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The superstar third baseman was held out of action on Wednesday due to soreness in his foot after fouling a ball off of it during Tuesday’s game. It appears all is good now though, as he’s right back at the hot corner and batting cleanup against Diamondbacks’ right-hander Merrill Kelly on Thursday evening in San Diego.

Gelof made a terrific sliding catch running down the third base line, but slid into the side wall as he did and came up hobbling. He tried to walk it off and remain in the game but ultimately the decision was made to pull him. Gelof will head for further evaluation. Expect the A’s to provide an update on his status after the game.

Sandoval got through four scoreless before giving up a single to Luisangel Acuña to start the fifth. Drew Romo tried to bunt him over afterwards, only to pop it up foul for an out. Acuña went on to advance to second on a wild pitch and steal third while Sandoval was walking Chase Meridoth. Sandoval was pulled at that point, and Acuña went on to score on a swinging bunt. Sandoval struck out five and walked just the one. He averaged a rather stunning 94.3 mph with his fastball. That’s an improvement on his career-best 93.7 mph from 2024, before he hurt his elbow, and a big step forward from the 92.8 mph he averaged in six outings in Triple-A. If he keeps that up, he could be at least a streaming option in mixed leagues. There’s a good chance we’ll see him again in the series against the Rays after the break.

Smith struck out two and didn’t allow a baserunner. The 27-year-old now has 27 saves in his first year as a full-time closer and looks every bit the part of one of the best closers in the league.

Olson played his 740th consecutive game, tying Dale Murphy’s franchise record for the Braves. Olson has played in 874 consecutive games overall, dating back to his time with the Athletics, the ninth-longest stretch in MLB history. He also hits a lot of homers, including one off Mitch Keller in this game that went out to right field 404 feet. Olson is slugging .862 over his last seven games and will look to keep it rolling against the Cardinals this weekend.

Williams struck out 11 and walked one while throwing 71 percent of his pitches for strikes. He got ahead with his four-seamer and sinker and then had lots of success putting hitters away with a sweeper that had a 26 percent swinging strike rate. Unless Statcast updates its data, this will have been the first start that Williams didn’t use his cutter, which could be why his four-seam usage was up 13 percent. Regardless, he was fully comfortable with his arsenal today and looked great. He gets a tougher matchup against the Pirates after the break.

The dynamic 24-year-old outfielder rejoins the Rangers’ lineup for Thursday’s divisional matchup against the Angels. He’ll serve as the designated hitter and bat second against Halos’ left-hander Reid Detmers. The Rangers and fantasy managers are hopeful that he carries over his hot hitting from the few weeks before suffering a minor hamstring strain.

Soto is now up to 21 home runs and 50 RBI in 75 games on the season. There are many reasons for the Mets’ struggles this season, but Soto is not one of them.

Rice’s first homer barely scraped over the fence -- in fact it was reviewed by the umpire crew to be sure it crossed the yellow line -- but his second was a no-doubter to right-center that almost hit the Rays aquarium. The Yankees haven’t hit much of late, but Rice has been carrying them with five homers in his last seven games. He’s got a few more warm-up acts before the Home Run Derby -- the two homers he hit here made his total of 28 a career high. He still has a whole second half of the season to play.

Sunday will be a bullpen game due to a career-high workload for Meyer in the season’s first half. He’ll also sit out the All-Star game despite being selected. Meyer has been phenomenal in working to a 2.58 ERA in the season’s first half, going 9-1 and striking out 116 batters in 108 innings pitched.