Pirates All-Star rookie Paul Skenes lost for the first time in 12 career major league starts as Alec Burleson stroked a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 win on Tuesday night.
Skenes threw 91 pitches through eight innings and was allowed to start the ninth for the first time.
Michael Siani opened the inning with a double down the left-field line and took third on Masyn Winn’s groundout. He scored when Burleson lined an 0-2 fastball into right on Skenes’ 104th and final pitch.
He gave up two runs and four hits in 8 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and no walks as his ERA rose from 1.90 to 1.93. Skenes had at least seven strikeouts for his ninth consecutive start, extending a team record.
Ryan Fernandez earned the win, getting an inning-ending double play in the eighth from Ke’Bryan Hayes, his only batter.
Ryan Helsley struck out three straight batters on 13 pitches for his major league-leading 33rd save in 35 chances.
Jack Suwinski had two hits for the Pirates, who had won seven of their previous eight games.
Dodgers beat Giants for 5th straight win
Shohei Ohtani drove in three runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers extended their winning streak to five games with a 5-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
Shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald became the first Giants rookie to homer in five consecutive games with a solo shot off Landon Knack in the second inning. He is the first Giants player to go deep in at least five straight since Barry Bonds had a seven-game streak in 2004.
That was the only run and one of two hits Knack allowed over five innings in his first win since April 24.
Brent Honeywell Jr. worked two scoreless innings, Blake Treinen pitched the eighth and Alex Vesia gave up a run in the 9th before Evan Phillips retired LaMonte Wade Jr. with the bases loaded for his 15th save.
After Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez drew two-out walks in the first against Jordan Hicks, Gavin Lux’s double staked the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead.
Ohtani followed Jason Heyward’s hit by pitch and Cavan Biggio’s single in the fourth with a double off the right-field fence to make it 4-1.
The Japanese sensation added an RBI single in the eighth.
McNeil, Diekman help Mets edge Yankees
Jeff McNeil hit a two-run homer and Jake Diekman struck out Aaron Judge in a key spot as the New York Mets held on for a 3-2 win to remain perfect this season against the New York Yankees.
Jose Quintana and five relievers combined on a five-hitter as the Mets (52-48) matched their season high of four games over .500. They improved to 3-0 against their crosstown rivals.
With closer Edwin Diaz unavailable, Diekman pitched a hitless ninth for his fourth save. After walking Juan Soto with one out, the veteran lefty froze Judge for a called third strike, then retired rookie Ben Rice on a game-ending grounder.
The Mets walked Judge his first four times, once intentionally, but the Yankees were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
McNeil’s homer in the sixth off Michael Tonkin snapped a 1-1 tie and was his fourth in five games since the All-Star break.
Gleyber Torres homered and Alex Verdugo doubled home a run for the Yankees, who dropped to 9-19 in their last 28 games.
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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