Cedric Mullins' two-run double capped a big ninth-inning rally for the Baltimore Orioles, who remained atop the American League East standings with Sunday's 6-5 comeback win over the rival New York Yankees.
After rookie Ben Rice's three-run homer in the top of the ninth gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead, the Orioles capitalised on two New York miscues in their half of the final inning to score three times and avoid being swept in the key three-game series.
Mullins' game-winning hit, a line drive that sailed over the head of New York's Alex Verdugo after the left fielder initially ran in on the ball, also snapped the Orioles' five-game losing streak and put Baltimore a game ahead of the second-place Yankees in the division race.
All three Baltimore runs in the ninth came with two outs, with Adley Rutschman extending the game by drawing a walk against New York closer Clay Holmes that loaded the bases. Ryan Mountcastle followed with an infield grounder that Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe bobbled for an error that let in a run and cut the lead to 5-4.
Mullins then drove a pitch over Verdugo's head to bring home Ryan O'Hearn and Rutschman with the tying and winning runs.
The Orioles had a chance to wrap up the game beforehand, but closer Craig Kimbrel walked the first two batters he faced after entering with his team up 3-2 to begin the top of the ninth. Rice then drilled a fastball over the wall in right center field to suddenly put the Yankees in front.
All-Star Anthony Santander went 2 for 4 and gave Baltimore a 3-2 edge with a solo homer off Tommy Kahnle in the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees had tied the game in the top of the inning on Trent Grisham's solo homer off Orioles' starter Dean Kremer.
Grisham finished 3 for 3 and also drove in the Yankees' first run with a second-inning single that plated Volpe, who had reached on a two-out double.
The Orioles went ahead in the third when James McCann drew a walk against New York starter Carlos Rodon and Gunnar Henderson followed with a two-run homer, the All-Star shortstop's 28th long ball of the season.
D'Arnaud's two homers help Braves' Sale earn 13th win
Travis d'Arnaud drove in four runs on a pair of homers to help Chris Sale to his MLB-leading 13th win in the Atlanta Braves' 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.
Sale yielded just one run and four hits over five innings to improve to 13-3 and send Atlanta into the All-Star break by taking two of three meetings from San Diego in the weekend series.
The All-Star hurler overcame some early trouble, as the Padres pushed home a run in the first inning on consecutive singles by Donovan Solano, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts. Sale then proceeded to retire 13 of the final 16 batters he faced as the Braves eventually forged ahead.
Atlanta drew even in the fourth as Ozzie Albies singled off San Diego starter Randy Vasquez, stole second and scored on Matt Olson's single. The Braves went ahead an inning later when d'Arnaud walked, stole second and crossed the plate on an Adam Duvall single.
D'Arnaud extended the margin in the sixth with his first homer of the day, which came after Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna reached via singles, with the three-run blast off Stephen Kolek increasing the lead to 5-1.
The Padres inched closer on Luis Campusano's pinch-hit, two-run homer off A.J. Minter in the seventh inning, but d'Anaud answered with a solo homer in the eighth before Raisel Iglesias retired the side in order in the ninth for his 22nd save of the season.
Vasquez (2-5) struck out five while allowing two runs over five innings.
A's slug eight home runs in 18-3 rout of Phillies
Lawrence Butler had three of the Oakland Athletics' eight home runs as the AL West's last place team earned a surprising series win over the National League-leading Philadelphia Phillies with Sunday's 18-3 rout.
Brent Rooker and Seth Brown each went deep twice as the Athletics tied a franchise record for homers in a single game, a mark set in an 18-2 win over the then-California Angels on June 27, 1996.
Butler drove in a total of six runs for Oakland, which also got a grand slam from Zach Gelof in the ninth inning with the Phillies using catcher Garrett Stubbs as a pitcher. Rooker knocked in five runs, Brown had three hits and three RBIs and JJ Bleday went 3 for 4 with four runs scored.
Philadelphia was dealt a second loss of the three-game series despite leading 1-0 after three innings, courtesy of All-Star Trea Turner's solo home run off Joey Estes in the first.
Estes (4-4) was solid the rest of the way as he allowed three runs - two earned - over six innings while well-supported by his team's power barrage.
Rooker followed a Bleday double with a homer off Michael Mercado (1-2) in the fourth to put the A's ahead, and Butler's two-run blast in the fifth extended the margin to 4-1.
Rooker had another two-run homer in the sixth, with Brown adding a solo shot during the inning to stake Oakland to a 7-1 advantage.
The Phillies put together a mild threat in their half of the sixth when a double by All-Star Alec Bohm put runners on second and third with one out. Bryson Stott followed with a sacrifice fly in which two runs scored on the play, as Bohm came in from second on a throwing error by Oakland left fielder Miguel Andujar.
It was all A's from that point on, though. Butler's two-run homer in the seventh increased the lead to 9-3, and Bleday tripled later in the inning and scored on Rooker's sac fly.
Brown delivered his second solo homer of the day in the eighth, and Butler had another two-run shot later in the frame to put Oakland up 13-3.
The A's scored five more times off Stubbs in the ninth on Brown's run-scoring single and Gelof's slam.
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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