No relief appearance from Sunday’s games was more meaningful than Carlos Carrasco’s inning of work against the Rays. Pitching in his first game since being diagnosed with leukemia in June, Carrasco came in for the bottom of the seventh inning with the Indians behind by a 4-1 score. He began by inducing a pair of ground ball outs, and then Carrasco yielded a Tommy Pham double and a Travis d’Arnaud RBI single. He finished off the inning with a third groundout, this one off the bat of Joey Wendle.

The Reds’ bullpen has had its share of tumult of late, and the roller coaster ride continued on Sunday. They entered the day with a doubleheader against the Cardinals just completed and another doubleheader just ahead of them. In the nightcap of Saturday’s twin bill, Raisel Iglesias let a one-run lead and a split slip away, as Harrison Bader’s RBI single tied the game up at 2-2. He left runners on first and second base with no one out for Kevin Gausman, who allowed Matt Carpenter to hit a walk-off RBI single.
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Ryne Stanek did nothing to dispel the José Ureña-as-closer speculation on Thursday night, as he failed to protect the Marlins’ one-run lead over the Reds. He relieved Jarlin García in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and Joey Votto on first base, and began his outing by walking Eugenio Suárez, which put Votto into scoring position. Aristides Aquino’s single brought Votto home and left Stanek with his third blown save.

To his credit, Stanek came back for the ninth inning and kept the game knotted. The Marlins ultimately prevailed in the bottom of the 12th inning, thanks to Harold Ramirez’s walk-off homer off Raisel Iglesias, who had just entered the game. The loss dropped Iglesias to 2-10, and he now has two losses and a blown save over his last four appearances. Over that 2.2-inning span, he has given up four runs on nine hits, including two home runs. Though the sample is obviously small, there may be something to his 16.7 percent ground ball rate and 69.2 percent hard contact rate during this stretch as an explanation for his struggles. It’s time to lay off Iglesias in daily lineup leagues and to pick up Michael Lorenzen as insurance.
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A few lineups are sure to get scrambled when rosters expand on Sunday. Before we get inundated with all of the roster additions, here are some recent lineup and batting order changes we’ve seen in the National League.

Arizona

Based on the four games the Diamondbacks have played since David Peralta (shoulder) went on the IL, it would seem that Ketel Marte and Josh Rojas can count on regular playing time in outfield, with Jarrod Dyson filling in for both occasionally. When Dyson plays center, Marte tends to shift to second base, whereas Rojas could get the occasional day off, like he had on Tuesday against the Giants. Right field has been a mix of Dyson, Adam Jones and Tim Locastro. Across all three outfield positions, Dyson should play fairly steadily against righties, but Jones and Locastro appear destined to remain in reserve roles.
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Héctor Neris has been reliable for much of this season, and especially in the second half. Prior to the Phillies’ current series with the Pirates, Neris had reeled off a string of 13 consecutive appearances — each lasting one full inning — in which he had not allowed a run. That does not fully illustrate how dominant Neris had been, as he allowed only two singles, a double, an unintentional walk and an intentional walk over that span.

In Monday night’s series opener, Neris blew a chance at a save when he gave up a Josh Bell solo homer, which was the first home run he had allowed since July 18. On Tuesday night, Neris entered in the top of the ninth inning with a 4-4 tie, and uncharacteristically, he issued back-to-back walks with one out. He would wind up paying for those free passes when the next batter, Kevin Newman, hit what appeared to be a double play ball to César Hernández. Melky Cabrera was out at second, but Rhys Hoskins dropped the throw from Jean Segura, which allowed Newman to be safe at first base and Adam Frazier to score the go-ahead run.
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The Mets did not need a closer in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Braves, but if they did, it would not have been Edwin Díaz. On Saturday, Díaz came in for the top of the ninth inning, one inning after Brad Brach had already allowed the Braves to unlock a 5-5 tie on Ronald Acuña Jr.‘s RBI single. He allowed the Braves to increase their lead on Freddie Freeman’s leadoff homer, and two batters later, Díaz was lifted due to tightness in his trapezius muscle. He was unavailable for Sunday’s game, and an IL stint is not off the table.

