Carlito's Way

Monday's Fantasy Five

Carlos Carrasco pitched his first complete game of the season as he improved to 3-0 in Wednesday's victory against the Tigers. He allowed just one earned run, three hits and two walks with six strikeouts while throwing 76 of his 110 pitches for strikes to lead the Indians to their season-high fourth consecutive victory. The Indians have also won 10 in a row against the division rival Tigers, while improving to 30-10 over the past 40 meetings since the start of the 2016 season. The Indians provided a season-high 10 hits of support, which is impressive considering they entered the day with the league's worst team batting average at .158.

Jarlin Garcia of the Marlins was making his first major league start against the Mets, and it is likely to be the first of many after Wednesday's success. He twirled six no-hit innings against the Mets before being lifted after 77 pitches by manager Don Mattingly, who said the decision to take out the young pitcher was an easy decision since the complete game was unlikely. Drew Steckenrider came on in relief and allowed a hit in a scoreless seventh inning to ruin the combined no-hit bid for the Fish, who eventually ended up losing the game 4-1 after reliever Chris O'Grady imploded in the eighth.

Ozzie Albies is on quite a roll to start the season, as he finished 3-for-6 with a solo home run off of A.J. Cole in a road victory for Atlanta. Albies ended up tapping the plate twice, and he is now up to four homers during the early going. The second baseman is doing it out of the two-hole, posting his second straight multi-hit game and fifth outing with two or more hits in nine April contests. Three of his homers have come over the past six, too. Kurt Suzuki tried to catch up to Albies in one day, belting a pair of solo homers for honorable mention.

Alex Bregman certainly brought his hitting shoes to the Twin Cities, finishing Wednesday's game 4-for-6 with a double, a solo home run and two runs scored. The homer was his first of the season, and it was just his second multi-hit game of the young campaign. He also entered the game with just two extra-base hits over his first 12 outings and he equaled that in the 9-8 loss at Target Field. He is 5-of-9 over the past two outings, and he has three walks with five hits in the three games in Minneapolis. He'll be looking forward to Sept. 3-5 when the Twins' pitching staff pays a visit to Minute Maid Park.

In the same game as Bregman, Max Kepler was getting busy for the home team. He smacked a pair of homers, including a two-run shot off of Lance McCullers Jr. in the fourth inning, and a solo bomb at the expense of reliever Brad Peacock to finish with three RBI. The homer off of Peacock was a walk-off shot, the second of his career. It made everyone forget about the blown save of new closer Fernando Rodney, and actually they ended up handing him his first win as a Twin.

Fantasy Game of the Night

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox played one of those typical knock-down, drag 'em out AL East battles. It was a great day for most hitters in both dugouts, but it wasn't terribly awesome if you owned stock in either of the two starting pitchers. Brett Gardner ended up going 2-of-3 with two walks, three runs scored and his first stolen base of the season to inch his record up to .267. Aaron Judge didn't leave the yard, and he didn't even go for extra bases, but he ended up 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored and he is hitting a scorching .348 on the season. Fantasy owners have been nervous, and Yankee fans were starting to lose their patience, but Giancarlo Stanton made them forget about his frequent early strikeouts with his first triple of the season. He ended up 3-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBI. Gary Sanchez, one of the team's Big Three, ended up 3-for-5 with two bombs, four RBI and three runs scored. Tyler Austin made headlines for another reason, as he slid in spikes up and irritated Brock Holt. A heated discussion between the two caused the benches to clear. Later, Joe Kelly tagged Austin with a pitch in the back with a 98 mph heater and Austin charged the mound as both benches cleared. Both players were ejected in another chapter of the greatest rivalry in baseball.

On the Boston side of the ledger, the biggest news was David Price. He yielded four earned runs, three hits and two walks with just one strikeout before exiting after one inning with tingling and numbness in his fingers. That might explain why he was only able to locate the strike zone 16 times on his 35 pitches. J.D. Martinez, enjoying his first taste of the rivalry, finished 2-for-4 with a grand slam off of Masahiro Tanaka and he also struck out twice. Hey, you can't win 'em all. Hanley Ramirez also belted a solo home run for his second homer of the season, and he now has 12 RBI and a sparkling .357 average. Jackie Bradley Jr. chipped in with three hits over his four at-bats, and Mookie Betts posted his sixth double of the season while going 1-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI. That actually made his average slip to .405, that's how red-hot he has been during the early going. He is slashing a ridiculous .405/.500/.690 over the first couple of weeks. We told you the pitching was pretty bad in this one, and reliever Matt Barnes was the worst. He only allowed two runs in his inning of work, which isn't that awful, but he was charged with two wild pitches while throwing just eight of his 19 pitches for strikes. Ouch.

