Category: MLB

After the Mets traded away eight major league players leading up to Monday's deadline, some call-ups ahead of Tuesday's game against the Cleveland Guardians were going to be necessary. 

New York is promoting and recalling the following players, reports The Athletic's Will Sammon: 

• RHP Dedniel Núñez
• LHP Jefry Yan
• LHP Nate Lavender
• RHP Chayce McDermott
• RHP Xzavion Curry
• OF Cristian Pache

Núñez will make his long-awaited return to the majors as he recently had his rehab assignment transferred to Triple-A Syracuse on July 8. The right-hander had been recovering from Tommy John surgery and last pitched in the majors in July 2025. He owned a 4.15 ERA with 14 strikeouts over 13 games in the minors across four levels this season.

Yan, 29, has pitched to a 3.24 ERA over 35 appearances in Double-A (3.71 ERA in 21 games) and Triple-A (2.40 ERA in 14 games). The lefty has racked up an impressive 77 strikeouts to just 28 walks over 41.2 IP. 

Lavender, who was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft, returned to the Mets last fall after he was DFA'd. The lefty missed the entire 2025 season recovering from an elbow injury that required an internal brace procedure. Now 26-years-old, Lavender has made 25 appearances with Triple-A Syracuse this year and owns a 3.27 ERA with 53 strikeouts across 33.0 IP.

McDermott was acquired by New York from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for the recently DFA'd Ben Rortvedt. He made two appearances for LA (7.71 ERA) and owned a 4.10 ERA over 27 games in Triple-A. 

Meanwhile, Pache last played in the majors with the Miami Marlins in 2024 and is hitting .232 over 93 games with Triple-A Syracuse this year. 

Curry has appeared in five games with the Mets this season and most recently tossed six innings of relief on July 31 against the Marlins.

No date will ever top Oct. 27, 2002, the date the Angels won their lone World Series.

We could talk about Sept. 30, 1984, the date Mike Witt threw the Angels’ lone perfect game. Or June 9, 2009, the date the Angels drafted the best player in franchise history, Mike Trout. Or July 29, 2018, the date Vladimir Guerrero became the first player to wear an Angels cap on a Hall of Fame plaque.

Or, if you care to look at it from a cynical angle, that fateful fall day in 1979 when then-general manager Buzzie Bavasi said he could replace Nolan Ryan, who had just gone 16-14 in his final year in Anaheim, with “two 8-7 pitchers.”

This isn’t about trivia. This is to say that Monday might well be remembered as one of those significant dates in Angels history.

Read more:Last-place Angels beat first-place Brewers to end five-game losing streak

In recent years, the Angels have deluded themselves and their fans with such beliefs as: they had assembled a young core that could win; Shohei Ohtani really wanted to stay; and the universally and consistently poor rankings of their minor-league system should be dismissed.

On Monday, John Mozeliak changed all that. The Angels’ interim general manager traded seven players off the major-league roster ahead of the trade deadline, including five within the final nine hours. Mozeliak imported nine prospects, only one of which will report to the major-league team.

It was one thing for owner Arte Moreno and new team president Molly Jolly to recruit Mozeliak six weeks ago and promise that he could embark on a desperately overdue rebuild.

To see it actually come to fruition? Maybe there really are Angels in the outfield.

“What’s really impressive for me is just the amount of trust I’ve been granted,” Mozeliak said.

The Angels finished in last place last year, and the year before that. They are on pace to lose 100 games this season, for the first time in franchise history. Their postseason drought is about to hit 12 years, the longest in baseball.

But now there is a plan, not just a bunch of ifs and hopes, even if the Angels might have to take another step back to take two steps forward.

“I would say we took a step forward today,” Mozeliak said on a videoconference after the trade deadline passed.

Prospects! Tell me more!

The only top-50 prospect the Angels acquired: shortstop Arjun Nimmala, 20. The Toronto Blue Jays swapped him and two other minor leaguers for pitcher José Soriano. Mozeliak said Nimmala is about two years from the majors.

The only prospect coming to the majors: catcher/designated hitter Moises Ballesteros, whom Mozeliak said would DH in two of the next three games.

That means Jorge Soler won’t be the DH for the moment. Who was traded?

