Mets 5, Nationals 3: Three straight comeback wins for the Mets. Three straight bullpen implosions for the Nats. A series sweep and the functional end of the competitive portion of the Nationals season. Washington hasn’t seen a sacking this bad since the week of August 24, 1814. Kelly Johnson -- on loan from the Braves to the hostile Mets given the presence of a mutual enemy in Washington -- hit the tying homer. Yoenis Cespedes -- who I like very much so it will pain me to have to tell people who argue that he’s the NL MVP that they’re unhinged lunatics -- hit the go-ahead shot. Bryce Harper, who is in fact the real NL MVP, homered twice, doubled and scored three times. Some MVP voters will still somehow find a way to hold the Nats’ bullpen’s woes against him and ignore the fact that he has been literally the single most important player to any team in the National League this year. That’ll be fun.
Astros 11, Athletics 5: Colby Rasmus, Evan Gattis, Carlos Gomez and Marwin Gonzalez all homered as the Astros took a 7-0 lead after the top of the fifth. Oakland battled back but Houston didn’t stop scoring either.
Mariners 6, Rangers 0: Vidal Nuno allowed one hit over seven shutout innings and Mark Trumbo and Kyle Seager each had four hits and a two-run homer to sink the Rangers, dropping them two back of the Astros.
Braves 8, Phillies 1: Julio Teheran allowed one run over seven. It got shaky in the seventh, though, as Teheran loaded the bases. Fredi Gonzalez stuck with him, though:
With all respect to the AP reporter who wrote that, I don’t think Gonzalez was joking.
Pirates 5, Reds 4: Pirates won, blah, blah, blah, but the real takeaway here was Joey Votto goin’ totally bonkers after being ejected for arguing balls and strikes:
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He had a point about the strikezone, but if he had changed any umpire minds about their view on it via his argument, it would’ve been the first time that happened in baseball history. But hey, at least he gave Reds fans something fun to watch. After the game, manager Bryan Price said this:
That must be read in Peter Sellers’ “We’re all fine, Dmitri” voice from “Dr. Strangelove.”
Cardinals 4, Cubs 3: Stephen Piscotty hit a two-run double to cap a three-run rally in the eighth inning and Matt Carpenter tripled and scored twice as the Cardinals ended their three-game losing streak.
Orioles 5, Yankees 3: CC Sabathia made his first start since Aug. 23 and was OK, but couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning. He allowed one earned run while on the mound and left the bases loaded and two out before being pulled. The lead to which he was staked, however, went away when Stephen Drew booted the first ball after the big man’s exit, allowing two unearned runs to score. Steve Pearce’s eighth inning homer put Baltimore up for good.
Red Sox 10, Blue Jays 4: The Yankees loss fails to harm them in the standings as the Jays lost too, thanks in part to David Ortiz’s 498th career homer. The Jays drop the series to the Sox. It’s only the second series they’ve dropped since late July.
Rays 8, Tigers 0: Jake Odorizzi tossed six shutout innings and Tigers pitchers gave up four homers. The 2015 Tigers aren’t worth discussing at this point, so let me point you back to what I wrote about a couple of 1970s-90s Tigers yesterday.
Marlins 5, Brewers 2: Koehler Flushes Brewers. I dunno. I always think of toilets when I hear his name. Nothing personal. Anyway, our boy Tom struck out ten and Christian Yelich had a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh.
Indians 6, White Sox 4: Francisco Lindor homered, tripled and scored two runs. He feels like he’s been a prospect forever because we started hearing his name so early, but he’s still 21 and he has a line of .309/.347/.458 in 76 games this year. So many great young players are emerging around the league so it’d understandable if you’ve missed him this year, but he’s one not to overlook.
Twins 3, Royals 2: Speaking of great young players, Miguel Sano hit a homer with two out in the top of the 12th to give the Twins the win. Nice way to break an 0-for-14, 11-strikeout slump. I’m sort of agnostic on the question of the Twins vs. the Rangers for the second wild card, but it would be pretty sweet for the rest of the country to get a look at Sano.
Padres 11, Rockies 4: Matt Kemp and Jedd Gyorko homered. Gyorko was recently moved to shortstop. I haven’t seen a game with him yet -- who is watching the Padres in September? -- but the word is that his glove is solid. On offense, since the switch, he’s hitting 16 for 47 (.340) with six home runs and 14 RBI.
Diamondbacks 2, Giants 1: Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a two-run homer for the Dbacks’ only runs and, when the Giants threatened late, Chip Hale ordered an intentional walk to Buster Posey with runners on the corners. That, obviously, put the go-ahead run at second base. You don’t see that very often, but it paid off for him.
Angels 3, Dodgers 2: Garret Richards pitched lights out to take a lead into the eighth, but Chase Utley tied it up with a double. No worries, though, as Albert Pujols drove in Calhoun with the tiebreaking single in the bottom half to help the Angels avoid the sweep.
