The final day of the weekend brings us an extra full 16-game slate of MLB action. You can thank a doubleheader in Kansas City for that. Here is our recap of Sunday's baseball news and events.
Sunday's scores
- Rays 2, Brewers 1 (box score)
- Yankees 8, Indians 1 (box score)
- Cardinals 13, Reds 4 (box score)
- Red Sox 6, White Sox 3 (box score)
- Orioles 12, Tigers 3 (box score)
- Marlins 4, Braves 1 (box score)
- Pirates 5, Padres 4 (box score)
- Twins 6, Rangers 5 (box score)
- Astros 7, Blue Jays 6 (box score)
- Mariners 8, Royals 7 (Game 1 -- box score)
- Royals 9, Mariners 1 (Game 2 -- box score)
- Nationals 9, Cubs 4 (box score)
- Phillies 3, Rockies 2 (box score)
- Athletics 11, Angels 10 (box score)
- Giants 6, Diamondbacks 3 (box score)
- Dodgers 8, Mets 0 (box score)
The Dodgers (insert superlative)
C'mon. This isn't even fair.
The Dodgers won on Sunday. Hyun-Jin Ryu worked seven scoreless innings, striking out eight while walking none and allowing just one hit. Justin Turner homered, doubled and stole two bases. Cody Bellinger hit his 32nd homer. The Dodgers were up 3-0 before the Mets even got to bat. Tony Cingrani and Kenley Jansen combined to strikeout five in two scoreless innings of relief work.
It was men against boys.
And why shouldn't it have been? This is one of the greatest stretches in major-league history.
The Dodgers were good on June 6, sitting 35-25.
Since then, they are 44-7.
Just take a moment and let that sink in. Forty-four of their last 51 games! That's a 162-game pace of -- make sure you're sitting down -- 140-22. It's not like this is a small stretch, either, as 51 games is over 31 percent of the season.
Even if we drop the cherry-picked, extended hot streak, the Dodgers are now 79-32, which is a .712 winning percentage. That's a pace of 115 wins. They have a +204 run differential.
To essentially sum things up: That's now 14 straight scoreless innings from Ryu, who wouldn't even make the Dodgers' playoff rotation if Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Alex Wood and Rich Hill were all healthy.
Just a ridiculous team.
Phillies great Daulton dies
On an incredibly sad note, the baseball world lost former All-Star catcher Darren Daulton on Sunday. Full story.
Rays hit rare walk-off homer
Baseball's longest walk-off home run drought is now over. Sunday afternoon Steven Souza gave the Rays the walk-off win with a solo home run against Brewers reliever Jacob Barnes. Here's the video:
It had been quite a long time since the Rays last hit a walk-off home run. A shockingly long time, in fact. More than three full years.
Which team has the longest walk-off home run drought now? That would be the Phillies. Their last walk-off home run was a Ryan Howard blast against Indians closer Cody Allen on April 29 of last season.
White Sox continue losing ways
The White Sox have made it no secret they are rebuilding. They've traded away basically every veteran with value aside from Jose Abreu, all with the express purpose of stockpiling prospects. And it's working. MLB.com recently ranked Chicago's farm system as the best in baseball.
Prospects and rebuilding is fun, but as is often the case. It comes with a lot of losing. Lots and lots of losing. The White Sox lost again Sunday afternoon, and they are now 4-23 (!) in their last 27 games. That's a 24-137 pace across a full season. Here are the five worst records in baseball since that 4-23 streak started on July 4:
- White Sox: 4-23
- Giants: 10-18
- Reds: 10-18
- Twins: 10-16
- Braves: 11-17
Every other team has won at least 10 games since then. Keep your heads up, White Sox fans. There are better days ahead.
Nats storm back; Edwards melts down again
Thanks in part to the red-hot Willson Contreras' two home runs, the Cubs held a 4-1 lead through six innings on Sunday. The final score would end up 9-4 Nationals. That's quite a contrast, huh?
The Nats scratched two across in the top of the seventh and then totally broke the game open in the eighth. With the bases loaded, Carl Edwards Jr. hit Anthony Rendon with a pitch to tie the game. Then came the proverbial big blow: Matt Wieters with a grand slam:
Wieters had a sac fly in the seventh, so he drove home five runs in the span of two innings.
The Nats take two of three from the Cubs in Wrigley.
For the Cubs, obviously the 2-4 homestand after they came home riding such a hot streak is far from ideal, but the Edwards issue is becoming a major concern.
Heading into Sunday, Edwards had a 6.39 ERA and 15 walks in his last 12 2/3 innings. Sunday he coughed up four runs in just 2/3 of an inning. The hit-by-pitch was costly as well.
