A 12-game losing streak bookending the All-Star Break threatened to undo all the progress the Miami Marlins made getting back into the wild-card race throughout June and the first week of July.

Fortunately, the Marlins still had more time to reverse the course of their season.

Miami will look to continue their timely surge Sunday afternoon when they visit the New York Mets in the finale of a four-game series between the National League East foes.

Sandy Alcantara (11-6, 3.82 ERA) is slated to start for the Marlins against fellow right-hander Robert Stock, who will make his season debut after being promoted from Triple-A Syracuse.

The Marlins remained hot Saturday as Tyler Phillips earned the win by tossing five efficient innings in a 6-2 victory.

The win was the fifth in the last six games for the Marlins dating back to Monday night, when they snapped the 12-game skid with an 8-7 walk-off win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The hot week makes it more likely the Marlins will either stand pat or add at the trade deadline, which arrives Monday at 6 p.m. ET. Miami resides 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the race for the last NL wild-card spot.

“I think everyone wanted to be that person that had the big hit or made the big pitch,” Phillips said of the Marlins, whose losing streak was preceded by a 26-8 stretch from June 1 through July 9. “It just wasn’t working out for us in that moment. Finally got that one out of the way against a good team in Philly and from there you just continue to build and continue to trust the process.”

While the Marlins recovered from their 12-game losing streak, the sight of Stock on the mound Sunday will be a reminder that the Mets’ season was derailed by their 12-game skid from April 8-21.

At 47-65, the Mets are on pace for 94 losses — their most since 2003, which was also the last time they finished last in the NL East.

Stock will start in the rotation spot that could have been occupied by Clay Holmes, who is ready to return from a broken right leg suffered May 15. But with Holmes a candidate to be traded, the Mets asked him to make one more rehab start instead for Double-A Brooklyn.

“I get both sides,” Holmes said. “I know there are other factors.”

Alcantara earned the win Tuesday after tossing seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over the Phillies. He has allowed one run or fewer in four of his last seven starts.

Alcantara is 6-5 with a 2.96 ERA in 18 starts against the Mets.

Stock made his most recent start for Syracuse on July 25, when he gave up one run with six strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings. The 36-year-old made two relief appearances for the Boston Red Sox last season — his first big league action since 2021, when he was 0-2 with an 8.00 ERA in three starts between the Mets and Chicago Cubs.

Stock threw two scoreless innings of relief in his lone appearance against the Marlins on Sept. 16, 2020, when he was pitching for the Red Sox.

–Field Level Media

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