@Dodgers 4, Cardinals 3: Twice down to their last strike, LA rallied to tie on Andre Ethier‘s single and a double by Friday’s hero, Luis Cruz — then won it when pinch-hitter Juan Rivera‘s soft liner slipped free of Daniel Descalso‘s leather. And so the second wild card race, between the lame and the halt, is tied at 76-70.
Rays 6, @Yankees 4: Three runs in the 5th (aided by 2 wild pitches) and a typical Price-is-right performance against the Bombers helped Tampa close their gap to 3 games in the division and WC2 races. Curtis Granderson homered in the 5th (just out of his counterpart’s reach) and Alex Rodriguez went deep in the 8th, but each one also made the last out of the other’s home-run inning, with the tying run on 2nd and lead run on 1st.
@Orioles 3, Rays 2 (14): “Words fail / Buildings tumble / The ground opens wide; / Light beams / down from heaven / They stand before my eyes; / They’re actual size, but they seem much bigger to me….” (Apologies to They Might Be Giants.)
@Brewers 8, Braves 2: For 4 innings, Paul Maholm had a lead and a tight rhythm: out, on base, out, out. But when Chipper Jones‘s boot broke the pattern, all hell broke loose — an 8-run foam-over that featured both a sac bunt and an RBI double by Yovani Gallardo, who won his 7th straight decision.
Athletics 6, @Angels 5: A 9th-inning roller-coaster left the Halos queasy and their fans downright nauseous. After the visitors tacked on 2 runs while the best Angel reliever sat idle, Anaheim quickly got those runs back and — with no outs — had the tying run on 3rd, and the winner on 1st in the speedy form of Peter Bourjos.
Athletics 3, @Angels 1: The fourth time was the charm for Jarrod Parker. Given just 2 runs total in his 3 prior starts against Anaheim, Parker had gone 0-2 (and the A’s 0-3) despite his run average of 3.05; and when he gave back an early 1-0 lead on a 2-out rally in the 3rd that began with a walk to Mike Trout, it seemed more of the same was in store. But Parker allowed just one more hit through 7, Brandon Moss did his thing, and the bullpen closed it out, pulling Oakland within 3 games of idle Texas and dropping the Angels to 1.5 games out of the wild card.
Yankees 13, @Orioles 3: Fourteen hits, 7 with RISP, pulled the Bombers clear of their see-saw tie for 1st place. Curtis Granderson came off the bench for 3 hits and 5 RBI, tying the season high for a non-starter in both categories; Derek Jeter added 2 to his MLB-best hits total, pulling him within 4 hits of the Say-Hey Kid for #11 on the all-time list; and Alex Rodriguez scored 3 runs and stands 2 behind Lou Gehrig for #10 on that list (and 28 ahead of the Captain).
Yeah, I know. I wish I could have gotten this out sooner — say, before Saturday’s games. But as the saying goes, life is what happens while you’re busy trying to follow pennant races….
@Orioles 10, Yankees 6: It took just 4 pitches to erase all the momentum of New York’s 5-run, game-tying 8th. David Robertson meant to climb the ladder with a 1-and-2 fastball, but he missed a rung or two, and by the time the fireworks were through — 3 HRs in a span of 14 pitches, capped by a casual left-on-lefty’s-curveball blast — Baltimore had climbed back into a first-place tie, with a leg up in the season series. Their 6 HRs for the game set a new club high against the Bombers.
@Nationals 9, Cubs 1: Through Monday, 387 games had been played at Nationals Park, and only one team had ever hit 5 HRs there. Now the Nats have hit 6 HRs in consecutive home games. Bryce Harper hit 2 for the 2nd time in a week (giving him 15 Runs and 15 RBI in his last 16 starts) and Adam LaRoche connected for the 3rd game in a row (2nd time this year, 3rd career) as Washington won their 4th straight, putting them on pace for 100 wins.