For however long Díaz is out, it is probably safe to assume that Seth Lugo would be used as the closer, Lugo already has a pair of saves in August, and he was essentially used as the closer against the Braves on Friday, when he pitched the top of the eighth and ninth innings in a tie game. Regardless of Díaz’s health status, owners — particularly those in saves-plus-holds leagues — should keep tabs on Paul Sewald. Since getting recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Aug. 16, he has struck out 10 batters in five innings, including four batters in two innings on Sunday. Sewald did allow his first run since getting promoted, giving up Josh Donaldson’s second home run of the game.
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Already, the excitement over the recent callups of Trent Grisham, Josh Rojas and Ty France has started to fade. These are just some of the fantasy implications resulting from changes in National League lineups and batting orders this week.

Arizona

The Diamondbacks continue to employ a platoon of Jarrod Dyson and Adam Jones, but with the demotion of Tim Locastro to Triple-A Reno on Aug. 15, David Peralta is back to playing everyday in left field. He has made seven straight starts and is in the lineup once again for Friday night’s game in Milwaukee.
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With a handful of closers unavailable to pitch, Thursday turned into Substitute Closer’s Day. The appearance by a fill-in that could signal the biggest fantasy impact was Derek Law’s foray into a save opportunity against the Dodgers. That’s because the Blue Jays’ placed Ken Giles on the paternity list prior to Thursday night’s game, and the incumbent closer could be miss the entire upcoming weekend series in Seattle. In other words, Law could have more save chances over the next three days.

Law had already filled in for Giles on a short-term basis earlier this month, when he was out with right elbow inflammation. Since returning on Aug. 13, Giles has made only three appearances, and only one of those outings was for a save opportunity. Because of Giles’ relative inactivity, we have kept Law in the grid as a co-closer, as it’s conceivable he could get saves if the Jays want to be careful with Giles’ workload.
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Not so long ago, when it came to pull-heavy power hitters, there was no equal to Brian Dozier. Based on developments currently unfolding this season, the genre could explode in 2020.

Back in 2016, Dozier was unique among major league hitters in his ability to pull flyballs at an extremely high rate consistently. Among hitters who launched at least 100 flies in both 2015 and 2016, Dozier was the only batter to exceed a 35 percent pull rate on flyballs in both seasons. He essentially lapped the field, surpassing a 40 percent rate in both campaigns. Then Dozier was the only hitter to pull off the feat in both 2016 and 2017.
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On Saturday, Matt Magill became eighth Mariner to record a save this season, and on Tuesday night, he joined a more selective group, becoming the fifth Mariner to record a second save. Given that the Mariners are just 53-73, have a staff with a collective 5.07 ERA that doesn’t hand off many leads in the late innings and have recorded only 26 saves on the season, we can be excused for not having much of an appetite for chasing saves in Seattle. That apathy could be compounded by Magill’s status as a 29-year-old journeyman with a history of pedestrian strikeout rates, questionable control and a propensity for allowing homers.

However, this version of Magill is not the same as the earlier one we may be more familiar with. He is throwing fewer four-seam fastballs, but he has roughly doubled his SwStr% on the pitch from 6.4 percent to 12.9 percent. Magill has also increased his curveball usage, and it’s a pitch that has been less prone to hard contact over the last two season (90.9 mph EV FB/LD) than his four-seamer has been (95.1 mph EV FB/LD). As a result, Magill has a more impressive strikeout rate (28.1 percent) and SwStr% (14.5 percent), and he also has an HR/9 ratio (1.13) that is well below the major league average.
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When the Rockies opened their series against the Marlins on Friday night, it was business as usual for Scott Oberg, who tossed a scoreless inning to record his fifth save of the season. On Saturday, in response to feeling heaviness in his right arm, Oberg ultimately underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from the arm. He was placed on the IL on Sunday, and in all likelihood, he will not pitch again this season.

With Oberg out, the Rockies turned to recently deposed closer Wade Davis to finish off a game they were leading 4-3 heading into the top of the ninth inning. Davis faced three batters, but he did not retire any of them. He began by walking Jorge Alfaro and then had two runners in scoring position as a result of a Lewis Brinson double. Then Davis blew the save by allowing a Neil Walker single. Carlos Estévez took over from there, but he allowed the Marlins to tack on two more runs, which were both charged to Davis.
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