Soriano, outfielder Jo Adell, catcher Logan O’Hoppe and relievers Ryan Zeferjahn, Brent Suter, Kirby Yates and Chase Silseth. All but Suter and Yates were under the Angels’ control beyond this season.

And who was not traded?

In addition to Soler, pitcher Reid Detmers and shortstop Zach Neto (“We definitely listened to offers, but we were not comfortable with the offers we received”) and first baseman Nolan Schanuel (“He was asked about, but not to the level of others”).

Mozeliak had said last month that a Trout trade was “not happening.” He said Monday that he had invited Trout to observe the team’s war room ahead of the trade deadline.

“He’s the face of this franchise,” Mozeliak said. “From where I stand, from being around him, we want to get this better for him, and for others. Our fans want to see winning.”

Mozeliak had said the Angels should not need a total rebuild because the resources available to a major-market team should mitigate the need to tank and just play kids. Does he believe the Angels could be better next season?

Hear it from him: “We need to remain disciplined and patient to a process and not just try to rush some people to the big leagues. ... If they’re not ready, and we’re not ready to compete with that group, that’s where we’re going to augment using more of the free-agent model.”

Read more:Shaikin: Can a new minor league team in Irvine attract fans if the Angels are so affordable?

This is starting to sound like a long-term plan. Is Mozeliak here for the long-term, as most inside the industry believe he is?

Mozeliak insists he hasn’t decided if he wants to stay, and he hasn’t yet met with Moreno and Jolly to discuss the matter. But he said two things that stuck out to me.

One: “It’s fun being back in the game. I didn’t realize how much I missed it.”

Two: “We have made a difference. Change has been real.”

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The MLB trade deadline was here and gone in a flash, and just about each one of your California-based teams was active leading up to the cutoff Monday afternoon.

Some clubs were more aggressive than others. Some looked to move off of players, while others were stacking their roster for a postseason run.

There were a total of 15 moves made and finalized between the five teams on the day of the deadline, Aug. 3. There were a total of 22 transactions dating back to July 10.

Here are all of the transactions and trades completed involving the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres and the Athletics.

For one night, at least, general manager Brian Cashman looked like a genius with his decision to land Luis García Jr. ahead of the trade deadline.

And for one night, at least, Aaron Boone’s first comments on the first baseman and designated hitter — “he rakes” — were prophetic.

García, making his debut Monday, launched a two-run home run over the left-field fence to briefly give the Yankees a 7-6 lead in the seventh inning against the Cardinals after initially falling behind 6-0. The Yankees’ bullpen, however, struggled in the eighth as the Bombers quickly fell behind again.

The Yankees acquired him from the Nationals on Sunday in exchange for pitchers Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird, Ben Grable and Jack Cebert, attempting to add a jolt to a lineup currently missing Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton.

García entered with a .560 slugging percentage, which led the National League, and had hit 23 homers in his first 104 games of the season for the Nationals.

His 24th of the year ensured he made a strong first impression with the Yankees.

It’s a three-peat until proven otherwise.

That much became apparent as Major League Baseball’s trade deadline passed and the Los Angeles Dodgers added the greatest left-handed pitcher in the game while the chief threats to their bid for a third consecutive World Series title were relegated to leftovers.

So just how does the acquisition of Tarik Skubal affect the path and probability for clubs aiming to knock off the Dodgers?

Injuries and other factors will surely affect the composition of contenders come October, but the end of the trade deadline tells us exactly the composition of an organization for the rest of the way. And with that, USA TODAY Sports ranks the top eight World Series contenders:

The Red Sox’s acquisition of Adley Rutschman has left some in the game shocked at what Boston was willing to give up in the deal with the Orioles. 

The Red Sox picked up the three-time All-Star catcher, along with catcher Jake Rogers and cash, in exchange for a haul of prospects and players that went to Baltimore, which included pitching prospects Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, outfield prospect Enddy Azocar, veteran catcher Carlos Narvaez and a player to be named later or cash considerations. 

However, it appears the cost to bring in Rutschman was too much for some, according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam. Eyanson (No. 1), Witherspoon (No. 6) and Azocar (No. 7) are now all in the Orioles’ top-10 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.

In a social media post, McAdam reported that there were people around baseball “stunned” by the cost the Red Sox paid for the All-Star catcher and that one evaluator with another organization put it another way. 

