Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Indians 2, Tigers 0: Mike Clevinger struck out 10 in eight shutout innings and Francisco Lindor homered in the third and added a sac fly in the seventh. Cleveland has now won 14 straight games against the Tigers and are 15-1 against them on the season.
Athletics 9, Royals 8: Jurickson Profar homered and drove in three and everyone in the A’s starting lineup either had a hit or drove in a run. They kinda had to given that no one on the A’s pitching staff seemed super invested in giving Bob Melvin clean innings. They did get one gimmie run, though, when A’s second baseman Corban Joseph hit pop a foul with runners on second and third. Royals third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert caught the ball to put out Joseph and as he did so he fell into the third base dugout. Thanks to Rule 5.06(b)(3), which allows all base runners to advance one base if a fielder falls into an out of play area while catching a ball, the runner on third was awarded home plate and scored.
Twins 10, White Sox 5: Jake Cave homered twice and C.J. Cron went deep once, giving the Twins 261 on the year, which is six short of the Yankees’ record, set last year, for homers in a season. Those homers did break the all-time record for homers on the road, though, with 139. The 2001 Giants previously held that mark with 138. More importantly, the Twins win their fifth straight, keeping the Indians at bay.
Rays 9, Astros 8: The Rays kept taking small leads and the Astros kept matching them. Finally Ji-Man Choi put Tampa Bay ahead for good with a two-run double in the seventh. Travis d'Arnaud homered and drove in four to keep the Astros from a three-game sweep. Zack Greinke got a no-decision, making it his first start as an Astro in which he didn’t get a win.
Cubs 4, Mets 1: A three-run home run by Victor Caratini in the top of the seventh — his second dinger of the game — broke a 1-1 tie and the Mets’ back. The Mets are skidding, having dropped six straight and now find themselves back to a mere game over .500. Those six straight losses game against the Braves and Cubs showing that the Mets aren’t up to the level of the better teams in the NL. Which is a bad sign because it doesn’t get any easier for the Mets down the stretch: 20 of their 29 remaining games are against teams .500 or better, with nine of those 29 games against teams that are currently at least 10 games over .500.
Marlins 4, Reds 3: Aristides Aquino broke the National League rookie record for homers in a month with his 14th, and he singled in a run in the eighth inning to tie the game and force extra innings. Miami had the last laugh — and jump and high five and Gatorade bath and stuff — when rookie Harold Ramírez hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 12th to give the Marlins the win. It was his third walkoff hit of the year, so I guess he has the knack for it. Earlier, teammates Jon Berti, Austin Dean and Starlin Castro hit solo home runs of their own. Those three came off of Reds starter Alex Wood who has allowed ten homers in 35 and two-thirds innings this year. Not what ya want.
Mariners 5, Rangers 3: It was tied 3-3 from the fourth until the ninth when the M’s struck twice, via an Austin Nola sac fly and an Omar Narváez RBI single. That first run was the result of the smallest ball: Dee Gordon led off the inning with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a sac bunt, and then scored on the Nola fly. Not always a big fan of small ball like that but it beats trying to find another synonym for “homer.”
Pirates 11, Rockies 8: Well, at least until now. Kevin Newman — homered? Went deep? Knocked a dong? — twice, knocked in three and had four hits in all. His first one led off the game and led to a seven-run first for the Pirates. His second staked them to an 11-3 lead in the fifth. Colorado mounted a comeback but it was too much of a lead to overcome. Look at the Pirates go: they’ve won five of seven.
Diamondbacks 11, Dodgers 5: Hyun-Jin Ryu has picked a really bad time to come back to earth. He was kicked around for his third straight start, giving up seven runs and failing to make it out of the fifth for the second time in a row. He has now given up 18 runs in his last 14 and two-thirds innings over three starts and his ERA has shot up from 1.64 to 2.35 in that time. I suppose that 1.64 was unsustainable, but his performance has certainly turned on dime. All this after being staked to a 3-0 lead, too. For the Dbacks, Eduardo Escobar hit a three-run homer, Wilmer Flores had three hits and three RBI, Nick Ahmed had two hits and two RBI and Adam Jones had a two-run double.
Padres 5, Giants 3: Chris Paddack tossed one-run ball over seven innings and Manuel Margot and Austin Hedges homered for San Diego and Eric Hosmer doubled in a run. Paddack had a hit too and scored on Margot’s homer.
