A.J. Puk (shoulder) shut down for rest of season

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.

Jacob Webb has opened the door for Palencia to work his way back into the mix for saves, and tonight would have been a step forward for Palencia if not for a bad Pedro Ramírez error that put Brice Turang on third after a mere roller to second base. William Contreras then singled in Turang with two outs. Palencia has had a fair amount of bad luck in allowing eight runs in seven appearances since coming off the injured list, but that probably counts for less in September than it might have in April and May.

Contreras’s two-run homer off Kevin Gausman was the 100th of his career. He’s hit .326 with three homers and 11 RBI in his last 11 games.

The homer off Davis Martin was Valdez’s third in 34 games after he hit 14 in 37 games to open his major league career. He’d seem to be in line to lose some playing time once Ryan O’Hearn comes off the IL, though probably not as much as he’d lose if O’Hearn were ready to play right field right away. Most likely, he’ll be limited to DH and first base initially.

Montgomery struck out Sam Antonacci and Miguel Vargas to end the game, which saw the Pirates use eight pitchers. It’s Montgomery’s 19th straight scoreless appearance since July 27.

The White Sox again failed to score for Martin, who pitched five scoreless innings as the club was shut out by the Astros last Thursday. Martin was successful despite striking out just one and giving up nine hard-hit balls. He’ll take a 9-6 record and a 4.15 ERA into his next start against the Guardians.

Montgomery is the 25th player to fan 200 times in a season and third member of the White Sox after Adam Dunn struck out 222 times in 2012 and Yoán Moncada fanned 217 times in 2018. The three tonight put him at 201, so Montgomery is 22 away from tying Mark Reynolds’ major league record with 17 games to play.