Ildemaro Vargas knocks in four against Padres

Pagán needed 11 pitches to get through the frame, with his last out coming on a fly-out by Otto Lopez. Pagán has now converted on nine straight save opportunities and hasn’t blown a save since May 4th.

Rays’ skipper Kevin Cash said after the game that while he’s considered day-to-day, it is a situation that the team will continue to monitor. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him sit out the remainder of the weekend as a precautionary measure.

Sanders took the mound in relief of Yennier Cano, who was in danger of blowing the 6-2 lead he entered the inning with. With the score sitting at 6-5 and runners on first and second, Sanders’ first pitch to Ryan Vilade found its way to left-center field and was secured by Leody Taveras for the fly-out and the win. We’ll go ahead and assume this will be the easiest save Sanders ever has in his career.

The Dodgers remain hopeful that he’ll be able to return to the mound in some capacity, either before the regular season ends or during the postseason. The Dodgers are blessed with a luxury of riches in their rotation at the moment, so it’s not going to hurt them all that much if he’s unable to get back on the mound in 2026.

Entering the ninth inning trailing 6-2, Aranda would single to drive home Taylor Walls and Richie Palacios to cut the O’s lead to 6-4. Aranda has enjoyed a hot start to August and is now slashing .306/.358/.388 with two extra-base hits and 10 RBI.

Campusano’s two doubles both came at great times for the Padres here. His first brought home two runs with the bases loaded in a tie game in the fifth and knocked out Guardians’ starter Gavin Williams. Then, after the Guardians scratched across a run in the sixth, Campusano’s next two-bagger gave the Padres another insurance run. He lost two months of his season to injury, but has been highly productive otherwise with a .317 batting average and .935 OPS in 145 plate appearances.

Rodriguez would have the chance to be a closer on most teams in the league if he didn’t share a bullpen with Mason Miller, Adrián Morejón, or Jeremiah Estrada. Alas, Miller pitched in three games in six days entering play today and threw about 20 pitches in each, so Rodriguez got the opportunity to save this one and did so with ease.

The 33-year-old has been shelved since undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia in late May. It’s unclear how many games exactly of live at-bats he’s going to require before he’s ready to join the Red Sox, but he should be able to make it back at some point before the end of August.

This was another one of those starts where King simply wasn’t sharp. Facing an all left-handed lineup, far too many of what were meant to be front-hip sinkers bled over the heart of the plate and were tattooed. The home runs he allowed to Nathaniel Lowe and Brayan Rocchio each came off sinkers that wound up right down the middle and of the five batted balls off that pitch three were hard-hit. He also only forced four total swings-and-misses and only got through the middle innings because of all the weak contact his changeup induced. Yet, he completed six innings for the sixth time in eight tries since the start of July and continues to be the horse the Padres need him to be. He’ll take a 3.41 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 124 strikeouts, and 56 walks through 142 1/3 innings into his next scheduled start in New York against the Mets.

Lowe was an offensive engine for the Guardians here. He got them on the board with a solo home run in the second, drove home another run with a single in the third, and scampered home to score on a wild pitch as they tried to mount a comeback in the eighth. In eight games since being acquired at the trade deadline, he’s gone 8-for-27 with two home runs and eight RBI.