“I’m absolutely dumbfounded by this…This is literally one of the most ridiculous trades I’ve seen in 30 years,” the person told McAdam. 

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow also acknowledged that the high price had been a bit uncomfortable for him, but also said that when you’re making a deal at this time of year, “there are no deals that are comfortable.” 

“You don’t draw a line and say this is as far as we’ll go, and there’s a bit of a moving target,” he said. “And you try to remain as disciplined as you can, but I think you have to constantly zoom out to remind yourself that like what you’re trying to do is improve your major league team in this season.”

Rutschman is hitting .251/.331/.433, along with eight home runs and 47 RBIs in 67 games this season. 

The addition does provide the Red Sox with a big bat and addresses their need at catcher. 

Rutschman is dealing with left wrist inflammation that landed him on the injured list. He has not played since July 18.

CLEVELAND — Six trades later, the Mets makeover is finished.

The organization’s final tally as Monday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline passed was seven players jettisoned over five days and 11 prospects imported. If nothing else, president of baseball operations David Stearns was active in overhauling a roster that has been MLB’s most disappointing this season.

Such is life for a team that assembled a $380 million payroll for this season but has cratered to a 47-66 record and last place standing in the National League East.

Any hopes of a revival were dashed with a plunge into the abyss in late June that forced manager Carlos Mendoza’s firing. It left the Mets as sellers at the trade deadline for the second time in four seasons.

“I believe it was the right thing to do given where we are in this season to make these decisions,” Stearns said on a video call. “These are not easy decisions, and our goal is to move the organization forward in the best way possible to ensure that we have a far better season next and each season beyond.”

On a whirlwind Monday, the Mets completed their final four deals of the trade season involving major league players. The two most noteworthy trades occurred in the late afternoon: Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor were dealt for the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect, infielder Jefferson Rojas. It followed the trade that sent Luke Weaver to Pittsburgh for the Pirates’ No. 9 prospect, infielder Sammy Stafura. The Mets are sending about $8 million to the Pirates as part of the deal.

Earlier in the day, the Mets traded Huascar Brazobán and Brooks Raley to the White Sox and Phillies, respectively. From the White Sox, the Mets acquired Chicago’s No. 18 prospect Gabe Davis, a right-handed pitcher, and Zach Franklin, an unranked right-handed pitcher. From the Phillies the Mets acquired Philadelphia’s No. 27 prospect, outfielder John Spikerman, and right-handed pitcher Luke Gabrysh, an unranked prospect.

A day earlier the Mets traded Freddy Peralta to the Rays for outfielder Aidan Smith, right-handed pitcher Gary Gill Hill and infielder Émilien Pitre. Those three players ranked as the Nos. 15, 26 and 27 Rays prospects.

Stearns acknowledged the difficult decisions the Mets faced in trading Weaver and Brazobán, both of whom were under club control for next season. The rest of the players dealt are set to hit free agency after this season.

“Really tough decisions there, and not straight forward,” Stearns said. “We had a lot of internal discussion and debate. Ultimately, the returns we were able to get we thought made sense in the best interest of the organization, recognizing that at this time of year you are often able to get really good talent back for relief pitching. We understand we’re going to have to go out and acquire relievers in the offseason in different ways to get our bullpen back to where we expect it to be in 2027.”

The Mets looked to trade veteran outfielder Luis Robert Jr., according to a source, but a deal never materialized for the veteran outfielder, who has spent most of this season on the injured list. Robert’s contract, which is paying him $20 million this season, has a club option for 2027.

Why keep Robert?

“I think with Luis, it’s the possibility of what he can do for us in the second half, the understanding that there is a club option and the excitement of still having him here for the next few months of the season,” Stearns said.

Five of the 11 players the Mets acquired were infielders, but Stearns said that course wasn’t dictated by design.

“I think our approach was what’s the best talent?” he said. “It’s so difficult to know exactly what roles you are going to need at the major league level at any point in time and so our approach was really, what’s the best talent? Who are the players that we think have the ability to be the best major league players?” 

As far as Yankees prospects go, George Lombard Jr. was about as untouchable as they come as the trade deadline passed Monday.

