Last Night In Baseball: Trea Turners Beats Dodgers While Nearly Losing To 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 Phillies beat the Dodgers, 10-7, but that doesn’t even begin to get into how that game went down. Similarly, shortstop Trea Turner went 3-for-5 with a pair of homers, two runs and five RBIs, and also found himself being booed by Phillies’ fans. In the first, Turner made an error at short, allowing his counterpart on the Dodgers’ side, Mookie Betts, to reach, loading the bases. Nothing came of it, but the crowd took note, anyway. Turner would then hit a leadoff double in the next inning, but Philadelphia would fail to push a run across, too, so the memory of that success didn’t last long. Especially since Turner followed that defensive gaffe up by missing a grounder to his left in the fourth inning, booting another up the middle in the sixth to allow a run to score and in the ninth failed to catch a liner, giving Betts an opportunity to come up to the plate again, where he hit a three-run homer — his second of the day. So, not a great day. But! You already saw Turner’s line in his own times at the plate; he made up for the miscues and then some. Turner hit a two-run homer in the fourth, 404 feet, to put the Phillies up 2-0… …and then in the sixth blasted a three-run shot off reliever Alex Vesia to give the Phillies an 8-3 lead. That was also the 200th homer of Turner’s 12-year career. First baseman Bryce Harper also got in on the long ball action, with his 200th homer with the Phillies — that helped Philadelphia to its 1,000th victory at Citizens Bank Park, so it was a pretty good day for round numbers. Turner’s defense has been an issue for more than just Monday night: 2025 is the only one of the last four seasons in which Turner’s defensive wins above replacement were positive, and he’s already been -0.5 dWAR in 2026. It’s not just the advanced stats, either, as the misplays on Monday were plain to see, and none of it is helped by Turner also having a down year at the plate. The Phillies might have to figure something out either with Turner or a new shortstop, with the current one moving elsewhere on the diamond where he can be productive, because it’s been a problem in 2026 and he’s under contract through 2033. In the present, though, the Phillies beat the best team in baseball despite all of those defensive issues, and find themselves three games back in the NL East and four up in the wild-card race. “The Cardinals blew it late” makes it seem like the Angels didn’t have a hand in their victory, so much as St. Louis let a win slip between its own fingers. But that’s intentional — yes, Los Angeles played a part in its W, but as you’ll see the Cardinals are as responsible for losing as the Angels are for winning. In the ninth, after a single and a hit by pitch to put two on with one out, second baseman Vaughn Grissom hit what ended up being ruled an RBI double to tie the game at 2-2 — there was a review to see if it was actually a game-winning homer, but no, the call was upheld and it remained a double. That call going against Los Angeles didn’t end up mattering in the long run — the Angels were apparently destined to score that other run. Reliever Riley O’Brien intentionally walked left fielder Josh Lowe to load the bases with one out, bringing up right fielder Jo Adell. Plunk. Sometimes, a loss in baseball is as simple as repeating the maxim “you can’t win ‘em all,” and sometimes you load the bases in the bottom of the ninth and then hit a guy with a pitch in a tie game. The latter went down here, and the Cardinals have now dropped three-straight games — lucky for them, four of the five teams within three games of that last wild-card spot also all lost on Monday. One of those losing squads? Pittsburgh. The Yankees ended up defeating the Pirates, 8-5, with a two-run homer from second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. putting New York ahead for good in the bottom of the third. There was quite a bit of game to play after that, however, and during some of it, these two teams went at it. Yankees’ shortstop Jose Caballero did not appreciate Pirates’ reliever Dennis Santana blowing a kiss to him after a double play, which Santana did thanks to dislike for Caballero, per MLB, “manipulating the pitch timer” which resulted in an earlier pitch being waived off. Dugouts emptied! Bullpens emptied! A pitcher being held back by teammates! These two guys might not like each other very much. Or at least didn’t like either other very much right then, as words and insults were exchanged on the field. The Dodgers losing to the Phillies opened up an opportunity for the Brewers, as Milwaukee had one fewer win than Los Angeles, but also one fewer loss. The Brew Crew took down the Mets, 8-3, and while first baseman Andrew Vaughn hit a two-run shot that would end up being the game winner, let’s draw your attention to an earlier dinger. Because it was the first of Cooper Pratt’s big-league career. The Brewers’ shortstop was called up just over a month ago to plug one of the few gaping holes in the roster, and he’s hit a plenty