PrizePicks

Sánchez doubled and scored in the third and later hit a 415-foot homer off Brad Lord in the seventh. He’s batting .313 with five homers and 20 RBI in his last 22 games, and even though the Marlins have him under control through 2027, he’s very much a candidate to be traded to a contender next month.

We knew Junk would be in the bulk role today, but we didn’t realize he’d be the Marlins’ fourth pitcher of the game. After Cade Gibson allowed one run in the first, the Marlins used Ronny Henríquez and Anthony Veneziano to pitch into the third. The desire there was for the lefty Veneziano to face James Wood and Nathaniel Lowe the second time through the order. It didn’t really go as planned, as Veneziano retired only one of the three batters he faced in the third, but Junk immediately got a double-play ball after entering and just kept cruising from there. Junk ended up allowing two hits, walking none and striking out four while pitching through the eighth. He’s made five relief appearances for the Marlins, pitching at least four innings every time and doing great work in four of the games. We wouldn’t expect him to keep it up, but he’s been really useful thus far.

The Marlins seemed to be looking to stay away from Faucher today after he threw 20 pitches last night, but Bender gave up two runs after being handed a 4-1 lead in start the ninth. Faucher took over with James Wood up and got a popup to end the game for his seventh save. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if they have another save situation on Sunday, since all of their top relievers have pitched on back-to-back days already. Tyler Phillips might be an option. Faucher threw just four pitches today, but if the Marlins didn’t want him pitching today, they’re not going to make him throw again tomorrow.

He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out three in falling to 3-8 with a 5.71 ERA. Dave Martinez scoffed at the idea of lifting Williams from the rotation after his loss to the Rangers on Sunday, and this outing was better than that one, so nothing figures to change now. Williams has a home start against the Rockies in the four-game series coming up next week, but if anyone is looking for streaming options, all of the Nationals’ other starters in the series (Jake Irvin, Michael Soroka and Mitchell Parker) seem like better bets.

Most managers would desperately try to avoid using a young reliever a day after he threw 38 pitches, and that should have extremely been the case here, considering that Lord, a 25-year-old rookie, has little in the way of relief experience and had never before worked on back-to-back days as a professional. But Dave Martinez isn’t most managers, of course, and Lord was actually his first choice out of the pen in relief of Trevor Williams today. It wasn’t just one up-and-down, either, as Lord faced three batters in finishing the sixth and then three more in the seventh. There simply isn’t anyone in baseball more irresponsible in his bullpen usage than Martinez, and it’s gotten plenty of relievers hurt through the years. If Lord isn’t next, maybe it’ll be Jose A. Ferrer, who also pitched again today after throwing 34 pitches last night.

O’Neill will not do any baseball activities for a week. The outfielder will then likely restart his rehab assignment, and if things go well he could be back in the Baltimore lineup by the end of June. That will depend largely on how O’Neill reacts to the injection, however.