Shea Langeliers

Phillips gave up six hits, walked none and struck out five. Not bad for his first major league start. Phillips started the seventh inning, but was removed after allowing a home run to Brent Rooker and a double to Shea Langeliers. Phillips isn't a highly touted prospect, but could continue to occupy a spot in the rotation while Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull are on the injured list. At least for the time being, he's viable in deeper formats.

Let's start with the positives here as Pivetta struck out eight consecutive batters at one point during Wednesday's showdown at Fenway Park and notched his third double-digit strikeout performance of the year. He induced 16 swinging strikes, including 12 on his sweeper alone, and finished with a solid 33 percent CSW. Unfortunately, he came a bit unglued in the third inning of this one as he issued a bases-loaded free pass to Shea Langeliers before giving up a two-run double to ensuing batter Lawrence Butler. The 31-year-old righty will carry a respectable 4.18 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 88/20 K/BB ratio across 75 1/3 innings (14 starts) into the All-Star break.

Langeliers hit a two-run blast in the third inning to make it a 13-1 game. You're not reading that wrong. The backstop also drove in one of the Athletics' 19 runs -- again, not a typo -- with a single in the seventh. Langeliers has homered 17 times while driving in 45 runs in the first half of the 2024 campaign. Not too shabby.