Hope you had a good Labor Day. And that, unlike Major League Baseball, you at least took a moment to think about why it’s a national holiday.
Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Rays 5, Orioles 4: Tommy Pham’s fifth inning RBI double gave the Rays a 4-0 lead before the O’s got all four of those runs back, two of which came on a Mark Trumbo two-run double. It would remain tied at four until the bottom of the tenth when Pham came up again and knocked a walkoff single. After the game Pham said that it was good he ended the game when he did, partially to save the Rays’ bullpen in advance of today’s doubleheader, partially because “we don’t get paid for overtime.” See, comrades? The struggle of labor still has quite a ways to go.
Rangers 7, Yankees 0: Mike Minor (7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 ER) and a couple of relievers combined to shut the Yankees out. It was the first time anyone had done that to them since June of last year. Delino DeShields’ three-run homer was the biggest blast, while Jose Trevino and Shin-Soo Choo also went deep. The Yankees’ 221-game streak without being shut out had been the longest since the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig Yankees went 308 straight games scoring at least one run from 1931-33.
Mets 7, Nationals 3: Noah Syndergaard bounced back nicely from that ten-run outing against the Cubs last week. Here he struck out ten instead of surrendering ten, while tossing seven shutout innings. Jeff McNeill hit a two-run homer and J.D. Davis hit a two-run double. Former Met Asdrúbal Cabrera hit a two-run homer in a losing cause. The Nats’ four-game winning streak came to an end.
Twins 4, Tigers 3: Minnesota is seven games through a ten-game road trip. They’re 6-1 so far. Not too shabby. Here Max Kepler brought them back from behind with a two-run single in the eighth. Earlier Ehire Adrianza hit a two-run homer. The Minnesota bullpen gave Rocco Baldelli four innings of shutout ball to end it.
Braves 6, Blue Jays 3: Josh Donaldson opened the scoring with a two-run first inning homer, he scored along with Ozzie Albies on a two-run error by Ian Drury in the third and Johan Camargo hit a two-run shot to give Atlanta some insurance late after the Jays had made it close. The Atlanta bullpen gave Brian Snitker four innings of shutout ball to end it. No word if they coordinated that with the Twins bullpen.
Phillies 7, Reds 1: Rhys Hoskins hit two homers and drove in three and Bryce Harper and Scott Kingery each hit two-run shots. Drew Smyly allowed one run while pitching into the sixth and three relievers shut out Cincinnati the rest of the way.
Cardinals 3, Giants 1: Some vintage Adam Wainwright, who tossed seven four-hit shutout innings for the win. The Cards scored their three runs early via a Kolten Wong triple and a groundout and a single from Pauls Goldschmidt and DeJong, respectively. St. Louis has won 10 of 12 and maintain their three games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central with 25 games to go.
Cubs 5, Mariners 1: Chicago was down 1-0 into the seventh inning thanks in part to five shutout frames from Justus Sheffield. They liked what they saw from the M’s bullpen much more, though, breaking out for five in the seventh, with Kyle Schwarber’s bases-loaded triple providing the big blast. That had to feel pretty good for a team who had been shutout for the previous two games. Anthony Rizzo was hit by pitches twice in this one. In doing so he set the Cubs’ all-time franchise record for plunkings with 139. The previous mark was 137 by Frank Chance. Chance played for Chicago for 15 seasons. Rizzo set the mark in his ninth.
Astros 3, Brewers 2: Gerrit Cole allowed a first inning homer but was aces after that, striking out 14 in six innings and the Astros held a 2-1 lead until the bottom of the ninth when Christian Yelich went deep to tie things up at two. Extra innings didn’t last long, though, as George Springer knocked a leadoff homer to start the tenth and that’s where the scoring ends. Milwaukee threatened in the bottom half but Astros reliever Josh James shut down the rally before it could become a rally.
Diamondbacks 14, Padres 7: The Snakes put up a a six-run second inning and then in the sixth they got four more thanks to homers from Josh Rojas, Eduardo Escobar and Christian Walker to make this one less-than-competitive. The Diamondbacks, who have had about five excuses this year to simply pack it in have yet to pack it in. They have won seven of eight and remain three and a half games behind the Cubs for the second Wild Card spot.
Indians 11, White Sox 3: Carlos Santana homered, Franmil Reyes had a three-run double in a long -- four hours and two minutes -- somewhat ugly game in which Cleveland pitchers walked eight Sox batters. The White Sox have dropped seven straight.
Dodgers 16, Rockis 9: The Rockies and Dodgers combined for 11 home runs in another four hour+ contest. What a Coors Field game. [Ed. -- they were in Los Angeles]. Huh. I’ll be damned.
Seven homers L.A., with two of those coming from Joc Pederson, who went 3-for-3 and drove in five even though he had to leave in the fifth inning after injuring himself robbing Charlie Blackmon of a homer:
After the game Dave Roberts said he’d be fine. Dodgers rookie Gavin Lux made his big league debut. He went 2-for-5 with a double and three runs scored. The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is six. They could be spraying champagne by the end of the week if everything breaks just right.