Jase Bowen hits first major league homer in win

Smith threw three innings for the first time in a scoreless outing Sunday against the Pirates, but that only took him 35 pitches. His high pitch count as a major leaguer was 48 over two innings in his debut on Aug. 9. So, one imagines the White Sox will be very happy if he can get through three again Thursday, Two is probably the better bet. Erick Fedde will be available to go long behind him.

Betts has three homers in seven games and is now just one away from getting to 20 and matching last year’s total despite spending five weeks on the IL early on. He’s 12-for-32 with 13 RBI and six walks in eight games this month.

The lone run came on Elly De La Cruz’s homer in the fourth. Yamamoto allowed only two other hits and walked one in the 90-pitch gem. He currently ranks second in the majors with a 0.88 WHIP, trailing only Jacob Misiorowski at 0.80. He’ll pitch in Cincinnati next time out.

It’s the second straight outing in which Lowder has allowed seven runs, and he’s now 6-10 with a 5.81 ERA for the season. Unfortunately, he’s due to go up against the Dodgers again next week and likely the Cubs after that.

Hernández’s homer off Tony Santillan was his third in 30 games this season. He knocked in four runs for the first time since way back on July 23, 2020, when he had his only ever five-RBI game against the Giants.

It took facing a catcher, but Tucker collected his first three-hit game of the second half. He was 10-for-81 with one homer in his previous 24 games, even though he had a nice 13/12 K/BB ratio during the span.

The one disadvantage built into Ohtani’s Two-Way Player status is that he has to be placed on the 15-day injured list like other pitchers. The Dodgers can backdate the assignment to Tuesday, but that still means Ohtani, who is dealing with knee and biceps injuries, will only be able to return for the final five days of the season. Expect Josue De Paula to play regularly against righties until then and probably share time between left field and DH with Teoscar Hernández.

The Brewers were up 7-1 after three and 8-1 after eight before the Cubs tried to pull off a furious comeback with Trevor Megill unavailable in the ninth. Chourio’s second homer in two games was crushed, traveling a projected 436 feet. He went 8-for-14 with five RBI as the Brewers swept the three-game series to open up a 10-game lead on the Cubs and all but clinch the NL Central.

Henderson struck out six and walked only one, but some long at-bats did leave him at 95 pitches one batter into the sixth. Fortunately, the Brewers pen protected his lead afterwards, though things did get dicey in the ninth. Henderson moved to 10-3 with a 2.34 ERA. He probably has just two regular-season starts to go, with the next coming in Pittsburgh.

The earned runs all came on three homers over the first two innings. The first of those was rather unlucky, as Christian Yelich’s 372-foot, three-run shot to left-center was a homer in only two ballparks (ironically, the other one it would have been a homer in, besides tonight’s venue in Milwaukee, was Wrigley Field). Gausman finished up with six strikeouts. There was no overcoming the homers, though. He has a 5.31 ERA in seven starts since being acquired from the Jays, largely because he’s allowed nine homers. He’ll face the Braves at home next week.