respectable .267/.356/.360 — good for a league-average OPS+ — while playing a quality short in that time. Now he has his first homer in the majors, and it helped Milwaukee secure the best record in MLB through the first 100 games of the season. Astros’ DH Yordan Alvarez is now tied for the MLB lead in homers with 33, thanks to a two-dinger Monday. In an 8-5, Houston W, Alvarez hit his 32nd shot of the year, a 428-foot dinger following a grand slam by shortstop Jeremy Peña… …and followed that up with a second dong, this one 419 feet and over 108 mph off the bat. The Astros have plenty of problems this year. Houston is just 48-54, and 4.5 games back of a wild-card spot even in this year’s up-in-the-air American League. Alvarez, though? He’s leading the AL in hits (118), RBIs (75) and average (.324), while also being tops in MLB in homers, on-base percentage (.432), slugging (.651), OPS+ (199), and total bases (237). He’s just so good. The Red Sox and Orioles met up on Monday, with Boston having won 13 in a row and Baltimore its last seven. Both are back in the AL wild-card race thanks to these streaks, so a head-to-head series is important! And the Sox ended up being the victors here, extending their streak to 14 — the second-longest in franchise history, which is as old as the American League itself — with a 6-5 dub. And it almost didn’t happen — the Orioles were threatening in the ninth after closer Aroldis Chapman walked pinch-hitter Colton Cowser and then gave up a double to shortstop Gunnar Henderson. With two outs and the go-ahead run on second, right fielder Tyler O’Neill lifted one over the infield… almost. All credit to shortstop Tsung-Che Chang there, who stands just 5-foot-8 and still somehow got high enough to snag that one out of the air and put a stop to a potential rally and the game. Boston is now 1.5 games ahead of the Rangers for the third wild-card spot, and pushed Baltimore to three behind with the W. In the second game of the three-game set, the Red Sox will attempt to match the 1946 team with 15-straight wins. Mariners’ backstop and 2025 American League MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh is having a really rough 2026, as he has been injured and ineffective for much of it. There have been bursts where he’s looked a lot like his old self, but mostly his performances have resulted in a batting average that would be significantly better if it were at the Mendoza line. The Reds took that into account on Monday while down 3-0 with two runners already on, and intentionally walked DH Dominic Canzone to set up the force at every base, move in the infield and take their chances with Raleigh. You already know what happened next, if you read the subhed. That was Raleigh’s 10th dinger of the year, a 408-foot shot to left-center and grand slam to put Seattle up 7-0. Cincinnati gambled, and it lost both there and the game, 8-0. As for the Mariners, that was their third-straight W, and with the Rangers losing Seattle is now half-a-game up in the AL West. The thing about “insurance” is that sometimes you need to use it. Tigers’ backstop Dillon Dingler made it a 5-3 game with his second homer of the day on Monday, but then whoops… …it turns out that was a very necessary long ball. The Cubs tied the game in the ninth when left fielder Ian Happ hit his 18th homer of the year, a two-run shot to make it 5-5. All that did, though, was give Dingler a chance to get another big hit. This time, the catcher singled in a run in the 10th to make it 6-5, and then he ended up scoring what proved to be the game-winning run later in the frame, when first baseman Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run single. The Cubs got one back in the bottom of the 10th, but that was it; the Cubs fell to seven games back of the Brewers in the NL Central (but are 4.5 up in the wild-card race), while Detroit picked up a game on a few of the teams it’s chasing in a very crowded AL wild-card picture. Just 297 players have ever racked up at least 2,000 hits in MLB, and Diamondbacks’ third baseman Nolan Arenado is the latest to do it. Maybe “297” seems like a lot to you; maybe that’s not as impressive as “select company” reads. Well hey we aren’t finished explaining what’s incredible about this. Arenado is just the sixth player in MLB history to have at least 2,000 hits, 350 homers and 10 Gold Gloves. Every other player to do it? Enshrined in Cooperstown. Whether Arenado gets there or not as well is a question for 2036 more than 2026, but this is one hell of an achievement either way. The Giants managed to tie the Royals in the top of the ninth with a two-run home run by shortstop Willy Adames, but all that did was set up a horrible unsatisfying conclusion to the game. For San Francisco, anyway: for Kansas City, this is pretty great. A walk-off bunt, courtesy shortstop Nick Loftin — who entered into the game when Bobby Witt Jr. had to exit with back tightness. Loftin put the ball just where he needed to in order to create some chaos, as catcher Daniel Susac was just far enough off the plate that he couldn’t apply the tag at home, and the Royals would win.