MLB Weekly Recap (June 29-July 5): All Star Game Roster Announced + The Best Teams Keep Getting Better

Welcome back to another weekly MLB recap! 

This week we’re covering everything from June 29 through July 5, where the biggest theme was simple: the teams playing well just keep getting better, while the struggling teams continue to slide.

In this episode we talk about:

• The biggest sweeps of the week
• My sneaky team to watch
• Which teams are heating up (and cooling down)
• The latest home run leaderboard
• A breakdown of the 2026 All-Star Game rosters
• This week’s soft take on why consistency matters more than perfection
• The series I’m most excited to watch this week

Whether you’re brand new to baseball or you’ve been following all season, I’m so happy you’re here!

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Transcript

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Hey babe, welcome to Baseball for Girls, where baseball meets soft girl energy. I'm Shaunessy, and here we do baseball with heart, humanity, and a little humor. So, whether you're brand new to the game or deep in your baseball era, you're in the right place. So grab something cozy. Settle in. And let's get into today's episode. Let's play ball. Today I have another recap for you guys for the week of June 29th through July 5th. Honestly, I feel the vibe for this week is that the good teams are just getting better, and the ones that are struggling are struggling really hard. There's definitely been some very extremes going on right now, as far as teams that are doing super well and have been starting to heat up, as well as the teams that have been cooling down and haven't been able to get warm for quite some time. But this past weekend was super exciting just because it was the 4th of July weekend, 250 years of America, but also 29 years of me. This weekend was my birthday on July 4th. I went to a baseball game, as of course I would, and I had a really great time with my friends. Nothing better than spending America's birthday doing America's favorite pastime. But let's go ahead and jump right into the episode, starting with the sweeps. So there really weren't that many sweeps um over this past weekend. All the sweeps happened during the past week, so the weekday series. So the Tigers swept the Yankees, the Cubs swept the Padres, the Mariners swept the Angels. Good for them. We're Mariners fans here. And the Rays swept the Kansas City Royals this past weekend. The Red Sox swept the Angels. I had to double check that like three times to make sure that that was accurate. But yes, the Red Sox got another sweep. And the Marlins swept the Athletics. And for my sneaky team of the week this week, I'm choosing the Detroit Tigers. So the Tigers are a little bit below 500 at 444. They have 40 wins and 50 losses overall this season. They're currently seven and a half games behind in the AL Central, and so the leader for the AL Central right now are the Chicago White Sox. So they are seven and a half games behind them. Currently, the Tigers have won six and lost four of their past ten games, and they're currently on a two-game winning streak. Like I mentioned a little bit earlier, during the weekday series, the Tigers swept the Yankees, and over this past weekend, the Tigers did win their series against the Texas Rangers. The Tigers have been struggling over these past couple of weeks. They've been losing a lot of series. So for them to go in and get the sweep against the Yankees, I mean the Yankees have been struggling, but that's really good for the Tigers. And they were able to win that series this past weekend against the Rangers. So that's why I chose them as my sneaky team to watch. It seems like they may start heating up. And I think that's a good segue to our temperature check where we see which teams are heating up and which ones are cooling down. So this week I'll start with the teams that are heating up. I have the Mariners. So the Mariners are above 500 at 516. They've won 47 and lost 44 games overall. They are the leader of their division, which is the American League West. They've won six and lost four of their past 10 games, and they're currently on a two-game winning streak. They won their series against the Toronto Blue Jays this past weekend, winning two out of three. And they swept the Angels this past week in a three-game series. So it seems as though the Mariners may be starting to get something to click for them, and hopefully that'll carry over into this next week as well. The other team that I think is starting to heat up are the Twins. They're kind of also a bit of a sneaky team, but right now they are just below 500 at 484. They've won 44 games and lost 47 overall, and they've won six and lost four of their past 10 games. They're currently on a two-game winning streak. They won three series in a row so far. After being swept by the Dodgers last week, they've really started to kind of have a little bit of a comeback. They're also four games behind in the AL Central where the White Sox are dominating. So we'll see if the Twins will continue to warm up over these next couple of weeks. And for the teams that are cooling down, the Angels, like I just mentioned, they were swept by the Mariners during the weekday series, and then they were swept this past weekend by the Red Sox. So the Angels are below 500 at 396. They've won 36 and lost 55 games overall. They are currently 11 games behind in the AL West, so they're 11 games behind the Mariners. They've won three and lost seven of their past 10 games, and they're currently on a six-game losing streak. The other team that is starting to cool down are the San Diego Padres. So the Padres have