Roto Riteup: September 10, 2026

Five straight games with a dong for Elly De La Cruz!

On the Agenda: 

1. Closer Chaos
2. Quick Hits
3. Various News and Notes
4. Streaming Pitchers

Closer Chaos

The San Francisco Giants thought they had their closer in righty Dylan Smith, but he has been shaky of late, blowing two saves in his last three opportunities, including one on Monday. Veteran Joel Kuehnel, who is on his third team this season, earned the save on Tuesday and 28-year-old righty Trent Harris pulled one down on Wednesday. It was the first of Harris’ career, in what was his 15th Major League appearance. RosterResource lists the trio as co-closers.

Righty Rico Garcia earned his seventh save of the season for the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, just his third opportunity since July 29. Between July 21 and July 27, Garcia blew all three save chances and has six blown saves on the season. Garcia should earn more opportunities, but veteran Andrew Kittredge likely remains the lead man for ninth innings.

Righty Nate Pearson earned his fourth save of the season as the Kansas City Royals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2. Steven Cruz, the leader of the closer committee, had the day off after pitching the previous two nights. Pearson is having a nice season, sporting a 2.03 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 36 strikeouts in 41 innings, and may earn more save opportunities over the final few weeks.

Mason Montgomery continues to raise his 2027 draft price with dominant outings. He earned his 11th save of the season on Wednesday night and currently has a scoreless streak of 18.1 innings.

The Miami Marlins activated Pete Fairbanks from the injured list. He should resume his role as the team’s closer, but don’t drop Calvin Faucher just yet. Fairbanks is 4-5 with a 6.02 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP this season.

Quick Hits

There were several ratio-crushing pitching “performances” on Wednesday:

• Cleveland Guardians lefty Foster Griffin: 2.1 IP – 7 H – 8 ER – 2 BB
• Boston Red Sox lefty Jake Bennett: 5.1 IP – 9 H – 6 ER – 2 BB
• Washington Nationals lefty Jackson Kent: 3.0 IP – 8 H – 5 ER – 1 BB
• Miami Marlins righty Janson Junk: 3.0 IP – 8 H – 8 ER – 1 BB (no strikeouts)
• Cincinnati Reds righty Rhett Lowder: 3.1 IP – 7 H – 7 ER – 2 BB (ERA is up to 5.81)
• Chicago Cubs righty Kevin Gausman: 4.0 IP – 8 H – 6 ER – 2 BB (3 HRs)
• Atlanta Braves righty Reynaldo López: 4.2 IP – 7 H – 6 ER – 3 BB (fresh off the IL and a dominant rehab outing)
• Minnesota Twins righty Zebby Matthews: 2.1 IP – 2 H – 5 ER – 4 BB (oh, Zebby!)

On the positive side of the mound:

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto punched out 10 batters with just one walk and three hits allowed over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.62.
• Will Warren of the Yankees threw six innings of one-run ball (a homer to Connor Norby), striking out eight Rockies.
• Brewers’ Logan Henderson dealt yet again: 5 IP – 2 H – 0 ER (1 R) – 1 BB – 6 K. Hendo’s ERA is down to 2.34. He will find his way into the top 50 ADP in NFBC leagues next draft season.
• Rays’ lefty Griffin Jax had his first strong outing (5 IP – 2 H – 1 ER – 1 BB – 2 K) since going on the IL on August 2. He threw 66 pitches (45 strikes) to the Braves on Wednesday.
• Royals’ lefty Daniel Lynch IV reached five innings for the second (consecutive) time this season, this time in positive fashion: 5 IP – 4 H – 2 ER – 2 BB – 3 K, earning the win.

New York Yankees rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. smashed his first career grand slam:

Lombard hit it off Colorado Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano in the third inning. Sugano (12 wins) and Antonio Senzatela (9 wins, on the Brewers since the trade deadline) have accounted for 38% of the Rockies wins this season.

Francisco Lindor is heating up since getting put on a blast for being a bust, crushing his second home run in as many games:

The Mets and Marlins combined for 29 runs (Mets won 15-14), but only four dingers were launched in the contest. Marlins’ outfielder Jakob Marsee went 4-for-6 with three runs batted in. Marsee has 11 hits in his last four games.

Kyle Schwarber hit his league-leading 44th homer on Wednesday:

Trailing Schwarber in dingers are Pete Crow-Armstrong (41), Junior Caminero (39) and Yordan Alvarez (38). Matt Olson and Hunter Goodman are next with 37 apiece. Alvarez still has a chance to win the AL Triple Crown. Pete Alonso has one more RBI (97 to 96) and Chandler Simpson trails Alvarez slightly in batting average (.312 to .309). The last Triple Crown winner in the American League was Miguel Cabrera, in 2012.

Various News and Notes

Big news in Los Angeles: the Dodgers will promote their top hitting prospect, Josue De Paula, from Double-A Tulsa ahead of Friday’s tilt with the Marlins. No Triple-A for JDP who rocks an impressive .302-105-26-101-31 roto stat line. He may even earn an immediate full-time role, since Shohei Ohtani was placed on the IL.

Jose Altuve had his 2,500th career hit on Wednesday:

He’s the 103rd player in MLB history to do so. Freddie Freeman is the only active player with 2,500 or greater.

Orioles’ super-utility man Blaze Alexander had been dealing with back spasms the last few days and was finally placed on the IL with a back injury on Wednesday. Jeremiah Jackson was recalled.

The New York Yankees placed Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the injured list for a sprained right thumb. Anthony Volpe is back.

Zac Gallen and Michael Soroka were both activated from the IL and pitched in Wednesday’s game against the Royals. Gallen pitched 3.1 innings (4 H – 1 ER – 2 BB – 1 K) in the start. Reliever Derek Lowe followed Gallen for two batters, then Soroka took over and threw four innings, giving up this three-run bomb to Bobby Witt Jr.:

Streaming Pitchers (Under 50% on Yahoo)

Pitcher for Today: Jared Jones, PIT (33%) at CHW

The Chicago White Sox are undoubtedly tough customers. Jones can be too, though. He can keep the momentum going today following his impressive start against the Angels at home last week — 6 IP – 3 H – 0 ER – 1 BB – 9 K.

Other Options: Martín Pérez, ATL (27%) vs. TB

Pérez has been stellar with run prevention (3.25 ERA) even though peripherals indicate he’s been fortunate (4.36 xFIP, 4.75 SIERA, 4.76 xERA). The good thing here is that the Rays’ active offense ranks below league average against southpaws (97 wRC+). The bad thing is that they strike out against them at a lower rate (17.5%) than every other team.

Pitcher for Tomorrow: Max Scherzer, TOR (17%) vs. BAL

Anything is possible for Scherzer who has had extreme starts of dominance and disaster. He should at least be able to rack up 5+ strikeouts against an Orioles offense with the third-highest strikeout rate (25.1%) against right-handed pitchers.

Other Options: Dustin May, MIL (25%) vs. CIN

There is plenty of risk with May, who has struggled over his last four starts (13 ER, 10:5 K:BB in 10.1 IP). The Brewers will be home favorites against a Reds offense with a 91 wRC+ and the second-highest strikeout rate (25.4%) against righties.