Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Indians 9, Athletics 4: Trevor Bauer entered the game with a 6.30 ERA and a 4.61 FIP on the season but last night he reminded everyone that his stuff is electric when it’s on. Bauer struck out 14 Oakland A’s batters in seven innings while walking only one and scattering seven hits. He was in an early 3-0 hole — he didn’t scatter them that well — but fought through it. It took three relievers to get through the eighth and ninth, and they struck out four of the batters they retired as well, giving A’s hitter 19 Ks on the night.
Dodgers 9, Cardinals 4: Chase Utley singled, doubled, tripled and was hit by a pitch, scored twice and drove in a run. Logan Forsythe reached base five times. The clubs combined to use 13 pitchers in this one. The Dodgers pulled ahead of the Rockies for first place in the NL West.
Yankees 8, Orioles 3: Brett Gardner homered twice in the first four innings as the Yankees jumped out to an 8-0 lead, ending this one relatively early. Also:
Diamondbacks 3, Pirates 0: Robbie Ray dominated the Buccos, tossing a complete game four-hit shutout while striking out ten and not walking a soul. He has now tossed 23.2 consecutive scoreless innings. The game lasted only two hours and ten minutes. Work fast, throw strikes. It worked back in the day, it works now.
Blue Jays 6, Reds 4: Kendrys Morales hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning. Josh Donaldson homered too. It didn’t break a tie but it did hit the fifth deck of Rogers Centre, which is a pretty exclusive club:
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Mets 5, Brewers 4: A 12-inning affair with Jay Bruce providing the heroics with a walkoff RBI single. We wouldn’t have even been in extras, however, if it weren’t for Asdrubal Cabrera allowed the tying runs to score in the seventh when he misjudged and then dropped a bases-loaded infield popup with two outs. That’s just painful to watch. Also painful: the Brewers have lost seven of nine.
Mariners 10, Rockies 4: Kyle Seager homered and drove in four. Robinson Cano also went deep. The M’s have won three in a row. The Rockies have dropped two straight and dropped behind the Dodgers in the division.
Marlins 7, Phillies 2: Marcel Ozuna had three hits, a homer included, and scored twice. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 14th dinger, Justin Bour reached base four times and Dee Gordon had two base hits as well. The Marlins’ offense has come alive of late, scoring 57 runs in their last nine games.
Rangers 9, Rays 5: Elvis Andrus went 3-for-5 with a homer and drove in five. The Rangers bullpen pitched in too, overcoming a shaking Nick Martinez start to toss four and two-thirds scoreless innings.
Red Sox 13, White Sox 7: Sox win! The bottom of the Boston lineup did the damage here, with Deven Marrero hitting two homers and driving in five out of the nine-spot and Jackie Bradley Jr. knocking in four from the eight hole with a dinger of his own. Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland also went deep. Jose Quintana, who was supposed to be the prized starting pitcher on the market this summer, is now 2-7 with a 5.60 ERA and has allowed 66 hits in 64.1 innings. Ouch.
Astros 7, Twins 2: Mike Fiers, who would still be in the bullpen if Charlie Morton hadn’t gotten hurt, struck out eight over six innings, Jose Altuve had four hits and drove in two as the Astros win their sixth straight.
Royals 1, Tigers 0: Eric Skoglund, making his big league debut, combined with three Royals relievers for a three-hit shutout. Skoglund allowed two hits in six and a third and struck out five as Royals pitchers fanned ten Tigers hitters in all. That served to outduel Justin Verlander, who allowed only an Eric Hosmer RBI single in the sixth.
Nationals 6, Giants 3: Gio Gonzalez allowed three runs over six and a third innings with six strikeouts to pick up his first win in over a month. He also (all together now) helped his own cause by singling home a run in the second inning and later reaching on an error which helped load the bases ahead of a bases-loaded walk drawn by Jayson Werth. There was no retaliation or incidents of any kind a day after the Bryce Harper–Hunter Strickland brawl. As it was, Harper went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, leaving the bases loaded twice. The San Francisco crowd booed Harper during every at-bat because laundry.
Angels 9, Braves 3: Abert Pujols hit his 599th homer. For his career, not the season, because that would be a record. He also notched his 2,873rd career hit, which ties Babe Ruth on the all-time list. Pujols has done it in 30 fewer games. Young Parker Bridwell got his first career win by allowing three runs on six hits over six innings. Bartolo Colon was shelled again allowing nine runs — only two earned — and failing to escape the third inning. His defense did him no favors, but he also allowed seven hits, so it wasn’t a glorious outing for the old man.
Padres 6, Cubs 2: That’s five straight losses for the World Champs, the last two of which have come against arguably the worst team in baseball (Philly has a worse record but the Padres have a far worse pythagorean record). Austin Hedges had a home run and a career-high four RBI while rookie starter Dinelson Lamet allowed two runs over five innings and struck out eight.
