There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: The Yankees took the first two games of a four-game series against the White Sox, but only the first of those was by a comfortable margin.
The Yanks won the first game 9-5, but the second was just 3-2 — the next two games of the series were also one-run affairs, but both in the White Sox’ favor. Going into Chicago for a four-game series isn’t as tantalizing as it was at this time last year: the White Sox were 40-69 at this time last season, and are 57-51 and in first place in the AL Central this time around. And that’s with rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami having missed dozens of games to injury, too.
This one was scoreless until the 10th: Sean Burke went six scoreless with 10 strikeouts for Chicago, and Ryan Weathers threw seven shutout frames for New York, then the bullpens handled business from there. With the bonus runner at second in extras, though, both offenses found success. The Yankees got on the board with an RBI single from center fielder Trent Grisham in the 10th, meaning the White Sox had to at least match to keep it going in the bottom of the inning.
No problem there. Tristan Peters began the inning on second, and reliever Angel Chivilli put him on third with a wild pitch. Andrew Benintendi would come in as a pinch-hitter with one out and the tying run 90 feet away, and plated Peters with a single to center.
Fernando Cruz would come on in relief after catcher Edgar Quero followed with a single, and ended the threat by inducing a double play. Cruz would come back out for the 11th, and would not have the same luck against the heart of the White Sox order. Murakami was intentionally walked to begin the inning, putting two runners on, then second baseman Sam Antonacci — who had entered as a pinch-hitter earlier — managed a single to load the bases sandwiched in between a pair of strike outs by Cruz.
Peters, who scored the first run for Chicago earlier, came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. He saw four pitches, all four-seam fastballs in the low-90s and each of them out of the strike zone. Peep Murakami in the bottom right corner — he knew right away what was up.
That’s shrimp, in the common parlance, and also ballgame. The White Sox won on a literal walk-off to even the series and remain two games up on the Guardians in the AL Central. Meanwhile, the Yankees slipped to 3.5 behind the Rays in the AL East, and saw six of the eight teams chasing them for a wild-card spot pick up either half-a-game or a whole one.
The White Sox won with the quietest walk-off possible. A bases-loaded walk? It’s glorious and hilarious, but there might as well be a red carpet placed in front of the runner at third, inviting them home.
The Twins also won with a walk-off, but their’s was the loudest possible. You call a walk-off walk "shrimp," but a bases-loaded homer to end a game, while trailing by three runs? That’s an ultimate grand slam.
And before yesterday, there had been just 33 in MLB history. Now there have been 34. Right fielder Kody Clemens had just one hit against the Royals on Thursday, but he made it count.
Down 3-0, Clemens drilled an 0-2 slider that for some reason was right down the middle back 407 feet and over the fence. Ballgame, Twins. An ultimate grand slam is unlikely, just inherently.
But this one in particular sticks out, because the Twins were not only down 3-0, but had been no-hit by the Royals until the bottom of the seventh, when catcher Ryan Jeffers singled off starter Noah Cameron. And then Cameron stayed in through eight innings without allowing another! In the ninth, though, Lucas Erceg relieved Cameron and picked up two quick outs on a pair of pinch-hitters, but then he hit Jeffers with a pitch.
Second baseman Royce Lewis followed with a single — just the second hit of the day for Minnesota — then DH Josh Bell drew a walk despite a challenge from Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez. The bases were loaded for Clemens with two outs, and Kansas City put Matt Strahm on the mound with Erceg losing it. The result?
Clemens’ 19th homer, an ultimate grand slam, and a Twins’ win. The bad? Starter Shane McClanahan had to exit early against the Rangers with back tightness, which is never a positive but is especially bad when the first-place Rays are looking to upgrade the rotation for a postseason push.
The good? Tampa Bay is still pushing, anyway. Tied 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth, center fielder Cedric Mullins strode to the plate with two outs and Ben Peoples on the mound, and took him deep on the only pitch he saw.