American League Quick Hits: Elvis Andrus was plunked on the elbow, suffering a fracture, so he will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. … Yonny Chirinos allowed just four hits with a walk over 5 1/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts in a no-decision on the south side of Chicago, throwing 49 of his 75 pitches for strikes. He is worth watching in future weeks. … Big Game James Shields settled in for just one earned run, four hits and five walks with six strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings in a no-decision against his former team. … Matt Davidson cracked his fifth homer of the season with two RBI, his first multi-RBI game since his three-homer performance on Opening Day in Kansas City. … Kyle Seager ended up 2-for-3 with a two-run home run and three RBI. Slowly but surely he is coming out of his early-season slump. … Jean Segura had a nightmare day, taking the collar with two strikeouts and he also committed a throwing error and a boot on a grounder. … James Paxton turned in his first quality start in three outings this season, giving up two runs in six innings with 10 strikeouts in another no-decision. He is 0-1 with a 5.74, but he looks to be on the right track after a tough start. … Leonys Martin set the table nicely for the Tigers, going 3-for-4 with a double and a solo home run. Unfortunately no one else on the Tigers showed up. The remainder of the lineup was a dismal 0-for-25 with six strikeouts against Carrasco. … Jaime Barria made his major league debut, allowing an earned run and a hit with three strikeouts over five innings to pick up a victory in Texas. He was optioned out to Triple-A Salt Lake for his trouble, as the team needed the roster spot to recall Nick Tropeano to make Thursday's start. They'll need to make another move as the bring Andrew Heaney up for Friday's outing. … Keynan Middleton secured his second save, as he appears to be the primary option for ninth-inning duties in Mike Scioscia's bullpen. … Khris Davis is starting to heat up, belting his second homer. He'll start piling up the power numbers soon, that's just what he does. … Marcus Semien ended up with four RBI in Wednesday's 16-6 interleague rout of the Dodgers.

National League Quick Hits: Arodys Vizcaino blew his first save, allowing a run and two hits in 19-pitch ninth inning as the Nationals forced extra innings. … Eric Thames launched his fifth homer of the season, finishing 2-for-4. We've seen this movie before, as Thames has been a quick starter in the past. … Eric Hosmer socked his first National League homer and he added a double with two runs scored in four trips to the dish at Coors Field. … Paul Goldschmidt entered this series in San Francisco with no homers, but he has two in the past two outings with three RBI in Wednesday's win. … Andrew Suarez made his big-league debut and he allowed four earned runs over 5 1/3 innings in a so-so outing, taking the loss. He served up the bomb to Goldie, but he did a good job with seven strikeouts. … John Ryan Murphy made another start behind the dish, going 2-for-3 with a double, a solo home run, two runs scored and two RBI. He is on fire and taking advantage of every start, hitting .286 with two homers and four RBI. … Ketel Marte ended up with two singles, a double and two RBI. … Nick Pivetta posted two earned runs with five hits and seven strikeouts across seven innings in a no-decision. … Zack Wheeler was summoned from the minors to pitch in Miami, allowing an earned run, two hits with seven strikeouts over seven innings in a win against the Marlins. … Javier Baez cracked two bombs against the Bucs, while Kris Bryant ended up with a pair of doubles to give him five on the season. … The Red Sox and Yankees weren't the only ones in a testy mood. Luis Perdomo was charged by Nolan Arenado and the pitcher threw his glove at the rushing hot corner man, touching off a benches-clearing brawl, as the temperature was rising in Denver, too. The good news is Arenado had been dealing with a sore knee, but that looked good chasing Perdomo all over the infield. … Alex Wood didn't lose his second decision until early September in a storybook 2017, but he is already 0-2 with a 5.09 ERA in three outings this season.