Braves activate Hurston Waldrep from 15-day IL

Verlander brought one of the most storied pitching careers in recent memory to a close with his final appearance at Comerica Park, throwing 91 pitches before leaving the mound alongside his daughter Genevieve to a standing ovation in the sixth inning. How can you not be romantic about baseball? He carried a shutout into the fourth before serving up a solo homer to Brandon Lowe. He surrendered another solo shot to Jacob Gonzalez in the ensuing frame but otherwise kept Pittsburgh off the scoreboard. The 43-year-old future Hall of Famer concludes a 21-year run in the big leagues as a two-time World Series champion, three-time Cy Young Award winner, 10-time All-Star and 2011 AL MVP. He finishes ninth on the all-time strikeout leaderboard with 3,560 punchouts to go along with a sparkling 3.33 ERA across 3,576 2/3 innings over 557 starts since 2005. Next stop, Cooperstown.

It’s basically no-or-never for the Phillies as they sit one game ahead of the Diamondbacks for the final NL Wild Card playoff spot with two games remaining. Nola gets the ball on two days of rest after allowing four runs over six innings in a loss to the Brewers on Wednesday evening. The 33-year-old was unlikely to pitch in a potential Wild Card Series matchup, so they’re going to have him take the ball in this spot instead. It’s a massive spot as Philadelphia attempts to snap a three-game losing streak and clinch a playoff spot.

It’s a massive relief for the Mets after Soto was drilled on the right hand by a 91.7 mph sinker during the ninth inning of Saturday’s blowout win over the Nationals. The 27-year-old generational talent figures to sit out Sunday’s season finale, but that’s not a guarantee. The positive news is that he managed to avoid serious injury, based on initial imaging. He missed a significant chunk of the year with a calf injury, but still has managed to hit .278/.397/.522 with 63 runs scored, 27 homers, 68 RBI and nine steals in 110 games so far.

Del Castillo returns to the big leagues as emergency catching depth behind James McCann after Gabriel Moreno suffered a minor hamstring injury during Friday’s win over the Padres.

Sánchez’s brief stint with Arizona is officially over after just six games where he went 2-for-15 at the dish. The 28-year-old corner outfielder was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays back on September 14.

Ewing took Nationals righty Jake Irvin deep for a no-doubter to right-center field in the seventh inning that traveled 396 feet, per Statcast. It was his 11th round-tripper of the season and first time leaving the yard since September 14. The 22-year-old enters New York’s final regular-season contest hitting .254/.324/.379 with 55 runs scored, 11 homers, 43 RBI and 25 steals in 119 games. Here’s an oversimplification: Ewing is going to be an impactful all-around fantasy contributor for years to come.

Benge remained sizzling-hot with a three-hit performance after joining the 20-homer, 20-steal club during Friday’s series opener. The 23-year-old is making a serious late-season push for the NL Rookie of the Year Award, hitting .429 (12-for-28) over his last seven games. He’s going to be an extremely popular mid-round selection in fantasy drafts next season.

Mauricio made quite a statement with his bat during the same contest where Brett Baty received his first career start at shortstop. The 25-year-old former top prospect recorded the first multi-homer performance of his career by taking Nationals relievers Jake Irvin and Richard Lovelady deep in the seventh and ninth innings, respectively.

Tong looked extremely impressive in his final start of the year, generating an eye-popping 19 swinging strikes, while allowing just five baserunners and needing 87 pitches (52 strikes) to complete five frames. The former top prospect was cruising along early until a hit batter, a single and a wild pitch set up a sacrifice fly for Abimelec Ortiz in the third inning. He struck out Dylan Crews and CJ Abrams to escape the jam without any further damage. Simply put, it was the complete Tong experience wrapped into a single frame. The 23-year-old strikeout artist finishes the year with an encouraging 3.82 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 34/14 K/BB ratio across 30 2/3 innings in the majors. Tong offers enough strikeout upside that he’s an interesting late-round lottery ticket in fantasy drafts next spring, assuming that he is given a real shot at winning a rotation spot out of camp.

Early scattered one hit and needed just 34 pitches (21 strikes) to complete three frames in his Nationals debut. The -year-old’s velocity was right in line with his pre-injury levels as he averaged 93.8 mph on his four-seam fastball. It was an extremely encouraging display after missing nearly three months with elbow inflammation. The positive news for fantasy managers is that he’ll have a healthy offseason and figures to be locked into a spot in Washington’s rotation entering next season.