Reds designate Will Benson for assignment

Contreras expressed optimism that he doesn’t believe he’s dealing with anything more than a bruise after fouling a ball off his left foot during Wednesday’s contest against the White Sox. It doesn’t sound like he’ll undergo any imaging at this time. He’ll continue playing until the appeal process is complete regarding his seven-game suspension stemming from last week’s on-field incident against the Nationals.

Murakami has gone 2-for-7 in a pair of rehab contests since kicking off a rehab assignment earlier this week. He figures to make it back to Chicago’s lineup at some point later this week. He’s been out with a hamstring strain since late May.

Pitching on his birthday, McGreevy turned in a gem. After a bit of chaos to start the game, he retired 17 of the next 18 hitters he faced. The only one who reached was thrown out stealing the McGreevy barely broke a sweat during the middle innings of this one. He was eventually pulled after allowing two hits in the seventh and one of those inherited runners scored as the only blemish on his ledger. As usual, he mixed his deep, seven-pitch repertoire beautifully and mostly hung around near the edges of the plate. This was a fantastic close to an amazing first with a 3.01 ERA, 66 strikeouts, and 23 walks through 101 2/3 innings.

Burleson’s elite first half as a run-producer wages on. With three more RBI here, he’s now tied with Nick Kurtz for fifth-most in the entire league. His first in this game came on a 107 mph double off Brewers’ starter Kyle Harrison in the first inning and the final two came on an absolutely demolished 109 mph, 443 foot home run that hit off the facing of the third deck in Busch Stadium. He’s on pace to obliterate his career-highs of 21 home runs and 78 RBI as we approach the All-Star break.

Mitchell got his on a day where the rest of the Brewers’ lineup was mostly shut out. The double was his seventh extra-base hit since the start of July and he ripped it 112 mph. He had another batted ball at 111 mph in this one and is completely locked in at the plate right now with a sensational .993 OPS over his last 30 games.

This game got off to a weird start for Harrison when Masyn Winn laced a line drive to right field that hit the recently promoted Luis Lara in the face. It would’ve been a tough play anyway and the sun was blindingly bright, but it set the table for two Cardinals runs that frame. From there, his command was iffy across the board. Too many of his fastballs sat in the middle of the plate rather than at the letters and it alone was responsible for seven hard-hit balls. Similarly, he spiked a good chunk of his slurves and they were easy to lay off of in two-strike counts. In the end, it was another uneven start for Harrison whose ERA climbed over three for the first time since late April. Nevertheless, he still put together an excellent first half with a 3.01 ERA, 101 strikeouts, and just 20 walks across 83 2/3 innings.

Michael Conforto, Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki joined Crow-Armstrong in homering for the Cubs. Crow-Armstrong’s first was just 94.2 mph off the bat, but it traveled 350 feet anyway. The second was hit 106.7 mph and was projected at 419 feet. Crow-Armstrong also walked and scored a third run in the contest. He’s the first player to go 20/20 this year, having totaled 21 homers and 23 steals. Last year, he finished the first half with 25 homers and 27 steals, though he went on to add on just six homers and eight steals after the break. He’ll probably slow down some this year, too, but the improvement in his plate discipline makes it unlikely that he’ll again experience such a dramatic decline.

Rea allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out just two. He also gave up a two-run homer to Pete Alonso. Still, he kept it together and departed with a 4-3 lead that held up, even though the final score was 9-7. Rea ends the first half 7-5 with a 4.75 ERA. Ideally, the Cubs will be able to stick him in middle relief at some point, but it’s not like he’s holding them back.

Webb helped set up Trent Thornton last night, but this makes two saves in four days for him. He threw just nine pitches tonight and seven on Tuesday, so maybe the Cubs would risk having him close again on Thursday. It’d also be a third straight day for Thornton if he were to work again.

The last three homers came in a four-batter span in the fifth. Of the four, two actually came on balls that fell just short of being hard-hit; Pete Crow-Armstrong’s first homer left the bat at 94.2 mph, and Michael Conforto’s checked in at 94.5 mph. Those probably weren’t homers a month ago. Kremer is 1-2 with a 4.09 ERA in four starts. Between his two outings in April and his two since coming off the IL on July 1, he’s given up nine homers so far but only 10 earned runs. Unless the baseball starts traveling more like it did in April, he’s not going to be a mixed-league option in the second half.