Arizona: CF Chris Young, who attended high school in Houston, was 7-for-14 with two doubles, a home run and four RBI in the D-backs’ three-game weekend sweep there. He is hitting .318 with six homers, 21 RBI and a 1.170 OPS in 16 career games at Minute Maid Park. … LHP Tyler Skaggs appears to be the top candidate to start one game of the Wednesday split doubleheader against Miami. Skaggs, 9-6 with a 2.87 ERA in two stops in the minor league system this year, was scratched from his scheduled Sunday start for Class AAA Reno. Reno RHP Trevor Bauer also could be a candidate.
Atlanta: 1B Lyle Overbay was signed to a minor league contract. He will report to Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday and will join the Braves when the rosters expand on Sept. 1. Manager Fredi Gonzalez has been looking for ways to give 1B Freddie Freeman a start off to rest, including starting IF/OF Martin Prado at first base. … LHP Mike Minor has seven quality starts in his last eight outings, and the lone short outing was because of a rain delay that took him out of the game. Minor’s ERA has dropped from 6.20 to 4.74 in those eight starts.
Chicago: LHP Chris Rusin will come up from Class AAA (Des Moines) Iowa to start tonight’s game in what will be his major league debut. Rusin, a non-roster invitee to spring training, is 8-8 with a 4.59 ERA at Iowa. … C Welington Castillo was back in the lineup after experiencing swelling in his right foot over the weekend.
Cincinnati: RHP Homer Bailey has allowed 18 earned runs over 19 2/3 innings in his last four starts and has surpassed his major league career highs for starts and innings. But pitching coach Bryan Price doesn’t think Bailey is tired. “We’re working on a little bit of a glitch in his delivery. His arm has been feeling good,” Price said. … RHP Mat Latos extended his hitting streak to four games with an RBI single Sunday.
Colorado: LF Carlos Gonzalez is expected to arrive in New York tonight but won’t play until Wednesday at the earliest. The Rockies put Gonzalez on bereavement leave Saturday, and he returned to Venezuela following the death of his grandfather. … RHP Jhoulys Chacin will be on the 75-pitch limit applicable to starters in the four-man rotation when he starts tonight. It will be the first time Chacin has pitched for the Rockies since May 1. He has made five rehab starts and has recovered from a nerve impingement in a pectoral muscle.
Houston: SS Tyler Greene has 11 hits, including two home runs, in his first 31 at-bats (.355) since being acquired from St. Louis. He has hit well both at the top of the order and the middle of the lineup. … C Jason Castro has started four of the first six games since his return from the disabled list. The Astros want to keep the swelling in his knee under control. “It’s been feeling really good, but definitely there’s a lot of maintenance that goes into it,” he said.
Los Angeles: OF Tony Gwynn Jr. hit .440 (11-for-25) in his first seven games with Class AAA Albuquerque after accepting a minor league assignment. Gwynn, who was designated for assignment on Aug. 6, remains a possibility to be recalled when active roster limits expand in September. … LHP Scott Elbert returned from the disabled list (elbow) and threw one scoreless inning with one strikeout Sunday, his first outing for the Dodgers since July 25. He had struck out all six batters he faced in three games on a rehab assignment with Class AA Chattanooga (Tenn.).
Miami: Wednesday’s episode of “The Franchise” on Showtime will be the finale even though it will be the seventh weekly episode. Originally, the Marlins signed up to do eight weekly episodes. Showtime now is including the special sneak-preview episode that aired in April after Guillen created controversy with his Fidel Castro comments among the eight episodes. “There was an option to do more, but given the state of our season, it was decided that the original eight would suffice,” president David Samson said. … OF Justin Ruggiano’s multi-hit game Sunday was his first since Aug. 9. He came into the day with one hit in his last 14 at-bats.
Milwaukee: LHP Randy Wolf’s woeful 2012 season continued Sunday with another loss, dropping him to 3-10 with a 5.69 ERA in 24 starts. He has allowed 94 runs, most in the league. Over his last five starts, Wolf is 0-4 with a 6.53 ERA. … RHP Mike Fiers has pitched 142 innings this year, spread between the minors and majors, after throwing 128 last season, but the Brewers aren’t ready to shut him down even though they generally try for only a 20-30 percent increase in young pitchers year to year. “I think he’s still strong in how he’s throwing,” manager Ron Roenicke said.
