Lane Thomas scrapes wall with 10th home run in win

Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Yoshida all homered off Emmet Sheehan in a four-batter span in the third to give the Red Sox a 5-3 lead. Yoshida’s homer was his fifth of the year, with four of those coming in his last 24 games, and he’s hitting .264/.341/.388 in 255 plate appearances overall. It looked like he might lose some playing time when the Red Sox acquired Curtis Mead, and that still could be a danger if the Red Sox try to add offense again prior to Monday’s deadline.

All of the runs came in the third after a Teoscar Hernández grounder that really should have been handled rolled through the infield. There was also a very debatable intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani that preceded a two-run single from Andy Pages. Fortunately, the Boston offense picked Bennett up afterwards. He’s 7-4 with a 2.90 ERA ahead of a favorable home start next weekend against the A’s.

It was a surprise not to see Whitlock involved in Saturday’s win, but interim manager Chad Tracy said today that he was giving his “beat up” setup man some extra time off after a very busy July. Whitlock would have closed tonight with Aroldis Chapman having pitched three of the previous four days, but he missed out on the save after the Red Sox upped their lead from two runs to four in the eighth. Whitlock’s arm seemed fine tonight, as he topped out at 97.1 mph. His two sliders averaged 87.3 mph, which is 1.4 mph better than his season average.

Sheehan allowed two runs on a walk and three singles in the first and then gave up three solo homers in a seven-pitch span in the third. He hadn’t allowed three homers in any of his 19 previous starts. Sheehan fell to 4-8 with a 5.29 ERA. The Dodgers have lost his last five starts and nine of his last 10, which seems nearly impossible. With Tarik Skubal’s addition and Blake Snell nearing a return, Sheehan’s time in the Dodgers rotation should be about to come to an end. He could be more helpful to the team’s cause out of the pen.

Pages had a two-run single after Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked in the second and an RBI double in the seventh. That brings his season total to 74 RBI, which ranks sixth in the majors.

The Braves are really just taking on salary here, which in Mahle’s case is about $3 million, and they’re getting guy who has usually been pretty solid when healthy. Mahle has a 5.13 ERA this year, but he’s been better than that lately, posting a 3.79 ERA in his last seven starts. He’s actually throwing a little harder and has a higher strikeout rate (22 percent) than he did last year, when he had a 2.18 ERA in 16 starts for the Rangers. He’ll go into the injured Reynaldo López’s rotation spot for now. He’s still probably just an NL-only guy for fantasy purposes.

Molina, a former Rays and Rockies prospect acquired by the Braves on waivers in December, has spent most of this season at Triple-A Gwinnett, posting a 3.78 ERA in nine starts and eight relief appearances. He’s still just 24, and he might prove to be of some use out of the pen. He was sent to Triple-A Sacramento for now.

There might have been others involved. Morejon is one of baseball’s best relievers, but he’s also a free agent at season’s end. Meanwhile, Warren is at least a league-average starting pitcher who is making the minimum both this year and next and won’t be a free agent until after 2030. That’s certainly not a bad offer, assuming that Nightengale has the correct info here.

Mahle, who is on a one-year, $10 million deal, is 3-9 with a 5.13 ERA for the season, but he has been solid of late, amassing a 3.79 ERA in his last seven turns. Molina is a fringe 40-man roster guy, so this is mostly a salary dump for the Giants. The Giants still figure to trade Robbie Ray, too, and they just lost Trevor McDonald for the rest of the season, so things could get ugly with their rotation the rest of the way. Most likely, Adrian Houser will slide back in as a starter, assuming that no other team wants to take on his contract.

Is it too late to fold this into the Jameson Taillon trade? The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon says the Jays will get outfielder Brett Bateman and infielder Ty Southisene in return. Gausman was 6-10 with a 4.38 ERA in a down year for the Jays, but he’s durable and could step it up in October, like he did in posting a 2.93 ERA in five starts and one relief appearance during last year’s World Series run. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end.