Last Night in Baseball: Yankees End Losing Streak in Unpredictable Fashion

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: Yankees streak ends on a walk-off… wild pitch The Yankees started out 8-2, but then lost five-straight games, which did two things: allowed other AL East teams time to narrow the gap between New York and themselves, and made the Yankees one of just four teams to ever go 0-6 in one-run games 15 games into a season. The Bombers are now 1-6 in one-run games, though, thanks to facing the Angels in a thriller that ended on a walk-off wild pitch. Before that could happen, though, a whole lot of runs had to be scored in far more explosive ways. It was already 7-4 Yankees in the top of the sixth, with both starters having departed well before, when Angels’ center fielder Mike Trout went yard. Trout tied things up with one swing of the bat, driving in second baseman Adam Frazier and shortstop Zach Neto. The tie did not last long, because Yankees’ star slugger Aaron Judge had another dinger in him. The right fielder hit a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth, a 398 footer to left that got out of the park in a hurry thanks to coming off the bat at 111 mph. This was the 47th multi-homer game of Judge’s career, which not only put him ahead of Mickey Mantle for the second-most in Yankees’ history, but also has him three up on the next-highest player in MLB history through 1,400 games. Judge, as Sarah Langs pointed out, has played in 1,161 games. Folks, he’s good at baseball. Especially the part where he hits them very far. Hey you know who else has hit a few dingers in their day? Mike Trout. Here’s his second homer, and the 31st multi-homer day of his career. That put the Angels up 10-8 in the top of the eighth, but putting New York away would not be as easy as that. Center fielder Trent Grisham, who had entered as a pinch-hitter earlier in the game before hitting his first homer of the year, bashed his second to tie things up again, this time at 10-10, in the bottom of the ninth inning. Now, this game was full of power, and certainly not stellar pitching performances. So it might seem a little odd for it to end on a walk-off wild pitch, but it’s still on theme, you know? If the pitching had been better for either team, things never would have gotten to the point of a 10-10 tie game in the ninth. Alas, the pitching was not better than that, and so Jordan Romano lost on a wild pitch. Which, given the frequency that the ball left the yard Monday, and that he has allowed 15 homers over his last 61.1 innings as a reliever and posted a 2.2 HR/9 in that stretch, is surprising in more ways than one. Polar Pete Pete Alonso is nicknamed “Polar Bear,” so mascot Mr. Splash — who resides in the Bird Bath splash zone at Oriole Park at Camden Yards — donned a polar bear head when he was at the plate on Monday. That apparently gave Alonso a target: the first baseman mashed a Jonathan Loasiga pitch to left-center, 399 feet away, right to Mr. Splash. Not only is that hilarious on its face, but Alonso’s long ball put the Orioles up, 8-7. It would be all the offense Baltimore needed to defeat Arizona, but the O’s scored another the next inning on a Jeremiah Jackson homer, the third of the season for the second baseman, to make it 9-7. Baltimore is now 9-7, in second in the AL East, while Arizona hovers a game over .500 and in third in an NL West where no one can afford to fall behind. Schwarber takes a knee There sure were a bunch of high-scoring games — and multi-homer games — on Monday. Phillies-Cubs was another such contest, with Philadelphia eventually winning 13-7. The Cubs just could not stop letting the Phillies score, to the point that a late five-run outburst for Chicago merely dented Philly’s lead instead of endangering it. Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber got things going early with a solo shot in the first inning, which doesn’t seem all that exciting at first given the final score, but check this out: Schwarber dropped to his knee to smash this thing. Schwarber hit an 87 mph changeup just below the strike zone 414 feet, with an exit velocity of 103.5 mph, from one knee. Just incredible power from one of the best in the game at this very thing. And he had a sequel later on, too, to put the Phillies up 7-0. Not from one knee, no, but this one went 417 feet thanks to Javier Assad leaving it middle-middle. Just because Schwarber can generate power from basically anywhere doesn’t mean you can just throw it 93 down the pipe because nothing matters. Astros get Naylored The Astros, to their great regret, had a fourth game against the Mariners to play — the end of the weekend did not bring an end to this series. This one went just as well for Houston as the previous three had, with the Astros losing 6-2, and almost entirely because of first baseman Josh Naylor. Naylor squared up on a 95.8-mph Mike Burrows fastball in the middle of the zone with two runners on in the first inning, which would turn out to be the game-winning hit. No one knew that back in the first, of course, and Naylor added on some additional runs later. Not very much later, though — the next time he came up, in the third. And once again off of Burrows, who once again threw a fastball practically down the middle. While the first long ball wasn’t all that long of one, coming in at 365 feet, Naylor crushed this one 433 feet to center with an exit velocity of nearly 112 mph. Throw in a great start from George Kirby — 7.2 innings, six strikeouts against one walk, two runs on seven hits — and the Astros would lose their eighth game in a row, making them the first team to lose 11 games. Now, a whole slew of injuries plays a significant role here, but credit to the Mariners for playing the role of buzzsaw over