just fallen below 500 at 494. They've won 44 games and lost 45. They're currently 14 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West. But again, I mean it's the Dodgers who are still the reigning kings of baseball for right now. But the Padres have won four and lost six of their past 10 games. They just broke their eight-game losing streak yesterday. So I'm sure they're really happy about that. But they were going through a difficult losing skid there for a while. And now for the home run leaderboard, where I just go through the top three home run leaders. Of course, we still have Kyle Schwarber, who is the designated hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies. He still has 30 home runs as of today. And then Jordan Alvarez. He is also a designated hitter before the Houston Astros. He now has 29 home runs. And the third most home runs goes to Hunter Goodman. He's actually a catcher for the Colorado Rockies. He has 27 home runs right now. So we'll continue to keep track of the top three home run leaders throughout this season just because I think it's a fun stat to keep up with. But now I also wanted to go through the All-Star Game roster. So if you don't know what the All-Star Break is, I have an entire episode about it, and I definitely recommend listening to that to get an idea of the All-Star Game this year. Also, even if you do know what the All-Star Game is, it'll be a good episode to listen to because I go through the entire schedule for the All-Star Week, including some of the newer things that are happening this year that they've never done before. And I give a breakdown of each of the events and what we should expect from them. So, starting with the American League starters, we have Shay Langaliers as the starting catcher. He plays for the Athletics. At first base, we have Nick Kurtz, he also plays for the Athletics. Second base, we have Ernie Clement from the Toronto Blue Jays. If you remember, Ernie Clement is the one who won the most amount of votes in the American League. I believe it was around 3.2 million. At third base, we have Junior Camanero. He plays for the Tampa Bay Rays. He also was the player of the week, not this week that I'm covered for this recap, but the week before. He also hit 11 home runs in 11 days. He was having a really good couple of weeks. So it's not surprising that he made the all-star roster. At shortstop, we have Bobby Witt Jr., he plays for the Kansas City Royals. In the outfield, we have Mike Trout from the Los Angeles Angels, Byron Buxton from the Minnesota Twins, and Aaron Judge from the New York Yankees. Now, I haven't really been keeping up with Aaron Judge's injury. I guess they are expecting him to be back in time for the All-Star game. And our designated hitter for the American League is Jordan Alvarez from the Houston Astros, who's also our number two in home run leaders. Of note, apparently Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who plays for the Toronto Blue Jays, was selected as the American League starting first baseman, but he is not able to play in the game. I'm not sure why, but he's not planning on playing. Some notable players that are in the reserves, so just in case something happens to one of the players that are in the starting lineup. We have catcher Adley Rushman from the Baltimore Orioles. Obviously, just calling him out because I'm an Orioles fan as well. Ben Rice from the New York Yankees is a reserve infielder. Randy Arosa Reyna from the Seattle Mariners is a reserve outfielder. Riley Green from the Detroit Tigers is also a reserve outfielder. I love him. And Cody Bellinger is also a reserved outfielder from the New York Yankees. The starting pitchers for the American League are Dylan Cease from the Toronto Blue Jays, Parker Mesick from the Cleveland Guardians, Drew Rasmussen from the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Ryan from the Minnesota Twins, Cam Schlittler from the New York Yankees, Ranger Suarez from the Boston Red Sox, and Michael Waka from the Kansas City Royals. All of those pitchers are like literally the best pitcher on their team. So they got all the aces. And as far as relief pitchers, we have Brian Baker from the Tampa Bay Rays, Roldis Chapman from Boston Red Sox, Jacob Latts from the Texas Rangers, Kate Smith from the Cleveland Guardians, and Lewis Varland from the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay, so now for the National League starters. We have catcher Drake Baldwin from the Atlanta Braves. First baseman, Freddie Freeman from the LA Dodgers. We love Freddie Freeman. Oh my goodness. I could make an entire episode just about Freddie Freeman. I definitely recommend watching his documentary. Um at second base, we have Ozzy Albies from the Atlanta Braves. Third base, we have Max Muncie from the LA Dodgers. At shortstop, we have CJ Abrams from the Washington Nationals. Love that for him. CJ Abrams is such a young player. But he is the reason why the Nationals are ever in a conversation, period. Him and James Wood, obviously. But in the outfield, we have Brandon Marsh from the Philadelphia Phillies, Juan Soto from the New York Mets, and Andy Pahez from the LA Dodgers. And the designated hitter is Shohei Otani from the LA Dodgers. Some notable players from the Reserves for the National League include Luis Arrayes from the San Francisco Giants. Love him. William Contreras from the Milwaukee Brewers. He's like such a hothead. I meant to bring that up, but the Brewers got into a little bit of a brawl against the Nationals last week because the pitcher for the Nationals made a comment at William Contreras, something like, go sit down, boy, or something like that. Completely