The Cleveland Guardians’ rally on the field may have come up short on Saturday night, but that didn’t stop the celebration afterwards.
The Guardians lost 6-5 to the St. Louis Cardinals but clinched their 12th AL Central title since 1995 after the Kansas City Royals were beaten by the San Francisco Giants.
“This is awesome just to see the joy,” Cleveland manager Steven Vogt told reporters after the game. “The result of tonight's game, it matters, but at the end of the day, we need to celebrate this. Any time you get the chance, you win the division, you've got to enjoy every second of it.”
The Guardians (90-66) have spent 170 days in first place this season, the most in the American League and trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 181 days in the majors.
Jose Ramirez starred in the losing effort on Saturday, hitting his 37th home run and 36th double this season.
Entering the eighth inning, Cleveland trailed 6-1 with their only run coming on a Bo Naylor solo shot.
Ramirez’s homer provided three runs in a fourth-run eighth inning, but the Guardians could never close the gap entirely.
Nick Sandlin gave up four runs in the seventh, but they were all unearned, coming after a Naylor fielding error.
Ivan Herrera and Jordan Walker went deep for the Cardinals. Miles Mikolas gave up one run and four hits in six innings to earn the win.
White Sox on brink of losses record
The Chicago White Sox took one more step toward infamy, tying the American League record with their 119th loss of the season.
Xander Bogaerts, David Peralta and Elias Diaz hit home runs and the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago White Sox 6-2 as the Padres moved closer to securing a post-season berth.
Chicago (36-119) fell into a tie with the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119) for the worst season in AL history. The expansion 1962 New York Mets lost 120 games, the most in baseball’s modern era.
San Diego picked up a game in the NL West standings on the Los Angeles Dodgers and now trail by three with seven games to play.
The Padres are currently slotted as the NL’s top wild card team with a three-game lead over the final wild card spot.
San Diego have won seven of their last eight games and have baseball’s best record since the All-Star break at 38-17.
Mets top Phils to stay alive in NL East
Sean Manaea had another strong outing, Brandon Nimmo sparked a three-run seventh inning and the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3, denying Philly a division-clinching win.
Francisco Alvarez and Luisangel Acuña hit solo home runs early, and Alvarez added a two-run double in the seventh as the Mets collected their 17th win in 22 games.
Manaea won his fourth consecutive decision, allowing three hits and three runs in seven innings’ work. Edwin Diaz got the last four outs for his 19th save of the season.
New York (86-69) remained two games ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the NL’s final wild card spot.
Philadelphia (92-63), who clinched a playoff berth on Friday, needed one more win over the Mets to secure their first NL East title since 2011 but will have another chance on Sunday.
Kyle Schwarber extended his MLB record by hitting his 15th leadoff home run of the season, his 36th homer overall. Nick Castellanos also went deep, but Philadelphia managed just four hits.
The Phillies’ staff issued seven walks in the game, while the Mets’ staff issued none.
Dodgers, left-hander Snell agree to 5-year, $182 million contract
In the latest installment of the rich get richer, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and left-hander Blake Snell are in agreement on a five-year, $182 million contract, pending a physical, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
Snell, who turns 32 next month, is a two-time Cy Young Award winner who spent last season with the San Francisco Giants, going 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts.
He had a 6.31 ERA at the All-Star break after a limited spring training, but over his final 12 games, he posted a 1.45 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 68 1/3 innings, including a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2.
Snell won the 2023 Cy Young while pitching for the San Diego Padres and entered free agency. He didn’t have a team by spring training, so he landed with the Giants on a two-year, $62 million contract with an opt-out after the first year, which he exercised.
Durability is a concern with Snell, who has thrown more than 129 1/3 innings just twice in nine major league seasons. He also has a lifetime 4.1 walks per nine innings average and rarely pitches deep into games with only one career complete game.
He becomes the latest addition to the star-studded Dodgers, who gave out the first mega deal of this offseason following Shohei Ohtani's $700 million, 10-year contract last winter.
Snell joins a rotation that already features Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Ohtani.
Ohtani, Judge both unanimous picks for MVP awards
Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were both unanimously selected to win Most Valuable Player Awards in their respective leagues on Thursday.
Judge collected all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. garnered all 30 second-place votes.
Yankees outfielder Juan Soto finished third with 21 third-place votes.
Ohtani was an unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the BWAA. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229.
It is the second AL MVP award of Judge's career after he also won the award in 2022.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. He also drew a league-high 133 walks and posted a spectacular 1.159 OPS.
Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 109 RBIs.
With two MVP Awards to his name, Judge is the seventh player in Yankees history to win multiple MVPs. He joins Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.
There was an extended stretch over the summer where Judge was on a pace to reach and possibly break his own single-season home run record (62 in 2022). The same goes for a bid at a Triple Crown.
The stretch that truly defined his season began on April 27. Judge entered play on that day in Milwaukee with a .178 batting average and .674 OPS on the season. He had only four home runs with 35 strikeouts across 27 games.
Over his next 100 games, through August 23, Judge hit .378 with 45 home runs. It was the first time in MLB history a player batted higher than .375 with 45-plus homers in a stretch of 100 games within a single season.
Ohtani was unanimously voted AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn’t pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December.
Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Ohtani is the first primary DH to win an MVP. He joins Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues.
The Japanese sensation is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each).
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.
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