Brewers, Nationals, Reds: The Reds’ Elly De La Cruz understands how much of a distraction he causes to opposing pitchers whenever he gets on base. “It seems like they get a little bit nervous right there when I go out there,” De La Cruz, who has a major league-leading 37 steals, said through a translator. With De La Cruz leading the way, the Reds are stealing bases at a rate unseen over the last three decades. And the Brewers and Nationals are right on their heels. No team this century has stolen more than 200 bases in a single season (the 2007 Mets had exactly 200). The Reds, Brewers and Nationals are all on pace to blow past that mark as they capitalize on rule changes put in place last year to help spur the running game. The Reds have 107 steals through its first 74 games and is on pace for 234. That would represent the highest total for any team since the 1992 Brewers had 256, according to Sportradar. The NL Central-leading Brewers have 104 steals through 75 games and the Nationals 101 through 74 games. That puts the Brewers on pace for at least 224 and the Nationals on track for 221. No team has finished a season with over 201 steals since the 1993 Expos had 228. “As the saying goes, speed never slumps,” Brewers outfielder Blake Perkins said. “It’s always something we’ve got in our back pocket.”

Yankees: The Yankees shuffled their bullpen after losing consecutive series to the AL East rivals Red Sox and Orioles, bringing up right-handers Phil Bickford and Yoendrys Gómez, cutting left-hander Victor González and demoting right-hander Ron Marinaccio. The Yankees used their bullpen for 7 2/3 innings in Thursday’s 17-5 loss to the Orioles and for six innings in Wednesday’s 7-6 defeat. The Yankees’ pitching staff entered Friday’s series opener against the Braves with a 4.59 ERA in June, up from a major league-best 2.37 in May.

Mets: Mets right-hander Luis Severino will start on Sunday against the Cubs instead of facing the Yankees in the first Subway Series of the season. Severino spent his first eight seasons with the Yankees, going 54-37 with a 3.79 ERA in 141 games, including 125 starts. He signed a $13 million, one-year contract with the Mets over the winter. The 30-year-old Severino was in line to face his former team on Tuesday night. But he was moved up to the finale against the Cubs, and David Peterson was pushed back from Sunday to the opener of the two-game set at Citi Field. ... J.D. Martinez, Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo homered against Shota Imanaga, and the Mets pounded the Cubs 11-1 on Friday. Francisco Lindor had three hits and scored twice as the Mets won for the eighth time in nine games. Jose Iglesias went 4 for 5 with three RBIs. The Mets became the first team to get a second look at Imanaga (7-2) during his impressive transition to the major leagues, and they tagged the Japanese left-hander for 10 runs and 11 hits in three-plus innings. Imanaga pitched seven innings of three-hit ball in a 1-0 victory at New York on May 1.