Red Sox activate Ranger Suarez for Sunday return

After a slow start to his MLB career, Rodríguez came into this game hitting .283/.345/.547 in his last 15 games with four home runs, nine runs scored, and 10 RBI. The 22-year-old was an intriguing prospect with a 42 percent hard-hit rate and .274/.347/.533 slash line in 455 Triple-A plate appearances with 27 home runs and six steals. He has been starting every day and leading off against righties, which gives him a decent amount of fantasy value in most league types.

Brito, who was called up on Tuesday, was hitting .232/.300/.341 in 22 games with Triple-A Louisville since coming to the Reds’ organization. He has started both games since being promoted, going 1-for-6 with the home run, steal, and two RBI. He’s likely off fantasy radars, but we should keep an eye on whether or not he is emerging as an everyday player.

France ambushed a first-inning pitch from Brandon Williamson and hit it for his 20th home run of the season. The veteran is slashing .292/.360/.512 with 62 RBI in what has been the best season of his career.

That’s now three rough starts in a row for Mize. The right-hander struck out four and walked one in this game, but he had just a 10 percent called strike rate, and the Reds got him for two home runs. His overall velocity was fine, but he lost two inches of vertical movement on his four-seamer and missed way up and out of the strike zone too often. On paper, his next three starts against the Nationals, Rockies, and Marlins are enticing, but it’s hard to be overly excited.

Williamson struck out five and walked two while throwing 67 percent of his pitches for strikes in his return from the injured list. The left-hander sat 90.3 mph on his cutter, which is up over one mph from his average, and posted an 11 percent swinging strike rate. That cutter was the only pitch that reliably missed bats in this outing, but another complicating factor for his fantasy value is that the Reds have said the plan for Williamson is to use him as a piggyback to Chase Burns, who is having his innings limited. That could give Williamson a decent shot at wins, but it’s unclear how many innings he’ll pitch.

Mesa Jr. was activated off the injured list on Tuesday and right back in the starting lineup against a lefty. He went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and is right back in there against a right-handed pitcher. Jonny DeLuca started on Tuesday, and Cedric Mullins is starting in center field and batting seventh tonight, so it appears that those two may be in a platoon.

The plan is for both of them to throw about four innings and 60 pitches. If those outings go well, that could set one or both of them up to be options to return from the injured list next week in Kansas City.

Cobb was called up when rosters expanded on Tuesday but was not used in the bullpen. He’ll head back to his role in the Durham bullpen.

Jax threw 42 pitches in his last rehab start with was also on August 23rd. There had been a discussion that he might throw one more minor league start, but that never came to fruition, so we would expect him to be under 65 pitches in this outing on Wednesday. He struggled to command his changeup and sweeper in that rehab outing, so we’ll see how sharp he looks against the Mets. We would leave him on the bench in fantasy leagues.

Nelson is going to pitch in a rehab game in Visalia on Saturday, but he has been shut down since June 19th, so it’s unlikely he will be fully built up to a starter’s workload over the next few weeks. He has experience out of the bullpen and could be an asset for the Diamondbacks there as they fight for a playoff spot.