Ryan Zeferjahn slams door on Marlins on Thursday

Riley’s home run was his 19th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Brady Singer in the third inning. Riley is closing out his worst season in the majors by OPS (.665). The 29-year-old third basemen hit 19 home runs in 46 fewer games only two years ago. From 2021-23, Riley finished in the top 10 in the NL MVP voting all three years. Since then, he’s had three disappointing campaigns in a row and belief in a bounce back is dwindling.

De La Cruz’s home run was his 30th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Tyler Mahle in the third inning. His 30 homers and .521 slugging are both career-highs for the 24-year-old shortstop. De La Cruz may never come close to stealing 67 bases again, but he remains a fantasy stud nonetheless.

Jorge’s home run was the first of his MLB career. He hit a solo shot off Tyler Mahle in the first inning. Jorge was called up to the majors at the start of September. While he’s only had 34 at-bats, he’s been overmatched, hitting .147 with only two extra-base hits.

Pagán’s save was his 25th of the season. He pitched around a lead-off singled to preserve a one-run lead for the Reds. Pagán certainly has the trust of manager Terry Francona, picking up 57 saves under the skipper over the last two seasons.

Unbelievable. Spencer, who was recalled Wednesday and is no higher than the Astros’ fourth choice to be playing center field at the moment, hit balls 429, 385, 387 and 351 feet in his four at-bats tonight. All were homers except for the 385-foot flyout. Spence entered with just one career extra-base hit while going 6-for-40 for the Astros. He totaled 13 homers in 99 games in the minors this season. He’s the third player in major league history to hit his first three homers in the same game, but as cool as that is, it’s not quite as awesome as Joshua Báez doing it in his first major league game last month. The other to pull it off was Seby Zavala in 2021.

It just wasn’t Lambert’s night. He allowed only two hard-hit balls, but both of those were homers, and four of the other five balls in play against him turned into hits. None of those non-homers were hit harder than 83 mph, and the back-to-back homers in the third would have been gone in nine and 17 ballparks, respectively. Lambert’s regular season concludes with an 8-10 record and a 3.87 ERA in 28 starts. He almost certainly has to start in the Wild Card series if the Astros advance, but it doesn’t seem like he has a great deal left in the tank at this point. Before throwing 166 innings this year, he came in at 22, seven, 109, 90 and 124 the last five seasons.

Josh Hader threw 44 pitches Wednesday, so he was obviously down tonight. Fortunately, Abreu got the job done, getting the final out in the eighth to protect a 6-5 lead and then retiring three out of four batters with a two-run lead in the ninth. It’s his ninth save to go along with 16 holds. In spite of a very discouraging start to the season, he’s set to enter free agency as one of the top relievers available this winter.

Barnett struck out eight, matching his career high from a start against the Angels a year ago. The A’s, though, fell to 0-6 in his starts. Barnett ends the year with a 7.02 ERA and a 50/30 K/BB over 50 innings. It’s probably not going to be enough to keep him on the 40-man roster this winter.

Gelof’s exit velocity numbers aren’t quite as impressive as his .259/.326/.484 line suggests, but he’s made enough progress this year to be penciled in at either second or third for the A’s next spring. Most importantly, he’s sporting a 24 percent strikeout rate, which is a huge improvement over his previous career mark of 33 percent.

Mahle gave up six hits, walked two and struck out four. He had a 1.99 ERA in nine starts since joining the Braves before ending his season with a clunker of a start. Mahle has still done more than enough to start in the playoffs for Atlanta.