Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta Braves - Marcell Ozuna launched three homers for the Braves on Monday, becoming the first-ever visiting NL player to hit three homers in a single game at Fenway. Ozuna has done what Ozuna usually does, crushes the baseball. He owns a 95th percentile hard-hit rate along with an 82 percentile barrel rate, helping lead to a .295/.383/.605 with 11 homers and 29 RBI.
Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves - Austin Riley continued his outstanding stretch at the plate going 2-for-5 at the plate with a double. Since August 16th Riley has posted a 168 wRC+ with a .341/.383/.636 triple slash. Riley's biggest issue at the plate has been strikeouts but even that has been shaved down to 25% over this span. Riley has pulled away with the third base job from Johan Camargo and he should get the bulk of the playing time the rest of the way.
Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies - Aaron Nola tossed another gem, throwing eight shutout innings against the Nationals lowering his season ERA to 2.45. Nola struck out nine batters in the game and that lower his season K/9 to 11.66 as Nola is currently in his second straight season of an increased strikeout rate. Nola's still getting hit fairly hard with a 19th percentile hard-hit rate, but even then his xwOBA and xBA are both well above league average. His weak contact against him has jumped up to almost 5% from the 2.5% rate that he posted last season. Ace Nola is back.
KeBryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates - Ke'Bryan Hayes made his major league debut on Tuesday and went 2-for-5 at the plate with the first homer of his career. Hayes is a glove-first prospect for the Pirates but last year showed double-digit power in AAA while hitting .265, though it all combined for just a 92 wRC+. He's worth looking at because he's going to play every day for the Pirates going forward, but I don't have as much faith in his upside as someone like Lux who was just called up.
Julio Urias, Los Angeles Dodgers - Julio Urias tossed six innings and allowed just one run on Tuesday. He was extremely efficient as well taking just 78 pitches to get through the outing. Urias had only thrown 5.2 innings across his last two starts with five runs allowed, and he also walked four batters. He did though still have 11 strikeouts over those two outings. His stats have taken a dip over those last two outings, but he's still a must-start option each time he's out there.
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