Last Night In Baseball: Astros Roar Back, Pitching Gems And A Midwest Stunner

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: If the Chicago White Sox miss the playoffs by a game or two, their Friday night loss to the Houston Astros is a game that will stand out. Chicago entered the top of the sixth inning with a 5-0 lead. Then, the Houston bats exploded for an eight-run inning. In said inning, left fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. both singled and walked in a run; first baseman Christian Walker hit a three-run double; right fielder Cam Smith blasted a go-ahead, three-run home run, his 13th long ball of the year; second baseman Jose Altuve had an RBI single; catcher Christian Vázquez later had an RBI double for good measure in the ninth, giving the Astros a sizzling, 9-5 win. Houston, which used seven pitchers to get through the game, got three-hit performances from Altuve and shortstop Jeremy Peña. While 51-54, the Astros have won four consecutive games and are just two games behind the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West and three games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third AL wild-card seed. The Atlanta Braves hit four home runs on Thursday, and the long ball propelled them to another victory on Friday. Trailing the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 in the top of the eighth, catcher Drake Baldwin got the Braves even with a solo homer, which ultimately sent the game to extra innings. In the 10th, Atlanta got the lead on a fielder’s choice and then first baseman Matt Olson gave it a four-run cushion with a three-run home run to right field. Now, Baltimore did make it close in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs, highlighted by a two-run homer from third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand — who also laced a two-run double in the first — but Atlanta held on to win, 7-6. Seven of nine Braves starting position players recorded a hit, with right-hander Grant Holmes going five innings and Elieser Hernández being the unsung hero of the night, tossing three scoreless innings of relief. Meanwhile, Olson’s homer was his 27th of the year, which is seventh in MLB, and Baldwin’s homer was his 20th, which is fourth among catchers. This one was back and forth all night. After first baseman Nolan Schanuel gave the Los Angeles Angels a 1-0 lead on an RBI single in the top of the first, San Francisco Giants first baseman Rafael Devers hit an opposite field, two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning. Then, in the bottom of the third, third baseman Casey Schmitt launched a three-run home run, giving the Giants a 5-1 lead. All that said, the Angels narrowed the gap to one run in the fifth with a two-run triple from catcher Tyler Heineman and a sacrifice fly from center fielder Mike Trout. San Francisco later got a sacrifice fly from catcher Daniel Susac in the bottom of the fifth, but infielder Vaughn Grissom evened the score for Los Angeles at 6-all with a two-run homer in the eighth, and the game would go to extra innings. Unfortunately for the Halos, though, they failed to plate a run in the top half of the 10th, and Devers sent the San Francisco faithful home happy in the bottom half of the inning with a walk-off, RBI single to deep left field. Devers and Schmitt have each hit 21 home runs this season, combining for 110 RBIs and a .483 slugging percentage, with the Friday night victory snapping a five-game losing streak for the Giants. “Kramer, what are you doing?” “Well, I’m dominating!” Back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal was in top form against the Kansas City Royals. Over 7 ⅓ innings, the southpaw surrendered just one run and six baserunners (four hits and two walks), while recording 12 strikeouts in a 2-1 win for the Detroit Tigers. It marked Skubal’s longest outing of the season — which was sidetracked for two months by an elbow injury — and the fourth time he has pitched through the seventh inning. Skubal has given up just one run over his last two starts, with him pitching through seven innings in both outings. Through 15 starts, Skubal boasts a 2.70 ERA, an 0.92 WHIP, 110 strikeouts, a 159 ERA+ and 2.9 wins above replacement across 90.0 innings pitched. As for the offense, Detroit’s two runs came in the first inning on a Riley Greene sacrifice fly and an RBI single from second baseman Hao-Yu Lee. Sure, the Tigers are 50-54, but they’ve won 15 of their last 20 games and, at this rate, they have the justification to keep Skubal past the trade deadline and push for a playoff spot, as they’re just three-and-a-half games out of the third AL wild-card seed. And because this is baseball, that means bizarre things will happen. What was that bizarre thing on Friday night? The team with the second-worst record in MLB beating the team with the second-best record in MLB on their home field. Correct, the Colorado Rockies (42-63) got a road victory over the Milwaukee Brewers (64-39). Behind 5 ⅔ innings from right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano, who surrendered just two runs, and 3 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief from Victor Vodnik, Antonio Senzatela and Jordan Romano, the Rockies got a 5-2 win. Colorado put two runs on the board in the top of the first on an RBI double from center fielder Cole Carrigg and an RBI single from catcher Hunter Goodman. The Rockies then got a run in the third on an RBI single from third baseman Kyle Karros and a fourth run on a sacrifice fly from designated hitter Mickey Moniak in the fourth. Their fifth and final run came on a pinch-hit RBI double from TJ Rumfield in the seventh. As for the offensive standouts, Goodman is third in MLB with 31 home runs and first among