Will Smith’s neck injury could linger into August

Vazquez was only up for two days. The 26-year-old will head back to the International League with Blaze Alexander coming off the injured list in a corresponding move.

Alexander missed six weeks while dealing with a fractured hand. He’s in the lineup Friday against the A’s, and should see playing time against left-handed pitching — with some starts versus righties — for the remainder of the season.

Arenado was scratched from Thursday’s game with inflammation in his thumb, and he’ll at least begin Friday’s contest on the bench. Consider the 35-year-old day-to-day. Jose Fernandez will handle third base duties with Arenado out.

Henderson will get a break against southpaw Jacob Lopez to open the three-game series against the A’s. Blaze Alexander will get the start in Henderson’s absence, and hit leadoff in the process.

Stephenson’s homer off Trent Thornton gave the Reds a 7-3 lead in the sixth. Though he had slumped some of late, the homer was his fifth in August and 13th overall. He came into the day 6-for-31 with a lone double and 16 strikeouts in his previous 10 games.

Thanks to a six-run top of the sixth, Lowder got a win in a game in which he was outperformed by the opposing starter (David Peterson allowed two runs over five innings). Lowder went 3-1 in August despite a middling 4.34 ERA and six homers allowed in 29 innings. He’ll take on the Padres next week.

Pagan struck out Ian Happ in between flyouts from Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner. His velocity was also strong again for a second straight outing after a mysterious drop last week, so it looks like nothing further will come of that. He has seven saves and one win in nine appearances this month. Fortunately, his one bad outing while his velocity was down came with a three-run lead; he gave up two runs but got the save anyway.

Peterson departed with a one-run lead, only to see Trent Thornton give up five runs in the sixth. It’s Peterson’s fourth no-decision to go along with one run in five starts this month. Oddly enough, the victory came in the only one of the starts in which he allowed more than two runs. He’ll face the Brewers next.

Unwanted outfielder TJ Friedl homered off him. Palencia struck out two in a perfect inning a week ago in his return from the IL, but he’s given up four runs in two appearances since. Jacob Webb has opened the door for Palencia to resume pitching in the ninth, but Palencia can’t seem to find it at the moment.

Stewart’s solo homer in the third gave him the Reds’ rookie record for RBI, as he overtook Jim Greengrass’s mark from 1953. He later got an RBI single on an infield hit that Dansby Swanson probably would have turned into an out at shortstop, but Nico Hoerner couldn’t quite pull it off. Stewart is the major league leader with 102 RBI on the season. He’s moved into a tie for 11th in homers.