The Seattle Mariners received a big night from Cal Raleigh and another outstanding pitching performance to complete a three-game sweep of the floundering New York Mets with Sunday's 12-1 win.
Raleigh drove in a season-high five runs with a pair of homers, while Luis Castillo fanned nine over six strong innings as the Mariners won their fourth consecutive game. Sunday's rout kept Seattle in a virtual tie with the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West.
The Mets, meanwhile, were swept in a three-game series for the first time since May 28-29. New York, which was shut out in each of this series' first two matchups, remained a half-game behind the Atlanta Braves for the National League's third and final wild card.
Castillo (10-11) continued Seattle's stellar run of pitching by limiting the Mets to one run and four hits. The right-hander also received plenty of support from Raleigh, who went 3 for 4, and from a three-hit night from Jorge Polanco which included a solo homer.
Victor Robles and Randy Arozarena drove in two runs each in the Mariners' highest scoring game of the season.
Mets starter Luis Severino kept Seattle's bats mostly quiet early on, with Polanco's solo homer in the second the game's lone run through four innings of play.
The Mariners broke through in the fifth, however. Dominic Canzone led off with a double and Arozarena later singled before Raleigh sent Severino's pitch over the right field wall for a 4-0 advantage.
Severino (7-6) finished with eight strikeouts while permitting four runs in five innings.
Jeff McNeil finally ended New York's scoring drought with a solo homer in the top of the sixth, but the Mariners countered with six runs against the Mets' bullpen in their half of the inning.
Polanco began the outburst with a double before New York's Ryne Stanek walked two batters to load the bases. Leo Rivas and Robles then each delivered RBI singles, with a throwing error by McNeil on Robles' hit allowing an additional run to score for a 7-1 lead.
Two batters later, Raleigh launched a three-run homer to further increase the margin.
The Mariners got two more runs in the seventh despite managing just one hit in the inning. Robles drew a bases-loaded walk before Mets reliever Phil Maton hit Arozarena with a pitch to force in the final run.
Astros complete sweep of Red Sox to extend winning streak
The Astros kept pace with Seattle in the AL West by cruising to their fifth consecutive victory, a 10-2 rout of the scuffling Boston Red Sox highlighted by back-to-back homers by Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez during a five-run fifth inning.
Bregman's three-run blast off Brennan Bernardino staked Houston to a 4-0 lead, and Alvarez followed with his third homer in two games to help send the Astros to a three-game series sweep.
Jeremy Pena also homered for the Astros and finished 3 for 5. Jose Altuve also collected three hits and Yainer Diaz contributed a two-run double to support a solid start from Hunter Brown (10-7), who struck out nine while allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings.
Boston has now lost four straight and may be down a starting pitcher for a while after James Paxton exited Sunday's contest in the first inning with a strained right calf.
Lucas Sims replaced Paxton and allowed a lead-off walk to Mauricio Dubon and a one-out single to Altuve before being removed in the third inning. Bernardino came on in relief and hit Alvarez with a pitch to load the bases, then uncorked a wild pitch that enabled Dubon to score the game's first run.
Pedro Leon and Altuve singled in front of Bregman's game-breaking homer that was followed by Alvarez's 25th home run of the season. The Astros tacked on another run in the fifth when Pena singled, stole second, and scored on Jake Meyers' base hit.
Houston put up four more runs in the sixth - all with two out - to put the game out of reach.
Bregman doubled and Alvarez was walked intentionally to set up Diaz's double that plated both runners for an 8-0 advantage. Pena then homered over the Green Monster in left field to further pad the margin.
Brown's only trouble occurred in the bottom of the sixth, when he gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases with none out. The right-hander walked Wilyer Abreu two batters later to force in the Red Sox's first run, and Masataka Yoshida greeted reliever Caleb Ferguson with an RBI single to bring Boston within 10-2.
Burger homers again as Marlins snap Padres' seven-game win streak
Jake Burger went 3 for 4 and homered for a third straight game, and the Miami Marlins held off a late comeback attempt to end the San Diego Padres' winning streak at seven games with Sunday's 7-6 victory.
