Just Baseball Highlight Reel: Phillies Defense Helps Braves Take Series Lead

Phillies 4, Braves 8

The Phillies lead in this game lasted all of about 10 minutes. Odubel Herrera opened the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the second inning, but William Contrera matched that with one of his own in the bottom half.

The Braves then rallied to add three more runs, taking a commanding 4-1 lead. Herrera got the Phillies closer in the fourth, driving in one with an RBI single. Two more runs were scored by Philly in the fifth, as they were able to tied the game.

From that point on though, it was advantage home team.

First it was the Phillies putrid defense that blew the lead, as Dansby Swanson stole second and was able to walk home thanks to a play you should only see in Little League.

Austin Riley then doubled the Braves lead, hitting a bomb of a home run.

Dansby Swanson hit his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth, Orlando Arcia doubled home a run in the seventh and the Braves won their second game in a row against the Phillies.

Atlanta will look to win the four-game set on Thursday, as they try to create some separation on their division rival in the NL East.

Rockies 5, Pirates 10

The Pittsburgh Pirates looked to be heading towards another series loss in this one. That is before they erupted to score eight runs in the game’s final four innings.

Colorado scored the first four runs of the game, with the last of those four coming on a home run by their top slugger C.J. Cron.

The Pirates cut that four-run deficit in half in the bottom of the third, but the Rockies tacked on another on a Randal Grichuk RBI single in the fifth inning to stretch the lead to 5-2. From that point on, it was all Pirates.

Jack Suwinkski tied it up in the bottom of the sixth, hitting a three-run homer.

Pittsburgh really broke it open in the following inning thanks to another three-run homer, this one by Josh VanMeter.

Cal Mitchell doubled in a run in the eighth for good measure and the Pirates won the series with a 10-5 victory.

Tigers 4, Twins 2

A game where we can simply tell the story by showing you all four of the home runs that were hit, with the last one coming in extras to help the Tigers avoid a series sweep.

Mets 3, Giants 9

This game was over in a hurry. Thomas Szapucki made his first career MLB start for the Mets and the way he pitched, it could be his last.

Szapucki didn’t make it out of the second inning, serving up four home runs and nine runs before he was finally put out of his misery.

The Mets didn’t have another miraculous comeback in them, but Francisco Lindor did homer to put some lipstick on this pig of a game for New York.

Dodgers 0, Nationals 1

Is Erick Fedde good?

He certainly was great on Wednesday, blanking the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers across six innings pitched.

An RBI single by Cesar Hernandez in the bottom of the sixth is all that was needed for the Nats to win this one, avoiding the series sweep with the 1-0 victory.

Athletics 4, Mariners 2

Paul Blackburn’s amazing start to the season continued on Wednesday, as he pitched another gem for the Oakland Athletics, lowering his season ERA to a 1.71 with 5 1/3 innings of scoreless work.

Seth Brown and Elvis Andrus put him in line for his fifth win of the season with two early home runs.

The Mariners made it a little interesting, scoring a run apiece in the seventh and eighth innings, but Oakland tacked on an insurance run in the ninth and came away with the series victory against their division rival. The win also put them a half-game ahead of Seattle in the AL West.

Brewers 2, Padres 1

Not much offense in this one, so let’s show you some defense, as Kolton Wong robbed Manny Machado of a hit that could have sparked a late rally.

Aaron Ashby was great at the start of the game, giving the Brewers 5 1/3 innings with only one unearned run allowed and five strikeouts. The Brewers bullpen did the job from there, keeping the Padres off the board entirely.

Trailing 1-0, the Brewers put together a two-run rally in the seventh that proved to be enough for them to pick up the win. With the series victory, the Brewers improved their record to 28-16, as they currently sit 3.5 games up in the NL Central.

Cubs 3, Reds 4

In the first inning, Ian Happ got thing going for the Chicago Cubs, driving in two with double. Chicago would not score again until the ninth. At that point it was too little too late though, as they Reds won the middle innings and took the game.

Joey Votto was the MVP of the game, driving in three of the Reds four runs. The first coming on a solo home run off Kyle Hendricks in the bottom of the second.

Then after Tommy Pham tied the game with an RBI single, Votto picked up the remaining two RBIs with a triple.

Chicago threatened in the ninth, scoring a run and getting the tying run 90 feet away, but they couldn’t complete the comeback, losing their 25th game of the season.

Marlins 4, Rays 5

It’s pretty hard to win games when you give up five runs in the first inning. In his second start of the season, Cody Poteet got rocked early. At least he settled down to give Miami three innings, but the hole was too big climb out of.

To the Marlins credit, they did fight back into it. Jorge Soler got the scoring going for the South Florida Fish, his ninth of the season.

Jacob Stallings added two more than inning with an RBI double and the Marlins scored another run in the ninth on a throwing error by Wander Franco. Colin Poche was able to the save for the Rays though, escaping a bases loaded jam for the Rays 26th win of the season.

Orioles 0, Yankees 2

Talk about a boring game. The Baltimore Orioles were unable to get anything going offensively and the Yankees somehow escaped with a series victory despite not playing their best baseball.

The Yanks scored a run on a single and then another on a throwing error by Adley Rutschman in the fourth, and that’s all they needed, improving to an MLB-best 31-13 on the season with the win.

Guardians 1, Astros 2

A game were the three runs were scored on two sac flies and a wild pitch. Chrisitan Javier outpitched Cal Quantrill, giving the Astros 5 2/3 scoreless with nine strikeouts to just one walk. Quantrill gave up six hits, walked four and gave up two runs on those sac flies.

In lieu of other highlights, check out this absolutely filthy slider by Javier.

Red Sox 1, White Sox 3

Lucas Giolito allowed a run in the first inning and then settled down from there, scattering four walks and five hits to hold the Red Sox to one. He struck out seven.

Rich Hill kept the White Sox off the board until the bottom of the fifth, when he made one mistake to Jake Burger that ultimately cost his team the game.

Rangers 7, Angels 2

The Rangers and Angeles traded runs in the first, but the Texas got an edge in the fourth and never looked back. Mitch Garver and Kole Calhoun gave the Rangers a 4-1 lead with a pair of home runs.

The Rangers tacked on three more runs throughout the final three innings and were able to cruise to their 19th win of the season. Texas has won six of their last 10 games.

As always, we will have a little bit of a lighter schedule on Thursday, with eight teams set to enjoy days off. The first of the 11 games begins at 12:35 p.m. ET with the Chicago Cubs set to conclude their four-game series against the Reds in Cincinnati.