Now the question becomes when the Yankees might call him up over the final two months of the season to see if he can provide a solution to their shortstop question after it went unanswered at Monday’s deadline.

“If he does [get a shot], we’ll let you know,” GM Brian Cashman said on a conference call Monday night. “Obviously tonight, that’s not the case. It’s business as usual the way we’re currently set.”

That meant Anthony Volpe and José Caballero continuing to split the position for now, as the Yankees entered Monday having received 0.8 bWAR from their shortstops this season.

Neither Volpe nor Caballero has done much to put a stranglehold on the position, creating questions about whether Lombard will get a chance to take over this season.

The 21-year-old Lombard, after returning from a finger injury in mid-July, has been tearing it up at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, batting .268 with a .845 OPS across 56 games — including .377 with a 1.081 OPS in 14 games since coming off the injured list.

Cashman indicated the Yankees explored adding a shortstop or infield help, but did not ultimately see a match — at a deadline when no major league shortstops got traded.

“I don’t think there were a lot of opportunities that existed that were upgrades for us,” Cashman said. “We like the players we have and we like the players we have on the come. … It was going to be a high bar.”

When describing his negotiations with the Tigers on Tarik Skubal, who ultimately went to the Dodgers, Cashman hinted that they may have asked for (and refused to move off of) Lombard, a price he was unwilling to pay.

The Yankees believe that Lombard — whose makeup and baseball IQ gets raved about by any and all club officials — is already ready for the big leagues defensively.

Offensively, he has taken some time to adjust to each new level in the minors, so if the Yankees want to have Lombard as their shortstop by the playoffs — or at least see if he can handle the job — it may behoove them to call him up sooner rather than later to give him enough runway into October.

Having traded away a slew of players ahead of the trade deadline earlier this evening, the Mets are set to call up six players, per Will Sammon: Dedniel Núñez, Jefry Yan, Nate Lavender, Chayce McDermott, Xzavion Curry, and Cristian Pache. The team has 21 players on its active roster at the time of this writing, and with Curry having just been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on Friday. Perhaps another pitcher is going on the injured list.

Núñez had Tommy John surgery last July, and he’s been pitching in the minors on a rehab assignment. In 13.0 innings, most of which have been with Syracuse, he has a 4.15 ERA and a 3.81 FIP. In 44.2 major league innings before his elbow injury, he had a 2.82 ERA and a 2.62 FIP.

Yan is a 29-year-old who took a long break from baseball in the late 2010s, but he’ll be making his major league debut whenever he appears in a game. He’s been in the Mets’ organization since the start of the 2026 season, and he’s had an outstanding 43.5% strikeout rate and a somewhat staggering 15.8% walk rate with a 3.24 ERA and a 2.64 FIP in 41.2 innings between his time in Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse. He’s known for his eccentric strikeout celebrations.

Lavender, a left-handed reliever, has been in the Mets’ system since the team drafted him in 2021. He was limited to just 7.0 innings in 2024 and missed the entirety of the 2025 season because of an injury. He’s thrown 43.0 innings in the minors this year with a 3.77 ERA and a 2.78 FIP. He, too, will be making his major league debut when he first appears.

McDermott is a 27-year-old right-handed reliever who came to the Mets when they traded minor league catcher Ben Rortvedt back to the Dodgers today. He’s thrown a total of 15.0 major league innings with the Orioles and Dodgers and has a 12.00 ERA and an 8.74 FIP. He has a 4.55 ERA and a 4.51 FIP in 31.2 innings in Triple-A this year.

Curry has thrown 11.0 innings with the Mets with a 3.27 ERA and a 4.92 FIP since joining the organization this year. He has a 4.56 ERA and a 5.63 FIP in 51.1 innings in Syracuse this year.

And last but not least, Pache is a right-handed hitter who is 27 years old who was considered a top-100 prospect in baseball from 2019 through 2022 as he played in the Braves’ minor league system. He’s made 610 plate appearances in the big leagues and hit just .181/.243/.275 with a 46 wRC+. He hasn’t hit much better in Syracuse this year, either, with a .232/.289/.356 line and a 62 wRC+.

The league played a game of musical catchers chairs Monday, and when it stopped, the Yankees got left out.

