That’s GM speak for ‘up-the-ante’.

Elly De La Cruz – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 BBs. Batting .279. So he was on base three times? And how many steals did he have? Zero? Come on! 

Sal Stewart – 2-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI, and his 23rd HR. Batting .255. All aboard the S.S. Breakout!

JJ Bleday – 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 19th HR. Batting .229, or, as it’s referred to in the multiverse of late 80’s/early 90’s sitcoms, the last TV show in the Marla Gibbs trilogy.

Dylan Cease – 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision. The Jays are expected to be very active at the deadline, but this is one arm who isn’t going anywhere. I’d say the same about Louis Varland (more below), but someone might pony up for the ace reliever and give Russ Atkins a deal that he can’t refuse. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – 1-for-4, 1 R, 2B. Batting .265. And that officially makes it 57 home games without a home run for Vladito. Only 25 games to go before he ends the season with ZERO bombs at the Rogers Centre! *Tommens off the top of the CN Tower*

Jeff Hoffman – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, and his 6th win. This dude could have 15 wins and 200 strikeouts right now, and a majority of the fan base would still blame him for losing them a World Series. 

Louis Varland – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, and his 24th save. As I said above, I really doubt he’s going anywhere. And the Jays’ front office has said he’s “off the table” in any trade talks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few teams still try to pry him loose.

Kyle Leahy – 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. Regular Top 100 Starting Pitchers readers know that this is where I’d usually insert a Trailer Park Boys reference, but to be honest, Leahy deserves some love for giving up more than 1 ER in just one of his last 7 GS. And, no, I don’t just mean love from Randy BoBandy. 

Jordan Walker – 1-for-4, 1 RBI. Batting .283. And that’s now 18 straight games without a home run. Bro. Did you use them all up in the Derby?!

Brandon Young – 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. This one broke a modest personal streak of three quality starts.

Pete Alonso – 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 23rd HR. Batting .252. That’s 14 home runs at Camden Yards for Sneaky Pete. Aka 14 more home runs at home than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has.

Tyler Wells – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, and his 4th save. I looked him up to see what JKJ had to say, and our bullpen guy’s note was: “He’s def the guy to roster if you’re picking an Oriole.” Sold!

Andrew Painter – 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. Oh, would you look at that! The Phillies recalled Andrew Painter three days before the trade deadline, after burying him in the minor leagues since June 18th. I wonder why! Maybe it’s because he told them he’s really excited to pitch in August? (For someone else?)

Trea Turner – 3-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 16th HR. Batting .248. The Treat Urner is giving out some goodies! And we’re still 3 months away from Halloween!

Kodai Senga – This game was supposed to go to Freddy Peralta, but he was scratched due to “intensifying trade talks”. That made me wonder: are intensifying trade talks when GMs are really focused on the phone? Like, are they staring really hard at the caller ID when they answer, or are they just really INTENSE when they ask for other teams’ top prospects? Then the responding GM responds with an extremely fierce “I DON’T THINK SO!”

Oh, oh ya. This was about Senga. He lost his 8th game of the year, is sitting at 0-8, and is about as Mets as Mets gets. Sad emoji.

Francisco Lindor – 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 9th HR. Batting .233. Unconfirmed, but Lindor was apparently seen outside David Stearns’ office with a boombox over his head playing Simple Minds’  “Don’t You…Forget About Me.” When asked for a comment, he replied, “Who the eff is Lloyd Dobler? I just want out of here already.”

Janson Junk – 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 5th win. This start was, in fact, not junk from Junk.

Kyle Stowers – 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 16th HR. Batting .237. Stowers Power!

Pete Fairbanks – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 16th save. That looks pretty solid…until you look at the 6.55 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. Then it’s Pete Foulbanks. Hashtag nailed it.

Mitch Bratt – 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision in his first career start. He won’t be in the Top 100 on Monday, but he gets a mention today!

Ketel Marte – 1-for-3, 1 RBI. Batting .254. The D-Backs won 4-1, and somehow this, and Geraldo Perdomo’s two hits, were the most exciting offense of the night. (And, yes, I use that term ‘exciting’ very loosely).

Tanner Bibee – 7.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and he had to get the win, right? Well, he didn’t. And can you guess how many losses he has now? I’ll give you a hint: it’s between 10 and 12.

Steven Kwan – 2-for-2, 1 BB. Batting .251. If you thought the Arizona offense was putrid last night, this, and a Rhys Hoskins single, was all the Guardians gave us. Barf emoji.

Erick Fedde – 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 6th win. And PLEASE don’t let this be part of a trade return to the Blue Jays for George Springer. Please!

Nick Martinez – I mentioned the line above, but wanted to add that this was Nick Mart’s worst start in nearly two months. Let’s chalk this one up to a warm summer breeze (in a closed Tropicana Field dome?), and run him out there again…hang on, his next two starts are at COL and at ATH. Maybe we run him out there again in two weeks.

