There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.
That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:
A wild back-and-forth puts Blue Jays in first
It’s happened: the Yankees are now sharing first place in the American League East with the Blue Jays, who defeated them for the third time in the series, setting them up for a sweep — and sole possession of first place — on Thursday. The Yankees did not lack fight in this one, however, which is impressive considering how it got started.
Toronto scored five runs in the first inning before the Yankees even recorded an out, then pushed that to seven in total. A two-run single by Alejandro Kirk, a three-run Addison Barger homer, and then a two-run shot by Davis Schneider put the Yankees in a deep hole from the jump.
All seven of those runs were scored against starter Adam Warren, who would end up sticking around another three innings: that worked out better than you might think, as he allowed just one more run the rest of the way. And then, the Yankees started to play catch-up.
DJ LeMahieu and Ben Rice both singled in runs in the top of the fifth, with Aaron Judge then doubling LeMahieu home to make it 8-3, Jays. Giancarlo Stanton would then pick a great time for his first home run of the year, cutting Toronto’s lead to just two.
In the next inning, Cody Bellinger drove in another run, but the Jays answered with a Schneider homer to go back up by two runs. That is, until Judge blasted a homer of his own, tying the game.
The Yankees’ valiant efforts stopped there, however, and in embarrassing fashion. A wild pitch by Devin Williams scored George Springer from third base, putting the Jays up 10-9, and for good.
They’d add another run when Barger singled in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had moved to third on the wild pitch, and the Yankees failed to answer: 11-9, Blue Jays, and just like that, both clubs sit at 48-38… half-a-game up on the Rays, who won on Wednesday and have one more loss in one more game than either club.
Kershaw reaches 3,000 strikeouts
Clayton Kershaw put himself in position to secure his 3,000th career strikeout in last week’s start, and he delivered on Wednesday against Vinny Capra, who would be the last White Sox batter that the Dodgers’ legend would face regardless of outcome.
As MLB’s Sarah Langs noted, Kershaw’s opponent is managed by Will Venable, who, in his playing career, Kershaw struck out three times. Of the 20 pitchers to reach 3,000 strikeouts, Kershaw became the fourth to do so against a manager who he’d struck out in his playing career, joining Bob Gibson, Phil Niekro and Justin Verlander. Kershaw is also just the third pitcher to record 3,000 strikeouts with a single team, along with Gibson again (Cardinals) and Walter Johnson (Senators/Twins).
MLB shared a graphic showing every catcher who has been behind the plate for one of Kershaw’s strikeouts, broken down by most to least. Wednesday’s recipient of 2,998, 2,999 and 3,000 was Will Smith.
The game was notable for more than “just” this historic achievement, however. The White Sox were actually ahead, 4-2, from the top of the third onward since Kershaw wasn’t exactly at his best… until the ninth, when the Dodgers had a three-run inning of their own, including a Freddie Freeman walk-off single.
Reds win, Francona at 1,995
Speaking of notable achievements that few in history have accomplished, Terry Francona and the Reds won the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against his former club, the Red Sox. That part wasn’t so special, but the W was the 1,995th of Francona’s lengthy managerial career, as well as a segue for a new countdown to keep an eye on: Francona is five victories shy of 2,000, a number that just 12 managers have ever reached.
The Reds got there thanks to the bat of Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who delivered a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the seventh, while Cincinnati was down 3-0. It ended up accounting for half of the Reds’ runs, and helped them to their 8-4 victory.
Altuve passes Bagwell
A night for milestones! Jose Altuve went 2-for-5 with a pair of singles against the Rockies, and the second of those hits pushed him past Astros lifer and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell for second all-time on the Astros’ career hit list.
Altuve is now at 2,315 hits, but taking the first spot is going to require luck, health and for Altuve’s skills to look more like 2024’s than 2025’s for a few years yet. That’s because Craig Biggio has 3,060 career hits, and all of them with the Astros. Altuve has a chance at 3,000, but it’s not what you’d call a foregone conclusion.
Whether he ends up in first or not, though, second is a wildly impressive achievement, and he can spend the next however many seasons, at the very least, making it that much more difficult for someone else to rank second in the future.
Let’s check the instant replay
In real-time, this Jacob Young catch looks pretty good. The Nationals’ outfielder scales the wall, he catches the ball, end scene.
Slow it down, though, and you realize that this was a phenomenal series of small movements and decisions that made it look far easier than it was. Young got to the wall well before the ball — too soon, even — but made up for that by then scaling the wall while he was already at it, rather than leaping, and made a backhand grab close to his body. Incredible:
It looks great the first time around, but it’s stunning when you slow it down.
Arozarena homers in third-straight game
Randy Arozarena has been on one of late: he hit his 100th and 101st career homers in the same game on Monday, then on Tuesday, went deep again. As for Wednesday? That’s right, another home run.
He’s now up to .252/.361/.439 for the year, with a dozen homers. Which might not sound like much, but Safeco does depress offense: Arozarena’s OPS+ is 134, second on the Mariners behind MLB’s home run leader, Cal Raleigh.
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