Last Night In Baseball: Astros Sweep The Marlins As Wild-Card Races Shift

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 Marlins had the best June of anyone in MLB, and it launched them into contention. Miami’s July has been… worse. On Wednesday, the Marlins attempted to avoid being swept by the Astros and put a halt to an extended losing streak, but instead, lost their ninth game in a row. It didn’t help that shortstop Jeremy Peña homered for the third game in a row, putting Houston up 2-0 after three innings. And DH Yordan Alvarez going yard yet again helped just as little. That shot — a 394-foot deep fly to left-center — was the 34th homer of the year for Alvarez, and gave him the major-league lead. It was also followed immediately by another homer, this one from third baseman Isaac Paredes, to put the Astros up 5-2 through eight innings. Just brutal for the Marlins — they were a season-high 10 games over .500 less than two weeks ago, and now sit at 52-51 after dropping nine in a row. The Astros, meanwhile, are still digging their way out of an early season hole, and are 50-54 even after grabbing three in a row from Miami. The thing about the American League so far this year, though, is that the sub-.500 Astros are just two games out of the AL West lead and 3.5 out of a wild-card spot. The Marlins are 1.5 behind in the NL wild-card race, but that has Miami tied with the Nationals and trailing five other teams. This series started out so promising for the Phillies, but between Tuesday’s baserunning blunder and the Dodgers dropping nine runs on Philadelphia on Wednesday, it certainly didn’t end that way. Aaron Nola got through five innings while allowing three runs to Los Angeles, which feels like even more than you could possibly ask him for at this stage of his career against that lineup, and then for some reason Philly sent him out there for the sixth inning, too — and this despite Nola allowing two of those runs in the fifth. The result was pretty predictable. First baseman Freddie Freeman doubled to start the inning, then third baseman Max Muncy hit a two-run homer to put the Dodgers ahead. And just like that, Nola went from solid start to giving up five earned runs in 5 ⅓ innings of work. That home run, by the way, snapped a tie with Ron Cey for the second-most homers by a Dodgers player since the move from Brooklyn: it was Muncy’s 239th in a Los Angeles Dodgers’ uniform, leaving him behind only Eric Karros there. Overall in Dodgers’ history, Muncy ranks fifth, behind not just Karros but also Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges and Duke Snider. That wasn’t going to be enough to win. The Dodgers got more, though, as they always seem to do with second baseman Tommy Edman hitting a bases-clearing triple in the bottom of the eighth, after right fielder Kyle Tucker knocked in what would be the game-winning run with a sac fly earlier in the inning. Edman is batting .360/.439/.535 in 28 games and 100 plate appearances since returning from the IL in mid-June — say what you want about the Dodgers bringing in star after star and the money they spend, but when guys like Edman and Andy Pages are driving in runs left and right, you can’t just say it’s the cash getting things done for Los Angeles. In a makeup of Tuesday’s rained out contest against the Orioles, the Red Sox won, 6-3, matching the longest-ever winning streak in franchise history. The original version happened a long time ago, too — real long ago. Like, Ted Williams was in the starting lineup long ago. Third baseman Caleb Durbin drove in a pair with a single in the first inning, then left fielder Jarren Duran tripled in two more to make it 4-0 for the Red Sox out of the gate. And that was enough to win, which ended up being a little odd since Baltimore returned the favor in the second game. The Orioles scored four runs in the first in the second game of the doubleheader, the first coming on a wild pitch by Eduardo Rivera, and then a two-run single by outfielder Dylan Beavers. DH Johnathan Rodríguez added one more with an RBI double, and it was 4-0 Orioles in what ended up being a 5-1 win. The Red Sox tied their all-time winning streak, but ended up losing before they could set a new one. Still! Boston took the series, and consider where it was before this streak began. The Sox lost a series to the Nationals to drop to 37-48, 11 games under .500, 14 behind the AL East leader, six back of a wild-card spot and sporting a -7 run differential. Fast-forward to now, and the Red Sox are 52-49, holding a wild-card and seven behind the AL East-leading Rays, with a +45 run differential even after yesterday’s defeat. They are also that much closer to all of those injured players whose absence helped them to struggle in the first half returning. The Rangers lost to the White Sox, but the Mariners failed to take advantage against the Reds. A 5-3 loss — brought on by a three-run seventh that gave Cincinnati the lead for good — has Seattle still half-a-game out in the AL West, and two games back in the wild-card race instead of picking up a little ground on Boston. The Mariners went up 1-0 in the bottom of the second when catcher Cal Raleigh singled in a run, but left fielder JJ Bleday would erase that lead and tie the game with a solo homer in the fourth. The big knock, though, came off the bat of first baseman Sal Stewart. All three of those runs in the seventh inning were from one swing by Stewart, who drilled a three-run jack to right-center off reliever Eduardo Bazardo. The Reds aren’t exactly out of the NL postseason mix just