Junior Caminero – 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, and his 30th HR. Batting .282. I don’t know if Senior Caminero had any power, but I’d take this kid in just about any trade deadline deal in any fantasy league, that’s for sure.

Chandler Simpson – 1-for-4, and his 28th SB. Batting .290 out of the 5-spot?! What? Rays gonna Rays, I guess. At least he has the same number of home runs at home as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. does! (Oof).

Foster Griffin – 5.1 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and his 3rd loss. Well, we’re certainly not adopting the Griffin after that start.

CJ Abrams – 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 3 BB, and his 28th HR. Batting .290. Please, Blue Jays, trade Arjun Nimmala, Ricky Tiedemann, Jake Bloss, and whoever else (Andres Gimenez) for this guy. If you can make it happen, I’ll drive up once a week to give him a lift back from the Niagara Falls casino. I just can’t guarantee he’ll be there in time for warmups.

Bryce Elder – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 7th win. This guy beat Foster Griffin and only struck out three dudes? Sure. Because baseball.

Matt Olson – 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 29th HR. Batting .263. Allahson!

Michael Harris II – 2-for-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 20th HR. Batting .292. Uh.. .Harris-son?!

Hunter Brown – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 3rd win. ERA at 3.42. WHIP at 1.29. He ends July a lot better than he started it, so that’s good news.

Jeremy Pena – 3-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, and one of the few hitters from the Astros without an extra-base hit last night. But like they say, they don’t always ask how far; they ask how many. Batting .317.

Isaac Paredes – 2-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, and his 15th HR. Batting .257. Everyone loves a Paredes! Well, everyone except for…

Nathan Eovaldi – 5 IP, 6 ER, 10 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, 2 HR allowed, and his 9th loss. Well, at least we know the juiced balls weren’t only used in Tampa.

Joc Pederson – 1-for-1, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 20th HR before being removed for Justin Foscue. I’m going to guess it wasn’t to preserve Joc’s run at a batting title.

Corey Seager – 2-for-3, 1 R. Kevin from the Get-him-back-in-your-lineup department is off for a few days after his HR meeting. Apparently, “Seag-her? I hardly even know her!” is still considered an offside reply to…well, never mind.

Michael Wacha (6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks) and Tomoyuki Sugano (6.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks). It looks like “What happens when a very stoppable force meets an extremely moveable object” or “What happens when two soft-tossing starters face off against sad offenses in a hitter’s park?” can be answered with said two starters throwing quality starts, AND with one of them (Sugano) collecting his 11th win (!).

Carter Jensen – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 15th HR. Batting .235. And to think I was more worried about this guy’s average when I protected him AND Cal Raleigh in my two-catcher AL-Only league. Smh.

Jordan Romano – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, and his 9th save. I know it’s not common to include photos in these round-ups, but this one from last week needed to be shared. 

See? I told you Jordan Romano wasn’t terrible and that you can still wear the Blue Jays jersey your grandfather got you two years ago! (That’s me talking to my oldest kid earlier this week).

Shane Drohan – 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 6th win. Nobody messes with the Drohan! (But you can start him when he’s facing Ryan Johnson, that’s for sure!)

Brice Turang – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 BBs, and his 16th HR. Batting .271. Cool story, bro, but we roster you for the stolen bases. (JK!)

Jake Bauers – 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, and his 19th HR. Batting .269. I mean, it could be worse, but tell me the Brewers aren’t shopping for a bat to at least move Bauers or David Hamilton into a part-time role. Maybe? I guess we should just be happy Bauers’ broken toe hasn’t slowed him down.

Ryan Johnson – 4.1 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 6th loss. ERA at 7.63. WHIP at 1.59. Here’s where I usually insert a dig about “The Last Jedi” being a terrible movie, but I don’t even want to be snarky. Allowing 13 ER in his last 7.2 IP is rough enough.

Denzer Guzman – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 5th HR. Batting .237. Cool. Not nearly as cool as Juan Guzman’s greased up curls from 1993, but cool nonetheless.

Kevin McGonigle – 1-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, and his 10th HR. Batting .285. Well, we know who isn’t getting traded with Tarik Skubal at the deadline.

Dillon Dingler – 2-for-6, 1 R, 4 RBI, and a grand slam! (24th HR). Batting .269. Dirk Dingler with a Grand Slam? I’d better be careful before the cancel police show up at my door.

Spencer Torkelson – 3-for-4, 3 R, 1 BB. Batting .216. You know it’s bad when a guy has three hits and it “raises” his average to .216.

Max Clark – 3-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, and his first TWO 2Bs. Batting a robust .750! I kid. But the kid had himself one heck of a debut, that’s for sure!

Javier Baez – 3-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI. Batting .304. So much for that modest FAAB bid that I had queued up in the AL-Only league. Time to edit it now!

