Happy Fourth of July! It should be the second of July we celebrate, actually, but, we have a bias in this society in which we give greater weight to what is written down even when that which the writing is recording occurred differently. Which is totally why you guys are wrong to point out my typos and mistakes and stuff. What are you gonna believe? Me, or what actually happened?
Anyway, here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Dodgers 5, Diamondbacks 4: Cody Bellinger kicked off the game’s scoring with a second inning solo homer. He ended the game’s scoring with a walkoff solo homer in the bottom of the tenth:
If you watched that video you also saw that the Dodgers forced extras by rallying against Greg Holland for the second straight night, with Matt Beaty‘s ninth inning RBI single tying things up. It was the Dodgers fifth straight home win, with all five of them being walkoffs. That’s quite the damn thing.
White Sox 7, Tigers 5; White Sox 9, Tigers 6: Game one featured Sox pitching prospect Dylan Cease making his big league debut. It was less-than-efficient in that he threw 101 pitches in five innings and walked four guys, but facing the 2019 Tigers is a pretty forgiving experience, so he allowed only three runs and picked up the win. Former Tiger James McCann knocked in a couple as did Yolmer Sánchez and Ryan Cordell. Game two went to extra innings but José Abreu hit a three-run homer in the 12th inning to give the Sox the doubleheader sweep. Yoan Moncada and Ryan Cordell each went deep twice. Chicago has won five of six.
Nationals 3, Marlins 1: Stephen Strasburg didn’t pay a billion dollars for them, but he sure as hell owns the Miami Marlins all the same. Last night he struck out 14 of ’em and didn’t allow a run while giving up only two hits while working into the eighth. He has a personal winning streak of 11 games against Miami. For his career he’s 20-7 with a 2.86 ERA in 34 starts against the Marlins. Brian Dozier and Matt Adams homered for Washington, which has won seven of its last eight and is now four games over .500.
Yankees 5, Mets 1: Domingo Germán came back after nearly a month on the shelf and picked up where he left off, allowing one run in six innings of work while striking out six to pick up his tenth win of the season. Did Gregorius and Gio Urshela each hit solo homers for the Yankees. Gleyber Torres knocked in a couple.
Pirates 6, Cubs 5: Pittsburgh takes its third in a row from Chicago, coming from behind twice in this one including a two-run ninth inning rally which saw them tie the game when Adam Frazier hit into a run-scoring fielder’s choice and win it on a Corey Dickerson walkoff sac fly. All that came against Craig Kimbrel, who has allowed five earned runs in 2.2 innings across his first three appearances as a Cub. That’s a 16.88 ERA, my friends. And a 2.63 WHIP. At best, so far, Kimbrel has been a living breathing example of the need for spring training. At best.
Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 3: A two-run homer from Danny Jansen tied this one up at three in the fourth inning and a two-run Brandon Drury homer put the Jays ahead for good in the sixth. Earlier Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went deep. Toronto touched up Chris Sale for five runs in less than six innings of work thanks to those three bombs.
Orioles 9, Rays 6: Rio Ruiz hit a three-run homer to put Baltimore on the board in the fourth, the Rays would tie it at three in the sixth and it remained that way until the ninth. That’s when the Birds put up a six-spot on the Rays pen, with Jonathan Villar tripling in a run and Renato Núñez hitting a three-run homer. They needed more than half of those runs as Tampa Bay staged a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth but their would-be comeback stalled halfway in. Baltimore doesn’t win a lot of games as it is, but they certainly don’t win a lot with big, late rallies against good teams. This one had to feel pretty nice for them.
Reds 3, Brewers 0: Sonny Gray, one of the least easy to figure pitchers in baseball over the past couple of years, was excellent last night, tossing eight shutout innings while striking out 12. Yasiel Puig figured in all the scoring, homering in the second innings, scoring the Reds second run on a Jose Iglesias RBI single in the seventh and then knocking in the Reds final run with an eighth inning sac fly. It wasn’t all good news for Cincinnati, though: Scooter Gennett left the game after two at-bats because of tightness in the left side of his groin. As you probably know, he has missed most of the season due to a spring training groin injury. They called this a “precautionary” removal and he may even play today, but you can’t escape the possibility that, no, this ain’t a good sign.
Braves 9, Phillies 2: Josh Donaldson and Austin Riley each hit three-run homers and Matt Joyce hit a pinch-hit two-run shot. That was more than enough support for rookie Bryse Wilson, who allowed only two runs in six innings in his third start of the year. Bryce Harper hit homered in a losing cause. It was his 200th career homer and 1,000th career hit, all in one.
Angels 6, Rangers 2: A three-run Mike Trout homer in the third inning gave the Halos an early 4-0 lead and that held up just fine. Just to be sure, though, Trout hit a second homer, a solo shot, in the sixth inning. We’re about to get to the time of year, by the way, when a lot of baseball fans and writers will talk about why so-and-so who has had a hot couple of weeks for their local team deserves to be in the MVP conversation. Most of these guys will not have had the numbers in those hot couple of weeks that Trout has had all year. In the end Trout will finish second or third in MVP voting, though, because everything is dumb. Anyway, Jaime Barría allowed two runs over five and four Angels relievers shut out the Rangers over the final four frames.
Astros 4, Rockies 2: Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel each hit solo homers and Josh Reddick drove in two on a double. Wade Miley didn’t need more than that as he allowed one run over six. Both the Rockies and the Astros are off today. Six teams are off, in fact. I know Thursday is a typical off-day for many teams, but I can’t remember the last time we had such a light slate of games on the Fourth of July.
Indians 4, Royals 0: Mike Clevinger tossed six shutout innings, striking out nine. He’s now 7-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his career against Kansas City. Carlos Santana and Roberto Pérez each homered, and Pérez also scored on a wild pitch.
Twins 4, Athletics 3: Oakland took a 3-0 lead on a three-run homer from Ramón Laureano, but the Twins came back with Jorge Polanco‘s eighth inning homer tying things up and forcing extras. Each team had multiple scoring opportunities in extras, but it’d say tied until Minnesota forced one across in the 12th with an Mitch Garver RBI single.
Giants 7, Padres 5: Evan Longoria and Alex Dickerson hit back-to-back homers in the third inning. The Giants also had a four-run rally in the sixth, started with Kevin Pillar getting hit by a pitch. The only reason he was hit by the pitch, though, was that he called time, wasn’t granted it, but Padres pitcher Luis Perdomo thought he was granted time, just kind of half-assedly lobbed the ball in because he couldn’t stop his motion and, plunk:
After that Donovan Solano, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt each hit RBI doubles. Sandoval’s fell in because center fielder Wil Myers lost it in the lights. Austin Slater capped things off with a run-scoring single. The Giants have scored 40 runs while winning their last four games. The Padres have dropped four in a row.
Cardinals 5, Mariners 2: The M’s clung to a 2-0 lead entering the top of the ninth but they didn’t cling hard enough as the Cardinals rallied for five. Tommy Edman‘s two-out, pinch-hit three-run shot was the big blow, breaking a 2-2 tie and handing the Cardinals the win. It also caused me to use a lot of hyphens. Please, no one tell me if I used them wrong. Like I said above, if it’s written down, that’s how it is.