New York: LHP Johan Santana will make his next start Thursday, as scheduled. Santana, manager Terry Collins, general manager Sandy Alderson and pitching coach Dan Warthen all discussed the matter and determined that Santana will continue pitching on a start-by-start basis with a strict pitch count. Santana is not injured but is in his first season back from major shoulder surgery and is 0-5 with a 15.63 ERA over his last five starts. … RHP Jeremy Hefner will go on paternity leave later this week to be with his wife, Sarah, who is scheduled to have the birth of the couple’s second child induced on Wednesday.
Philadelphia: 3B Placido Polanco (back) was activated from the disabled list and was in the lineup, and IF Hector Luna was sent to Class AAA Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Pa.). … RHP Kyle Kendrick, who replaced RHP Joe Blanton in the rotation when Blanton was traded, has thrown 15 straight shutout innings. Kendrick is 4-8 with a 4.24 ERA in 17 starts this season. “Just trying to stay the same. That’s the main thing. Being who I am, staying the same, pounding the sinker, changeup, mixing in a couple cutters, a couple sliders,” Kendrick said.
Pittsburgh: RHP Kevin Correia became the first Pirates pitcher in 32 years to start a game one day after pitching in relief. Correia worked two innings and 24 pitches in Sunday’s 19-inning game. LHP Wandy Rodriguez, who was scheduled to start Monday night, worked the final two innings Sunday and got the first relief win of his eight-year career. … LHP Justin Wilson and RHP Kyle McPherson were recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis to give the Pirates some bullpen depth and also because they are capable of pitching multiple innings. RH reliever Juan Cruz was designated for assignment one day after failing hold a lead in the 17th inning. IF Jordy Mercer was placed on the paternity list Monday so he could return to his home in Edmond, Okla., for the birth of his and wife Kasey’s first child, a son named Maverick.
St. Louis: RHP Chris Carpenter (shoulder surgery) is hopeful of being able to do enough by the end of October to show team officials whether he can be counted on for next year. “They can’t go the whole offseason wondering if I’m going to be there in spring training and let free agency pass by if I’m not going to be (ready),” he said. … LF Matt Holliday, the hottest hitter in baseball for nearly two months, has dropped into a 5-for-46 nosedive. He was 0-for-7 and 3B David Freese was 0-for-8 in Sunday’s 19-inning loss, marking the first time in franchise history that two players had been 0-for-7 and 0-for-8 in the same game.
San Diego: SS Jason Bartlett, who has missed most of the season because of a strained right knee, was released. In 29 games for the Padres this year, he hit .133. … 3B Chase Headley was ejected by plate umpire Brian O’Nora on Sunday after questioning O’Nora’s strike zone. It was the second ejection of Headley’s career. “I tried to talk to him at the plate,” said Headley. “It wasn’t just one pitch. It was multiple pitches over multiple at-bats. I knew exactly what I was doing. I knew I was going to be ejected. I have no regrets. It fired us up. It makes me feel better that we won.”
San Francisco: OF Gary Brown, the Giants’ best hitting prospect, was moved from center to left at Class AA Richmond (Va.) in the wake of LF Melky Cabrera’s 50-game suspension. The Giants want to see how Brown does in left, a position that suddenly could be open next year, now that Cabrera no longer is in the team’s immediate plans. “We just want to look at it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. … RH reliever Guillermo Mota, serving a 100-game suspension for a second positive PED test, is on a rehab assignment at Class AAA Fresno after making two appearances at the rookie-league level. He’s eligible to be reinstated Aug. 28.
Washington: RHP Lucas Giolito, the Nationals’ first pick (16th overall) in this year’s draft, appears to have hurt his throwing elbow again and is going to be examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles, according to reports. ESPN.com reported that Giolito’s elbow apparently was sore after his first minor league game. … IF Cesar Izturis refused a minor league assignment and became a free agent.