The trade deadline came and went without the Yankees addressing their biggest positional need from an offensive standpoint — plus not adding a reliever for the first time since 2019 — making for an underwhelming final haul of first baseman/DH Luis García Jr. on Sunday and outfielder Heliot Ramos on Monday.

While García may have been the best bat dealt at the deadline — and an important addition for a scuffling lineup, despite not being a perfect positional fit — the Yankees were not able to land a catcher like their two biggest foes in the AL East or upgrade the bullpen, instead hoping that the two bats they acquired along with the injured stars they are banking on returning later in the season will be enough to give them a legitimate chance to chase a 28th championship in October.

“As we move forward in this, we do think we have the players … that can compete for a championship,” Cashman said Monday night, shortly after the deadline passed. “The effort we put forth was trying to find ways to upgrade it if we can in this marketplace and we’re happy we were able to bring in Ramos and García to solve some of the problems. We’re looking forward now to getting the other guys back from the IL over time to fortify and finish us off for a supercharge.”

To make matters worse for the Yankees — who entered Monday 2 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays for the division and best record in the American League — the two teams they are sandwiched between in the AL East both acquired catchers. The Red Sox landed Adley Rutschman from the Orioles and the Rays added Liam Hicks from the Marlins.

The Yankees made a push for the switch-hitting Rutschman, who is on the IL with a wrist issue, but were “unable to meet the price,” Cashman acknowledged, as the Red Sox got him instead for a hefty five-player package.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, there was no opportunity that existed for us that we felt good enough about to be able to push through on,” Cashman said.

Two of the best offensive catchers in the game, the Rockies’ Hunter Goodman and the Twins’ Ryan Jeffers, did not get traded.

The Yankees also place a high value on Austin Wells’ game calling and his work with the pitching staff, which entered Monday with the lowest ERA in the majors, a partnership they did not necessarily want to mess with. Wells has been one of the worst hitters in the majors this season, though he has been better over the last few weeks, while the righty-hitting Ali Sánchez has been effective against lefties in a limited sample size.

Regarding the bullpen, Cashman pointed to the lack of high-impact relievers that actually moved (i.e., the Padres hung on to both Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon) and the fact that the Yankees could eventually have internal additions in Clarke Schmidt (finishing off his Tommy John rehab) and Will Warren or Ryan Weathers (if the rotation stays healthy by the time Carlos Rodón returns later this month).

As for Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back AL Cy Young winner acquired by the Dodgers, Cashman said he spoke with the Tigers but was unable to get them off of the “very specific ask and a certain player we weren’t willing to play with in that arena” — likely top prospect George Lombard Jr., whom the Yankees could call up this season to solve their issue at shortstop.

Of course, the Yankees already have the makings of a powerhouse rotation and instead approached the deadline knowing they needed help offensively, as they try to survive without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton, likely until September. Cashman reiterated that their expectation is to get Judge back this season from a right rib stress fracture, but since he has still yet to be cleared for baseball activities, that is no guarantee.

Without Judge, the Yankees lineup has been a shell of itself. Since June 18 (two weeks after the back-to-back AL MVP landed on the IL), entering Monday, it ranked 30th in OPS (.618), 30th in batting average (.205), 30th in runs per game (3.3), 30th in strikeout percentage (27.7) and 30th in WRC+ (72).

So they acquired García, the lefty slugger who led the National League in slugging percentage, from the Nationals on Sunday and Ramos, the righty-hitting outfielder who helps against lefties, on Monday from the Giants in exchange for pitching prospect Henry Lalane and infielder Kaeden Kent.

“Ultimately, we got some of the best slug on both of these guys against opposite hands in the game as additions to our offensive lineup,” Cashman said. “So I think Aaron Boone has a chance to match up better than he did as of [Sunday] when we get both of these guys here on property.”

CLEVELAND — The Mets may have saved their best two additions at this trade deadline for last.

Jefferson Rojas and Sammy Stafura are those names to watch.

Both infielders arrived to the Mets on Monday in separate deals just hours before the 6 p.m. deadline.

Rojas, the No. 2 Cubs prospect, was acquired in a deal that sent Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor to Chicago. The Mets landed Stafura, the No. 9 Pirates prospect, in a trade for Luke Weaver.

Rojas, 21, plays third base and shortstop. In 91 games this season in Double-A, he owns an .800 OPS with 15 homers and 17 stolen bases. He becomes the No. 1 Mets prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.

