All-Star Yandy Diaz went 3 for 4 with a home run and four RBIs to help the Tampa Bay Rays end a season-high seven-game losing streak with a 10-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
Isaac Paredes added a two-run homer as the Rays roughed up Braves All-Star Bryce Elder to prevent a sweep of the three-game series between teams with the two best records in the major leagues. The loss was just Atlanta's third in 23 games since June 14.
Elder entered the contest leading the majors with a 2.45 ERA but lasted only 3 1/3 innings in his shortest start of the season. The young right-hander allowed a career-high seven runs on six hits and walked four without striking out a batter.
Rays starter Zach Eflin issued five walks in five innings, but limited the damage by holding Atlanta to two runs to earn his 10th win of the season, one shy of teammate Shane McClanahan for the American League lead.
Former Rays catcher Travis d'Arnaud had a solo homer to extend Atlanta's streak of consecutive games with at least one home run to a franchise-record 26 games.
Red-hot Orioles blast six home runs to finish sweep of Twins
Anthony Santander had two of six Baltimore home runs as the hot-hitting Orioles rolled to a 15-2 rout of the Minnesota Twins to complete a three-game series sweep.
All-Stars Adley Rutschman and Austin Hays also went deep while knocking in two runs each in Baltimore's fifth consecutive victory. The Orioles also got a three-run homer from Aaron Hicks and a two-run shot from Ramon Urias, who finished 2 for 5 with three RBIs.
Baltimore collected 17 hits for the afternoon and has averaged 8.8 runs per game during the winning streak while batting .309 as a team.
The Orioles also received a strong pitching effort from Kyle Gibson, who tied a season high with 11 strikeouts while holding the Twins to two runs and three hits over seven innings.
Joe Ryan fanned 10 in 4 1/3 innings for Minnesota, but served up Hays and Urias' homers and was tagged for five runs.
In search of their first winning season and playoff appearance since 2016, the Orioles enter the All-Star break with the AL's second-best record at 54-35 and are two games behind Tampa Bay for first place in the AL East.
The Twins dropped to 45-46 and missed out on a chance to regain the top spot in the AL Central after Cleveland lost to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. The Guardians maintained a half-game edge on Minnesota.
Miley silences Reds' bats as Brewers gain ground in NL Central
Wade Miley allowed just four hits in six splendid innings as the Milwaukee Brewers closed the gap on the first-place Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central with a 1-0 win.
The Brewers took two of three games from their division rivals and will enter the All-Star break one game back of Cincinnati in the standings.
Milwaukee got the only run it needed in the first inning when Christian Yelich stroked a leadoff double off Ben Lively and scored on Jesse Winker's two-out single.
Miley made the lead stand by tying a season high with eight strikeouts and working around three walks. After Elvis Peguero and Joel Payamps each tossed a scoreless inning in relief, All-Star closer Devin Williams fanned two in a perfect ninth to register his 20th save.
Lively yielded four hits and two walks while striking out five over 5 2/3 innings in a hard-luck loss.
Dodgers erase 5-run deficit, beat Yankees to win World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Alex Verdugo’s RBI single chased Jack Flaherty in the second and Giancarlo Stanton’s third-inning homer against Ryan Brasier built a 5-0 Yankees lead.
But errors by Judge in center and Anthony Volpe at shortstop, combined with pitcher Gerrit Cole failing to cover first on Betts' grounder, helped Los Angeles score five unearned runs in the fifth.
After Stanton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly put the Yankees back ahead 6-5, the Dodgers loaded the bases against loser Tommy Kahnle in the eighth before the sacrifice flies off Luke Weaver.
Winner Blake Treinen escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the bottom half by retiring Stanton on a flyout and striking out Anthony Rizzo.
Walker Buehler, making his first relief appearance since his rookie season in 2018, pitched a perfect ninth for the save.
Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers’ record-setting $700 million signing and baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal player, went 2 for 19 with no RBIs and had one single after separating his shoulder during a stolen base attempt in Game 2.
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single to tie the Series record of 12 RBIs, set by Bobby Richardson over seven games in 1960. With the Dodgers one out from losing Friday’s opener, Freeman hit a game-ending grand slam reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s homer off Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1988’s Game 1 that sparked Los Angeles to the title.
