Lazaro Montes heads right back to Toronto

Stewart wallopped one of four solo bombs against the Athletics on the day, taking Mason Barnett 416 feet to left-center for his 25th homer of the season. Stewart is starting to heat up again, hitting .302/.371/.585 with five homers and a stolen base over his last 15 games after a mid-season swoon. He was a major steal in drafts this past offseason and figures to be in the top-five round discussion in 2027.

Serven is slugging .625 this season but is just a backup behind Jonah Heim at this point. The 31-year-old veteran briefly gave the Reds a sweat in the top of the ninth with his two-run shot.

Entrusted with a three-run lead in the ninth, Burke bent but didn’t break as he retired Alika Williams and Jonathan Ornelas after the homer to lock down the save. Emilio Pagán had thrown two days in a row and remains Cincinnati’s closer.

He pitched into the fifth inning for the second time as a major leaguer, but left with the bases loaded and the Reds wound up cashing in two inherited runs by walking twice with the bases loaded against Elvis Alvarado. Barnett’s got decent enough stuff to succeed in this role -- he had a 31 percent Whiff rate and only allowed four hard-hit balls -- but if all the hard-hit balls go over the fence, it’s not ideal. He’ll try to bounce back against the Rays next week.

It’s another textbook Abbott start, he allowed nine hard-hit balls and only had a 22 percent whiff rate, but he was able to pound the zone and induce enough weak contact to get through the A’s lineup without allowing a single extra-base hit. He’ll remain a fine 15-league starter against the White Sox next week.

Avila is out for the year and will undergo Tommy John surgery, meaning it is doubtful he’ll be back before the start of the 2028 season.

He left yesterday’s game early. We haven’t seen any team update on this so far, but Contreras can be considered day-to-day at this point with the illness.

DFA’ed by the Padres a few weeks ago, Marinaccio spent a little over a week with the Pirates before being DFA’ed again after the Pirates acquired a whole new bullpen at the deadline. He brings a 4.99 ERA to the back of the Reds pen — the main culprit this year is 10 homers allowed in just 52 1/3 innings pitched.

Solesky allowed two runs in three innings in his only big-league appearance this year. The 28-year-old had a 6.79 ERA for Triple-A Durham. The Reds will attempt to bring out the good in him in the minors.

Little has a career 2.97 ERA in 40 major-league appearances — 30 of which happened in 2024 — and the price was right for the Royals here. The Cubs were forced to DFA Little after acquiring Tyrone Taylor and Clay Holmes from the Mets.