Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Mariners 13, Royals 5: Who put the Benzedrine in the Seattle Mariners’ Ovaltine? Edwin Encarnación hit two homers in the same dang inning — the second time he’s gone deep twice in an inning in his career — and the M’s hit five jacks in all to send the Royals to yet another loss. Jay Bruce, Dan Vogelbach, and Dylan Moore went deep as well, abusing Homer Bailey and a series of Kansas City relievers. The Mariners have 32 homers in their first 12 games, which is the most by any team in 12 games to start a season. Ten wins now for Seattle. Most of those have come against some weak sisters of the American League, but the M’s themselves were supposed to be a weak sister of the American League. This is . . . unexpected.
Cubs 10, Pirates 0: Jon Lester left early with hamstring tightness but the Cubs’ Beleaguered Bullpen™ stepped up with Brad Brach, Brandon Kintzler, Randy Rosario and Pedro Strop combining to toss seven innings of scoreless relief. They were buoyed by the Cubs’ six-run second inning and two runs each in the third and fourth. Lester, by the way, was hurt when he scored from second on a two-run single after he himself hit a two-run double. Pitchers batting giveth, pitchers batting taketh away.
Astros 4, Yankees 3: New York took a 3-1 lead into the seventh, thanks in part to Aaron Judge hitting a homer off of Justin Verlander. Jose Altuve went deep for Houston’s lone early run. In the seventh, though, Robinson Chirinos doubled in two to tie it. Carlos Correa gave Houston the go-ahead run the next inning thanks to a little dribbler of a broken-bat hit off of Adam Ottavino which functioned like a perfect bunt to score Alex Bregman. It was the first run Ottavino had given up all year. I feel like if it were me I’d rather give up that run on a double off the wall rather than a broken bat nothin’ that went about 30 feet.
Orioles 12, Athletics 4: All anyone was talking about during the game last night was Chris Davis’ record-breaking 0-fer streak, but the rest of the O’s were just fine as they laid some serious lumber to the A’s. Jonathan Villar homered and had four RBI, Trey Mancini went 3-for-3 with a homer, Cedric Mullins hit two triples and drove in three and Richie Martin‘s had a triple and a pair of singles. Only 6,585 fans paid their way to the game, making it for the lowest attendance total in Camden Yards history if you don’t count the game they played with no fans that time.
Phillies 4, Nationals 3: Rhys Hoskins hit two solo homers and Odubel Herrera hit a two-run shot. They were the fourth and fifth homers of the year for Hoskins, who I feel like is going to put up one of the more quiet MVP-caliber seasons in some time.
Rays 5, White Sox 1: The Cy Young winner was in Cy Young form, striking out 11 over six innings. He started strong, striking out five of the first six hitters he faced and then, in the sixth, he put two runners on and then struck out the side, ending the threat as he ended his outing. Just big man stuff. His counterpart, Carlos Rodón, was in a somewhat lesser form, putting on baserunners like it was his job when, in fact, his job was the exact opposite of that. The Rays, 8-3, are off to their best start since 2010.
Cardinals 4, Dodgers 3: The Dodgers lost Hyun-Jin Ryu early after he was removed with a groin strain. Ryu missed time with a similar injury last year so, uh-oh. His counterpart, Miles Mikolas, stood a better chance of hurting opposing hitters than hurting himself as he plunked three Dodgers batters on the night. None seemed intentional, though. He allowed three runs on five hits in getting the win. The Cardinals won thanks to a seventh inning rally which was capped by Paul Goldschmidt scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Joe Kelly, who has blown three saves on the young year.
Braves 8, Rockies 6: Atlanta built a big early lead for what seemed like the fifth time this season, and they turned out to need it. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-run homer in the first, then a two-run Nick Markakis single in the third and a two-run Dansby Swanson triple in the fifth made it 6-0. Swanson would then score on a wild pitch to give the Braves seven. Colorado mounted a comeback in the bottom half of the fifth with six runs of their own, capped by Trevor Story‘s three-run homer, but that’s as close as they’d get. A Swanson sac fly would provide some insurance later. Neither started is framing the box score of this game and putting it on the wall of their rumpus room.
Padres 6, Giants 5: Madison Bumgarner was staked to a 5-0 lead after four thanks in part to a Kevin Pillar grand slam but it was not enough. Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run homer in the fifth, Wil Myers hit a solo shot in the sixth and Franmil Reyes hit a two-run homer in the seventh to cap the big comeback. Bumgarner gave up five of the six runs and the Tatis and Myers bombs. San Diego may not be good enough to hang with L.A. all season, but they’re plenty good this year and a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Angels 5, Brewers 2: Mike Trout, if you were unaware, is ridiculously good at baseball:
He also walked twice and scored a run. His home run streak ended, but Trevor Cahill thanks him for his defense, which helped Cahill toss six innings of two-run ball. And even if Trout didn’t homer, Tommy La Stella, Justin Bour and Andrelton Simmons did.
