And That Happened: Thursday’s scores and highlights

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Mets 6, Pirates 5: R.A. Dickey wins his 20th, striking out 13 in the process. I don’t care if wins aren’t supposed to matter. It’s cool. He’s old and he struggled for years and he has no freaking ligament in his elbow and he seems like a pretty cool guy and all of that and I am happy as hell that he hit a milestone that, these days, is pretty rare.  Also: that Travis Snider catch in case you missed it. Dear God.

Tigers 5, Royals 4Because of events and things, I am officially no longer allowed to mention the Tigers’ starting pitcher’s name in print again. But suffice it to say, he did well.

Rays 3, White Sox 2: Rays playing spoiler? Bah, they could still make this dance. They have these games against the White Sox and then three against Baltimore. Meanwhile the Sox have lost three straight to fall two games behind the Tigers in the AL Central.  Gettin’ crazy.

Giants 7, Diamondbacks 3: Two run homers for both Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro and another solid start from Barry Zito. It’s the most wins Zito has had in a season since he signed his gigantic deal with the Giants. And the Giants have won ten straight of his starts.

Rockies 7, Cubs 5: Rockies sweep the Cubs behind a lot of hits and homers. I’m sorry, it’s September 28 and it’s really hard to get it up to say anything even quasi-insightful about a Cubs-Rockies series.

Mariners 9, Angels 4: John Jaso hit a two-run homer and an RBI double and the Angels lost a game they needed to win. Which is basically all of them now, of course, but still. Oakland lost and all, and it was a chance to gain some ground.

Rangers 9, Athletics 7: Despite Mike Adams’ best efforts — he gave up three homers in two-thirds of an inning — the Rangers prevail, splitting the series with the A’s. Jumping out to an early 5-0 lead helps matters.

Reds 2, Brewers 1: John Axford couldn’t hold a 1-0 lead in the ninth despite getting the first two outs. That’s not some colossal failure or anything, but dudes, if the bullpen held half of the number of leads a typical bullpen holds throughout the season the Brewers would be playoff bound.

Nationals 7, Phillies 3: Gio gets his 21st win. Two homers for Michael Morse. One for Bryce Harper.

Blue Jays 6, Yankees 0: More like Ivan NoGOOD, am I right? Anyone? Eh, ok. Maybe not (4.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER). Brandon Morrow, in contrast, tossed seven shutout innings. Three runs driven in for Edwin Encarnacion. The Yankees lead is back down to 1.

Braves 6, Marlins 2: Miami continues to sleepwalk to the end of the season. Dan Uggla drove in three.

Dodgers 8, Padres 4: L.A. is now three games back of the Cardinals, but as is the case with everyone else in that boat, you basically gotta win every game left and hope the other guys lose every game and that’s just not happening.

Padres played the Dodgers late. I suppose I’ll update this when I wake up, but the world is ceasing to care at this point.

Stanton, Donaldson, Kahnle activated by Yankees ahead of Dodgers series

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
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LOS ANGELES — Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, and Tommy Kahnle were activated by the New York Yankees ahead of their weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

New York cleared three roster spots after a 1-0 loss at Seattle, optioning infielder-outfielders Oswaldo Cabrera and Franchy Cordero to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre along with left-hander Matt Krook.

Stanton, Donaldson and Kahnle all played in a rehab game for Double-A Somerset. Stanton was hitless in three at-bats in his first appearance since injuring his left hamstring on April 15.

Donaldson went 1 for 4 in his fourth rehab game as he comes back from a strained right hamstring originally sustained on April 5.

Kahnle pitched one inning, giving up one run and one hit and walking two. He has been out since spring training with right biceps tendinitis.

Aaron Boone said he wasn’t concerned about Stanton returning after playing in just one rehab game. He did say that Stanton likely will be a designated hitter for a couple of weeks after rejoining the Yankees.

New York is missing centerfielder Harrison Bader, who strained his right hamstring against the Mariners and went on the injured list the next day.

Left-hander Carlos Rodón, sidelined since spring training by a sore left forearm and an ailing back, was transferred to the 60-day injured list.