Luis Castillo allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings and the Seattle Mariners held on for a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday to take sole possession of the American League West lead.
Sunday's victory coupled with the Texas Rangers' 13-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins moved the resurgent Mariners one game ahead of slumping Texas and the Houston Astros atop the division.
Seattle trailed the Rangers by 7 1/2 games in the standings on Aug. 15, but has now won 11 of its last 12 while Texas has lost nine of 10. The Mariners are an MLB-best 24-6 since July 25.
Castillo permitted just two baserunners in winning his fourth consecutive start and was supported by two home runs, a solo shot from Teoscar Hernandez in the second inning and a two-run blast from Julio Rodriguez in the fifth.
Nelson Velazquez's two-run homer off reliever Gabe Speier in the eighth brought Kansas City within 3-2, but Andres Munoz struck out the side in order in the ninth to finish off the Mariners' sweep of the three-game series.
Royals starter Alec Marsh struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings but allowed both Seattle homers to fall to 0-7 in 11 appearances (seven starts) this season.
Twins rally from five runs down to top reeling Rangers in 13 innings
The spiraling Rangers lost their share of the AL West lead after blowing a five-run cushion in a wild, 7-6 loss to the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins in 13 innings.
Minnesota trailed 5-0 after five innings before rallying to tie the game in the ninth, then took advantage of three walks by Rangers reliever Jonathan Hernandez in the 13th to push home the winning run.
Hernandez struck out the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the 13th before walking Joey Gallo, Matt Wallner and Michael A. Taylor in succession to gift Minnesota its third victory of the four-game series.
Texas pitchers issued a season-high 10 walks on the afternoon, including one to Taylor by closer Aroldis Chapman with the Rangers clinging to a 5-4 lead with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Chapman was then called for a balk to send Taylor to second before surrendering a single to Donovan Solano that tied the game.
Royce Lewis began Minnesota's comeback with a grand slam off reliever Chris Stratton in the sixth that pulled the Twins within a run.
Jonah Heim had a grand slam off Twins starter Bailey Ober in the fourth inning that staked Texas to a 5-0 lead. The Rangers opened the scoring on J.P. Martinez's solo homer in the second.
Dylan Floro earned the win by stranding two Texas runners after coming on in the top of the 13th, while Dallas Keuchel tossed five scoreless innings after relieving Ober to start the fifth.
Brewers blast Padres to extend winning streak to eight games
The National League's hottest team resides in Milwaukee, where the Brewers used a seven-run sixth inning to rally to a 10-6 victory over the San Diego Padres and extend their season-high winning streak to eight games.
William Contreras went 2 for 4 with a homer and two RBIs, while Sal Frelick drove in three runs as the NL Central-leading Brewers completed a three-game sweep heading into an important three-game road series with the division-rival Chicago Cubs.
Milwaukee owns a four-game lead on second-place Chicago, which kept pace with Sunday's 10-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Brewers trailed 4-2 before loading the bases with one out in the sixth in front of Rowdy Tellez's pinch-hit, two-run double off Steven Wilson, who later walked Carlos Santana with the bases full to force in the go-ahead run.
Frelick followed with a two-run double off Nick Martinez to stretch the lead to 7-4 before Mark Canha capped the big inning with a two-run single.
Bryse Wilson recorded the win with four scoreless innings in relief of Brewers starter Adrian Houser, who lasted just two innings and allowed four runs.
Gary Sanchez went 2 for 4 with a two-run homer to lead San Diego, which dropped to a season-high nine games under .500 at 61-70.
Sale, Skubal win MLB's Cy Young Awards
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale were each named the winner of their respective league’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday.
The announcement was hardly a surprise after each ace won their league's pitching triple crown during the 2024 regular season.
This is the first Cy Young for both pitchers.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, enjoyed a break-out year in his fourth full MLB season, and was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase finished third in the balloting, which was completed before the play-offs.
Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, while Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler finished second, ahead of Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who was selected as the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.
The 35-year-old Sale has come close to winning the award before, finishing as runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber in 2017, with five other top-five finishes in voting since his first full season in the majors in 2011.
Since the inception of the Cy Young Award in 1956, there have been 16 pitchers to win his league's pitching crown. And now, every one of them has also won that year's Cy Young.
Skubal and Sale each won an MLB-best 18 games, while Skubal led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts – three more than Sale. Sale's ERA of 2.38 was just a tick better than Skubal's 2.39.
Both were dominant down the stretch in leading their teams to the play-offs, with Sale permitting two earned runs or fewer in each of his final 18 regular-season starts, though he was unable to pitch in the season final or the Braves' NL Wild-Card series loss to the San Diego Padres because of a back injury.
Skubal posted a 1.94 ERA in his final nine outings, and then threw 13 shutout innings in his first two play-off starts in helping the Tigers surprisingly reach the American League Division Series. He ended up going 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three post-season starts.
Skubal became the fifth Tiger to win the Cy Young trophy – and first since Max Scherzer in 2017 – and Sale is the fifth Brave to earn the award – and first since Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in 1998.
Despite several close calls in Cy Young voting for Sale, he has dealt with injuries for the past five seasons, and was limited to a total of 151 innings over the past three years for the Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the Braves, however, he threw 177 2/3 innings and was awarded the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last Thursday.
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.
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