Last Night In Baseball: Two Big Decisions Don’t Go The Yankees’ Way Vs. Dodgers

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 last night in Major League Baseball: The Dodgers and Yankees met up on Friday for a three-game series, with it being Los Angeles’ first trip to Yankee Stadium since the 2024 World Series. Different season, same result: the Dodgers won. The how of it all is what matters here, though, because the Yankees were winning: New York was up 1-0 in the top of the seventh, and then manager Aaron Boone made a bad call. Starter Gerrit Cole walked shortstop Mookie Betts to open the seventh inning, on his 97th pitch of the game. Boone had a conference on the mound with the righty, and Cole convinced him to avoid going to the bullpen. The immediate aftermath? A six-pitch at-bat to third baseman Max Muncy that ended with a homer. Muncy blasted that thing 416 feet, with it coming off the bat at over 107 mph, and all because Cole left a 2-2 slider middle-middle. That was Muncy’s 18th dinger of the year, and it knocked Cole out of the game for reliever Brent Headrick, who retired the three batters he faced the rest of the seventh in order. Cole is great, but he also had his season start late thanks to undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, and this was just his second start of 2026 with at least 90 pitches — in the other, he was lifted at exactly 90. So, 97 pitches already represented a season-high for him and his reconstructed elbow, and was a logical point to take him out of the game no matter how he felt, especially in a 1-0 game against an All-Star slugging nearly .500 on the season. Boone left Cole in, Muncy crushed a pitch that caught way too much plate and the Yankees didn’t recover. New York almost did, but almost doesn’t count. In the bottom of the eighth, DH Ben Rice came up with a runner on first and one out, and hit a slider off Alex Vesia to the warning track, off the wall in right. Center fielder Andy Pages corralled an extremely fortunate hop right to his glove and whipped the ball to the infield, where Betts received the throw before turning and firing home, where Daulton Rushing was able to snag and tag before Trent Grisham could tie the game. A worse bounce means it’s a 2-2 game, but with one out and the heart of New York’s order coming up, maybe Grisham should have held at third, too. These little decisions add up, even without hindsight. The Dodgers would move to 62-36 with the W, while the Yankees got lucky in one way, at least, as the Rays lost twice on Friday, allowing New York to pick up half-a-game in the standings despite losing. You can agonize over the little things in Yankees-Dodgers and try to butterfly effect your way to a different result. Meanwhile, you can just look at the beatdown the Nationals dropped on the Athletics and know there was no avoiding this outcome. Washington won 23-4, scoring three runs in the third, one in the fourth, four in the fifth, six in the sixth, four more in the seventh and, after a break to catch its breath, another five in the ninth. The Nationals went 13-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded just four runners. This wasn’t one of those games with endless baserunners, but instead a highly efficient attack from the Nats. Not that 27 baserunners isn’t a lot, but again: 13-for-17! DH James Wood led off for Washington and went just 1-for-5 with four strikeouts, but the rest of the team was doing constant damage. Third baseman Curtis Mead went 4-for-6 with three RBIs and three doubles. Catcher Harry Ford had his first big-league homer, three runs and three RBIs. Andrés Chapparo also had four hits, two of them homers, and the first baseman drove in eight runs. Every single Nationals player picked up at least one hit and one run — including José Tena off the bench — and Tena was the only one in the game to not drive in at least one run, too. Even James Wood had just the one hit, but scored twice and drove in a pair, anyway. Just one A’s pitcher avoided giving up a run. Two of them allowed six, and another five. What a disaster for the Athletics, which, on top of letting the Nationals outscore them by 19 runs as a welcome back from the All-Star break, dropped their 10th-straight game, to boot. The Tigers were held scoreless by the Angels while visiting Los Angeles for the first eight innings. The Halos, though, managed to score just one run of their own, which had been plated in the first inning on a ground out. The pitchers took care of business from there, with Tigers’ starter Troy Melton going 5 ⅔ with four hits and four walks against nine strikeouts and just that one run, while Reid Detmers went six scoreless for the Angels. The bullpens continued this trend until the ninth, when Kirby Yates entered the game and hit catcher Dillon Dingler with a pitch then walked left fielder Riley Greene. While Yates got two outs and nearly erased that precarious scenario, second baseman Hao-Yu Lee would double to center, scoring both runners. An umpire review of the stadium boundary call ensued, but the call on the field was upheld, and the Tigers were ahead, 2-1. Keider Montero, who had entered in the sixth for Melton, pitched in the ninth, as well, and while his final inning kicked off with a hit by pitch and a single, he retired the last three batters to secure the win for Detroit. The Tigers are still 3.5 back of a wild-card spot, but Detroit has been right there with the Red Sox of late surging ahead and making a postseason appearance seem like a real possibility. Sneaking out Ws against the Angels like this will certainly help. The Giants shut out the Mariners, 7-0, so the first run was the game-winning one. The most exciting knock of the day, though? That would have to be Willy Adames’ seventh career grand slam. San Francisco was already ahead 3-0 by the seventh, but it’s a grand slam! The shortstop put a ride into it, too, with an exit velocity of 105.5 mph. The Mariners were one of the few teams chasing an AL wild-card spot to pick up a loss as play resumed, and missed an opportunity to get back over .500 in defeat. Seattle isn’t exactly way back, as it’s a game back of the tied Twins and Red Sox, but the Giants are in the bottom three in the NL — that’s a matchup Seattle has to win more often than not. Speaking of teams fighting for the postseason, the Cardinals entered the second half a game back of the Marlins for the