Tyler Stephenson

The home run was Stephenson's 11th of the season. He's been on a home run tear lately. Stephenson is 10-for-31 (.322) with five home runs and nine RBI in his last eight games. He's certainly doing enough at the plate to be rostered in all two-catcher formats. Stephenson is hitting .243 with a .761 OPS and 35 RBI on the season.

All four runs were courtesy of the long ball, as he gave up a three-run homer to Tyler Stephenson in the third, and a solo blast to Santiago Espinal an inning later. The southpaw hurler did strike out five, but he allowed seven hits in a start that you'd have to squint awfully hard to find the positive in. Gomber ends his first half with a 4.61 ERA, and outside of the occasional stream against the bottom dwellers, he isn't a viable fantasy starter at this stage of his career.

Stephenson hit a three-run blast to give the Reds a 3-0 lead, and hit his second homer of the contest in the seventh with a runner on to extend the Cincinnati lead to 8-1. The 27-year-old backstop has had an uneven first half of the year, but he has procured 10 homers and 34 RBI. You can do better than Stephenson as your starting backstop in fantasy formats, but there's enough upside to suggest he can be a solid option over the final two-plus months of 2024.

It's unclear at the moment just how long the Reds expect that the 33-year-old backstop will be shelved for. Austin Wynns was recalled from Triple-A Louisville in a corresponding move to share the load behind the plate with Tyler Stephenson in the meantime.