Jeffrey Springs – 4 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 2 Ks, and his 11th loss. I wasn’t going to mention Jonah Heim’s one RBI in this game, but Jeffrey asked me to deflect any extra attention away from his 5 BBs and his 11th L. Oops.

Yuki Matsui – 3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, and his 2nd win as he followed an opener and the Padres two-hit the Giants.

German Marquez – 5 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 1st save? Well, there’s the second hit allowed. But it still feels like a bit of a ripoff that Marquez throws the bulk of this game and gets a save instead of the win. *Shrugs*.

Fernando Tatis Jr. – 1-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB, and his 26th SB. Batting .286. If the Padres really wanted to shake things up, they’d send Mason Miller and Mister Ringworm Medicine out at the deadline. But I can’t see ‘Nando going anywhere.

Ty France – 2-for-2, 3 RBI. Batting .287. Talk about getting hot at the right time. He’s almost certain to be moved next week, and could net the Padres a couple of decent prospects.

Luis Rengifo – No, seriously, stop giggling. 1-for-3, 3 R, 2 BB, and his 5th SB. Batting .238.

Carson Whisenhunt – 3.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 Ks, and his 2nd loss. Yes, I can hear you now. “Hey, isn’t this the guy you mentioned as an honorable mention for a second half add list?” Uh…no, I meant his cousin. Canspin Wisenblunt. Um…ya, that’s it.

Luis Arraez – 1-for-3. Batting .328. Wow! He was responsible for HALF of his team’s hits last night! (And that, my friends, is how you polish a turd).

Zebby Matthews – 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 10 (!) Ks, and the no-decision?! Huh. Tough room.

Royce Lewis – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 11th HR. Batting .216. We know we can’t say Royce Lewis’s name three times, or the Beetlejuice-esque Harbinger of Injuries will swoop in and sprinkle some of that Buxton dust on him again. So let’s make sure we don’t mention it three times because we need Royce Lewis to stay on the field. Wait, does the name at the start of the blurb count as the first one, or is it separate? Nooooooo!

Brooks Lee – 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 16th HR. Batting .244. We could do much worse than scooping up a multi-eligible (position) middle infielder who gives us power, speed, and a batting average that’s north of his weight.

Yoendrys Gomez – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 Ks, and his 14th save. Yoendrys: Not just what I envision hearing when Rocky calls out for his buddy, Hank, and uses his birth name instead of the nickname. (There was a Canadian candy bar pun just sitting there, but I didn’t want to overload you with Northern nomenclature…or at least not until about 20 cm, or 7.8 inches, below this spot).

Bryce Miller – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 2.80. WHIP at 0.92. And my boiling frustration at 99% that he couldn’t have gone a dozen more pitches to finish off the quality start. (He threw 87 pitches in this one).

Cole Young – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 14th HR. Batting .261. Forever Young. I want to be forever Young. * references notes, sees he’s 23 years old* Yep. It checks out.

Cal Raleigh – 1-for-3, 2 RBI, 2B. Batting a robust .164. Sorry, my dictionary.com isn’t loading properly. Robust means crappy, right?

Ranger Suarez – 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision as Brayan Bello (4 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks) picked up his third dub in relief. Huh. And we all thought piggybacking was dead.

Ceddanne Rafaela – 3-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, an HR (12), and an SB (15). Batting .286. Two Ds, two Ns, a slam, and legs, and the coolest Rafaela since the Italian version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tartarugas? Sign me up!

Edgardo Henriquez – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K, as he opened for Los Doyers. It doesn’t warrant much attention, other than to admit that I had to look at this three times because my scrambled brain thought it listed Enrique Hernandez as the starting pitcher, and my first thought was “Oh. Now they’re going to start position players just to mock the rest of the league even more than they already do?” 

Freddie Freeman – 3-for-4, 1 RBI. Batting .305. There are a few displaced Canadians who have melded into American culture that still elicit sighs of admiration and ear-to-ear smiles. Pretty much the entire cast of the old SCTV (especially John Candy), Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, and the Free-man himself. Keep it up, my brother in maple syrup and ketchup chips. Even if you’re only ‘technically’ half Canuck, it still counts in my books.

Shohei Ohtani – 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B, and his 24th HR. Batting .291. It’s ok, Shohei, I know how tough it is to deal with knee soreness. Just this past week I had to score from first on a ball hit to right field, and then, just two innings later, leg out my own double to the gap in left-center field. I basically had the same game as you, but narrowly missed the home run by about a foot because the outfielders were camping on the warning track. It happens to you, it happens to me, it happens to US. That it happened in my slo-pitch game and I’m nearly 20 years older than you are is an ‘insignificant extra’ in the information gathered here. Get some rest, king. You have my empathy.

That’s all for this week’s roundup! Come back and see me on Monday, when I’ll have an updated Top 100 Starting Pitchers list with new Jumpers, Dumpers, and all the regular goodies.

 

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