Jose Azocar designated for assignment again

The Yankees split the doubleheader after losing the early game 8-2. Chisholm’s homer off Evan Phillips was his 14th of the year. He was 2-for-7 in the doubleheader, and he’s hitting a steady .224/.302/.403 for the year. His OPS really hasn’t budged from that .690-.720 neighborhood for two months now, but one imagines he’ll be good for another hot streak at some point.

Yarbrough has been a swingman for most of his career, but the Yankees kept bypassing him, usually in favor of Elmer Rodríguez, when they’ve needed a spot starter this season. That finally changed tonight, and Rodríguez was the one bypassed, as the Yankees used Yarbrough, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick to get through seven innings, all of them scoreless. Yarbrough has a 3.86 ERA in 39 2/3 innings over 25 appearances.

Bednar relieved Fernando Cruz with two on in a tie game in the eighth and stranded both runners before Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the inning. In the ninth, Bednar walked Freddie Freeman in a 10-pitch at-bat to start the frame, but he retired three in a row afterwards. It’s Bednar’s second win to go along with two saves this month. He was forced to throw 32 pitches, but since he had a week off coming into the night, perhaps he’ll be available again Monday.

With the tying run on first in a 2-1 game in the ninth, Betts struck out on three pitches against David Bednar. He’s gone hitless in four straight games, dropping his OPS to .689. Future first-ballot Hall of Famer or not, Betts shouldn’t be batting cleanup for the Dodgers at this point. He had a nice second half of June, but aside from that 17-game run, he’s been pretty awful in the batter’s box.

Asked about Peña and Chrsitian Walker (hip) after the game, Astros manager Joe Espada said he is hopeful “one of the two can play tomorrow, hopefully both of them.”

The D-backs scored three times in the sixth and twice in the seventh before Arenado’s homer tied the game in the eighth. They went on to win on a Max Kepler’s single in the bottom of the 10th. Arenado has four extra-base hits and six RBI in his six games against his previous organization this year. The homer was his 13th in 93 games, overtaking his total of 12 in his 107 games with St. Louis last year.

This seems long overdue for Rodriguez, who just went to his first All-Star game in spite of a career-worst 17 percent strikeout rate. He allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out three today. It’s the first time in 20 starts this year that he’s allowed more than four runs. However, since the D-backs pulled off a big comeback, he remained 8-3. He’ll face the Nationals next weekend.

Pallante had a 7-0 lead after five, but he retired just one of the six batters he faced in the sixth, giving up three hits and then two walks. Ryne Stanek replaced him with two runs in and the bases loaded and managed to strand two of the three runners. However, the Cardinals went on to blow the remainder of the 7-3 lead anyway. Pallante has given up nine runs in his last two starts to push his ERA back up to 4.02. It’s the first time he’s been over 4.00 since the end of May. He’ll face the Reds next weekend.

The homer, which came on an 88-mph liner to left, was initially called a single and an error on José Fermin but was changed afterwards, as Fermin never touched the ball as it was skipping past him. It’s the only hit that Perdomo has collected in his last five games.

Ryan Waldschmidt just missed making a diving catch on the triple to left center. It goes as Jordan’s second three-hit game since his callup last month. With José Fermin mostly taking over at third, Jordan had been out of the Cardinals’ lineup the previous three games. He might wind up back in Triple-A if the team continues to struggle to find regular playing time for him, but this will help.