Stock Up, Stock Down: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, more

The last seven days have offered a little bit of everything. Several teams continue to play very well in June, some big make players continue to slump and a new surprise team has taken over the lead in the National League Central.

In the latest edition of Stock Up, Stock Down, let’s take a look back at some of the good and some of the bad over the last seven days.

Stock Down: Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees

You can file this under, it’s just never going to work out for Giancarlo Stanton and the New York Yankees. I know, I’m not breaking any news. However, the fact that the Bronx Bombers still owe him $118 million is mind-boggling. What they’re getting from him is not good.

Stanton has three hits in his last 37 at-bats, one home run, 14 strikeouts, three walks, and a hit-by-pitch. He isn’t even getting the trust of manager Aaron Boone to be able to play in the field.

What’s making his struggles stick out, even more, is the Yankees’ offense which has basically been nonexistent in the absence of Aaron Judge. It’s one thing to be shutdown by good pitchers, but New York was just swept by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and did so by scoring just eight runs in three games, including five in the series opener … and they still lost by 10 runs.

Stanton getting hot is not going to solve the Yankees’ offensive woes, but it can go a long way into helping them fight off the Toronto Blue Jays and Red Sox and avoid falling into the AL East basement. This is a contract that GM Brian Cashman is stuck with and a player that is on the decline.

Stock Up: Boston Red Sox

When the Yankees came to Fenway Park for a three-game series last weekend, the Red Sox were buried in last place in the division and 5.5 games back in the AL Wild Card race. What a difference one weekend against their rivals makes, as well as a trip to Minnesota to play the struggling Twins.

In just five days, Boston picked up four games in the Wild Card standings after they swept the Yankees and took the first two games of their four-game set against the Twins. What has been impressive during their run in the last week is that they are getting it done both offensively and defensively, something that wasn’t happening earlier in the season.

Offensively, they put 15 runs on New York in the first game of the series, then rallied to sweep a doubleheader on Sunday, combing for 10 runs in both games. Boston is 5-1 against New York since Nestor Cortes comments two weeks ago. Against Minnesota, Triston Casas had a three-run home run and Alex Verdugo drove in four of the nine runs they put up in the opening game. One night later, Masataka Yoshida launched a 447-foot home run. Christian Arroyo chipped in with a 5-for-5 performance with four RBI.

Boston had their winning streak snapped Wednesday night with a 5-4 loss to the Twins and are two games back in the Wild Card. However, making up 3.5 games in six days is an impressive feat.

The Red Sox are getting this done on the arms of Kutter Crawford, James Paxton, Brayan Bello, and some spot starters after Tanner Houck was hit in the face by a line drive against the Yankees Friday night and will require surgery. With Corey Kluber’s struggles and Chris Sale out injured, nobody saw this streak coming from Boston on the mound, never mind at the plate.

Stock Up: Chicago Cubs

Yes, the Reds and San Francisco Giants have been good recently, as have the Philadelphia Phillies and Red Sox. One team quietly playing well has been the Cubs.

They have won eight of their last 10, Marcus Stroman has turned into an ace and, in his latest outing, he went seven innings, scattered five hits, walked one, and struck out five in a 4-0 shutout of the Pirates. That followed up Drew Smyly’s five-inning scoreless outing the night before in an 8-0 Chicago win.

Offensively, the Cubs are coming up with big hits at big moments. For instance, in their win Monday night, five of the eight runs were driven in with two outs in an inning then, one night later, Mike Tauchman and Tucker Barnhart each had home runs. Their 10-game run has come at the hands of the Pirates and Baltimore Orioles (who they won two out of three from last weekend). They now head to London Stadium for two games against the St. Louis Cardinals.

There have been plenty of surprises in June and recently, the Red Sox and Cubs are making noise. Chicago is in a better position to make bigger news in a wide-open NL Central, but Boston is going to make things interesting in the AL East. Pittsburgh and Stanton need to figure things out before things can spiral even more out of control than they currently have.