Last July, a few weeks before the MLB trade deadline, the Tampa Bay Rays shipped the 37th overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Bryan Baker.

With the benefit of hindsight, it looks like the Rays pulled off a coup.

The Rays will finish a typically successful homestand of nine games Sunday afternoon when they host the American League Central-leading Chicago White Sox in St. Petersburg, Fla. Tampa Bay enters the finale with a 6-2 record on the homestand, with Baker responsible for saving five of the six victories.

Baker (1-0, 1.45 ERA) has transformed an average and unspectacular six-year career into an All-Star campaign in 2026, slamming the door on the opposition as the AL East frontrunner’s closer.

He arrived in Florida with three saves and eight blown saves in the first 174 games (two starts) of his career. But this season, the 31-year-old from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., has blossomed into one of baseball’s top relievers. He leads the majors with 31 saves including 20 consecutive, the third-longest streak in club history.

“It all comes back to going with the game plan these guys have for us — they do such a great job,” Baker said of the Rays’ coaching staff.

In the series’ middle game on Saturday, the Rays found success on the mound as Drew Rasmussen struck out 10 over six scoreless innings before turning the game over to the bullpen. Relievers finished the game by allowing one hit and striking out six more batters.

Baker got the save with a very quick, six-pitch ninth inning in a game that zipped along in two hours, 14 minutes.

The pitching performance was better than in the series opener, won 6-1 by the White Sox on the strength of four home runs.

On Saturday, the Rays improved to 41-17 at home and 29-3 in the dome when scoring first.

Despite scoring just two runs through two games in the series, Tampa Bay moved to 20 games above .500.

The White Sox saw their three-game winning streak end, keeping the race in the Central tight with Cleveland and Minnesota. Their lead remained at three games after the Guardians and Twins, tied for second in the division, both lost.

Manager Will Venable’s squad was blanked 1-0 for just the second time on the season — the Toronto Blue Jays did it two weeks ago — and only produced five singles and one at-bat with runners in scoring position.

Losing pitcher Noah Schultz, who tossed five innings behind opener Jordan Hicks, said no blame should have been handed to Chicago’s offense, which is third in homers and second in runs scored in the American League.

“The offense has been so good all year. Games like this happen. It’s baseball. You play 162 for a reason,” the 6-foot-10 left-hander said.

Chicago will send out another left-hander in Sunday’s rubber game when Anthony Kay (7-5, 4.25) makes his 21st start and 23rd appearance.

Kay went 1-2 with a 3.80 ERA in five July starts with wildness (10 walks and five hit batters in 23 2/3 innings) being his primary problem, especially considering he allowed just 17 hits.

Kay has no record and a 3.86 ERA in eight outings, two as a starter, against Tampa Bay.

Griffin Jax (6-8, 3.74) will make his 34th career appearance – his most against any club – when he faces the White Sox on Sunday, though it will be just his fourth start against them.

The right-hander is 3-2 with a 2.81 ERA against the White Sox.

Jax has rotated wins and losses in six consecutive outings. He dropped a hard-luck 4-1 decision to Texas on Tuesday, allowing one earned run, while fanning 10 over 5 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

After a miserable first few months of the 2026 season, Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter finally showed just what he can do in July.

Carter posted a sub-.200 batting average in each of the first three months of the schedule, but delivered in July with a .315 average and a .912 OPS in 22 games. As the Rangers battle the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners for first place in American League West, manager Skip Schumaker and the Rangers will want to see two more months like July from Carter.

The Rangers will look to avoid a sweep on Sunday against the Astros as the teams conclude a three-game series in Houston. The home team won the first two games, 11-2 and 5-4. The Astros are on a 10-1 streak and lead the AL West by 1 1/2 games over the Rangers and three over the Mariners.

Carter didn’t have a hit on Saturday but he walked twice and scored, and Schumaker acknowleged the 23-year-old still has plenty of room to grow. Although he has appeared in 131 games from 2023-25, this is Carter’s first season assigned full-time to the MLB roster.

“The thing is about certain young guys is you have to allow them to develop and to play,” Schumaker said. “You can’t just not play them anymore because they have a bad week (or) a bad month if they’re young. It’s different if they’re 32 years old and they’ve had a chance before.

