Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Cardinals 5, Dodgers 0: Adam Wainwright is not a name we’ve heard too much of this year. He’s only pitched in six games, three of which came before Memorial Day. He was on point last night, though, shutting out the Dodgers for six innings and striking out nine. Marcell Ozuna homered and Yadier Molina drove in a couple. It was a HUGE win for St. Louis, which had dropped the previous three against L.A. and saw its lead in the Wild Card standings disappear. With this win St. Louis pulls back even with the Dodgers for that second slot. Two weeks of baseball left, and the Cards, Dodgers and Rockies are basically playing musical chairs for the final two NL playoff slots.
Red Sox 4, Mets 3: Jacob deGrom vs. Chris Sale did not turn out to be quite as amazing a matchup as it was cracked up to be. Sale only pitched three innings because he’s still ramping back up and deGrom gave up what, for him, was billion runs (note: it was three). deGrom did strike out 12, though, and fans were treated to the first matchup of starters with sub-2.00 ERAs (min: 100 IP) in over 30 years. That was John Tudor vs. Dwight Gooden back in 1985. That fun aside, Brock Holt hit a two-run homer and the Sox got a couple of sac flies. Mookie Betts left the game with an injury to his side, but it’s apparently not very serious. Boston can clinch the AL East this week.
Blue Jays 3, Yankees 2: New York clung to a one-run lead until the eighth inning but then Rowdy Tellez (checks: yeah, “Rowdy Tellez” it is!) hit a pinch-hit RBI single followed by Randal Grichuk doubling in a run to beat Dellin Betances and the Yankees. New York dropped two of three to the Blue Jays and is just sort of existing right now. Not a great time to simply be existing, ya know?
Tigers 6, Indians 4: After clinching the AL Central via an utter shellacking of Detroit on Saturday, Cleveland trotted out its post-clinch/hangover lineup on Sunday afternoon, as one does. The Tigers, not surprisingly, won against the Indians’ quad-A lineup, with Jim Adduci homering and driving in four. After the game he drove, I dunno, his 1963 Rambler Ambassador to Sammy Sofferin’s Wonder Bar & Indian Room down on Washington Blvd and tied a few on to try to forget this lost season. And yes, I know the game was in Cleveland. He took the Northwest Orient charter back to Willow Run then he drove downtown. Don’t worry, though: he left the Rambler parked on Clifford and took the streetcar home.
Orioles 8, White Sox 4: When these two teams get together you can throw out the records. Really, please, throw out the records. No one wants to watch mid-September baseball between a couple of clubs with nearly 200 combined losses. Jonathan Villar and Adam Jones homered and Cedric Mullins had four hits as the O’s put up a five-run first inning.
Rays 5, Athletics 4: C.J. Cron and Willy Adames homered early and Tampa Bay built up a 5-0 lead before Oakland rallied for four in the ninth on a Khris Davis grand slam to make it interesting. Oakland dropping two of three to Tampa Bay didn’t help them gain any ground on the Yankees for home field advantage in the Wild Card game. Which now and for a few weeks now has been the only remaining race in the American League.
Nationals 6, Braves 4: Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon each hit two-run homers and Juan Soto hit an RBI single in the ninth for an insurance run as Washington takes two of three from Atlanta. The Braves maintained a six and a half game lead in the East, however, because . . .
Marlins 6, Phillies 4: . . . Philly lost to the Fish. Peter O’Brien homered and drove in three as Miami stopped a five-game skid. Jose Urena allowed one run and three hits in five innings, winning his third straight start.
Pirates 3, Brewers 2: The Buccos carried a 3-0 lead into the ninth thanks to Trevor Williams tossing six scoreless. They got a scare when Jesus Aguilar and Domingo Santana hit back-to-back home runs to start the final frame, but that’s all Milwaukee would get as Pittsburgh held on. The Brewers remain two and a half behind he Cubs.
Astros 5, Diamondbacks 4: Yet another late rally that fell just short. Man there were a mess of these yesterday. Here Arizona put up three runs in the ninth to pull within one but no dice. Justin Verlander struck out 11 and allowed only one run in seven innings of work. Josh Reddick homered.
Twins 9, Royals 6: Tyler Austin, Max Kepler, Johnny Field and Jorge Polanco all hit homers for the Twins, but only Austin did this:
Which is good, because if enough guys do that eventually one of ’em is gonna crack his head open or something.
Reds 2, Cubs 1: Luis Castillo allowed one run while pitching into the seventh and the Reds bullpen finished things off. Scott Schebler and Phillip Ervin went deep to account for the Reds’ runs. The Cubs scored only five runs in the three-game series, but they took two of three because the Reds scored only four. What an exciting weekend in Cincinnati!
Rockies 3, Giants 2: Antonio Senzatela pitched shutout ball into the sixth and hit a two-run single to [all together now] help his own cause Colorado salvages the final game of the three-game series. Thanks to the Dodgers’ loss, Colorado moves back into first place in the NL West by the slimmest of margins. Now they have three in Los Angeles starting tonight. I’d say that the series promises to be a definitive one, but we’ve gone six months without any team really acting like it wants to win the NL West, so why should that stop now?
Angels 4, Mariners 3: Kole Calhoun and Justin Upton homered. Calhoun’s broke an 0-for-25 streak and Upton’s was his fourth dinger in his past three games. The Angels do all kinds of fun things. Rarely do those fun things amount to, you know, sustained, competitive baseball over a relevant time period, but they do do interesting things.
Padres 7, Rangers 3: Freddy Galvis hit a game-tying RBI double and then Francisco Mejia hit a walk-off grand slam to cap a five-run bottom of the ninth and give the Padres the win. In 10 games since his call-up Mejia has three homers, eight RBI, five runs scored and is slugging .630. Not too shabby.
