Elly De La Cruz stays hot with another home run

Vargas walked and stole second base before coming around to score on teammate Munetaka Murakami’s RBI single in the opening frame. He also provided a pivotal insurance run when he took Jackson Jobe deep in the sixth. The 26-year-old former top prospect’s impressive breakthrough campaign sees him join Pete Crow-Armstrong, James Wood and CJ Abrams as the fourth member of the 30-homer, 20-steal club this season.

Back starting today after working behind an opener Monday, Burke had another successful outing, even though his velocity was down; he averaged 95.8 mph with his fastball last time out and was at 94.9 mph for the season, but he came in at just 93.7 mph today. It’s a bit concerning, but given that he faces the Rockies at home next week, he still looks like a nice play in mixed leagues.

This was impressive. Schultz threw first-pitch strikes to all eight batters he faced, and while he did give up a couple of hits, they were on soft flyballs hit 83 and 69 mph, respectively. Schultz also pitched two scoreless innings Wednesday in his first relief appearance after being called up Tuesday. If he can keep this up, it could make the White Sox quite a bit more dangerous in October.

Taylor just threw 2 1/3 innings and 35 pitches in a save Thursday, but since this is late September in a pennant race, he was right back out there again today. He’s now thrown seven innings and 123 pitches over the last eight days, so he’ll certainly be down on Sunday. Bryan Hudson will be a candidate for a save then.

Jobe struck out nine, but he managed to allow runs in three separate innings despite giving up just four hits and one walk on the afternoon. He gave up a run in the first on a walk, a steal and then a soft flyball single that left fielder Brett Callahan got a bad jump on. The run in the fifth was a product of a HBP, a single, a walk and a sac fly, and he surrendered a solo homer to Miguel Vargas in the sixth. Jobe is 2-3 with a 3.98 ERA. He’ll face the Pirates next weekend.

Montgomery had a nice game Friday, but even then, he still struck out twice. He’s up to 216 strikeouts with seven games to go. It’s the seventh-highest total of all time, and he’s currently seven behind Mark Reynolds for the major league record. However, there’s the chance he could overtake Reynolds and not wind up as the record holder, since Kyle Schwarber entered today at 214.

Jordan ends his rookie season having hit .247/.276/.382 with three homers in 199 plate appearances. He might have the chance to compete for a job in spring training, but he has all of his options remaining, and there’s a good chance he’ll wind up back in Triple-A for a spell.

Young has been starting against most lefties of late, but he won’t get the nod against José Quintana tonight. It’s his first time on the bench in five games, and Arroyo’s first start in the last four games.

He didn’t throw at 100 percent, but he said his knee held up fine. He’s hoping to be ready to contribute in the postseason.

The Cardinals are leaving Nathan Church in center, so Scott is starting in center for the first time this season and third time as a major leaguer. He’s 1-for-5 with two steals in three tries since being recalled. As things stand now, he seems like a candidate for a change-of-scenery trade this winter.