A blown save. Two extremely rare pitching performances. Corn-powered Schwarbombs. Thursday’s MLB action provided all that and much more.
Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:
Brewers Rally Against Díaz In 9th For W
The Brewers and Dodgers have both struggled a bit of late, to varying degrees: the Dodgers didn’t get a win in August until this past weekend, and sweeping the Royals is good and all, but Kansas City isn’t exactly setting the standings on fire, while the Brewers were swept by the Padres and lost their standing as the holders of MLB’s best record in the process. The two are facing off in a four-game set, though, which could end up having postseason implications given only the top two teams in each league end up with a bye of the Wild Card Series. What kind of implications? Well, the Dodgers are now half-a-game behind the Braves in the overall standings, following a blown save against Milwaukee on Thursday.
In the bottom of the sixth, Max Muncy pinch-hit with two runners on, and hit a three-run shot to put the Dodgers ahead, 4-2.
This dinger made Max Muncy the all-time leader for Dodger Stadium homers, with 131, but it also ended up being the last runs that Los Angeles would score on the night. Closer Edwin Díaz would enter in the top of the ninth to close out the game, but instead, he allowed a single to shortstop Joey Ortiz, another to second baseman David Hamilton and a third to leadoff hitter and left fielder, Jackson Chourio, to make it a one-run game.
Center fielder Garrett Mitchell then followed with another single, the fourth in a row, to tie things up.
While first baseman Gary Sánchez struck out for the second out, there was one more to go, and the Dodgers tabbed Alex Vesia to try to get it. He fared no better than Díaz, however, giving up a single to right fielder Jake Bauers to give the Brewers a lead.
The three-run rally would hold in the bottom of the ninth: Trevor Megill entered the game for Milwaukee, and sat down Mookie Betts, Muncy and Kyle Tucker in order to secure the W. The Brewers are 75-47, the Dodgers 73-49, and the Braves in between the two at 73-48. Assuming a postseason berth for all three is safe enough, but as far as what seed? It might take the rest of the season to sort that out.
Tigers Shut Out Guardians Without A Single K
Shutouts aren’t rare, but in this age of constant strikeouts and game-planning built around relievers throwing gas at max efficiency? A shutout without any strikeouts is absolutely a rarity. In fact, the last such game came in 2014, when groundballer Rick Porcello was on the mound for the Detroit Tigers. And now the Tigers have pulled it off again, throwing a shutout against the Guardians on Thursday, courtesy three different pitchers: starter Keider Montero (6 ⅓ innings) and relievers Tyler Holton and Kenley Jansen. The trio allowed just four hits, walked one batter total and didn’t give up any runs, but they also didn’t record a single K.
To the credit of Guardians’ pitching, they did well, too: Cleveland gave up just three runs with starter Parker Messick going 5 ⅔ with six strikeouts against five baserunners, and two runs allowed, and the pen gave up just one more run. But that’s too much when the bats are silenced.
The win also vaulted Detroit over the Guardians in the AL Central standings: the Tigers are 60-61 and 2.5 back of the White Sox, while holding on to the final wild-card spot in the AL by half-a-game over the Rangers.
A Masterclass In Efficiency
Pirates’ starter Braxton Ashcraft went the other way entirely from the Tigers. He did allow a run, but that’s not the differentiator: the 6-foot-5 right-hander threw a complete-game on just 85 pitches, and he struck out 10 batters, too. The Pirates didn’t need him to go quite that hard against the Marlins, since the final score ended up being 13-1, but hey, show off.
Ashcraft’s 85 pitches are the second-fewest in a complete game with at least 10 strikeouts, according to OptaSTATS, behind only Randy Johnson’s 2004 effort with 82 pitches and 11 strikeouts — no one has been more efficient on a 10-K night than this pair since this info was first tracked in 1988.
The timing could not have been better for Pittsburgh, either: the Pirates are just 59-64 and fell into the NL Central basement. While the Bucs are still in the NL wild-card race, sitting six games back, they also have eight teams in front of them, including the Marlins — Miami won the first two games of the series before Pittsburgh avoided the sweep on Thursday.
