Esmerlyn Valdez (wrist) in lineup after HBP scare

Nationals manager Blake Butera told reporters Trevor Williams (elbow) will be activated from the injured list to pitch in relief. Varland allowed three runs and failed to record an out against the Blue Jays in his first outing back in the big leagues since late June.

Suzuki doubled in a run in the second to give the Cubs a 4-0 lead, and the outfielder singled home another to give Chicago a 9-1 cushion. The 31-year-old outfielder is now up to 60 RBI on the campaign while improving his slash to .269/.355/.477 in what could be his last campaign as a member of the Cubs. The trade talk regarding Suzuki has quieted, and he should remain a very solid fantasy option while a member of Chicago for the remainder of 2026.

One day after picking up four hits against the Cardinals, Bregman added three more in a blowout victory for the Cubs. The 32-year-old doubled — his 18th of the season — and singled twice, while improving his season line to .245/.339/.374 in his first season with the Cubbies. That’s still nowhere close to what Bregman and Chicago were hoping for when they signed the infielder to his massive deal, but it’s beyond possible we’ll see more efforts like this from Bregman over the final two-plus months. He’s too good a hitter to have a slash that poor.

Rea gave up a sac fly in the fourth inning, and that was it. The 36-year-old veteran scattered four hits and two walks, and he was able to pick up a pair of strikeouts. It was far from dominant, but more than effective enough with the Cubs giving him double-digit run support. Despite this solid effort, it’d be a mistake to trust Rea as a streamer in his scheduled start Sunday against the Yankees.

Yikes. McGreevy gave up two in the first on a two-run double by Ian Happ, and then was charged for five more in the second in a disaster of a start for the 26-year-old. The right-hander allowed eight hits, and while none of them left the park, he gave up six hard hits, so he was not dinked and dunked to death. After giving up 11 runs in his last two outings, McGreevy now has a still-solid 3.57 ERA, but you see what can happen when you have nowhere close to an elite fastball. He’ll try and get rolling again versus the Blue Jays on Sunday.

Game two featured just six hits, three apiece from both teams, and saw the Reds win despite getting struck out 15 times in eight innings by Gavin Williams and Daniel Espino. Bleday’s homer in the first inning was his lone hit in seven at-bats on the day. He’s batting just .187/.309/.362 in 201 plate appearances since the start of June, but with Spencer Steer out and the Reds likely to shed another position player or two before the deadline, his starting spot is probably safe.

Barely. With two outs and a man on second, Petey Halpin hit one to the wall in right center. It looked like right fielder Noelvi Marte’s ball to attempt to catch, but center fielder Dane Myers came flying in at the last second and caught it while crashing into the wall (and, for the first time in his career, without suffering a scary injury in the process). Pagan moved to 5-for-5 in save chance since coming off the IL. He seems like a trade candidate, but he’d be more attractive if he didn’t have a $10 million player option for next season.

Williams gave up a solo homer in the first and then wild pitched the second run home in the fifth and that was enough to keep him out of the win column with the Guardians getting shut out. What Williams did do tonight was fan at least 11 batters for the fourth straight outing. He’s just the 24th pitcher (13th different) in major league history to accomplish that. Oddly enough, three of the previous five pitched for Cleveland, Corey Kluber (five in a row in 2017), Trevor Bauer (2018) and Shane Bieber (2021) joined Chris Sale (five in 2018) and Gerrit Cole (five in 2019) in doing it in the last 10 years. Pedro Martinez holds the record, doing it in eight straight starts in 1999. Williams could next face the D’backs on Sunday or the Mets on Tuesday, depending on how the Guardians want to line things up with off days Thursday and Monday.

Seager played five innings at shortstop where he made one phenomenal defensive play in addition to launching an opposite-field homer in his final plate appearance. He’s probably going to need a couple additional tune-up contests, but there’s a chance he’s back with the Rangers by the end of the week.

Meidroth hit a two-run homer off David Bednar, which often can lead to something special. Unfortunately for Meidroth and the White Sox, it came with the White Sox trailing by three. The 25-year-old has homered nine times and driven in 40 runs while improving his slash to .276/.345/.396 on the campaign.