Burger's two-run blast off Dylan Cease helped Miami build a 5-0 lead after two innings. The homer was the third baseman's 12th since the All-Star break, the most of any player in the majors over that time frame.
Jesus Sanchez also had a two-run homer as the Marlins ended a three-game skid. Max Meyer (3-2) pitched a career-high 6 1/3 innings while allowing four runs to earn the victory.
Cease (11-9) was dealt his first loss since July 7 and struggled early on, as the Marlins recorded four first-inning hits that led to a pair of runs. Xavier Edwards and Burger began the bottom of the first with consecutive singles, with Edwards later scoring on Jonah Bride's infield hit and Otto Lopez knocking in Burger with a single.
The Marlins then took advantage of a pair of San Diego errors that put two on in the second for Burger, who crushed Cease's pitch over the center field wall for a 5-0 lead.
Cease lasted five innings while being charged with all five runs, only two of which were earned due to the errors.
Meyer kept the Padres scoreless until the fifth, when Xander Bogaerts doubled and later scored on a David Peralta groundout.
San Diego further closed the gap in the sixth inning, which Luis Campusano began with a single and Luis Arraez followed with a double off Meyer. Both players scored on ground-outs by Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth, respectively, to pull the Padres within 5-3.
Peralta doubled in a run in the seventh to cut Miami's lead to one, but Sanchez gave the Marlins some breathing room in the bottom of the inning by following Burger's single with his 14th homer of the season.
Donovan Solano's pinch-hit, two-run homer in the eighth brought the Padres within 7-6, and San Diego got the tying run to second in the ninth when Ha-Seong Kim doubled with two out. Kim's hit was initially ruled a home run before being overturned after a video review.
The Marlins then called on reliever George Soriano, who fanned Campusano for the final out to register his second career save.
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.
Dodgers go up 3-0 on Yankees in World Series
A record-tying feat by Freddie Freeman and a sharp pitching performance from Walker Buehler has the Los Angeles Dodgers one win away from a World Series sweep.
Freeman had a two-run homer in the first inning and Buehler threw five scoreless innings as the National League Champions took a 3-0 series lead on the New York Yankees with Monday's 4-2 victory.
The Dodgers can wrap up their second World Series title in five years and eighth in franchise history in Tuesday's Game 4 at Yankee Stadium. Only one team in MLB history has won a best-of-seven post-season series after losing the first three games - the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
Shohei Ohtani, in the lineup despite injuring his left shoulder in Los Angeles' Game 2 win on Saturday, went 0 for 3 but did draw a walk off New York starter Clarke Schmidt to begin Monday's contest.
Two batters later, Freeman drilled Schmidt's pitch into the right-field seats to stake the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead. The first baseman has now homered in five consecutive World Series games, tying a record set by the Houston Astros' George Springer during the 2017 and 2019 editions.
Freeman also joined Hank Bauer (1958) and Barry Bonds (2002) as the only players to homer in each of the first three games of a single World Series. The All-Star slugger also went deep in Games 5 and 6 of the 2021 Fall Classic while then with the Atlanta Braves.
Buehler did not allow a hit until Giancarlo Stanton's double with one out in the fourth inning and yielded just two overall before departing with a 3-0 advantage.
The Dodgers got another run courtesy of a lead-off walk in the third inning. Tommy Edman drew the free pass from Schmidt before moving to second on Ohtani's groundout and crossing the plate on Mookie Betts' bloop single to right field.
Schmidt lasted just 2 2/3 innings and issued four walks while permitting three runs.
Los Angeles extended the margin to 4-0 in the sixth. Gavin Lux was hit by a pitch from New York reliever Jake Cousins and stole second before being brought home by Enrique Hernandez's single.
The Yankees did not get on the board until former Dodger Alex Verdugo's two-run homer off Michael Kopech in the ninth inning.
New York missed out on a chance to score following Stanton's double in the fourth, however, as the slugger was later thrown out at the plate by Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernandez on single off the bat of Anthony Volpe.
The Dodgers are expected to throw a bullpen game in Game 4, while the Yankees will send out 15-game winner Luis GIl in an attempt to extend the series.
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