Kyle Schwarber, Better With Corn
The annual Field of Dreams game was played on Thursday in Dyersville, Iowa, with the Phillies taking on the Twins. It turns out Kyle Schwarber, midwestern boy that he is, gets a stat boost from being around corn. The Phillies’ DH blasted a leadoff homer, his MLB-leading 36th of the year…
…and then another in the fourth inning to extend both Philadelphia’s and his own lead.
Paired with five innings and just one run allowed by Aaron Nola in a nine-strikeout effort, and four Phillies’ relievers shutting Minnesota down the rest of the way, this one wasn’t close — Philly would win, 7-1, and snap a tie with the Diamondbacks for the third NL wild-card to move half-a-game up on Arizona because of it.
Red Sox Snap Losing Streak In Grand Fashion
The Red Sox won 27 of 30, then lost a series to the Athletics and dropped the first three to the Blue Jays, as well, giving them a five-game losing streak. Boston is still in a great spot — posting a .900 winning percentage for over a month will give you some leeway there — but everyone would surely feel better if the losing streak ended. Well, not anyone in Toronto, but that’s because the Jays are also fighting for a postseason spot.
That journey got just a little bit tougher thanks to a 7-0 loss on Thursday: Red Sox starter Payton Tolle threw eight shutout innings with just four baserunners allowed, and the just-recalled Greg Weissert threw an uneventful ninth.
This had been a 1-0 game until an inning before, when third baseman Caleb Durbin broke things open with a grand slam off reliever Chase Lee.
That’s bad enough, but this came after a start from Max Scherzer that was one of the best he’s thrown all season: the 42-year-old Scherzer went five innings while allowing one run and five baserunners, giving him a 2.37 ERA in his four starts since returning from the IL in late-July.
The Sox are five up on the third wild-card spot, and have the third-best run differential in the AL, behind the Tigers and Yankees. Toronto is two games behind those same Tigers with the L, but there’s plenty of time left there… assuming the Tigers don’t just keep on winning like they have been, anyway. You know, the Tigers that were 16 games under .500 on May 31, and are now just one dub away from an even record.
A HBP, And Benches Clear
White Sox starter Davis Martin didn’t last very long against the Reds on Thursday, but it wasn’t because he got knocked around — he wasn’t his sharpest, sure, but Martin was ejected after knocking Sal Stewart’s helmet off with a pitch in the top of the third.
That got the benches cleared, but the worst for the White Sox was yet to come: after Martin exited, Erick Fedde allowed another four runs, and Tanner McDougal another. Chicago scored one in the fifth and another three late, but it wasn’t enough: Cincinnati won the game, 9-8, and the series, too, against the AL Central-leading White Sox.
Every Angel Gets A Hit
Jacob deGrom was pulled from this Rangers-Angels game after just two innings, thanks to triceps fatigue. He allowed six hits and two runs before he was lifted, and that was just the start of the bad news for Texas. Every singles Angels batter would get a hit, with center fielder Mike Trout and shortstop Denzer Guzman notching three a piece.
The real star of the game was rookie starter Walbert Ureña, who threw six scoreless while giving up two hits and two walks against five strikeouts. He’s been having quite a season, as the Angels were quick to brag about on social media.
The Rangers got knocked out of holding a wild-card spot with this loss, but even so Texas is just half-a-game out of getting it back, and are two behind the Astros in the AL West. And if deGrom is feeling fine, then Rangers fans still have plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
Cavalli Stops Cubs
The Cubs have been on a seemingly unstoppable run lately, but for at least a moment, the Nationals slowed them down. Cade Cavalli went eight innings allowing just one hit and two walks, keeping the Cubs off the board while striking out 10. Trade deadline acquisition Kevin Gausman, meanwhile, gave up half-a-dozen runs and didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.
The game-winner had already been hit at this point, but first baseman Abimelec Ortiz had the big bop of the day: a three-run homer off Gausman that went 414 feet, and 105.2 mph off the bat.
Chicago is 4.5 up and holding the top wild-card in the NL, with a (markedly) better record than all but one AL division leader, but this is the kind of win that the Nats need more of: Washington is five back of the last wild-card and coming off of selling some pieces at the deadline.
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