the last four days, too. Seattle is mostly recovered from their own rough start, sitting at 8-9 following this extended sweep. Dodgers best Mets The Yankees snapped their losing streak facing off against Los Angeles, but the Mets weren’t so lucky. In part because they drew the other Los Angeles team, the Dodgers, and that one did not struggle to put a competent pitching performance on the board. Justin Wrobleski shut the Mets out for eight innings despite striking out just two batters, thanks to limiting them to a pair of hits and not giving up a free pass. Wrobleski also had a little help from his defense: Mets’ starter David Peterson wasn’t terrible by any means, but he also wasn’t particularly good nor sharp. He allowed four walks in five innings, and four runs, too. The Mets’ bullpen was much better about handling Los Angeles’ lineup, but the damage was already done by then. Said damage including Andy Pages becoming the first player in MLB to reach 20 RBIs this season, thanks to a three-run homer that gave Los Angeles a bunch of insurance it didn’t end up needing to cash in. The Mets have now lost six-straight, and are in last place in the NL East. New York is also just three games back, so it’s not panic time yet, but star outfielder Juan Soto remains on the IL and this should be a time where a team with postseason aspirations is gaining ground on competition that isn’t playing particularly well. Look out! Disaster averted. Hey, he got there A little bit of twisting and spinning and waiting for Lawrence Butler here, but the Athletics’ right fielder brought it home all the same. Sadly for the Athletics — but not so sadly for the Rangers — this was basically the lone bright spot of the evening. It was already 4-0 Texas when Butler pulled this would-be solo shot of shortstop Corey Seager back in, but the Rangers would drop another four runs on the A’s, anyway, winning 8-1. Another trot for Walker We’re still very much in that early-season “is this for real?” territory with every performance, good or bad, but with each home run it becomes more difficult to think that Jordan Walker hasn’t taken a genuine step forward. Here, the Cardinals’ right fielder took an 85-mph sweeper that Gavin Williams had catch a little too much plate and drove it 398 feet to center on a line. That’s Walker’s MLB-leading eighth dinger of the year — he’s now hitting .333/.394/.767, with that slugging percentage and his 46 total bases also leading the majors. Now, expecting Walker to keep an Aaron Judge impression going all season long is courting disappointment, but as for a 24-year-old who has always had the potential to unlock power in his impressive frame finally putting it all together? That’s an expectation you can get behind. Skenes got run support for a change The Pirates, famously, do not score runs for ace Paul Skenes. He won the NL Cy Young in 2025 while posting a 1.97 ERA, but had a record of 10-10 because even at that low rate of runs allowed, Pittsburgh couldn’t make it work for the right-hander. So far, 2026 has been a far different Bucs’ squad, though. They scored five runs in the first three innings, which is the kind of thing that would have helped Skenes and the Pirates as a whole a ton in 2025, but did not stop there. In the sixth, the Pirates scored 10 runs. Skenes had just completed what would be his final inning of work in a six-inning gem with one hit, one walk and one run allowed each against six strikeouts, but before he could officially be lifted from the game his teammates gave him a series of salutes for the strong effort. Just an absolute disaster of a frame for the Nationals. Catcher Henry Davis singled and then stole second to open the inning. Center fielder Oneil Cruz would then walk, and second baseman Brandon Lowe would single the bases loaded. DH Bryan Reynolds tripled in all three runners, then right fielder Ryan O’Hearn doubled him home. Jackson Rutledge finally recorded the first out of the inning after Pittsburgh had already made it 9-1, but first baseman Spencer Horwitz and rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin then both singled to make it 10-1. Brad Lord would come on in relief of Rutledge and get Davis to pop out the second time around, but Cruz would add a hit to his sixth-inning walk, then Lowe went yard — as seen above — to make it 15-1. Reynolds would then collect a single, but, mercifully, he would not come around to score. Pittsburgh ended up winning 16-5 — Jose Urquidy gave up four runs in relief, which spoiled his day more than the Pirates’ as a whole — and sit atop the NL Central at 10-6. Repeat the “it’s early” mantra daily at this stage of the season, but also, hey, the Pirates look… good? Crochet imploded, Twins exploded The 10-run inning against the Nationals was bad, but it somehow wasn’t the worst performance of the day. Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet faced off against the Twins on Monday, and he allowed 11 runs in 1.2 innings without recording a strikeout. It’s important to remind you here that Crochet led the majors with 255 strikeouts in 2025. After Monday, he’s leading the AL in runs allowed. Crochet walked three and allowed nine hits in that short time, throwing 55 pitches — just 30 for strikes — while giving up two homers. This was mostly a station-to-station beatdown, and worth noting, too, that Crochet’s velocity on the four-seam fastball that third baseman Ryan Kreidler sent 438 feet into left field was just 92.7 mph. Crochet averaged 96.4 mph on his four-seamer in 2025. Maybe just a rare off day for Crochet, who had never allowed more than seven runs in a game before, never mind in an inning. The Red Sox are just 6-10 now, but the Twins? They are the first-place AL Central leaders at the moment, thanks to three dubs in a row.