And That Happened: Tuesday's Scores and Highlights - MLB

Maddon Hernandez Pena arguing.jpg Rays 7, Blue Jays 6: Holy schnikes, that was a wild ending. Kevin Gregg had a meltdown, walking five guys, Joe Maddon got tossed after Carlos Pena wasn’t granted time out at the plate and Sean Rodriguez hit a go-ahead, three-run double to seal a come-from-behind victory. The wildest thing though? Pena later said that Angel Hernandez was “a good umpire.” Insanity! More on this game later today, obviously.

Braves 7, Phillies 3: Tim Hudson came back after a one-hour rain delay to pitch six strong innings. Cole Hamels didn’t come back, but gave up a big homer to Troy Glaus in the downpour that preceded the stoppage to put the Phillies in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. The good news? The Phillies made a little noise late, with Ryan Howard breaking the Phillies’ 68-inning homerless streak in the sixth. Perhaps that’s a sign the bats are finally waking up.

Dodgers 1, Diamondbacks 0: A walkoff home run > walkoff balk. Matt Kemp hit a solo jack in the bottom of the tenth to win it for the Dodgers. Both Dan Haren and John Ely deserved better fates, with the former throwing eight walk-free shutout innings and the latter throwing shutout, two-hit ball over seven.

Red Sox 9, Athletics 4: Victor Martinez is en fuego: 5-for-5 with four doubles and a couple of RBI last night to pick up John Lackey, who put 14 baserunners on in six innings. Adrian Beltre’s three-run homer in the fifth jump-started the comeback after the Sox found themselves down 4-0.

Pirates 3, Cubs 2: Neil Walker hit his first big league homer to help the Pirates beat the Cubs yet again. After the game he said “getting drafted by the Pirates, this is just a Cinderella story. It’s
incredible.” OK, Walker is from Pittsburgh and grew up going to games at Three Rivers Stadium, so I guess it could be considered a Cinderella story for him, but I’m also guessing his is not the majority opinion among those who get drafted by the Pirates. In other news, Lou Piniella sounds like he’s at the end of his rope.

Reds 9, Cardinals 8: Scott Rolen hit two dingers to put the Reds back up by a game in the Central. Johnny Cueto had a terrible outing, giving up eight runs on ten hits and squandering a nice lead. Luckily Dennys Reyes (.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER), Johnny Gomes and Drew Stubbs — each with seventh inning RBIs — bailed him out.

Yankees 3, Orioles 1: Javy Vazquez went seven innings giving up one run on four hits and basking in the Yankee Stadium love. At least until his next start. Mark Teixeira left the game early after fouling one off his foot, but he’s expected to be back today.

Rockies 2, Giants 1: Clint Barmes did all the damage for Colorado — if two runs can be considered “damage” — topping the night off with an RBI double in the 11th. Kind of like the Dodgers game, a couple of good starts from Barry Zito and Jason Hammel went for naught.

Mariners 7, Twins 1: The M’s beat up Nick Blackburn and Jason Vargas saved himself from being decapitated by a Joe Mauer liner. Nice night all around!

Mets 4, Padres 2: Mike Pelfrey is having one of the quieter awesome seasons you’ll ever see this year. Yet another strong start last night, going eight innings, giving up one run on four hits and striking out eight. David Wright went 3 for 4 with a homer in that big gigantic ballpark that — amazingly, if you believe those whose armchair psychiatry practice focuses on David Wright’s mindset — doesn’t seem to freak him out at all.

Royals 6, Angels 3: Joel Piniero gave up six runs on ten hits in eight innings and the Royals bullpen shut down the Angels from the sixth inning on. Organizational soldier Robb Quinlan got the start at first base for Anaheim last night. He has 25 homers in over a thousand career major league at bats, so my guess is that the Angels are still thinking about how to replace Kendry Morales.

Rangers 9, White Sox 6: The Sox jump out to a 4-0 lead but then Mark Buehrle gets shelled and the Sox own mini-comeback falls short.

Astros 8, Nationals 7: Yet another game in which a team blew a big early lead. Must have been something in the water. Unlike some of the others, however, the Astros managed to salvage the game after squandering their. Lance Berkman went 3-5 with 5 RBI.

Marlins 6, Brewers 4: Trevor Hoffman came into a tie game in the seventh and promptly gave up three runs on three hits and walked two. The end is nigh.

Indians 3, Tigers 2: Not a bad night for the Indians’ organizational objectives: Jake Westbrook pitches seven strong innings, Russell Branyan hit a home run and Kerry Wood got the save. Good news considering that Cleveland wants to trade all three of them.

BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Orioles signed outfielder Aaron Hicks less than 24 hours after Cedric Mullins went down with a strained right groin.

Mullins went on the 10-day injured list, but the Orioles are hoping Hicks can help defensively in the spacious outfield at Camden Yards. Hicks was released last week by the New York Yankees with more than 2 1/2 seasons left on his contract.

“We had noticed that he was a free agent even before the injury,” Orioles general manager Mike Elias said. “When the injury occurred and it became pretty clear this was going to be an IL, it seemed like a good fit even more so at that time.”

The Orioles are responsible for paying Hicks just $483,871, a prorated share of the $720,000 minimum salary. The Yankees owe him the rest of his $10.5 million salary this year, plus $9.5 million in each of the next two seasons and a $1 million buyout of a 2026 team option.

The 33-year-old Hicks hit just .188 in 28 games for the Yankees this year.

“We have stuff that we look at from a scouting and evaluation perspective,” Elias said. “It’s very different from just looking at the back of a baseball card, and we hope that we get a bounceback from anyone we bring here.”

Hicks batted .216 last season.

“Hopefully that’s a good thing for him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the Baltimore deal. “A lot of time here and a lot of good things happened for him here. I know the last couple of years have been a struggle. But hopefully it’s a good opportunity for him and certainly wish him well. Not too well being in our division and a team we’re chasing, but hopefully it’s a really good fit for him.”

Mullins left a loss to Cleveland after he pulled up while running out an infield grounder. Outfielder Colton Cowser – the fifth pick in the draft two years ago – is hitting .331 at Triple-A Norfolk, but he went on the IL in the past couple weeks.

“Certainly he was building a case towards promotion consideration prior to his injury and prior to Cedric’s injury,” Elias said. “We’ll just see where we’re at.”

Hicks was active for the game but not in the starting lineup. Austin Hays, normally Baltimore’s left field, was in Mullins’ usual spot in center.

When the wall in left at Camden Yards was pushed significantly back before last season, it made left field a bigger challenge defensively.

“In this park … you really need two center fielders,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Aaron’s got a lot of center-field experience. Played left field here before also. Brings the defensive aspect and then the switch-hitting.”