There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.
That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:
Maybe another players-only meeting will help?
Things are not going great for the Yankees at the moment. They were sitting pretty, all alone at the top of the AL East with a seven-game lead on May 28, their largest of the season. They’re still in first as of Wednesday’s game, but that lead has shrunk, and considerably so: New York is now just 1.5 games up on the Rays after dropping six-straight games and posting a 7-11 record since that high point, a stretch that also included a sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.
The Yankees’ struggles have come at the same time that Tampa Bay has been on fire. The Rays were just 21-26 after losing to the Astros on May 19, 6.5 games back of the Yankees and already four back of a wild card, but they’ve gone 20-7 since while outsourcing their opponents by 78 runs.
New York entered Wednesday’s game not only having lost five in a row, but with the last three of those defeats coming in the form of shutouts, tying a franchise record. They hadn’t scored a run for 30.1 innings until Jazz Chisholm tied the game up with a solo shot in the bottom of the second:
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The Yankees would even score another run in the fourth, giving the Yankees their first lead since June 12 when they defeated the Royals 1-0, but it was short-lived, as the Angels responded in the fifth via a Jo Adell solo homer. And then, in the eighth, shortstop Anthony Volpe couldn’t wrangle a ground ball cleanly, and then rushed an inaccurate throw to second, allowing the Angels to score what would be the winning run.
The Yankees had a players-only meeting after Tuesday’s loss, but considering how they still lacked baserunners to drive in — they had just three hits on the night, two of them solo shots — there’s still plenty to talk about. These stretches happen, but the AL East is suddenly a whole lot more interesting because of this one.
Speaking of the Rays…
Despite the above discussion about how dominant the Rays have been of late, Wednesday did not start out looking like a continuation of that. Taj Bradley was rocked by the Orioles for seven runs (six earned) in the second after a scoreless first, and reliever Kevin Kelly gave up another before Tampa Bay could escape the inning. That’s quite a hole they dug for themselves, but the Orioles wouldn’t score again. The Rays, however, did. A lot.
They got to work almost immediately. In the bottom of the third, Christopher Morel drove in Curtis Mead with a double, and Jake Mangum followed with a two-run single that scored both Junior Caminero and Morel. Caminero would single in Mead in the fourth to cut the lead to 8-4, and then Taylor Walls would triple in the fifth, scoring José Caballero, with Yandy Díaz then singling in Walls, and pinch-hitter Brandon Lowe homering to clear the bases — in case you weren’t keeping track, that made it 8-8.
In the seventh, Caminero — who was 4-for-5 on the day with four singles as well as two runs and RBIs a piece — knocked in Díaz, giving the Rays the lead.
And they wouldn’t stop there. Josh Lowe drove in Brandon Lowe, then Jonathan Aranda cleared the bases with a single to center, putting the Rays up 12-8. Which was also the final score, completing the largest comeback in MLB this season courtesy a dozen unanswered runs.
Tampa Bay is now your top wild card in the AL, three games up on their fellow AL East club the Red Sox, who are still on the outside looking in at the moment despite their recent surge.
You learn something new every day
Did you know that a catcher can’t use their face mask to field a baseball? It’s not something that normally comes up, so you’d be forgiven for not knowing this offhand. Someone who probably should know that, however, is a big-league catcher. In a related story, Mets’ backstop Luis Torrens isn’t going to forget that rule again anytime soon, because his keeping his mask in his hand while scooping a ball in the dirt resulted in the Braves getting a free run:
It also moved Austin Riley from second to third, which allowed Marcell Ozuna to drive him in with a sacrifice fly before the inning ended. None of this ended up mattering that much in the end, since the Mets never managed to actually score — every run the Braves scored after Ronald Acuña Jr.’s first-pitch leadoff blast was just piling on.
The Mets have now lost five in a row, allowing the Phillies to climb back within one in the NL East. The Braves are still a ways out, at 11 back, but they’re a mere 5.5 out of a wild card spot with a team that’s far more talented — and outscoring opponents by far more — than their record lets on.
The Rockies won again/the Nats lost again
The Rockies can’t undo the damage of their first two months — those losses are in the bank. They can, however, do their best to avoid being the literal worst team of all-time, and have been working hard at that much of late. They defeated the Nationals on Wednesday, giving them their fourth win in a row — the first time the Rockies have won four in a row since May of last year, when they actually managed seven consecutive victories. (And still lost 101 games — MLB’s is a long season.)
The highlight? This web gem by third baseman Orlando Arcia, which is the kind of catch that slo-mo was invented for.
The Nationals, meanwhile, have now dropped 11 straight games, which has taken them from an 30-33 “huh, maybe they’re ahead of schedule” record to a “guess not” 30-44. Even with the Mets dropping five in a row themselves, the Nats have managed to fall from 9.5 games back to 15, and are now 9.5 back of a wild card spot.
Dodgers win on pinch-hit walk-off homer
The Dodgers and Padres played another exciting game, but the result was what it so often is: Los Angeles coming out on top. It was looking like San Diego might be able to pull one out for a bit there, as Xander Bogaerts tied things up in the top of the ninth by driving in their second run of the inning, but it was not to be.
Dave Roberts called upon Will Smith to pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth with one out, and he took a 91-mph changeup left down-middle in the zone deep for a game-winning home run.
It just cleared the wall in right, but the 377 footers count the same as a titanic blast so long as they get over the fence. The Dodgers are now 46-29, winners of five in a row, and have the best record in the National League once again.
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