catchers with a .563 slugging percentage; Rumfield sports a .301/.384/.482 slash line in what’s his rookie season; Moniak boasts a .558 slugging percentage, while Carrigg has an .866 OPS and Karros has a .794 OPS. New York Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt hit an opposite field, solo home run in the top of the fourth, and that was the offense. Like, literally, the Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0. New York leaned on burgeoning superstar right-hander Cam Schlittler, who posted 12 strikeouts and gave up only three baserunners (three hits) over 7 ⅓ innings; Brent Headrick and David Bednar shut the door for the Yankees with 1 ⅔ combined scoreless innings of relief. Meanwhile, Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo was also sensational, surrendering just one run and four baserunners (three hits and one walk) over seven innings, while recording nine strikeouts; it just came in a one-run loss. In fact, Goldschmidt’s homer was one of only three hits for the Yankees. Schlittler continues to solidify his case to be the 2026 AL Cy Young, owning an AL-best 2.07 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 157 strikeouts, a 203 ERA+ and 4.6 wins above replacement over an AL-high 130 ⅓ innings pitched (22 starts). The Minnesota Twins drew seven walks, but they only tallied two hits and couldn’t get a run to cross home plate against the Athletics in a 2-0 loss. Jacob Lopez tossed five scoreless innings for the A’s, who then got four scoreless innings of relief from Geoff Hartlieb, José Suarez, Elvis Alvarado and Hogan Harris. It was the longest shutout that Lopez has put together this season. As for the run production, the Athletics’ two runs came on a fifth-inning sacrifice fly from right fielder Lawrence Butler and an RBI single from left fielder Tyler Soderstrom, who sports a .472 slugging percentage, in the sixth. This was the Athletics’ first shutout victory since beating the Angels on June 18 (5-0) and their first road shutout since defeating the Astros on June 7 (5-0). Only one team scored double-digit runs on Friday night, and that club was the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay struck early and often in an 11-3 smacking of the Guardians. Second baseman Ryan Vilade sparked the party with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second, with the Rays later having a three-run fourth inning: RBI singles from right fielder Jonny DeLuca and catcher Nick Fortes and an RBI force-out from shortstop Ben Williamson. Junior Caminero put a sixth run on the board for the Rays with an RBI single in the sixth, with Fortes driving in a run on a double in the seventh. The Rays put a bow on the offensive outburst with a four-run eighth inning, as left fielder Chandler Simpson brought home a run on a sacrifice fly and Richie Palacios launched a three-run home run. Tampa Bay pulled left-hander Shane McClanahan after five scoreless innings. Through 19 starts, McClanahan, who’s back in the big leagues after missing the second half of 2023 and the entire 2024 and 2025 seasons due to elbow and triceps injuries, boasts a 3.09 ERA and a 139 ERA+. The Rays, who are an AL-best 60-43, have won four of their last five games, while the Guardians have lost three in a row. Once the surprise team of the season, the Miami Marlins are reeling — bad. After losing at home to the San Diego Padres, the Marlins have now lost 10 consecutive games and are 52-52. Over that span, they’re averaging just 2.5 runs per game, with them losing 4-2 on Friday night. Concerning said loss, Miami struck first in the bottom of the second on a solo home run from catcher Joe Mack, with a Heriberto Hernández solo homer later tying the game at 2-all in the bottom of the fifth, which was the score entering the eighth. With that said, Luis Rengifo put the Padres up for good with a pinch-hit, two-run homer to right field in the top of the eighth. San Diego got its first run on an RBI line-out from center fielder Jackson Merrill in the fourth and an RBI single from designated hitter Manny Machado in the fifth. The two teams combined to use 13 pitchers (the Marlins used seven pitchers, while the Padres used six). Miami is three games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third National League wild-card seed, while San Diego (51-53) stands four games back of the playoff spot. The 2026 MLB season has been a struggle for second-year Los Angeles Dodgers starter Rōki Sasaki, but Friday night was a breeze. In a road outing against the New York Mets, Sasaki had one of the best starts of his MLB career, surrendering just one run and five baserunners (three hits and two walks) over seven innings, while totaling seven strikeouts in a 4-2 Dodgers win; he threw 94 pitches, 63 of them for strikes. Sasaki has given up just one earned run over his last two starts. On the season, Sasaki has a 4.71 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, 94 strikeouts, an 89 ERA+ and 0.1 wins above replacement across 93 ⅔ innings (18 starts). As for Sasaki’s run support, the Dodgers got a sacrifice fly from second baseman Miguel Rojas in the top of the fourth and a sacrifice fly from Shohei Ohtani in the seventh, with right fielder Kyle Tucker — who owns a career-low .705 OPS in what’s the first season of a four-year, $240 million deal — creating separation with a two-run home run to right field in the eighth; Tucker finished with two hits. New York’s two runs came on a solo home run from Luis Robert Jr. in the bottom of the second and a solo homer from catcher Francisco Alvarez (he has hit 12 home runs in 69 games) in the eighth. Meanwhile, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman had a three-hit night. The Dodgers have the best record in the sport at 66-38.