AROUND THE HORN
Astros: The Astros acquired utilityman Mauricio Dubón in a trade with the Giants on Saturday. The 27-year-old Dubón is batting .239 with two homers and eight RBIs in 21 games this season. He has big league experience at second base, third base, shortstop and center field. “He really came together as a man, as a teammate, and as a baseball player,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “This is a great opportunity for him.” The Giants received minor league catcher Michael Papierski in the deal. Papierski was assigned to Triple-A Sacramento. “It’s always nice to have a switch hitter and a guy that’s more difficult to matchup against,” Kapler said about Papierski. “As aggressive as we are in using our bench, it’s always nice to have, potentially at some point, a guy that you may be able to kind of let ride particularly at the catcher position.” The Giants also recalled infielder Donovan Walton from Sacramento before the Giants’ game at St. Louis. Dubón made his big league debut in 2019 with the Brewers. He is a .258 hitter with 15 homers and 58 RBIs in 179 games in the majors. The Astros had won 11 straight games heading into Saturday’s matchup with the Nationals.
Cardinals: Dakota Hudson and a quartet of relievers combined to help the Cardinals stop the Giants’ six-game winning streak, blanking the Giants 4-0 on Saturday. The Cardinals pitched their sixth shutout of the season. The Angels began the day with a major league-leading seven shutouts. Yadier Molina doubled, singled and scored a run. He opened the second with a double off the top of the right-center field wall for his 2,128th career hit, moving him past Mike
Piazza for sixth most among catchers. The Cardinals led 1-0 in the fifth when the Giants put runners at first and third with two outs. Molina threw out Joc Pederson trying to steal second to end the inning. Tommy Edman homered as the Cardinals won for the second time in seven games. St. Louis has homered in 10 straight games. Hudson (3-2) worked around five hits and two walks in five innings. Génesis Cabrera, Andre Pallante, Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos teamed up to pitch the final four innings. Helsley took over for Pallante with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh. He got Brandon Belt to ground into a double play to protect a 2-0 lead. Helsley, who made his first appearance since May 6, has thrown 15 consecutive scoreless innings dating to last Aug. 7. Jakob Junis (1-1) allowed two runs on six hits and struck out three in 5 innings in his second start of the season. San Francisco has lost nine of its last 12 games in St. Louis. Edman’s fourth home run of the season in the fifth gave the Cardinals home runs in a season-best 10 straight games. Brendan Donovan doubled home Molina for an early lead. Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado hit RBI doubles off former Cardinals pitcher John Brebbia in the seventh.
Braves: Ronald Acuña Jr.’s surgically repaired knee hasn’t been a problem. But lingering right groin discomfort led the Braves outfielder to undergo an MRI exam on Saturday, the results of which are not yet known. The 24-year-old star outfielder tweaked his groin while playing against the Red Sox on Tuesday night. “They just want to make sure nothing is going on,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.