Just Baseball Highlight Reel: Yankees Late Onslaught Keeps It Rolling

Just eight games on the slate including a continuation of the Twins-Astros game from Wednesday. We start in Chicago where the Yankees just keep on winning and finish with a thriller across the country in Los Angeles.

The Yankees Are So Good

Like best team in the league good. They kept it rolling Thursday night with a 15-7 victory over the White Sox in Chicago. The Yankees managed to score six runs on six hits and two homers off Dylan Cease despite the White Sox stud righty striking out 11 Bronx Bombers. 4 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 11 K, 2 HR is one of the craziest final lines you will ever see.

The Yanks scored two in the first before the Sox answered back with three in the second. New York swung right back with three in the third and one in the fourth. They chased Cease with the score sitting at 6-4, then Aaron Judge made the lead three with an absolute moonshot that made you think for a second the baseballs are not dead.

The Sox tied the game up with three runs in the seventh including Yoan Moncada’s first home run since returning. Then the floodgates opened for the Yankees in the eighth inning as they put up a seven spot.

They got to Joe Kelly for five runs on four hits and a walk in just 2/3 of an inning, then three more off Tanner Banks in 1 1/3 innings. It was Judge coming through again to give them the lead, then Josh Donaldson supplying the boom to put an exclamation point on it. The Yankees are by far the hottest team in baseball having won eight of their last 10. Even better, check out this stat sent in by a Twitter follower.

Mets 4, Nationals 1

The Mets are starting to assert themselves as one of the best teams in the league. Their good April is no fluke and they kept it rolling Thursday. Taijuan Walker pitched seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits and somehow only struck out one batter. He rolled 13 ground ball outs and recorded two double plays, including this one on the worst base-running you may ever see by the Nationals.

Mark Canha provided the majority of the offense. He want 3-for-4, driving in three of the Mets runs and scoring the other. He opened the scoring in the first with a two-run single and closed the scoring with his second home run of the season.

New York is now 22-11 after taking two-of-three from Washington, which falls to 11-12 and holds the second-worst record in the National League.

Athletics 5, Tigers 3

These two teams completed a four-game set Thursday as the A’s took their third in a row to take the series win. They got out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning off Beau Brieske, who managed to get through six. Christian Bethancourt delivered two of the three runs on a two-run single.

The Tigers battled back and tied it up with two in the fifth and one in the sixth. Miguel Cabrera came through with his 601st double and 3,014th hit of his career to tie the game.

The two teams went scoreless in the seventh before the A’s broke through in the eighth. Seth Brown clubbed a two-run homer to give them the win and they never looked back. The starters in this game combined for three strikeouts and there were just eight total in the entire game. Oakland moves to 14-19 and Detroit has the second-worst record in the league at an ugly 9-23.

Orioles 3, Cardinals 2

The battle of the birds went the way of Baltimore as they took a surprising two-of-three from St. Louis. Two solo shots from Jorge Mateo and Anthony Bemboom put them up 2-0, then they added the third on an RBI single by Cedric Mullins.

They went with a bullpen game and their first three pitchers held the Cardinals scoreless through six. The Cardinals got a pair back, one coming on a homer by Dylan Carlson, but they could not convert on a couple chances to tie the game up.

The Orioles are playing pretty good ball, sitting at a relatively impressive 14-18, while the Cardinals continue to struggle on offense to the tune of 17-14.

Astros 11, Twins 3 (Continuation)

This game was suspended in the fourth inning last night and continued today. The Astros came in leading 5-1 and only made it uglier Thursday afternoon. The big man on offense was Kyle Tucker, who had a double and this home run to make it ugly. A six-run sixth inning by Houston allowed them to just pour it on Minnesota, and gave them a chance to sweep later Thursday afternoon.

Astros 5, Twins 0

Yordan Álvarez is a legitimate AL MVP candidate and he continued to torch the baseball Thursday. He launched a 111.2 mph rocket to dead center to give them a 4-0 lead that was more than enough.

One was all they needed Thursday because Luis García was absolutely dominant. He allowed just five hits and two walks in five shutout innings of work, racking up nine strikeouts. His ERA on the year drops to 2.94. The win gives the Astros a sweep over a good Minnesota team and moves them to 21-11 on the year. Meanwhile, the Twins are 18-14 and have a lead in a very poor AL Central.

Reds 4, Pirates 0

The Reds are…hot?

They have now win five-of-seven and continued a good stretch coming off two division series wins. They cruised past the Pirates Thursday, taking the lead in the second inning after Mike Moustakas doubled and came around to score.

Their starter Connor Overton went 6 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out just one Pirate. They locked it down in the eighth with a double by Tyler Naquin to make it 4-0. Good for the Reds to show some resiliency and put a good stretch together.

Rangers 3, Royals 1

This is a pretty even matchup of two pretty bad teams we have ahead of us this weekend. Texas took the first installment as Taylor Hearn completely shut down the Kansas City lineup. He allowed just one hit and struck out five in five scoreless innings.

Texas took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a single by Kole Calhoun. Brad Miller then put them up 2-0 with a solo blast in the seventh inning before they added another in the eighth as Adolis García tripled and scored on a wild pitch.

Phillies 9, Dodgers 7

MV3 got the party started early with an absolute rocket to right field to put the Phillies up 1-0. They then put three more up in the second, eventually stretching their lead as big as 7-1 in the sixth.

The Dodgers cut it to 7-3 with two in the sixth, which chased Zach Wheeler. He allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings and struck out seven. Then the Phillies bullpen happened. José Alvarado entered with a 7-3 lead and it was gone before the Phillies could even record two outs. Will Smith singled to drive in one, Justin Turner hit a two-run double and Chris Taylor tied it up with a single.

The Phillies answered right back in the ninth as they loaded the bases against Daniel Hudson. It was a great response just a half an inning after blowing a four-run led. They took the lead on a wild pitch from Hudson, then extended it on a sac-fly from Harper.

The Dodgers made things very interesting in the ninth, in part because Corey Knebel could not throw a strike. Trea Turner led off with a single, then the former Dodger issued walks to Max Muncy and Will Smith and suddenly the bases were loaded with nobody out. Credit to Joe Girardi, who stuck with this guy that got them out of it. It may have taken 35 pitches and been extremely stressful, but Knebel shut the door to pick up a save.

15 games on tap for tomorrow, beginning with the Reds and Pirates in Pittsburgh at 6:35 p.m.