Chris Sale turned in another dominant outing Thursday

As has been the case most of the season, the starting pitchers were the headline of the evening on Thursday. The solid arms were led by the continued resurgence of two American League aces. There was also a debut yesterday where a pitcher threw a shutout into the eighth inning. This is the daily update for May 29, 2015.

Recap

Chris Sale pitches his best game of the season
Sale has been outstanding in his past four starts, but his outing against the Orioles on Thursday afternoon was his best of the season. He fired 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing only four hits while striking out 12 batters without a walk. Sale now has four consecutive quality starts and has pitched into the eighth inning in each of those appearances. He also has 40 strikeouts to four walks in those starts. Sale’s ERA on May 6 had ballooned to 5.93, and fantasy owners feared for their top-five pitcher. Since then, he has lowered his season ERA to 3.66 and maintained his command. Sale has only walked more than two batters in a start once in nine appearances this season, good for a 1.08 WHIP. Owners that bought low on Sale have to be pleased with his past three weeks, and he will only get better than this as the season progresses. He had a 67.2% strand rate and .296 batting average on balls in play coming into Thursday’s start.

Eduardo Rodriguez throws a gem in debut
Rodriguez allowed only three hits in 7 2/3 innings while only issuing two walks and striking out seven batters to beat the Rangers on Thursday night. Rodriguez had a 2.98 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 48 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2015 and was acquired from the Orioles in the trade that sent Andrew Miller to Baltimore last summer. Rodriguez has value this season, potentially taking over for the ineffective Joe Kelly in the rotation. The Red Sox have a 4.55 team ERA so far in 2015, and no starting pitcher has an ERA better than Clay Buchholz’s 4.33. Nick Martinez pitched for the Rangers and lost his first game of the season, allowing two runs on five hits in seven innings, allowing two walks and striking out five batters. Even with the loss, this was the first start since April 14 that Martinez pitched seven innings, marking his seventh quality start of the season.

Shelby Miller and Chris Heston have pitchers’ duel
Miller pitched seven innings against the Giants, allowing one run on five hits, striking out one batter. On some nights that would be good enough to secure the W, but not Thursday. Heston logged 7 1/3 shutout innings for the Giants, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out six batters to best Miller. Heston has been up and down so far this season, as he’s had a complete game two-hitter with one run allowed and two other starts where he has pitched seven innings or more and allowed one run or less this season. On the flip side, Heston had allowed 11 runs in his past two starts. Miller has been outstanding this season, posting 11 quality starts. Miller only walked more than two batters in a start twice this season and has allowed five base runners or fewer six times this season. Very quickly the 24-year-old has gone from a speculative fantasy option to a front-end fantasy pitcher.

Corey Kluber continues to mow batters down
On Thursday night, Kluber continued to prove why he was the 2014 AL Cy Young award winner, pitching seven innings while allowing three runs on seven hits, walking only one batter and striking out 13. Kluber has been outstanding in his past five starts and now has 57 strikeouts and four walks over those appearances. Kluber had allowed only two earned runs in his past three starts, but has allowed three or more earned runs in five of 11 starts this season. Kluber has a MLB-best 96 strikeouts in 76 2/3 innings and a stellar 1.12 WHIP, but his volitility this season is alarming. At a minimum, look for Kluber as an outstanding source of strikeouts, as he is on pace for a ridiculous 295 strikeouts this season.

Huge offensive game for Pirates leads rout over Padres
Three Pirates had home runs and two others had three hits, fueling the Pirates to an 11-5 victory over the Padres. The offensive star was Andrew McCutchen, who was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI. His .261 batting average is his highest since Opening Day and so is his .823 OPS. Jung Ho Kang hit a three-run home run in the first inning, his third home run of the season, and finished 1-for-5 for the Pirates. Starling Marte finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored and a two-run home run, his 10th home run of the season. Francisco Cervelli and Neil Walker each were 3-for-5 for the Pirates, and Gregory Polanco added a solo home run. A.J. Burnett pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs,  and moved his record to 5-1 on the season.

What to watch for

The best matchup of the day is in New York, where the ageless Dan Haren faces Mets ace Matt Harvey. Haren has only walked 11 batters in 55 1/3 innings this season and sports a very solid 3.09 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. Harvey has been outstanding, posting a 0.99 WHIP and 9.20 strikeouts per nine innings, but is coming off of a rare tough outing against Pittsburgh in which he allowed seven runs in four innings. James Shields, Sonny Gray, and Cole Hamels will also pitch today.

Chris Zolli is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Chris, check out his archive and follow him @thezman2010.