And That Happened

Pirates 9, Cardinals 2: In what is the most meaningful baseball played in Pittsburgh in over 20 years, Francisco Liriano was dominant and Pedro Alvarez hit his NL-leading 27th homer and the Pirates pulled to within a half game of first place.

Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Gotta love that a blown call impacted a game in which a division lead changed hands. That’s just fantastic. Hey Bud: now that you’re showing how tough and powerful you’re getting with a union that once gave you fits with the drug stuff, how about doing the same with the umpires and unilaterally instituting replay?

Braves 9, Rockies 8: Four wins in a row for the Braves. The winning pitcher: Scott Downs, who didn’t show up to the park until 10 minutes before first pitch and literally had to introduce himself to his infielders when he came into the game in the 10th. Lost in this win: Brandon Beachy’s return: pretty disastrous (3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER).

Rangers 4, Angels 3: Ninth inning home runs from catchers is the new inefficiency. First A.J. Pierzynski homered then Geovany Soto, giving the Rangers a come-from-behind win.

Mets 6, Marlins 5: Mets blew a 3-0 lead and found themselves down 5-3 but Ike Davis hit an RBI double in a three-run seventh.

Indians 3, White Sox 2: The fifth straight win for the Indians, this on a Jason Giambi walkoff homer. He’s the oldest player to ever hit a walkoff home run. The previous record holder was Hank Aaron, who did it in 1976. Except then they didn’t call them walkoffs. Indeed, I believe someone woulda looked at you funny if you called it a walkoff in 1976.

Brewers 5, Cubs 0: Scoreless until the ninth then the Brewers put up a five-spot. If you squinted you could see Carlos Marmol out there on the mound for Chicago. Then you realize it wasn’t him and you shed a single tear.

Athletics 9, Blue Jays 4: Yoenis Cespedes continues to climb out of his post All-Star Game funk. He homered and hit an RBI triple as the A’s scored four in the first and then cruised.

Padres 2, Reds 1: Chris Denorfia sat fastball on Aroldis Chapman and then drove a two-run homer over the wall in the bottom of the ninth. In other news, it feels like the Reds have been on this west coast swing for a month.