disrespectful. Um, and William Contreras, he's already a bit of a a hothead. I feel like anytime there's a brawl on a team that he's on, it's it's usually him. Um so he should not be provoked. Um, but the pitcher, I feel like the pitcher provoked him, and so he ended up, well, Contreras ended up, you know, trying to attack that pitcher. I can't remember the pitcher's name right now, but anyway, Contreras gets kicked out of the game, but the pitcher gets to stay in. I was so confused. But yeah, so that's some hot takes for Contreras. Um, but some notable infielders are Bryce Harper from the Philadelphia Phillies and Matt Olson from the Atlanta Braves. I love Matt Olson. Pico Armstrong is a reserve outfielder from the Chicago Cubs. Oh, and James Wood is on reserve from the National Washingtons to be in the outfield. And Kyle Schwarber is the reserve designated hitter, and we know he's from the Philadelphia Phillies. So for the starting pitchers for the National League, we have Chase Burns from the Cincinnati Reds, Max Meyer from the Miami Marlins, Jacob Mizerowski from the Milwaukee Brewers, Eduardo Rodriguez from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chris Sale from the Atlanta Braves, Christopher Sanchez from the Philadelphia Phillies, Paul Skeens, of course, from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Skeens Day anyone, Logan Webb from the San Francisco Giants, and Noshinobu Yamamoto from the LA Dodgers. The relief pitchers for the National League are Johan Duran from the Philadelphia Phillies, Rizel Iglesias from the Atlanta Braves, and of course Mason Miller from the San Diego Padres. So what's interesting about the All-Star game is that usually it is a bullpen game. So a bullpen game is where every inning a different pitcher will come up and pitch. So each pitcher pretty much just gets three outs that they have to get, and then the next inning, a different pitcher will come and get three outs, and it just keeps going like that. So that's why there's so many starting pitchers for each team. But I do think that's a really interesting aspect of the all-star game. But I am so excited for the all-star break. I cannot wait for the American League to beat the National League as they should. I'm so excited for that. So the All-Star Week is gonna be such a good and fun time to tune in to baseball. And for my soft take of the week, I think that the biggest theme is that consistency is better than perfection. These guys are showing up every single day, and like I said, some of the teams that are doing really well, like the Rays and the Dodgers, they have been continuing to do well, but it's because of their of their consistency and their willingness to keep going every single day. Teams like the Mariners and the Tigers, who kind of have these comeback moments, it's because they are not letting their losses or their slumps hold them back from showing up and doing what they're meant to do every day because consistency is going to yield results. And finally, for the games that I'm excited to watch for this week, so July 6th through the 12th. I'm definitely interested in seeing the Yankees versus Rays game that's happening in during the weekday series, mostly because I think that the Rays are just gonna beat up on the Yankees really bad, and I think it'll be a fun game to watch if you're not a Yankees fan. The Rays have been at the top of their division for quite some time now, and the Yankees have not been able to reclaim that seat since Aaron Judge has had his injury. And then for this weekend, I'm really excited for the Astros versus Rangers game. I think it's called the Lone Star series because it's like the two Texas teams and they're like rivals. So we love a good rival team series. Both of those teams are in the AL West, so it is an interdivision series. They have very similar records actually. So the Rangers are 45 to 45, so they're right at 500. They're only a game and a half behind the Seattle Mariners. They've won seven and lost three of their past 10 games, and they're currently on a two-game losing streak, like I mentioned earlier. The Tigers won this past weekend series versus the Rangers. The Houston Astros are just below 500 at 489. They've won 45 games as well, but they've lost 47. They are two and a half games behind the Seattle Mariners. They've won six and lost four of their past 10 games, and they're currently on a two-game winning streak. They actually won their series versus the Tampa Bay Rays this past weekend, but they did lose their series versus the Twins earlier last week. So those are the two games I'm really looking forward to this week. And I think that's all that I have for you guys today. I was going to go through the division leaders, but I think I'll wait for next week just because this episode is getting a little bit long. I kind of hint at the leaders for each division anyway, so you can probably have a bit of an idea, at least for the divisions that we talk about the most. But next week I will definitely go through the division leaders just so we can get an idea of what's going on across the league, who's really dominating, and kind of get an idea for how the second half of the season is gonna go. The trade deadline is actually approaching, so don't be surprised if one of your favorite players ends up going to another team. But on that note, I think I'll wrap this up here. Thank you so much for joining me here in the softest corner of sports media. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, please don't forget to share it with someone you think might like it. And don't forget to rate and review. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I'll talk to you later. Bye.