Gunnar Henderson hit his 15th home run of the season to back an 11-strikeout effort from Corbin Burnes as the Baltimore Orioles posted a 6-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in Sunday's finale of a three-game series between early American League contenders.
Ryan O'Hearn also homered while Cedric Mullins went 2 for 4 with two RBIs to help the Orioles take the series with their third win in four games. Colton Cowser added three hits, including a run-scoring single, and scored twice.
Burnes (4-2) scattered seven hits while holding AL West-leading Seattle to one run over six innings to end a run of four consecutive win-less starts.
Henderson, the co-MLB leader in home runs along with Houston's Kyle Tucker, quickly put the Orioles ahead with a lead-off blast off Seattle starter George Kirby in the bottom of the first inning. Jordan Westburg followed with a single and later scored on Cowser's infield hit for a 2-0 advantage.
Luke Raley doubled off Burnes in the second and crossed the plate on a Luis Urias single to get the Mariners on the board, though the Orioles answered in their half of the inning when James McCann brought home Jorge Mateo with a double.
O'Hearn's homer to begin the bottom of the third extended Baltimore's lead to 4-1, and Cowser later doubled during the inning and scored on a Mullins single.
Kirby (4-4) escaped further trouble but was stuck with the loss after allowing five runs and nine hits through six innings.
Urias' RBI double in the seventh pulled the Mariners within 5-2, and the third baseman was later brought in by Julio Rodriguez's single to close the gap further.
The Orioles got some insurance in the eighth, however, when consecutive singles by Cowser, Austin Hays and Mullins accounted for their final run. Craig Kimbrel then retired the Mariners in order in the ninth to record his ninth save of the season and first since May 3.
Raley finished 3 for 4 with a run scored for Seattle.
Tucker's two homers power resurgent Astros past Brewers
Kyle Tucker tied Henderson for the majors' home run lead by going deep twice in the red-hot Houston Astros' 9-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Tucker had a solo homer in the sixth inning and a three-run shot in the seventh to power Houston to a ninth victory in 11 games following a 12-24 start. The Astros took two of the three meetings in the weekend series with the National League Central-leading Brewers.
Houston also received a solo homer from Jose Altuve, while Jon Singleton and Jake Meyers each knocked in two runs in the win. Meyers finished 3 for 5.
Spencer Arrighetti (2-4) earned his second major league win after pitching a career-long 6 1/3 innings while allowing four runs and striking out six.
Arrighetti was touched for an early run when Brice Turang opened the game with a double and scored on Christian Yelich's single, but the Astros responded with four runs off Colin Rea in the bottom of the first inning.
Altuve got it started with a lead-off homer before Houston loaded the bases on a Yordan Alvarez double and a pair of walks issued by Rea. After Singleton plated Alvarez with a groundout, Meyers doubled to right to bring in two more for a 4-1 Astros' lead.
Singleton again brought home Alvarez with a single in the fifth to stretch the margin, and Tucker's first homer of the day put Houston up 6-1 in the sixth.
Arrighetti cruised along until the seventh, when Milwaukee loaded the bases with one out on a pair of singles and a walk. Turang then greeted reliever Bryan Abreu with a two-run single and Yelich later tacked on another RBI single to cut the lead to 6-4.
Tucker would put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh, however, with a blast to right field off Mitch White with two aboard.
Turang ended 3 for 5 for Milwaukee, while Rea (3-2) lasted just 4 1/3 innings and surrendered five runs on eight hits.
Judge's homer sparks Yankees to seventh straight win
Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer and Jon Berti delivered a tie-breaking three-run shot to lift the New York Yankees to their seventh consecutive win, a 7-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Jose Trevino added a two-run single and Carlos Rodon tossed six solid innings as the Yankees finished off a three-game sweep of a White Sox team that owns the majors' worst record at 14-33.
Rodon (5-2), who spent seven seasons with the White Sox from 2015-21, held his former team to two runs on four hits to win his third straight start.
Berti snapped a 2-2 tie with a drive into the bleachers in right center field off Chris Flexen in the fourth inning. The infielder's first home run as a Yankee came with Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres on base after each reached on singles.
Judge made it a 7-2 lead an inning later with his 13th home run of the season, an opposite-field shot off Flexen that followed a walk to Juan Soto.
Rodon's lone trouble came in the second inning, when Corey Julks homered to open the scoring and Korey Lee followed with a walk before coming home on Zach Remillard's triple to left.
New York quickly drew even in the bottom of the inning, however. Rizzo legged out an infield single and Torres doubled to put two on for Trevino, who laced a single up the middle to score both runners and tie the contest at 2-2.
Flexen (2-4) surrendered all seven New York runs on eight hits before being removed with none out in the fifth.
Julks had two of the six hits for Chicago, which had entered the series having won six of eight.
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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