Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Rays 5, Yankees 3: Corey Dickerson hit a go-ahead, two-run single in a three-run third for the Rays and the new-look Rays bullpen (Sergio Romo? Dan Jennings? Steve Cishek?) combined to shut down the Yankees late. That snapped the Yankees’ six-game winning streak despite the fact that Yankees pitchers struck out 16 Rays batters. I wonder what the winning percentage of teams that strike out 15 or more opposing batters is. I bet it’s pretty dang high.
Blue Jays 11, Angels 10: For that matter I wonder what the winning percentage is of teams who have six-run leads heading into the bottom of the ninth. I bet it’s even higher than the 16-strikeout thing. That’s the lead the Angels had — 10-4 — and they still lost this one. The winning four (!) runs came on a Steve Pearce walkoff grand slam. Those don’t happen every day. Indeed, if you’re Steve Pearce, who hit one here AND hit one on Thursday afternoon as well, they only happen ever four days at best. Kevin Pillar hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth as well. It ain’t over ’till it’s over, folks.
Tigers 13, Astros 1: Justin Verlander tossed six shutout innings on what, theoretically, could be his last start as a Tiger. I’m guessing he starts again as a Tiger on Friday because moving that contract at today’s deadline is going to be tough, but it could’ve been. He left with a 3-0 lead but the Tigers scored ten runs in the last three innings to make it a laugher. Justin Upton hit a grand slam and drove in six on the day. James McCann hit a two-run homer off of Astros first baseman Tyler White. It was that kind of day.
Reds 6, Marlins 4: Reds starter Luis Castillo allowed one run on three hits over eight innings and catcher Tucker Barnhart drove in three as the Red snapped a six-game losing streak. Castillo beat Dan Straily, for whom he was traded back in January. That has to feel pretty good.
Royals 5, Red Sox 3: The Sox snapped the Royals’ nine-game winning streak on Saturday, so the Royals started another one on Sunday. Here Alex Gordon hit a two–run triple in the Royals’ four-run eighth inning, with Alcides Escobar singling in the other two runs in the rally. Royals starter Jason Hammel after the game: “The vibes good right now. The vibes real good.”
Holy crap, that was a bad movie. But I love both Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum, so they are forgiven for all of their transgressions against God and art.
Phillies 2, Braves 1: Freddy Galvis hit a walkoff single to give Philly the win. He also did this:
Glavis is having his best offensive year and he’s been flashing amazing leather all season long. Most people don’t see it because most people don’t watch teams that are 38-64, but it still counts.
Rockies 10, Nationals 6; Nationals 3, Rockies 1: Nats starter Erick Fedde made his big league debut in the first game of the twin-bill. Didn’t go too hot as the Rockies beat him up for seven runs — five earned — on ten hits in four innings. Charlie Blackmon went 4-for-5 and scored four runs. DJ LeMahieu, Nolan Arenado and Ryan Hanigan each drove in two runs. If you would’ve put a gun to my head yesterday morning and asked me if Ryan Hanigan was still playing, I probably would’ve said no. In the nightcap, Edwin Jackson allowed one run over seven innings to give the Nats the win. If you would’ve put a gun to my head in March and asked me what the Nats record would be if Edwin Jackson was starting games for them in July, I would’ve said something like “49-54, because obviously everyone else is injured.”
Cubs 4, Brewers 2: John Lackey gave Chicago six solid innings. Well, five solid innings before allowing a two-run home, but that’s fine. Kris Byrant homered. Rookie catcher Victor Caratini hit his first career home run. In other news, “Caratini” would be a great name for a smoothie you get from the little snack bar at your gym. It’s healthy as hell but kind of gross, even if they do serve it in a fancy glass. Just drink water, dude.
White Sox 3, Indians 1: It was 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth with Bryan Shaw on the mound for Cleveland. That didn’t faze White Sox first baseman Matt Davidson, who hit a two-run walkoff homer. That snapped Cleveland’s nine-game winning streak. Carlos Rodon pitched into the seventh, allowing one run on six hits and striking out nine in his best performance of the season to date.
Cardinals 3, Diamondbacks 2: Jose Martinez played the hero, hitting a two-run homer in the fourth inning to put the Cards on the board and to tie things up and then hitting a sac fly in the sixth to put St. Louis over. Lance Lynn allowed two runs over six and the bullpen allowed only one hit over three shutout innings.
Orioles 10, Rangers 6: The O’s win, as Jonathan Schoop and Welington Castillo homered in a five-run fifth, but Adrian Beltre was the story of the game, of course. The future Hall of Famer — and yes, he was one before hit number 3,000 — doubled in the fourth inning to reach the milestone. Watch:
Mariners 9, Mets 1: James Paxton tossed six shutout innings, striking out eight, to win his sixth decision in the month of July. Time may be an arbitrary construct, but that’s still pretty cool. Nelson Cruz hit a three-run homer in the first inning which would prove to be the only runs the Mariners needed. They didn’t know that of course, so they kept playing.
Pirates 7, Padres 1: Andrew McCutchen hit three solo homers. He’s now batting .292/.385/.535 with 22 home runs, 66 RBI, and 68 runs scored in 431 plate appearances. Josh Bell hit a pinch-hit homer and Gerrit Cole allowed one run over seven, striking out eight.
Athletics 6, Twins 5: This one went 12 innings, but not 13, because Yonder Alonso homered to walk things off. Oakland leads all of baseball with walkoff hits, in case you want to know if that correlates with W-L record (Ron Howard voice: “it doesn’t”). Minnesota had a 4-0 lead at one point but blew it as relievers Taylor Rogers and Brian Pressly couldn’t lock things down in the eighth inning, blowing what would’ve been a Bartolo Colon win in his longest start since April (6.1 IP, 8 H, 3 ER).
Dodgers 3, Giants 2: I usually do most of my Sunday recaps on Sunday evening and put in a place-holder score for the Sunday night game that I fill in when I wake up Monday morning, with something like “Team __, Other Team __”. I obviously don’t know who will win that game, so I just pick one of them to go first, often making a meaningless little prediction in my mind in order to determine it. Last night I just autopiloted it and wrote “Giants __, Dodgers __.” Given how each of these teams is going of late, that was kind of dumb and caused me to delete and rewrite. Here Madison Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu traded zeroes for seven innings before Conor Gillaspie homered in the eighth and Yasiel Puig singled home the tying run in the ninth. Kyle Farmer won it for L.A. in the 11th with a pinch-hit two-run double. The Dodgers sweep the Giants and I doubt them again, even slightly and meaninglessly, at my peril.
