Payton Tolle blanks White Sox for six innings

It looked like Rodriguez was going to be pulled in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks wanted him to face Shohei Ohtani, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, for a fourth time, and he retired Ohtani on a groundout with his 115th and final pitch of the day. Rodriguez, who hadn’t previously fanned more than seven batters in a game this season, moved to 11-4 with a 2.70 ERA. He finishes the season series 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA in four starts against the Dodgers. He’ll face the Braves next.

He struck out two. Ginkel had gone 52 appearances without a save. His only previous chance came in the 10th inning of a game against the Pirates on July 28, but he had just a one-run lead then and was charged with his first and only blown save for allowing the automatic runner to score. Ginkel got the opportunity today because Brandyn Garcia was unavailable after working the previous two days. Garcia hasn’t been named Arizona’s closer, but he’s clearly Torey Lovullo’s first choice right now.

Wrobleski gave up six hits and three walks. The unearned run was his own fault, as he threw the ball into right field on Ryan Waldschmidt’s sac bunt in the second. Wrobleski, who overtook his previous career high for innings today, has allowed 15 earned runs and nine homers over 13 2/3 innings in his last three starts, taking his ERA from 2.62 to 3.44. Velocity hasn’t been an issue, but the Dodgers won’t just live with these results forever. If he’s not better against the Brewers next weekend, he might be looking at a role change or a demotion to Triple-A.

It’s his fifth 20-homer season. The slumping Marte was 1-for-19 in his previous six games and was hitting .165 over his last 24 games.

It was a bullpen game for both teams, as there was a lengthy rain delay cut Davis Martin’s start short. The White Sox ended up using seven pitchers on the day, which wasn’t ideal with the way things have been going over the past few days. The save for Richards didn’t come easy, as he walked two batters, threw a wild pitch, and also gave up a sacrifice fly. Still, he got the job done. With the way saves are handed out like candy these days, it’s fairly astounding that Richards only had two career saves given that he’s had 257 relief appearances dating back to 2021. Assuming the White Sox have a normal day soon, we doubt Richards will have more saves in his future.

Smith, who was selected fifth overall in 2024, got the call with the White Sox in need of some fresh arms this weekend. The southpaw came in handy after a lengthy rain delay interrupted Davis Martin’s start. Smith threw just 25 out of his 49 pitches for strikes, so the control was shaky, but he also didn’t allow a hit and struck out three. Smith is unlikely to provide fantasy value in the short-term, but it was a memorable debut for the 22-year-old.

Ramírez singled in a run in the first inning prior to the rain delay. He later came up as the tying run in the ninth inning and flew out to center field to drive in a run. Rhys Hoskins followed with a fly out of his own to end it. The Guardians have lost seven out of their last nine games and Ramírez has really struggled during this stretch while dealing with wrist inflammation, but hopefully Sunday is the start of a turnaround. This was his first multi-hit game since July 29.

Díaz has two of the four hardest-hit balls of the day, but none of the five balls he put in play today had a launch angle over 11 degrees. That’s par for the course, but it’s been another solid year for Díaz, who also now has 65 RBI and 63 runs scored thanks to Tampa Bay’s surprise season.

Kenley Jansen threw the ninth inning and also struck out the side, so it was Holton who was called on to protect a two-run lead in the bottom of the 10th. He would go on to strike out the side and pick up his second save of the season. Kyle Finnegan had also pitched earlier in this one, so we’re not ready to say Holton is the Jansen handcuff, but Holton is having another really strong season for the Tigers.