Zach Eflin teamed with two relievers on a two-hitter as the Tampa Bay Rays earned a 7-1 win over the slumping Baltimore Orioles on Friday, creating a virtual tie between the American League East rivals for first place in the division.
Tampa Bay has now taken the first two matchups of this pivotal four-game series to move just percentage points behind Baltimore in the standings. The Rays, who trailed the Orioles by four games just six days ago, have won nine of 11 while Baltimore has tied a season high with four straight losses.
Harold Ramirez belted a three-run homer and Brandon Lowe had a solo shot to back a dominant outing from Eflin, who yielded only a solo homer to Heston Kjerstad and struck out eight over seven innings to collect his AL-leading 15th win of the season.
Randy Arozarena and Manuel Margot added three hits each for the Rays, with Margot and Lowe both finishing with two RBIs.
Kjerstad's homer was the first major league hit for the 24-year-old, who was promoted from the minor leagues prior to Thursday's series opener.
Orioles starter Jack Flaherty lasted just four innings and yielded three runs despite striking out six.
Rockies no-hit Giants over eight innings, rally to win in ninth
The Colorado Rockies took a combined no-hitter into the ninth inning in their game against the San Francisco Giants, then scored twice in the bottom of the frame to rally for a dramatic 3-2 victory to open a four-game series.
Chase Anderson kept San Francisco hitless before being pulled after throwing 101 pitches in seven innings, and the no-hit bid was extended into the ninth before J.D. Davis led off the inning with a double off Nick Mears.
The Giants later loaded the bases before Rockies reliever Matt Koch walked pinch-hitter WIlmer Flores to force in a run and break a 1-1 deadlock.
The tie was short-lived, however. Charlie Blackmon began the bottom of the ninth with a double off San Francisco closer Camilo Doval, who later walked Nolan Jones with one out to put the potential winning run aboard.
Elehuris Montero then delivered a single in which Giants left fielder Mike Yastrzmeski threw errantly to home as Blackmon slid across the plate, allowing Jones to come in as well with the deciding run.
The loss could prove costly for San Francisco, which fell a game behind Arizona and Cincinnati in the race for the National League's final wild card with both the Diamondbacks and Reds winning their games.
San Francisco also wasted a terrific effort from Logan Webb, who held Colorado to one run on four hits over eight innings.
Giolito fans 12 as Guardians snap Rangers' six-game winning streak
Lucas Giolito struck out a season-high 12 batters over seven scoreless innings to help the Cleveland Guardians snap the Texas Rangers' six-game winning streak with a 12-3 rout.
Giolito permitted just two hits and one walk to record his first win since Aug. 8. The 2019 All-Star, who was claimed off waivers by Cleveland from the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 31, had posted a 7.48 ERA while losing each of his previous five starts.
Josh Naylor went 4 for 5 with three RBIs to lead Cleveland offensively, while Andres Gimenez, Ramon Laureano and Kole Calhoun all homered as part of the Guardians' 15-hit attack.
Gimenez finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs and put Cleveland up 2-0 with his second-inning homer off Texas starter Jon Gray, who was pulled after allowing three runs in 3 2/3 innings.
The Rangers remained scoreless until Sam Huff's solo homer in the ninth. Catcher Austin Hedges later added a two-run single after pitching the bottom of the eighth and retiring all three batters he faced.
Texas missed out on a chance to regain first place in the AL West from Houston, which was dealt a 4-2 loss by the Kansas City Royals on Friday. The Astros remain a half-game ahead in the standings.
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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