Cardinals send reliever Fernandez to AAA

Pasquantino kicked off his rehab assignment by reaching base safely in three of his four plate appearances. The 28-year-old first baseman figures to get a couple additional tune-up contests under his belt before returning to Kansas City later this week. He’s been working his way back from a hamate fracture since mid-June.

Murakami singled in his first at-bat before striking out twice in his rehab debut. The 26-year-old first baseman will probably require a couple additional contests to knock off the rust from an extended layoff before he returns to Chicago’s lineup later this week. He’s been out with a hamstring strain since late May.

It’d be nice if Keith got to play a full game once in a while, but to go along with his issues against lefties — which are probably exacerbated by him hardly ever getting to face them — he’s just not one of the Tigers’ better defensive infielders. Keith’s homer off J.T. Ginn was his seventh in his last 20 games after he hit zero in his first 62.

Henry Bolte’s homer was the only damage tonight. Skubal gave up four additional hits but only one other hard-hit ball, and he generated 22 whiffs on 52 swings. He’s fanned exactly nine batters in three straight outings now, and he’ll take a 5-4 record and a 3.06 ERA into Sunday’s start at home against the Phillies.

That Ginn’s fastball velocity was down three mph from his season average tonight seems to have a good explanation. He managed to limit the Tigers to two hits anyway, although one was a two-run homer from Colt Keith. At this point, he’s still expected to pitch the first-half finale against the White Sox on Sunday.

Bolte’s homer was a 108-mph, 411-foot blast off Tarik Skubal, giving the A’s their lone run in five innings against the two-time Cy Young Award winner. Kind of surprisingly, Bolte was dropped to ninth in the order tonight. He entered with a .370 OBP and he’s led off several times recently, but the A’s had Zack Gelof in the top spot tonight. Bolte’s homer was his third in 186 plate appearances since being called up. He’s not taking advantage of his power while hitting the ball on the ground about two-thirds of the time, but it is there, waiting to come out.

The first two hits were off Tarik Skubal. Most of the rest of the Athletics’ lineup didn’t fare as well, so Kuroda-Grauer went without a run scored or an RBI tonight. He’s off to a 12-for-26 start to his big-league career, and he’s struck out just twice to date. With his contact ability, he could remain quite strong in terms of batting average, though he probably won’t be as helpful elsewhere.

Díaz extended Tampa Bay’s early lead with an RBI single in the second inning before smashing his 13th round-tripper of the season off Yankees starter Will Warren in the fourth. It was his first time leaving the yard since June 8. The 34-year-old on-base machine has looked a bit off since dealing with a shoulder issue a couple weeks ago. It certainly feels like he’ll benefit from some extra rest during the upcoming All-Star break.

Rice took Rays lefty Ian Seymour deep with an opposite-field shot in the third inning. It was his 26th long ball of the season and second consecutive contest with a round-tripper. The 27-year-old appears to be warming up just in time for next week’s All-Star Home Run Derby.

Goldschmidt has gone 0-for-30 over his last nine games dating back to June 26. The 38-year-old veteran was an unexpected revelation for the Yankees in the early portion of the year, but he’s really scuffling heading into the All-Star break.