Ramos, who is headed to next week’s Midsummer Classic as a reserve, extended his on-base streak to 11 consecutive games by taking Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman deep in the opening frame for a two-run blast to left field. It wound up being his lone hit in four at-bats during Thursday’s afternoon matinee at Oracle Park, but it was his fourth round-tripper in nine contests since the start of July. The 24-year-old former top prospect has delivered one of the more unexpected first-half breakthroughs, batting .300 (67-for-223) with 14 homers, 45 RBI and two steals through 57 games. He’s on a 40-homer pace since arriving in the big leagues back in early May. That’ll work.

Gausman was staked to a three-run lead before ever taking the mound on Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park and nearly wound up giving it all back when he surrendered a two-run shot to Heliot Ramos in the opening frame. He managed to settle in afterwards, keeping San Francisco’s lineup off the scoreboard over his final six innings of work, allowing just four baserunners during that span. He finished with three strikeouts and didn’t hand out a free pass. He hasn’t come close to replicating last year’s likely career year, but he’s remained a solid innings-eater for fantasy managers that’s still capable of delivering the occasional double-digit strikeout effort. He’ll bring a pedestrian 4.50 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 104/27 K/BB ratio across 104 innings (19 starts) into next week’s All-Star break.

The goal here for Toronto would be to have another club pick up the remaining portion of Kiermaier’s $10.5 million salary for this season. If that doesn’t happen, they’ll simply release him. The 34-year-old veteran defensive wizard appears to be the first domino to fall as it appears the Blue Jays are going to pivot towards selling off some of their short-term pieces over the next few weeks.

The positive news here for fantasy managers is that an MRI on Wheeler’s back didn’t reveal anything serious and he’s expected to be ready to roll coming out of next week’s All-Star break. It’s a tough development for fantasy purposes as the veteran fantasy ace loses an extremely favorable start during Sunday’s first-half finale against a rebuilding Oakland squad that has been piling up the strikeouts of late.

No real surprise here as the Astros aren’t going to take any chances with their middle-of-the-order lynchpin with the All-Star break in a few days. The 27-year-old fantasy superstar made an early exit from Wednesday’s contest due to right hip tightness. It doesn’t sound like he’ll wind up requiring a trip to the injured list, but he might not play a ton over the next few days. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now.

Harper is back at first base and batting third on Thursday night following a brief one-game absence due to a right hand contusion. The 31-year-old generational slugger went 0-for-4 on Tuesday night in his return from the injured list after missing just over one week due to a mild left hamstring strain.

Spectacular. Skenes was pulled despite allowing just a walk over his seven innings after throwing 99 pitches — 65 of them for strikes. Colin Holderman immediately allowed a hit after Skenes left the outing to prevent the combined no-no. It would be almost impossible to overstate how impressive the 22-year-old has been since being promoted to Pittsburgh, and a 1.90 ERA and 89/12 K/BB over 11 starts will do the talking for us. Skenes very well could start the All-Star game on Tuesday, and you’d have to hate the city of Pittsburgh very much to suggest he’s undeserving of such an honor.

Bellinger lands on the injured list after being hit by a pitch during Wednesday’s contest against the Orioles. No word yet on an official timeline, but fantasy managers should expect him to miss at least a couple weeks. Per Baseball Prospectus’ injury recovery dashboard, the average return timeline is roughly 2-4 weeks from a fractured finger. The fallout here could be significant as it’ll likely force the Cubs to acquire a center field replacement during the All-Star break, especially if they intend to remain in the playoff race.

It’s a routine day off for Elly and just his second of the season. Santiago Espinal will start in his place at shortstop. Since May 1st, Elly is hitting .238/.324/.418 in 63 games with a 31.4 percent strikeout rate. Of course, he also has 27 stolen bases and seven home runs to go along with it, which keeps him a must-start player in all fantasy leagues.

Butler singled and stole second base in his first at-bat of the night before scalding a two-run double down the left field line off Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta in the ensuing frame. The 24-year-old former top prospect has started to heat up recently, batting .304 (7-for-23) with two homers, six RBI and two steals over his last seven games.