Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Indians 7, Royals 0: The Indians probably had a better weekend than you: they swept the Royals in four and took over first place. Francisco Lindor Carlos Santana and Tyler Naquin each homered in the fifth inning. Mike Napoli homered in the fourth. Cleveland has taken six of seven from the Royals overall.
Tigers 5, White Sox 2: Another AL Central sweep. Justin Verlander gave up five hits and a walk while striking out eight and allowing two runs over seven innings. The Tigers’ sweep had them beating three straight lefty starters in Rodon, Sale and Quintana.
Nationals 10, Reds 9: The Reds had a 5-0 lead, blew it to find themselves down by five and then almost came back, loading the bases with no one out in the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon. The Nats’ closer than induced a popout, a strikeout and a fly out to end it. After the game Papelbon said “my motto is ‘bend but don’t break.’” If you would’ve asked me before that what Papelbon’s motto was I probably would’ve said something different and not printable on a family baseball website. Or maybe “YOLO” or something.
Marlins 1, Mets 0: Jose Fernandez was dominant, striking out 14 in seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and not walking a soul. He has now won eight straight starts in a run and has shaved over two runs off his ERA since late April. Though he took the loss the Mets have to be happy with Matt Harvey turning in another strong start (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER).
Orioles 3, Yankees 1: Matt Wieters hit a tiebreaking two-run, pinch-hit single in the eighth inning off of Aroldis Chapman. Three runs actually scored on the play thanks to an error by Jacoby Ellsbury throwing home. It was a long eighth inning. It started with Baltimore trailing 1-0 with runners at first and second, then a rain delay of 1 hour, 37 minutes ensued. The rally came after and it ended with Chapman’s first blown save of the year.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 4: Marco Estrada took a no-hitter into the eighth and then the wheels almost fell off the Jays’ bus completely, but they somehow held on. Estrada took two other no-nos into the eighth in June of 2015. He’s not exactly the type you’d peg as a guy who might one day throw a no-hitter, but if he does it you figure it’ll have to happen in the month of June, right?
Phillies 8, Brewers 1: Aaron Nola pitched six shutout innings and fanned nine. No one threw any bottles at any Phillies players. At least yesterday.
Angels 5, Pirates 4: Albert Pujols gave the Angels a 5-4 lead, which proved to be the final score, after delivering a two-run home run off of lefty reliever Tony Watson in the eighth inning. He also delivered a “stern lecture” to Gerrit Cole while Cole was on first base half an inning after Cole jawed at Kole Calhoun over something. I’m guessing it all stemmed from some vague and general disagreement about the spelling of “Cole/Kole.”
Rays 7, Twins 5: Evan Longoria homered for the fourth straight game. He hit two here. If he had hit two in four straight games that’d probably be a record or something. Logan Morrison homered twice too. Imagine if you had two guys homer twice in four straight games. It’s easy if you try.
Astros 5, Athletics 2: Evan Gattis homered for the third straight game. What’s the deal with Evans lately? Carlos Correa hit a tiebreaking double in the seventh to give the Astros a three-game sweep. Carlos Gomez hit his first homer of the year. What’s the deal with Carloses lately?
Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 2: Jake Arrieta’s 20-game regular season win streak ends. He still struck out 12 dudes in five innings but a lot of strikeouts do not a win make. On this day he was outdueled by Patrick Corbin who threw 18 fewer pitches despite going two more innings. There’s some sort of wisdom in there someplace. The Cubs went 8-2 on this last homestand, with both losses coming in games Arrieta started. What a bum.
Rangers 3, Mariners 2: Jurickson Profar hit a tiebreaking single in a three-run fifth inning. He was the DH yesterday for the second time since his callup, as Prince Fielder rode the pine. Last week the Rangers were asking how to find playing time for Profar once Rougned Odor came back from his suspension. Given that he’s hitting .390/.405/.634 with five extra base hits in nine games since returning to the bigs, the answer to that is “at Prince Fielder’s expense until it ceases to make sense.”
Dodgers 12, Braves 6: Corey Seager homered twice. He homered three times on Friday. What’s the deal with Coreys lately? No, I don’t have any other great Corey baseball stats, but there’s probably a Corey who had a great weekend someplace. The Dodgers outscored the Braves 20-8 in the series sweep. How’d they ever get eight? It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle.
Cardinals 6, Giants 3: Aledmys Diaz, Matt Adams and Yadier Molina each drove in a run during the Cards’ four-run sixth inning. St. Louis rallied from behind. to beat the Giants for the second straight day. Matt Carpenter had three hits and an RBI. He’s 15-for-35 with eight extra-base hits since returning from paternity leave. Paternity leave is good.
Rockies 10, Padres 3: Jon Gray was dominant and Carlos Gonzalez hit two two-run homers. What’s the deal with Carloses lately?