The Cubs still have a good bullpen, so manager Joe Maddon needs to find a way to try and get Edwards his confidence back without continuing to run him out there in high-leverage, late-game situations.
Phillies get to Holland
Rockies closer Greg Holland came into Sunday having converted an MLB-best 34 saves in 35 chances. As such, when the Rockies took a 2-1 lead into the top of the ninth, it seemed a pretty good bet that they were going to sweep the Phillies. Instead, Odubel Herrera led off with a double and the leverage was already through the roof. Maikel Franco followed with a single. One out later with two on, Cameron Rupp doubled to left-center, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs in one fell swoop:
The Phillies would avoid the sweep by holding on for the 3-2 win.
Welcome back walk-off
Sean Rodriguez spent 2015 and 2016 with the Pirates and was recently traded back to Pittsburgh. Sunday marked his first game back with the Bucs and he re-introduced himself with authority, hitting a 12th-inning, walk-off home run.
With the Cubs and Brewers having lost, the Pirates move to just 4 1/2 games out in the NL Central despite being in fourth place.
Orioles go back-to-back-to-back
Saturday night the Orioles became the fourth team in history to tally 10,000 home runs. Trade deadline pickup Tim Beckham did the honors. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers are the other members of the 10,000-home run club.
Sunday afternoon the O's added home run No. 10,001. And No. 10,002. And then No. 10,003 for good measure. Jonathan Schoop, Chris Davis, and Trey Mancini hit back-to-back-to-back home run against Tigers righty Anibal Sanchez in the first inning. Here are all three homers:
Baltimore continues to hang around the postseason race -- they came into Sunday three games back of the second wild-card spot with four teams ahead of them -- and for them to get into a wild-card spot, they're going to have to beat up on struggling teams like the Tigers and struggling pitchers like Sanchez every chance they get. They did exactly that in the first inning Sunday.
By the way, Sunday's game was the 12th time in franchise history the Orioles hit back-to-back-to-back home runs. That surprised me. I thought it would have been more considering how long they've been around and how any all-time great players they've had over the years.
As for Sanchez, he finished the afternoon having allowed eight runs and five home runs in only three innings pitches. Ouch. It was a historically bad start:
The Tigers, like the Orioles, have been around forever. I'm a bit surprised only five guys in franchise history have allowed five homers in a start.
Judge busts out of slump
Has the Home Run Derby messed up Aaron Judge's swing? Or is it just a normal slump following an MVP caliber first half? Whatever it is, it had Judge go into Sunday's series finale with the Indians with a .178/.330/.342 batting line and a 35.2 percent strikeout rate in 21 second half games.
Judge busted out of that slump Sunday afternoon with the kind of home run pretty much only he can hit. It was a line drive into the opposite field gap that just carried and carried and carried over the wall. Here's the video:
I thought that was a double off the bat. It just kept going. I guess that's what 113.2 mph exit velocity will do. Judge's rookie season continues to be amazing despite this recent slump:
The Yankees as a team have struggled to score runs lately. It's not just Judge. They scored eight runs Sunday after scoring eight runs total in their previous five games.
Hit parade in Anaheim as A's storm back
The A's were down 10-5 through six innings. It was 10-6 through seven and then they threw a five-spot on the board to take control of a game they really had no business winning. In all, they collected 18 hits, including seven doubles and three home runs. The last time the A's had as many as 18 hits in a game was Sept. 15, 2015.
The Angels had 10 runs on 12 hits, including five doubles and two homers. To lose a game with that kind of offensive output has to be tough to swallow.
Quick hits
- The Royals placed C Salvador Perez on the 10-day DL with an intercostal strain. He could miss up to four weeks. Perez left Friday's game with the injury, though he has been dealing with on-and-off rib cage issues since last month.
- The Mariners acquired All-Star 1B Yonder Alonso from the Athletics for minor league OF Boog Powell. Seattle claimed Alonso on trade waivers. He figures to platoon with 1B Danny Valencia at first base going forward.
- Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg threw another bullpen session Sunday, reports the Washington Post. He is out with a right elbow nerve impingement. Strasburg threw a bullpen session Friday, and the next step would be a simulated game.
- The Cardinals placed LHP Kevin Siegrist on the 10-day DL with left forearm tendinitis, the team announced. He missed time with a neck injury earlier this year. RHP Adam Wainwright was activated off the 10-day DL in a corresponding move.
- Yankees 1B Greg Bird hit in the cage Sunday and will progress to full batting practice and fielding/baserunning drills next week, reports the YES Network. Bird has been out since early May with an ankle injury that required surgery last month.
- The Angels announced that RHP Matt Shoemaker will undergo surgery to "release the radial nerve" in his pitching elbow. His timetable to return to pitching is 12-14 weeks, so his season is over.