The Rays didn’t score again, but neither did the Rangers — that gave Tampa Bay another game in the standings over the Yankees (3.5), while Texas fell to 55-54, just half-a-game up on the idle Astros in the AL West. Thursday was the Athletics’ chance to earn a series split with the Red Sox, and the A’s nearly pulled it off, too, despite Boston’s recent surge and the Athletics… opposite of that. The A’s went up 3-0 through four, but then the Red Sox tied things up with a three-run third, courtesy an RBI single by shortstop Andrew Monasterio and a two-run double by center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela.
The A’s took the lead back with a sac fly in the sixth, but then Boston — whose offense has struggled at times this year, especially early — hit back-to-back solo jacks to go up 5-4. The first from right fielder Wilyer Abreu, and the second from first baseman Willson Contreras, his team-leading 23rd of the season. Aroldis Chapman would come on in the ninth for the save, letting on one baserunner but striking out a pair: Boston is two up on the Guardians for the second wild-card in the AL, and now just 3.5 back of the Yankees, too.
Is it Roki Sasaki’s large new glove that has him pitching better? Whether that solved the issues he had or not, Sasaki was looking good against the Mariners on Thursday, striking out seven against three walks in 5 ⅓ innings while giving up just a pair of runs. In the bottom of the fourth, catcher Daulton Rushing would bash what proved to be the game-winning hit, a three-run homer that went 400 feet to right.
That was Rushing’s 12th dinger of the year, and while the Dodgers would score another, that 5-0 lead was all they needed: the Mariners would manage to score just two runs, thanks to Sasaki’s solid start and Los Angeles’ bullpen. Not great for the Mariners, as they couldn’t capitalize on the Rangers losing, and five of the six teams directly in front of Seattle in the wild-card race picked up ground on it with the L. There were just nine runs scored in the Braves-Nationals game on Thursday, but five homers were hit.
The most notable of the day came off the bat of right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., as he had not yet gone yard since returning from an extended stint on the IL. He crushed it, too: that one went 421 feet with an exit velocity of just a hair under 105 mph. That was Atlanta’s first run of the day, and kickstarted the comeback against the Nats in the first game of a four-game series — this is a big one for both teams, as the Braves fight to be one of the top two seeds in the NL, and the Nats look to grab onto a wild-card spot again.
With the Yankees and Royals walk-off losses, you could at least easily assign blame in that exact moment. Why did Fernando Cruz throw the same pitch for the fourth time in a row when he had just missed with it three other times, with the bases loaded? Why would anyone throw an 0-2 slider down the middle with the bases juiced?!
The Pirates lost in a walk-off to the Reds, too, but it just kind of happened, despite efforts to make it not happen. Observe. With one out and the bases loaded, that’s what you want.
A ground ball to a fielder in position to initiate a double play and end the threat. Gregory Soto did his job there with a 97 mph sinker low in the strike zone to induce a grounder. The problem is that second baseman Nathaniel Lowe actually hit it a little too softly, and to a terrible place from the Pirates’ point of view.
Rather than being able to field it fluidly, shortstop Jared Triolo had to toss the ball softly behind him to second baseman Brandon Lowe to get the first out, because throwing too hard would have been a danger from so close, and Lowe wasn’t at second to cover yet. The pair got the first out, but an off-balance, throwing-while-falling toss to first ended up being a fraction of a second too late: Nathaniel Lowe was safe at first, the run scored and the Reds won. That’s just unfortunate luck for Pittsburgh, but exceptional for Cincinnati.
The Giants ended up winning this game anyway, but you can’t blame Fernando Tatis Jr. for that one. Not when he made a catch like this one to rob Rafael Devers of a three-run homer by going all the way up. Look at that!
Speaking of incredible defensive plays, check out Cubs’ center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong making not just an impressive diving grab, but a fluid spin move after while on the ground to get the ball back to the infield. The Cubs would end up winning in extras by the same score, in no small part because PCA kept the Cardinals from doing any damage there. With a runner on second, that very easily could have been a moment where the runner advanced even with the catch.
