AJ Smith-Shawver close to returning to majors

Soroka, who gave up six runs to the Reds on Saturday, was placed on the IL today due to shoulder inflammation. “He’s going to hopefully be ready on Day 16,” Lovullo said. “The plan is to get him a couple days down, get him back on the bump and miss as few days as possible.”

Quantrill has pitched 13 scoreless innings in his last two starts and is now an impressive 6-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 10 starts and 17 relief appearances this season. He was 16-30 with a 5.39 ERA over the previous three years. Quantrill will likely start in Milwaukee next weekend.

Latz gave up a leadoff double to Christian Moore with a two-run lead, but he got out of it after intentionally walking Mike Trout with two outs and striking out Moisés Ballesteros to end the game. He’s pitched eight scoreless innings and earned five saves over his last six appearances.

Díaz has survived the return of Danny Jansen from the IL and today’s promotion of Logan O’Hoppe, but he’s still facing the eventual activation of Kyle Higashioka next month as he looks to hold on to a roster spot. He’s hit .234/.252/.369 with four homers in 55 games since joining the Rangers at the beginning of June.

Kikuchi, who had been out since the end of April with shoulder inflammation, gave up eight runs in his last rehab start, so this was an improvement. Ezequiel Duran and Elias Díaz homered for two of the 11 hard-hit balls he gave up. Kikuchi is 0-4 with a 6.30 ERA this season. He’ll probably make his next start next Sunday against the Phillies.

The Red Sox need to free up three roster spots with Roman Anthony, Trevor Story and Isiah Kiner-Falefa all due back this week, but Sogard, who has taken over as Boston’s starting second baseman, has to stick around. He has two homers, four doubles, five singles and six walks in his last six games, raising his OPS from .663 to .827.

Bennett gave up two runs in a first and would have allowed more if not for an exceptional catch from Ceddanne Rafaela in center. He then allowed a Jonah Cox homer in the second. However, Bennett made things looks easy after that, with the lone remaining run scoring on a double error that gave Christian Koss a Little League homer. Bennett was pitching on nine days’ rest after back-to-back subpar outings against the A’s and Pirates. He’s over his career high in innings, so the Red Sox will try to tread carefully with him the rest of the way. It’s just not going to be easy with the team seemingly postseason bound and Payton Tolle in the same boat as Bennett.

Chapman has two saves in three days after going 19 days without one. The save today was the 396th of his career.

He allowed seven hits, walked none and struck out two. Wilkinson threw 66 pitches on three days’ rest after his two-inning MLB debut on Wednesday. With Adrian Houser moving back to the rotation, it’s unclear if Wilkinson will get a start next time through. Sending him down for a fresh arm might be a possibility.

Cox homered in his 10th big-league game back in June, but that was off Carson Kelly in 16-3 game against the Cubs. This one came off Jake Bennett in the second. Cox, who could be looking at more playing time if Victor Bericoto goes on the IL, is batting .255/.255/.489 through 50 plate appearances. He’s struck out 26 times, but he has a .526 BABIP, which seems totally sustainable.