Jacob deGrom starred again but exited the game early injured as the New York Mets edged the San Diego Padres 3-2 in the MLB on Friday.
DeGrom entered the game having not allowed more than one earned run in any of his previous nine starts this season, holding the best ERA in MLB at 0.62. The marked the lowest run since ERA became official more than 100 years ago.
The Mets pitcher maintained that form too, striking out Padres home-run machine Fernando Tatis Jr with the 95 mph slider in the first inning.
DeGrom struck out Tatis again in the fourth inning with a slider, while he also pinch hitted with the bat, driving in two runs in the fifth inning.
But the right-hander left the game early after six innings with tightness in his left elbow, after 10 strikeouts, although he was hopeful post-game that it was only minor.
DeGrom's ERA drops to 0.56 which is the lowest ever in MLB history across the first 10 starts of a season, pipping Juan Marichal's 1966 mark of 0.59, with records dating back to 1913. He also has more RBI (five) than earned runs allowed (four) this season.
Rizzo's memorable moment, Ohtani shakes off injury
With Wrigley Field back at full capacity on a sunny afternoon, Anthony Rizzo had a moment to cherish with a home run in the Chicago Cubs' 8-5 win over the St Louis Cardinals.
Rizzo homered in the sixth inning after 14 pitches, ushering in wild celebrations, to square the game at 5-5.
"It was one of my most memorable bats," Rizzo said. "It was a really good moment."
Joc Pederson almost homered in the seventh, but his outfield hit brought in two runs for the Cubs.
Shohei Ohtani had an injury scare, painfully fouling into his right knee, as the Los Angeles Angels won 6-5 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Ohtani played on after the early concern, tossing down eight strikeouts across five innings, and bringing in one after lacing a hit out to center field.
With Arizona down 5-4 at the bottom of the ninth inning, Eduardo Escobar homered for the 15th time this season to send the game to extras, but the Angels got up.
After denying Albert Pujols last week, Mike Tauchman plucked another catch on the wall to deny Juan Soto a home run in the San Francisco Giants' 1-0 win over the Washington Nationals.
Nats pitcher Max Scherzer left the game early after feeling discomfort in his groin, while Buster Posey scored the game's only run, a fourth-inning home run.
With the game on the line, Tauchman made his crucial intervention to deny Soto and the Nats.
Rough Rangers
The Texas Rangers are having a tough time lately and they conceded six runs in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers, eventually losing 12-1. Max Munsy and Gavin Lux both homered early, with pitcher Mike Foltynewicz unable to come up with any answers. The Rangers rotated five pitchers on the hill.
Red-hot Reds
The Cincinnati Reds made franchise history by hitting home runs in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth inning for the first time. The Reds cruised to an 11-5 win over the Colorado Rockies.
Friday's results
Chicago Cubs 8-5 St Louis Cardinals
San Francisco Giants 1-0 Washington Nationals
Boston Red Sox 6-5 Toronto Blue Jays
Cincinnati Reds 11-5 Colorado Rockies
Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 Baltimore Orioles
Miami Marlins 4-3 Atlanta Braves
Chicago White Sox 5-4 Detroit Tigers
New York Mets 3-2 San Diego Padres
Cleveland Indians 7-0 Seattle Mariners
Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 Pittsburgh Pirates
Houston Astros 6-4 Minnesota Twins
Los Angeles Angels 6-5 Arizona Diamondbacks
Oakland Athletics 4-3 Kansas City Royals
Los Angeles Dodgers 12-1 Texas Rangers
Cardinals at Cubs
The Chicago Cubs have won three in a row and are currently 36-27, having won the first game of their series against the 32-31 St Louis Cardinals who need a victory after winning one of their past eight. They resume their National League Central series on Saturday.
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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