“A very well-rounded offensive profile,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “He’s young for his level and has really done exactly what you would want to see a player do who was a really well thought of amateur on the international market and has really just performed and progressed throughout his development.”

Stafura, 21, hails from Cortlandt Manor in Westchester County, where he attended Walter Panas High School — and grew up rooting for the Mets. He was a second-round pick by the Reds in 2023 before he was sent to the Pirates in a deal for Ke’Bryan Hayes at last year’s trade deadline.

In 60 games this season over two Class-A levels, Stafura owns a .960 OPS with 20 homers.

“The first thing that jumps off the page with you on Stafura is the defense,” Stearns said. “He’s got tremendous defensive ability. He’s a very good base runner and can impact the game in a variety of different ways.”

Stearns noted that Stafura hit 14 homers over the last month.

“We have seen some bat-speed upticks,” Stearns said. “Clearly, we have seen some exit velocity upticks that have allowed him to get there. This is a player who has real power, who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. When you have that combination, whether it’s doubles power, home run power, plus someone who can play at a high level at shortstop those aren’t easy players to find.”

Stearns was asked whether the Mets prioritized packing two players for a top prospect, was the case in the Rojas deal.

“Those are the type of deals that we explored throughout the past week,” Stearns said. “We had a lot of interest in a number of our players and so when you have that and you have the same team with interest in multiple players it does give you the ability to package or be creative. We explored a number of those concepts and the Rojas deal was the one that actually came to fruition.” 

There were already groans about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sustained greatness and penchant for picking up available star players, both in free agency and via trade.

Then the Dodgers traded for two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, before this season’s trade deadline. As a result, groans have turned to full-blown gripes about the Dodgers’ legendary roster (and means of acquiring this roster) ruining baseball.

Few have to try and combat the Dodgers’ roster more directly than San Diego Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, AJ Preller. Therefore, he has a right to be more frustrated about this than anyone else.

But Preller doesn’t see it that way, which he conveyed when speaking with the media on Tuesday.

When Preller was asked about whether the Dodgers are ruining baseball, he said, “When you have great teams and you have great players, it just raises the bar of other people and other players and other teams. Our focus is on what we needed to do to get better, and our group and our team,” according to an X post from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.

Perhaps it would’ve been more surprising to hear Preller complain publicly about what the Dodgers are doing. Then again, he’s right in saying that the bottom line is that every other team must do what they can to keep up, or else they’ll get left in the dust time and time again.

Preller’s Padres did what they could to keep up at this year’s trade deadline by adding Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to their rotation.

But these two additions still don’t compare to the Dodgers securing Skubal.

After a brief break, it’s time for the next Most Important Series of the Season™. We welcome the Padres to Chase Field for the first time this season – though it’s not the first home series against them. That conundrum is explained by the fact that the home series in April took place in Mexico City. It was an offense-minded event, the teams combining to score 29 runs across the two games, each winning once, and was an interesting cultural exercise. But it kinda sucks that it counted as a “home” series for Arizona, when this set of four is the only time we actually get to host San Diego this year. With head-t0-head now the first tiebreaker, that could end up mattering.

Certainly, everything still to play for between the two teams, with the season score currently tied, at 3-3, with seven games left to play. The Diamondbacks have a slight edge after splitting the four games in Petco last month. If everybody “hold serve” the rest of the way, then they’d win 7-6. But I’ve a feeling it might not be that easy. While the D-backs are currently tied with the Phillies for the second/third wild-card spots, the Padres are lurking, just one game back. So, anything less than a split would see Arizona drop behind San Diego, and depending on what Philadelphia do (they’re hosting Washington), potentially out of a playoff spot entirely.

It might end up being a pitcher’s duel tonight. Both starters went in the July series, and got wins in their respective starts. Brandon Pfaadt gave the D-backs five scoreless innings, combining with two relievers on an eight-hit shutout, as they took the opener, 8-0. But two days later, Michael King was almost as good, allowing one run over six innings, as the Padres cruised to a 10-4 victory. We’ll see who prevails tonight, as we come down from the breathless excitement of the trade deadline [sorry, there’s no sarcasm font available when you’re writing a Gameday Thread…]