yet, either, not with over two months of season left and just a 5.5-game deficit, but Cincinnati is also looking up at eight teams ahead of it in the wild-card standings: wins like this one are huge in that they could convince the Reds to buy instead of sell before the trade deadline. As for the Mariners, the AL is too much of a mess to be giving up, but a defeat like this — and a series loss against a team struggling to stay afloat — is disheartening this time of year as deadline questions look to be figured out. The good news: Ben Rice hit his team-leading 30th homer of the year in the seventh inning, tying the game 3-3 after the Yankees somehow let Mitch Keller off the hook with five scoreless innings and just three hits off him — Keller’s ERA after those shutout frames is 4.90. The bad news: the Yankees did not score again. The first game of this doubleheader went into extras, and there, New York’s bullpen took a turn blowing the game with Fernando Cruz charged with two runs thanks to a pair of run-scoring singles in the 10th that gave the Pirates the dub. But wait, there’s more! And good news again, too. Max Fried returned to the Yankees’ rotation to pitch the second game, and while Gerrit Cole’s seven-inning, 11-strikeout affair still resulted in an L, Fried’s five shutout innings were part of an overall 2-0 shutout of Pittsburgh. And while the Yankees’ lineup still did very little — just two runs there, for five total across two games on the day — at least the bullpen kept it together this time. And good thing, too, because the Rays won their third in a row against the Blue Jays (and can go for the four-game sweep on Thursday). A disappointing day for the Yankees in a lot of ways, but Fried is back and paired with Cole, Carlos Rodón is getting closer to a return, Aaron Judge still believes he’ll play again in 2026… there’s lots of be feeling good about when it comes to New York’s overall chances. Salvador Perez went yard on Wednesday, hitting career homer No. 317. That tied the catcher and DH with Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett for the most in Royals’ history, and Perez got there in over 900 fewer games, too. The two are different kinds of hitters — Brett more of an average guy, Perez with more pop — but the two ended up in the same place. Well, not “ended,” as Perez is 36 years old, but he’s also not under contract beyond this season and has a ton of miles on him from 15 years of time behind the plate in the majors. So who knows when he’ll decide to hang it up, but he’s got some time to get ahead of Brett and have first to himself. The Royals ended up beating the Giants, 5-4, despite a ninth-inning homer from third baseman Casey Schmitt. The Braves and Padres played a fairly uneventful game, as far as offense goes. Until they did not. Atlanta scored in the bottom of the first, and then neither team scored again until the top of the seventh, when San Diego tied it on center fielder Jackson Merrill’s 14th homer of the year. The Braves then scored six runs in the bottom of the inning, to go ahead 7-1. Shortstop Jim Jarvis doubled in a run, then right fielder Brewer Hicklen drove in Jarvis with another two-bagger. Second baseman Ozzie Albies added another run with a single, and first baseman Matt Olson made it 5-1 with a single to right. Third baseman Austin Riley and pinch-hitter Dominic Smith added their own RBI singles, and Atlanta had as many runs as it needed to win. Except, it didn’t quite feel like that in the top of the ninth. San Diego scored five runs in response to Atlanta’s six, a stretch that included a triple from Fernando Tatis Jr. and the first homer of the season from DH Luis Rengifo. Raisel Iglesias was able to get things under control after the long ball, though, retiring third baseman Manny Machado and first baseman Ty France to end the threat and the game. The Braves are now one win away from becoming the third NL team to 60 wins, and all before any AL teams manage the feat. Five homers, 15 runs. That’s what the Diamondbacks unleashed on the Athletics on Wednesday. Arizona was somehow just 5-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight, but you wouldn’t have known it from the final score. Corbin Carroll hit a triple, because of course he did — that’s what he does. Arizona’s right fielder also hit one of the five homers. Third baseman Nolan Arenado added one, as did DH Gabriel Moreno and catcher James McCann, whose shot was the 100th of his career. That’s one milestone dinger, but here’s another: outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt hit his first big-league homer, shortly after McCann’s own, as part of a seven-run fifth inning that had actually kicked off with Moreno’s blast after a wild pitch that scored a run. The Diamondbacks might be 11 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West, but Arizona is sitting on that third wild-card spot in the NL, half-a-game up on the Cardinals and Pirates, and 1.5 ahead of the Nationals and Marlins. Next up for the D-backs is St. Louis, which is going to be a huge four-game series for both teams. There have been sexier defensive plays, sure. Maybe even ones with a higher skill level on display. But you have to hand it to Brewers’ second baseman Brice Turang here for just getting to the ball, and then just getting it to first. Lots of drama, and truly, a great play. Just also kind of a funny one, considering. The Brewers ended up beating the Mets to take the series, and are just .004 winning percentage points behind the Dodgers for the best record in MLB because of it.