Huascar Ynoa, Atlanta Braves - Huascar Ynoa struggled in his second start of 2021 with six earned runs across four innings. Ynoa still struck out five batters in the outing pushing his total to 20 over 16 innings. While the start went very poorly for the Ynoa, he did walk just one batter in the outing and he's only allowed three walks this year over the course of those 16 innings. He's doing well getting swings and misses, but he's also getting hit extremely when batters do make contact. Ynoa has a spot in the Braves rotation though with the team currently down both Max Fried, Drew Smyly, and Mike Soroka having been slowed down due to a shoulder issue. In a related note Bryse Wilson is starting for the team on Sunday.
Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs - Kris Bryant launched a pair of homers on Saturday to give him five for the season to go along with 10 RBI. His triple slash is up to .261/.352/.674 for the season which is a huge bounce back from the .206/.293/.351 line he posted last season. Bryant has dealt with shoulder injuries in recent seasons and his batted ball data looks closer to his MVP season than it has in any recent year.
Yadier Molina, St Louis Cardinals - Yadier Molina has a hit in all but two games this year and he hit a pair of homers on Saturday to give him four on the season. He has driven in 12 runs and his triple slash is up to an absurd .340/.385/.660. His batted ball rates are right in the middle of the pack but anything at the catcher position is a plus and we know that even at age 38 he's going to play everyday for the Cardinals.
Aaron Sanchez, San Francisco Giants - Aaron Sanchez allowed one run over 4.2 innings against the Marlins Saturday. Sanchez struck out five batters in the outing, a season high, and fell just one out shy of completing five innings for the third straight start. He did walk three batters in this start which is his highest total of the season. Sanchez has typically used his sinker and curveball as his top two pitches, both around 33%, but in this start his changeup was his featured offering at 33% and his curveball was slightly behind at 32%. His lack of velocity does still concern me a bit, but he's mixing pitches well enough right now to keep hitters on their toes.
Eric Fedde, Washington Nationals - Eric Fedde had a great outing for Washington against the Diamondbacks, striking out nine batters over five innings of one run baseball. This marks back-to-back solid outings after getting smoked by Atlanta in his first start of the season. He's struck out 14 batters over his last 9.2 innings while allowing just two runs in that same span. Fedde's next matchup should come against the Mets next weekend.