Yu Darvish tossed seven scoreless innings and was backed by three San Diego homers as the Padres earned a series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers with Sunday's 4-0 victory.
Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts all had solo homers to support a third straight winning start for Darvish (3-1). The veteran right-hander yielded just two hits and a walk while striking out seven to extend his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 18.
The Padres also got three hits from Jackson Merrill as they took two of three games from the National League West-leading Dodgers and improved to 8-3 over their last 11 contests.
Darvish retired the first 14 Los Angeles hitters and was staked to a quick 2-0 lead on back-to-back homers from Tatis and Cronenworth off Walker Buehler in the first inning.
Buehler (0-1), making his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery performed in August 2022, ran into more trouble in the fourth as the Padres loaded the bases with one out on a Merrill single, a walk and a hit batter. Ryan Yarbrough then relieved the right-hander and got Luis Arraez to ground into a fielder's choice that brought home Merrill.
Bogaerts' homer off Gus Varland in the fifth extended San Diego's lead to 4-0.
Buehler was removed after 3 1/3 innings and was charged with three runs allowed on five hits and two walks.
Yankees belt five homers to take series from Rays
The New York Yankees hit a season-high five home runs, including two from Jose Trevino, before holding on for a 10-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the rubber match of a three-game series between the American League East rivals.
Gleyber Torres added a three-run homer, while Aaron Judge and Jahmai Jones also went deep as New York bounced back from Saturday's 7-2 loss and won for the seventh time in nine games.
The Yankees also received six scoreless innings from Luis Gil (4-1), who allowed just three hits and two walks to win his third consecutive start.
Tampa Bay lost for the third time in four games despite Jose Siri's grand slam and a solo homer from Yandy Diaz.
New York built a 6-0 lead through six innings, with Anthony Volpe starting the scoring by leading off the game with a triple and crossing the plate on Juan Soto's sacrifice fly.
Jones' homer off Tampa Bay starter Tyler Alexander in the third inning extended the margin to 2-0, and Trevino took Alexander's pitch over the left field wall with Anthony Rizzo aboard in the fourth to increase the lead further.
Soto singled in front of Judge's 10th homer of the season to put New York up 6-0 in the fifth, but the Rays got back in it with five runs against the Yankees' bullpen in the seventh.
Tampa Bay loaded the bases against Caleb Ferguson on Richie Palacios' single, a double from Jonny DeLuca and a walk before Siri connected on his first career grand slam.
Nick Burdi then replaced Ferguson and walked the first two hitters he faced before hitting Randy Arozarena to load the bases again. Luke Weaver was then summoned from the bullpen and promptly hit Isaac Paredes with a pitch to force in a run and cut the lead to 6-5.
The Yankees answered, however, by scoring four times in the eighth.
A Giancarlo Stanton single and Rizzo's double put two on for Torres, who blasted a pitch from Shawn Armstrong into the left field seats for a 9-5 lead. Two batters later, Trevino took Erasmo Ramirez deep for his second career two-homer game.
Ian Hamilton served up Diaz's homer in the ninth before closing out the contest.
Rockies complete stunning sweep of defending champ Rangers
Ty Blach's five solid innings and a two-run homer from Ezequiel Tovar helped the Colorado Rockies finish a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers with Sunday's 3-1 win.
Blach (1-1) scattered seven hits while allowing one run in his second start of the season before turning things over to the Colorado bullpen, where relievers Victor Vodnik, Tyler Kinely and Jalen Beeks combined for four scoreless innings to close out the Rockies' season-high fourth straight win.
Colorado had compiled an MLB-worst 8-28 record prior to its current streak.
Texas, which has dropped three straight for the second time this season, did take an early lead when Corey Seager singled in the top of the first inning and later scored on Adolis Garcia's base hit.
The Rockies answered in the bottom of the inning, however, when Charlie Blackmon reached on a lead-off single and Tovar followed with his fourth homer of the season.
Those were the only runs allowed by Texas starter Jose Urena (1-3), who threw a season-high 6 2/3 innings and permitted six hits and one walk.
The Rangers couldn't generate any further offence, though, and Colorado tacked on an insurance run in the eighth when Ryan McMahon doubled and later crossed the plate on a bases-loaded walk issued to Brenton Doyle.
Beeks worked around a pair of hits in the ninth to record his third save of the season.
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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