Nelson Velazquez’s run-scoring fielder’s choice capped a three-run 9th inning and the Kansas City Royals rallied from an eight-run deficit for a stunning 10-9 win over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
The Mariners scored seven runs in the first inning – highlighted by Mitch Haniger’s bases-clearing double and Ryan Bliss’s first career homer.
They took a 9-7 lead into the bottom of the ninth but were without injured closer Andres Munoz. Ryne Stanek walked Nick Loftin before Garrett Hampson hit an infield single that third baseman Josh Rojas threw wildly to put runners on second and third.
After Maikel Garcia’s groundout scored a run, Bobby Witt Jr. tripled home the tying run. The Mariners intentionally walked the next two batters and Velazquez hit a potential double-play grounder to shortstop J.P. Crawford, who bobbled the ball and the throw to first was late.
Ty France’s RBI double in the fourth stretched the lead to 8-0, but the Royals responded with four runs in the bottom half. Velazquez’s infield single scored a run and MJ Melendez followed with a three-run homer.
Seattle tacked on a run in the sixth before Kansas City closed to 9-7 in its half. Melendez knocked in a run on a groundout and Hunter Renfroe had a two-run single.
Teams trailing 7-0 after one inning had lost 75 straight games, a streak that dated back to 1995.
Dodgers end Yankees’ streak in 11 innings
Teoscar Hernandez lined a two-run double in the 11th inning to break up a scoreless game and the Los Angeles Dodgers held on for a 2-1 victory, ending the New York Yankees’ eight-game winning streak.
With automatic runner Shohei Ohtani on second, Freddie Freeman walked against Ian Hamilton before Will Smith lined out. Hernandez then drilled a shot into the left-center field gap to easily score both runners.
Aaron Judge singled home a run with one out in the bottom half, but Yohan Ramirez struck out Giancarlo Stanton and got Anthony Rizzo to foul out for his first save of the season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto limited New York to two hits over seven innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. The Dodgers’ bullpen allowed three hits and an unearned run over the next four innings.
Ohtani went 0 for 5 and is batting .195 with three homers and 10 RBIs since May 16 to drop his average from .364 to .312.
The Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth after Judge worked a 10-pitch walk but Blake Treinen got Stanton to fly out.
Juan Soto missed his first game of the season for New York due to a sore left forearm.
Cody Poteet gave up two hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings in his third start of the season.
Reds hold off Cubs for 6th straight win
Nick Lodolo pitched six strong innings and Tyler Stephenson had a two-run double to lift the Cincinnati Reds to their sixth consecutive victory, 3-2 over the Chicago Cubs.
Lodolo limited the Cubs to one run and four hits while walking two and striking out seven to win his third straight start.
Alexis Diaz gave up a run in the ninth but struck out Patrick Wisdom with the tying run on second for his 13th save.
Cincinnati has won 11 of 14 to pull even with Chicago for second place in the NL Central, both at 31-33.
The Cubs have lost 11 of 15.
Stephenson’s double off Justin Steele in the fourth came after Spencer Steer reached on a strikeout/wild pitch and Elly De La Cruz’s walk.
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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