There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball:
Yesavage makes his mark
The Blue Jays drafted Trey Yesavage in the first round of the 2024 draft, and the 6-foot-4 right-hander has already made his way to the majors. Toronto had the rookie make his big-league debut on Monday against the Rays, and could not have asked for a better result.
Yesavage struck out 9 batters in five innings of work, with the former a franchise-best for an MLB debut.
He allowed a pair of walks and 3 hits while allowing just the lone run, helping the Blue Jays to a narrow 2-1, 11-inning victory over Tampa Bay. Before this appearance, Yesavage had struck out 160 batters across 98 combined innings in a minor-league season spanning Single-A to Triple-A, so his swing-and-miss stuff wasn’t a huge surprise, but it was still a welcome one for Toronto.
His family was in attendance for the occasion, too.
Phillies clinch the NL East
The Phillies didn’t officially clinch the NL East on Sunday night, even though it was basically impossible for them to not win the division after that win, but no one had to wait very long for them to actually do the thing. With a win against the Dodgers on Monday, the Phillies are once again NL East champs.
Kyle Schwarber kicked things off with his 53rd homer of the season — he needs just five more to match Ryan Howard for the most-ever in a year on the Phillies, which would also put him in a six-way tie for the 12th-most in a season by anyone in MLB. Barring wherever Cal Raleigh ends up, anyway — Schwarber is just one back of him for the MLB lead now.
Bryce Harper might not be having the same season as Schwarber — not many hitters are — but he can still mash plenty, too. He launched his 27th long ball of the year later on, a solo shot in the eighth off of Alex Vesia to give Philadelphia a 5-4 lead.
The Dodgers would come back to tie it up in the bottom of the ninth courtesy an Andy Pages dinger, his 25th, but the Phillies were not to be denied their celebration. Catcher J.T. Realmuto popped a sac fly in the 10th to score Harrison Bader, then David Robertson retired three of the four batters he faced in order — the interruption an intentional walk to Freddie Freeman to avoid having to deal with any of that — and Philadelphia officially clinched.
D-Backs crush Giants
The Giants and Diamondbacks began a huge series for both teams on Monday night, as it kicked off with San Francisco 1.5 back of the Mets for the final wild card spot in the NL, and Arizona two back of the same. Now, both teams were hovering around .500, but regardless of how talented or dangerous they might be, the fact of the matter is that they are both within striking distance of a swooning Mets club, with less than two weeks of season to go.
The Diamondbacks struck first in this fight, and hard, taking down the Giants 8-1 in Arizona. So now the two have flipped in the standings: the D-Backs are 1.5 back of the Mets, while the Giants are now two back. Now, it should be clear that neither is anything close to a lock: Baseball Reference’s playoff odds have Arizona up to 17.4% after the win, and San Francisco down to 10.1%. The Mets, for all of their freefalling, still have 60% odds to reach the postseason. It’s all about the lead, at this point: 1.5 games isn’t a significant lead by any means, but it is a lead, and making up ground is tough. The Mets have the Padres and Cubs on the schedule, but they also have the Nationals and Marlins. The Giants have the Dodgers, Cardinals and Rockies after this D-Backs’ series, while Arizona has the Phillies, Dodgers and Padres. Oh, and the Reds are still floating around out there just two back of the Mets, as well — New York’s best bet at this point is how tough of a road their competition has the rest of the way, and the fact that they are the ones everyone is chasing.
There are no guarantees of anything, but you would rather be in their position than that of any of the other clubs, as far as starting points go. That’s why they play the games, though!
Alvarez injured, enter Cole
Yordan Alvarez has been one of the few bright spots for the Astros of late, as they have fallen out of the AL West lead and are in danger of losing their wild card spot, too. He has a 1.031 OPS since returning from the IL in late-August, however, so pinning any of that on him is difficult.
Now, though, he has to undergo an MRI for an ankle injury that saw him using crutches and a walking boot, and was replaced in the lineup by rookie Zach Cole on Monday. And it was as if Alvarez had never left.
Cole hit his second homer of the year in the fifth inning, a 2-run shot to put the Astros up 4-3…
…and then added insurance later on with an RBI single, and ended up on second after the throw home gave him a chance to stretch it.
Cole has appeared in just four games and has 15 plate appearances now, but, like with Alvarez, you certainly can’t blame him for anything going on in Houston right now: he’s hitting .462/.533/.923 with a pair of dingers to start his MLB career. And if Alvarez ends up going on the shelf again, the Astros are going to need a lot more of that out of their 25-year-old rookie.
Yankees lose, Richardson dominates
The Yankees didn’t have much of a chance of winning the AL East even before Monday night, but it just became all but impossible to pull off with a loss to the Twins. They now sit five back of the Blue Jays in the AL East with 12 games left on the schedule: they certainly could still take the East, but likely only in the mathematical sense.
Minnesota isn’t playing for anything at this point beyond the role of spoiler, and did a pretty good job of that here. Simeon Woods Richardson struck out a career-high 11 batters in six innings, while allowing 3 walks and 2 hits — he combined with the Twins’ bullpen to shut out New York. The Yankees wasted a good start from Carlos Rodon here, as he allowed just 2 runs in his own six innings, while the bullpen, once again, proved to be a problem. This time, it was Luke Weaver, as he allowed five runs in relief of Rodon.
Two catches in one
He gave the hat back, right?
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