Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Nationals 15, Brewers 2: What a bloodbath. As we noted yesterday, the Nats hit a lot of homers here. Five in the third inning alone, eight in all. Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman each hit two of them, with the former going 3-for-5 with four driven in and the latter going 2-for-5 with three RBI. Max Scherzer didn’t need all that run support -- he allowed one run over six innings, striking out nine -- but he’ll take it.
Indians 2, Angels 1: A lower scoring affair. Trevor Bauer pitched his best game of the season, allowing one run over eight, scattering seven hits and striking out six. Carlos Santana homered for the first Indians run, Francisco Lindor singled in the second. That’s seven straight wins for Cleveland. They’ve needed every one of them as second place Kansas City has won eight in a row.
Blue Jays 8, Athletics 4: We talked about the ump show in this one yesterday. Later it was the Kendrys Morales and Steve Pearce show, with Morales hitting a solo homer in the ninth to tie it and Pearce hitting a grand slam in the tenth inning to give Toronto their second walkoff win in as many days. It was the first Blue Jays walkoff grand slam in nine years -- Greg Zaun did it then -- but the second walkoff grand slam in baseball this week, as Edwin Encarnacion did it on Tuesday.
Yankees 6, Rays 5: Brett Gardner was the catalyst and hero late in this one. He hit a triple in the ninth and then scored on a weird play in which the Rays infielders -- Adeiny Hechavarria and Tim Beckham -- let a grounder go through because they were shifted and didn’t know whose responsibility it was. Then in the 11th Gardner hit a walkoff homer for the win. The celebration was so intense Aaron Judge broke a tooth. Biggest hit he’s had in a while. That’s four wins in a row for the Yankees who are a half game behind Boston.
Marlins 4, Reds 1: Chris O’Grady pitched seven scoreless innings for Miami as third baseman Derek Dietrich did most of the damage on offense. He homered, walked in a run and singled in a run. The Marlins have won five of seven, the Reds have lost seven of eight. This happened before the game:
There appears to be an issue with the fish tanks behind home plate at Marlins Park. pic.twitter.com/ur3VthUA0m
— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) July 27, 2017
I could find no followup suggesting that it was a real problem. I assume, however, that this will happen soon:
Scene I'd really like to see at Marlins Park. pic.twitter.com/NXXmshGX6J
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) July 27, 2017
Cubs 6, White Sox 3: Kyle Schwarber has stunk up the joint all year, but maybe he’s coming around. Here he homered twice and drove in four runs as he Cubs won their third in a row and are now 11-2 since the All-Star break. Anthony Rizzo went deep too and Jon Lester allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings.
Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 0: Zack Godley -- 65% of all pitchers in baseball are now named Zack, by the way -- tossed seven shutout innings striking out seven and the relievers took it the rest of the way. J.D. Martinez continues to swing a hot bat since his acquisition by the Dbacks, hitting a fourth inning grand slam for all of the game’s scoring. He’s only 5-for-20 since the deal, but four of those five hits have been homers and he’s driven in 11 in his six games in the NL.
Padres 7, Mets 5: Manuel Margot hit a homer, double and a single, driving in three and Dusty Coleman hit a three-run homer. There are not a lot of Manuel Margots in baseball, but about 65% of Impressionist painters had that name. About 47% of cowboys were named Dusty Coleman.
