Nationals to release Zack Littell

Tolle settled for four strikeouts and six whiffs on 46 swings today, but that worked out fine. He allowed only two hard-hit balls, both of which turned into groundouts, and he retired the final 17 batters he faced. Tolle is up to 130 innings, which is 12 more than he threw in his pro debut last season, but he’s definitely not showing any signs of slowing down yet; he’s 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA in his last seven starts. He’s slated to face the D-backs next Tuesday.

Scherzer allowed three hits, walked two and struck out four. It’s the third straight outing in which he’s pitched well enough to win, but he dropped to 1-6, with his only victory coming way back on March 31. He’ll likely make his next start Wednesday against the Rays.

It was a tight game throughout until Durbin’s slam gave Boston a 5-0 lead in the eighth. Durbin now has two grand slams in nine days after going his first 240 career games without one. He’s totaled 11 homers and 37 RBI in his last 55 games after opening his Red Sox career with one homer and 23 RBI through his first 59 games.

The intentional walk with first base open in the eighth inning was the first Yoshida has received in four seasons in MLB. Caleb Durbin immediately followed it was a grand slam. Yoshida is 11-for-33 with a homer, seven RBI and a 4/5 K/BB in his last nine games. Still, he might be less of a factor for the Red Sox down the stretch if Roman Anthony can return later this month.

His towering first-inning homer led to Davis Martin throwing him close enough to bean him and get ejected in the third inning. Stewart also drew a walk and added another single. Stewart is now hitting .321/.367/.536 over his last seven games. Fantasy managers would love to see the legs moving again -- he only has one steal in his last 30 games -- but otherwise there’s not much to complain about here.

Grichuk mashed lefty starter Andrew Abbott as he was expected to do, but was removed for Andrew Benintendi when Abbott left the game. The 34-year-old platoon player is hitting .293/.339/.578 against lefties this year.

He allowed a leadoff walk and Colson Montgomery was about five feet short of a game-tying homer before Edgar Quero hit an RBI single. Sam Antonacci hit a sharp line drive right up the middle that Elly De La Cruz was able to spear down to finish off the game. Garcia appearing here was a bit of an eyecatcher with Emilio Pagán having not pitched yesterday, so we’ll keep an eye out for quotes about this but Pagán has already been on the injured list for a lot of this season, has pitched just once in eight days, and may be being used judiciously even if he is healthy.

He was pulled two outs shy of qualifying for a win with 93 pitches. Rough. That makes three straight starts where Abbott has allowed at least three earned runs, and he’s walked 10 batters over those starts while striking out just eight. He’ll be a tenuous 12-team starter against the Cardinals next week.

It looks to be nothing more than a routine day of rest for the 27-year-old center fielder. Andrew Pinckney will start in his place and will bat ninth against Cubs’ right-hander Kevin Gausman on Thursday afternoon in Washington.

Javier Sanoja’s ERA will never recover. Gonzalez needed a game like this to remain in the conversation to be the team’s shortstop against right-handers before Konnor Griffin makes it back. He’s hitting just .225/.256/.400 in his last 15 games even after this, and hasn’t shown enough to make him a must-roster even in deeper leagues.