Aaron Nola dominated the Rays on Tuesday, allowing one run over 7.1 innings with the only run coming off the bat of Wander Franco for the last batter he faced. He allowed just five hits in the game and tied his season high striking out 12 batters. Nola's had a pretty tough season compared to what we are used to seeing for him, only posting a sub-3.00 ERA in one single month this year. His strikeout rate for the year is also way down, after seeing seasons of 33.2%-29.8%-29.1% he's at just 23.9% in 2023 and his walk rate has climbed back up a bit. His secondary offerings are still generating as much swing and miss (even more for CH/Cutter) but the fastball whiff rates have declined this season. Sinkers obviously aren't a primary whiff offering, but he's down 3% on that pitch this season and his fastball is down nearly 5%.
Kolby Allard had another solid start for Atlanta, limiting Cleveland to three runs over five innings. It was a step back from his eight-strikeout outing against the Twins, but still solid nonetheless. He struck out three batters in this game, two coming in the first inning. Cleveland is a tough team to strikeout so it's not something that is really to be concerned about. I'm not sure how long Allard will be in the rotation going forward though. Max Fried and Kyle Wright are both progressing in their rehab processes, and Allard is pretty clearly the first to get bumped out of the rotation whenever they are healthy. Morton/Strider/Elder/Soroka are probably locked into their spots with Soroka being the second question mark for the team. I'm fine with streaming Allard going forward but it's pretty much a game by game basis for his fantasy purposes.
Ozzie Albies continued his tear that started in June with two homers on Tuesday and three RBI. Albies is up to 22 homers for the season with a .264/.318/.525 slash line. Ozzie is nearly to his to total homers in 2021 when he hit 30 homers over 629 at bats, as this year he's up to the 22 in just 361. The month of June he caught fire with seven homers with a .905 OPS and he's been on a tear against right handed pitching, a big note considering he has some huge career splits that brought up questions as to whether he should give up batting lefty altogether. The move to second in the lineup has paid off huge for him and the Braves and he's looking once again like a top second base option in fantasy.
Clarke Schmidt re-found his strikeout stuff for the first time in a few games, sitting down seven Orioles batters over five innings. He allowed five hits and three runs, the second straight game he's allowed three runs over a stretch of three starts when he allowed no more than two runs. Schmidt entered the season will the look of a pitcher with some serious upside, but it hasn't come to fruition. He changed his pitch mix entirely adding a cutter and abandoning his four-seam fastball. Even with the mix change he's having a lot of trouble across the board getting whiffs and his hard-hit rates are towards the bottom of the league as well.
Tarik Skubal made his 2023 debut and his return from Tommy John and it was outstanding with four perfect innings and six strikeouts. He posted a 25% whiff rate with both his slider and changeup recording solid whiff totals. All in all, it was a great first outing for Skubal in his return and the team should continue to ease him into the rotation and considering we saw Reese Olson come in and throw five innings after Skubal, we could see them as some sort of piggy-back situation for the two going forward.
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