The Dodgers earned their eighth championship and seventh since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles - their first in a non-shortened season since 1988. They won a neutral-site World Series against Tampa Bay in 2020 after a 60-game regular season and couldn’t have a parade because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Volpe hits grand slam as Yankees avoid World Series sweep
Anthony Volpe hit a grand slam and New York’s bullpen tossed five scoreless innings as the Yankees avoided a World Series sweep with an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Freddie Freeman homered for his sixth straight Series game, hitting a two-run drive in the first inning for the second straight night and again stunning the Yankee Stadium crowd.
Game 5 is Wednesday night, with the Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and the Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty meeting in a rematch of Game 1.
Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to take 3-0 Series leads went on to sweeps, all but the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago Cubs, the 1937 Yankees against the New York Giants and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Cincinnati Reds. All three of those Series ended in five games.
Seeking to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 Series deficit, New York surged ahead 5-2 on Alex Verdugo’s RBI grounder in the second and Volpe’s drive against Daniel Hudson in the third. Volpe turned on a first-pitch slider at the knees and drove it into the left-field seats.
Volpe came across with New York's first run when he walked after falling behind 0-2 in the count in the second inning. He also doubled and stole two bases.
Austin Wells and Gleyber Torres added homers for the Yankees, who broke open the game with a five-run eighth. New York had scored just seven runs in the first three games.
Los Angeles closed within 6-4 in a two-run fifth that included Will Smith's homer off starter Luis Gil and an RBI grounder by Freeman. Despite a sprained right ankle, Freeman beat a relay to avoid an inning-ending double play on what originally was ruled an out but was reversed in a video review.
Wells hit a second-deck homer in the sixth against Landon Knack, and Verdugo added another run-scoring grounder in the eighth ahead of Torres' three-run homer off Brent Honeywell.
Tim Hill, winning pitcher Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza strung together five innings of one-hit relief with seven strikeouts, and the Yankees avoided what would have been their first losing Series sweep since 1976.
New York's Aaron Judge drove in his first run of the Series with an RBI single in the eighth and is 2 for 15 in the four games. Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani also is 2 for 15 after going 1 for 4 with a single, his first hit since partially separating his left shoulder in Game 2.
Dodgers go up 3-0 on Yankees in World Series
A record-tying feat by Freddie Freeman and a sharp pitching performance from Walker Buehler has the Los Angeles Dodgers one win away from a World Series sweep.
Freeman had a two-run homer in the first inning and Buehler threw five scoreless innings as the National League Champions took a 3-0 series lead on the New York Yankees with Monday's 4-2 victory.
The Dodgers can wrap up their second World Series title in five years and eighth in franchise history in Tuesday's Game 4 at Yankee Stadium. Only one team in MLB history has won a best-of-seven post-season series after losing the first three games - the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
Shohei Ohtani, in the lineup despite injuring his left shoulder in Los Angeles' Game 2 win on Saturday, went 0 for 3 but did draw a walk off New York starter Clarke Schmidt to begin Monday's contest.
Two batters later, Freeman drilled Schmidt's pitch into the right-field seats to stake the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead. The first baseman has now homered in five consecutive World Series games, tying a record set by the Houston Astros' George Springer during the 2017 and 2019 editions.
Freeman also joined Hank Bauer (1958) and Barry Bonds (2002) as the only players to homer in each of the first three games of a single World Series. The All-Star slugger also went deep in Games 5 and 6 of the 2021 Fall Classic while then with the Atlanta Braves.
Buehler did not allow a hit until Giancarlo Stanton's double with one out in the fourth inning and yielded just two overall before departing with a 3-0 advantage.
The Dodgers got another run courtesy of a lead-off walk in the third inning. Tommy Edman drew the free pass from Schmidt before moving to second on Ohtani's groundout and crossing the plate on Mookie Betts' bloop single to right field.
Schmidt lasted just 2 2/3 innings and issued four walks while permitting three runs.
Los Angeles extended the margin to 4-0 in the sixth. Gavin Lux was hit by a pitch from New York reliever Jake Cousins and stole second before being brought home by Enrique Hernandez's single.
The Yankees did not get on the board until former Dodger Alex Verdugo's two-run homer off Michael Kopech in the ninth inning.
New York missed out on a chance to score following Stanton's double in the fourth, however, as the slugger was later thrown out at the plate by Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernandez on single off the bat of Anthony Volpe.
The Dodgers are expected to throw a bullpen game in Game 4, while the Yankees will send out 15-game winner Luis GIl in an attempt to extend the series.
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