Kaelen Culpepper picks up three hits versus Braves

Soroka tossed two scoreless innings in Colorado before giving up two runs, one earned, in the third, including a solo homer by Mickey Moniak. He settled back in to pitch four more scoreless frames, ending his day after seven with just the two runs allowed while striking out nine batters. The 29-year-old right-hander is due to take a 3.31 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 110/27 K/BB ratio into one final start against the Padres in San Diego on Sunday.

The Diamondbacks jumped on Freeland in the first inning, bringing three runs home on five hits. Arizona brought another run in on two hits in the third. Freeland gave up a leadoff double in the fourth and was relieved at 69 pitches. The inherited runner would eventually score. He struck out two. The 33-year-old left-hander is in line to start the Rockies’ final game of the season on Sunday against the White Sox in Chicago.

Rasmussen struck out 11, which is the second highest total of his career. He had 13 against Boston earlier this year. Unless the Rays decide to have him make a cameo on Sunday, Rasmussen will end the regular season 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA and a 174/32 K/BB in 172 innings. He’s probably looking at finishing third or fourth in the AL Cy Young balloting.

Baker averaged 94.0 mph with his fastball tonight. That’s 2.4 mph off his season average and his second lowest mark of the year. He’s come in under 95 mph five times this month after doing so just twice in the first five months of the season. It hasn’t hurt him yet, but it should be a cause of some concern to the Rays ahead of the postseason, especially if they want to start asking him to come in with runners on and get more than three outs at a time.

Three of the runs came in the seventh, when Fried allowed three singles. The second was a 72-mph flyball and the third was a bunt from Taylor Walls on which Fried probably would have had an out at first, except no one was covering the base. Fried left with two outs and one run in, and John Schneider went on to give up a two-run single before finishing the inning. Fried’s regular season ends at 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA in 20 starts. Last year, he was 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 32 starts. Fried is likely to start in the Wild Card series against Boston next week.

The singles were his only hits in nine at-bats today, but they were very well timed. He had gone hitless in six straight games entering the nightcap, dropping his average from .301 to .290. He’s hitting .249/.297/.385 in 61 games since the All-Star break.

García has come in at .263/.293/.441 for the Yankees after hitting .283/.313/.560 in 104 games with the Nationals. That’s not too bad, but despite hitting third or fourth, he has just 15 RBI in 42 games, seven of which were him driving in himself.

Tolman struck out the first two batters he faced before he walked Hao-Yu Lee. With the tying run at the plate, he struck out Kevin McGonigle looking to end the game. It was Tolman’s fourth save. The 14th-round pick by the Nationals in 2021 has a 3.38 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first 13 1/3 big league innings.

Anderson gave up five hits, walked none and struck out five. He fell to 5-7 with the loss. Having likely made his last appearance of the season, Anderson will finish with a 3.67 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 114 strikeouts in 108 innings. Not bad for his return to the majors after playing two seasons each in Japan and Korea. Assuming Anderson has his $10 million 2027 team option picked up, he should compete for a backend spot in the Tigers’ rotation next year.