NL’s third wild-card spot. And nearly faltered in closing that gap against the Diamondbacks, which are also chasing the playoffs but from slightly further back. Second baseman JJ Wetherholt put the Cardinals up 3-2 in the top of the fifth, and then a sac fly made it a 4-2 game in the eighth. That’s when Arizona’s offense woke back up after four innings of napping, however. Right fielder Corbin Carroll picked a good time for his lone hit of the game, bashing a two-run homer to even things up. That was his 14th dinger of the season, but the D-backs gave it right back. In the top of the ninth, Paul Sewald entered in relief and gave up a single to third baseman José Fermín, a walk to catcher Jimmy Crooks and a single to Wetherholt to load the bases with no outs. DH Iván Herrera was limited to a fly out, but with the bases loaded it pushed a run across. Brandyn Garcia relieved Sewald and retired the next two batters, but one run was all St. Louis needed. The Cardinals won, 5-4, and now share possession of a wild-card spot with the Marlins, while Arizona is 2.5 back. The Padres have been scuffling lately, but looked like they had a possible win coming when a few bright spots occurred, one after the other. First, first baseman Ty France tied the game in the top of the ninth against the Royals. Then, closer Mason Miller entered in the ninth to try to force the game into extras, and while he initially loaded the bases, he then struck out the side in order to escape, leaving the game tied. The Padres then doubled their runs for the game in one inning, scoring three off new pitcher Lucas Erceg, to go up 6-3. This was all a setup to an even more disheartening loss than when San Diego was just down 3-2, however: the Royals scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth, as Kyle Hart replaced Miller and got into a jam he could not get out of. Catcher Carter Jensen picked up his third hit of the day in the 10th, and it was a walk-off single that scored two runners, struck on a 94 mph sinker that caught way too much plate inside where Jensen could do something with it. The Padres fall to 48-49, and while they are just 3.5 back of a wild-card, San Diego is also looking up at seven other teams for one of those spots. Lots of late-game heroics and shenanigans on Friday, and Brewers-Marlins was no different. Here, the hottest team in the NL of late, Miami, matched up against the one looking for its 60th win in Milwaukee. And it was looking like anyone’s game for the duration, too, as the score stood at 1-1 after five innings and stayed that way through regulation. In extra innings, though, Lake Bachar entered in relief for the Marlins, and Jackson Chourio began the inning on second base. With two outs and Chourio still on second, center fielder Garrett Mitchel came to the plate, and he didn’t have to hit the ball particularly hard to get the desired outcome. The comebacker slipped past the mound and through the infield, giving Chourio plenty of time to score. The Brewers became MLB’s second team with 60 victories, while the Marlins now have to share space in the wild-card picture with the Cardinals, at least for a day. The Braves wrecked the Rangers, 15-1, and while there are plenty of dingers and big hits to show off, there is one that sticks out among all the run-scoring noise. And that’s because it featured a pitcher who is not Shohei Ohtani batting — the Braves lost the DH earlier in the game, so reliever Victor Mederos came to bat. Not only that, but Mederos — again, a pitcher — faced off against a position player on the mound! He faced (usual) catcher Kyle Higashioka, and picked up a two-run single off a 42 mph eephus. Pitchers hitting — non-Ohtani pitchers hitting — has vanished as a practice since the universal DH was instituted, and relievers picking up hits was even rarer than starters doing it since the opportunities usually weren’t there. Medero got his shot, though, and he made the most of it. Baseball rules. The Reds downed the Rockies, 7-2, and here’s your big highlight: the second homer of the day from Spencer Steer, who played in both right field and at first base for Cincinnati on Friday. The first homer, his 15th of the season, was a 404-foot shot on a sinker that was middle-middle, but the second was fun. An inside-the-park homer that actually traveled further than the one that left the park! Steer hit this one to the deepest part of the park in right-center, and it bounced off the wall in such a way that it went right by the outfielders after striking the fence. StatCast estimated it at 421 feet, and Steer ran his 360 to give the Reds a 6-2 lead. He’s now just seven homers short of tying his career-best, from 2023. The Red Sox and Rays faced off twice on Friday, and the result was not great for the AL East-leading latter. Boston won both contests, stretching its winning streak to 11 games and pushing the Sox to .500 for the first time since March. The Sox even have a share of the third wild-card spot now, as the Twins are also .500, albeit with one more win and loss each than Boston has. The first game was a 10-0 rout, thanks to Jake Bennett going six scoreless for the Red Sox while three different batters recorded three hits, and both left fielder Jarren Duran and catcher Carlos Narváez drove in three runs each. The second game was closer, but the end result the same. Eduardo Rivera allowed three runs in 2 ⅓ innings for Boston, but that would be all the Sox would give up. Back-to-back homers from right fielder Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras in the first gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead… …and while Rays’ third baseman Junior Caminero tied things up with his 29th long ball of the year, the Sox did not wait long to undo that damage. Abreu came up again in the fourth and bashed his second dinger of the game and No. 14 on the season. The Sox would add another later on a double by second baseman Anthony Seigler, and the 5-3 score would hold thanks to 6 ⅔ scoreless innings from the bullpen. That pen — the Sox used six different pitchers — limited the Rays not just on runs, but also held them to just four hits without walking a batter over all those innings. Tampa Bay is still 2.5 up on the Yankees at the top of the AL East, thanks to New York losing, but a series against the Sox while the Yankees played the MLB-best Dodgers was supposed to start out differently than this.