A look at what’s happening around the majors Sunday:
CHICAGO’S ACE
Jon Lester has put together some ace-worthy seasons during his 13-year major league career Customized San Francisco 49ers Jerseys , including four All-Star appearances and a runner-up finish in the Cy Young voting two years ago. The Chicago Cubs left-hander is in the middle of what might prove to be his finest season so far, and he’ll look to become the National League’s first 12-game winner when he takes the mound against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. Lester is 11-2 with a 2.25 ERA this season, and he’s won his last seven starts – including going 5-0 with a 1.13 ERA during June.
GRADE-A OAKLAND
The Oakland A’s downed Cleveland 6-3 in 11 innings on Saturday, winning for the ninth time in their last 11 games and for the 15th time in their last 19. Oakland sits at a season-high nine games over .500 and will try and stay unbeaten for a seventh straight series when it closes out its series with the Indians. Brett Anderson (0-2, 7.63) starts for the A’s, and Shane Bieber (4-0, 2.97) goes for Cleveland.
GOING GREINKE
Arizona starter Zack Greinke has turned around his season since posting a 5.04 ERA in April and is 9-5 with a 3.35 ERA overall, including 112 strikeouts in 109 2/3 innings. The Diamondbacks right-hander will take the mound against the San Diego Padres, and he comes in having allowed only two runs in his last three starts combined – a span of 19 2/3 innings.
RICK’S REBOUND
Rick Porcello struggled mightily to follow up his 2016 Cy Young award-winning season a year ago, finishing a disappointing 11-17 with a 4.65 ERA. The Boston right-hander has returned to form this year with a 10-3 record and 3.57 ERA, and he’ll be on the mound when the Red Sox close out their season series with the Kansas City Royals.
OZUNA’S OUTAGE
Since winner the NL’s Player of the Week award last month, St. Louis outfielder Marcell Ozuna has been in a prolonged funk – going 15-for-71 (.211) and failing to hit a home run during that stretch. The Cardinals left fielder was the prized offseason acquisition in a trade from Miami, coming off a season in which he hit .312 with 37 home runs and 124 RBIs. This year, Ozuna is hitting .275 with 10 homers and 46 RBIs in 83 games.
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tropicana Field has not been kind to J.A. Happ.
Five years ago, Happ took a line drive directly to his head, hitting him behind his left ear and fracturing his skull. He fell to the ground hard enough that he strained ligaments in his knee, and it would be three months before he returned to the mound.
Happ will start for Toronto in Thursday’s series finale Customized Seattle Seahawks Jerseys , and while he’s been back to the Trop nine times since his injury there, he’s won only once, in that same 2013 season, in just his third game back from injury.
Happ is off to a solid 8-3 start with a 3.71 ERA, and he’s 4-0 in his last five starts, taking a full run off his season ERA along the way. One of his three losses this season came against the Rays, giving up three runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings in a May 4 loss where he walked more batters (four) than he struck out (three). On Friday against Baltimore, he was especially sharp, throwing seven innings and allowing only two hits and a single unearned run.
And while he’s struggled at Tropicana Field, his overall career numbers against the Rays are better, with a 3-4 record and 5.05 ERA — he has just one win in 10 appearances against Tampa Bay over the last four seasons.
Tampa Bay, trying to push through a rash of injuries to its starting pitching, continues to experiment regularly with “openers,” using relievers as part of bullpen days to start about half their games in recent weeks. Nowhere is the Rays’ desperation more glaring than with Thursday’s starter, Wilmer Font, who is already playing for his third team this season.
Font pitched six games with the Dodgers, then four with the Athletics, and he’s now made five appearances with the Rays. He’s 0-3 on the season with a 9.59 ERA Customized Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys , but in his five games with Tampa Bay, he’s fared much better, with a 3.24 ERA and 0-1 record. In those five games, he’s thrown 8 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits. In his last outing, also a makeshift start, he lasted into the third inning Friday against Seattle, but gave up two runs on two hits, getting five of his seven outs via strikeout.
Font has actually faced Toronto already this season while with Oakland — staked with the ninth inning and a 9-0 lead, he gave up a two-run home run to Yangervis Solarte.
The two American League East rivals went into Wednesday’s game within a half-game of each other in the standings, still well ahead of last-place Baltimore.
Toronto gets Thursday off before beginning an interleague stretch at home, with three games against the Nationals, then two against the Braves. The Rays, meanwhile, go on the road for the next week, with four games at the Yankees and three at the Astros, then returning home with seven of their next nine again against the Yankees and Astros.