Jonathan Aranda sits against left-hander on Sunday

Pages will have missed a month with a fractured hand suffered on a HBP. His return will push Tommy Edman back to second base and Alex Freeland to the bench.

Herz is returning from Tommy John and will be making his first major league appearance since Sept. 2024. Since returning last month from a June setback, he has a 4.24 ERA over 17 innings in six minor league starts. He got up to 65 pitches last time out, so four innings would seem to be a realistic expectation for him tomorrow.

Where did that come from? Cronenworth entered with five homers and 31 RBI all season. His only previous two-homer game came in Apr. 2023 against the Brewers. That was also his last five-RBI game. He hadn’t even had a four-RBI game since 2024. The performance raised his OPS this season from .608 to .637. With the win, the Padres stayed five games ahead of the D-backs with six to play.

Buehler was one out away from pitching seven scoreless innings for the first time since Apr. 25, 2022, only to give up a three-run homer to Javier Sanoja on an 0-1 cutter. That was a bummer, but it didn’t stop him from improving to 9-6 with a 4.56 ERA. Even though he’s pretty obviously been a below average starter, the Padres are 21-10 with him on the mound. They’re 15-16 in Michael King’s starts, even though he has a 3.03 ERA. Buehler is in line to face the D-backs on Saturday.

Alcantara was back down to 97 mph with his fastball and sinker today after averaging 100.4 mph in his relief appearance, and he gave up four runs for the fifth consecutive start. He’s now gone six weeks without winning, and his ERA is up to 3.91 as he prepares to face the Braves in his final start of the year.

Sanoja hit a ball 403 feet off Walker Buehler in the seventh. It’s the second-farthest he’s hit a ball as a major leaguer, trailing only a Coors Field-aided 419-foot homer in June. Statcast thinks Sanoja is pretty fortunate to be hitting .291/.330/.454, but he’s certainly a nice player while doing so. His presence could free up the Marlins to trade either Xavier Edwards or Otto Lopez this winter.

Muncy scored the go-ahead run on Kiké Hernández’s double in the seventh and then singled in an insurance run in the eighth. He has seven hits, including a homer and three doubles, in his last four games.

Sheehan didn’t get the win; he would have needed to record two more outs, since the Dodgers didn’t take the lead until the bottom of the seventh. Fantasy owners have to be disappointed to have missed out on Sheehan’s performance after the Dodgers’ surprising decision to demote him earlier this week, but it looks like the team had this plotted out. It’s unclear if Sheehan will get another start. The Dodgers are probably going to want him in the pen during the postseason, though he would be the top rotation alternative in the event of a Blake Snell setback.

Scott blew his previous save chance Monday against the Marlins, but this is his third scoreless inning since. He has a 2.77 ERA in 61 2/3 innings.

Wilkinson was 0-3 with a 7.11 ERA in his three starts for the Giants, but he did very well today, allowing just three hits and walking none. He left with a 1-0 lead, but that vanished right away in the sixth. Wilkinson will likely make another start against the Dodgers next weekend.