“He hasn’t played this many games in the major leagues this consistently maybe his whole career. That means he’s still learning. He’s still learning on the bases. The instinctual stuff he’s still growing with, and as far as the at-bats, you can see them continuing to get better and better each month. It’s not surprising to me.”

Right-hander Kumar Rocker (4-8, 4.03 ERA) has the starting assignment on Sunday for the Rangers. He earned a 7-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners last Monday after allowing two runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings. Rocker has won his past two starts, posting a 1.42 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings.

Rocker is 0-2 with a 9.28 ERA in two career starts against the Astros, both of which occured this season. He took a 9-3 home loss to Houston on July 11 after allowing seven runs on eight hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

Right-hander Peter Lambert (8-5, 3.06 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Astros. He went 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA in five starts last month with 32 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings. Lambert allowed two runs or fewer in each outing and has allowed more than two runs only once in his last 11 starts.

The Rangers are 8-3 in those games.

Lambert is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against the Rangers. Both of those decisions came this season; he is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in two starts against Texas in 2026.

The Astros moved right-hander Tatsuya Imai to the bullpen instead of giving him his scheduled turn in the rotation on Sunday. Imai (6-4, 5.83 ERA) has labored throughout his first MLB season after nine seasons of pitching in Japan.

In his most recent start, against the Los Angeles Angels last Monday, Imai failed to complete one inning for the third time this season. The Astros won 6-4, however.

“We’re going to work on a couple of things that we noticed in his last start,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Just trying to get him going that way. Hopefully we can give him a few innings (out of the bullpen), but if not, we’ve got a pretty good plan here moving forward to get him back (on track).”

–Field Level Media

The New York Yankees will go for a series victory and a winning road trip when they face the Chicago Cubs in the rubber match of their three-game series on Sunday.

To do that, they will call on veteran right-hander Gerrit Cole (4-5, 3.57 ERA) to continue his domination of the Cubs. Cole, 35, is 11-4 with a 2.47 ERA in 17 starts against the North Siders. The 2023 American League Cy Young winner has beaten Chicago more than any other team in his 13-year career.

Cole’s last start against the Cubs was a loss that took place on Sept. 8, 2024. He allowed two first-inning runs, both unearned, over six innings, striking out seven against three hits and a walk. However, the Cubs made those runs stand in a 2-1 victory.

Manager Aaron Boone’s squad has had to rely on its pitching of late to stay atop of the AL wild-card standings and within striking distance of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. In the first nine games on the road trip, Yankees starters have allowed just 12 runs over 50 1/3 innings, and nine of those runs came in two starts.

However, New York has won only five of those games in large part because of the team’s offensive woes. Yankee batters on the trip are hitting just .199 (62-for-312) and have scored only 30 runs. Their .233 season average is the fourth-lowest in the majors this season.

“We don’t have a lot of margin for error when you’re not putting a lot of points on the board,” Boone said after Saturday’s loss. He noted that getting 10 on base Saturday was a good sign, “but obviously, we need to keep doing a little bit more.”

The inert offense cost the Yankees Saturday as the Cubs rallied with four runs in its last two innings Saturday to pull out a 5-2 victory and even the series at a game each.

Nico Hoerner homered to start the seventh and tied the game at two, but after the game, both he and Cubs manager Craig Counsell raved about Pedro Ramirez’s two-out, pinch-hit walk later in the frame. That seven-pitch at-bat kept the inning alive and allowed Pete Crow-Armstrong to score the rookie on his go-ahead triple.

Counsell said Ramirez, a second baseman who has also seen time at third base and designated hitter this summer, was a player who “opened the most eyes in spring training.”

Since being called up in late May, the switch-hitter is batting .319 in 38 games.

“He’s kind of got his feet on the ground now, and he’s doing a heck of a job” Counsell said.

Chicago is looking to win its sixth series out of the last seven. Righty Colin Rea (8-7, 4.67) will start for the Cubs. In three career starts against the Yankees, Rea, 36, has a 1-0 record with a 4.32 ERA, but that win came more than a decade ago when he was a rookie with the San Diego Padres.

The last time he faced New York came on April 26, 2024 as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. He went six innings, allowing five runs on four hits and three walks. Three of those hits were homers in a game the Brewers won 7-6 in 11 innings.

-Field Level Media