Last Night in Baseball: The 1st-Place Blue Jays Won Their 9th-Straight

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There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves. 

That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

The Blue Jays won, again

On May 7, the Blue Jays fell to 16-20 with a walk-off loss to the Angels. Their run differential sat at -39. They were in fourth place, already 4.5 games back of the Yankees in the AL East despite the early date, and 8-14 against teams that were over .500. That was the furthest that Toronto ever got under .500; things have changed since.

Their current nine-game winning streak — extended with an 8-4 victory on Monday against the White Sox — is just the start of things. They’re also 15-5 in their last 20 games, and 27-10 dating back to May 28, which is the date that they were the furthest behind the Yankees — eight games — in the East. They’re 37-22 since they dropped four games under .500. The winning streak has helped make up for some of their poor start, yes, but their play has been markedly different for over two months now — two months in which they’ve outscored opponents by a total of 55 runs.

As for Monday’s contest, Toronto battered the White Sox in the middle innings, scoring all eight of their runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Addison Barger’s two-run blast to put them up 5-1 ended up being the difference in the end…

…but the Jays kept piling on after that. All three of the team’s home runs came off of Chicago’s starter, Sean Burke, with Joey Loperfido and Nathan Lukes mashing the other two. 

They’re now 3.5 up on the Yankees, with two more against the White Sox this series, and then a weekend set against the Athletics. They’re 26-24 against teams that are over .500, and the season suddenly feels a whole lot different than it did even a week ago.

A true walk-off

The Angels and Rangers battled it out over all nine innings on Monday, with Texas going up 2-0 in the first on a Corey Seager home run, followed by Mike Trout cutting the lead in half with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning. Then Travis d’Arnaud answered in the second with a homer that put the Halos up, 3-2. Texas would respond with a pair of run-scoring singles in the third, then the Angels would tie it up again in the sixth on a double by d’Arnaud, before Los Angeles took the lead once more on a LaMonte Wade Jr. single that same inning. Josh Smith would drive in Jake Burger with a double in the eighth, and it was all tied up heading into the ninth.

After all of that action, everything was decided with a bases-loaded walk. Luis Rengifo doubled, Kevin Newman singled, the Rangers intentionally walked Zach Neto to cause a force and, you know, avoid pitching to Zach Neto. Instead, Holby Milner came on in relief of Chris Martin for Texas, and unintentionally walked the first batter he faced, Nolan Schanuel.

Not the sexiest way to end a ballgame, but hey: shrimp alert!

Machado collects career hit 2,000 (and 2,001)

Manny Machado entered play on Monday night against the Diamondbacks two hits shy of a significant career milestone. And it didn’t take him long to get them. In the bottom of the first, Machado singled off of Diamondbacks’ starter Zac Gallen, and then, in the fourth, he hit a hard grounder to short that was just far enough out of reach of Geraldo Perdomo that he couldn’t corral it.

Two-thousand career hits for Manny Machado is quite the accomplishment! And Machado went right to work going for the next round number, hitting No. 2,001 over the left field fence for his 15h home run of the year.

What a catch!

Despite Machado’s efforts, the Padres would lose on Monday, 6-3. This play by center fielder Alek Thomas isn’t the entire reason for that defeat, no, but it (1) didn’t hurt and (2) sure was pretty.

The Dodgers lost, again

Things have not been going the Dodgers’ way lately. On Friday, they lost 18-1 to the Astros, who then proceeded to sweep them in Los Angeles for the first time since 2008. They managed to score just six runs combined in the series, too, and that low-offense trend continued on Monday against the Brewers. Milwaukee trounced the Dodgers, 9-1, and it was Andrew Vaughn’s first at-bat as a Brewer that got things started.

Vaughn was the return for Aaron Civale, whom Milwaukee traded to the White Sox after he requested a trade for getting bumped from their rotation. Vaughn, in his first at-bat of the year with the Brewers, hit a three-run shot in a five-run first; Yoshinobu Yamamoto didn’t make it out of the inning.

Despite the losing streak and the Giants winning their last three in a row, the Dodgers are still six games up in the NL West. 

Guardians stop losing streak at 10 games

Speaking of losing streaks: the Cleveland Guardians finally snapped their own after 10 straight defeats when they beat the Houston Astros on Monday. José Ramírez hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Guardians a 4-0 lead…

…but the Astros responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the frame, tying things back up.

Unlike during the losing streak, when runs were at a horrible premium for Cleveland, they had some more left for Houston after that fifth-run burst. Brayan Rocchio drove in Angel Martinez and Bo Naylor with a two-run double in the sixth to take the lead again, and they wouldn’t give it up again. David Fry would add one more on a solo shot in the ninth, and the Guardians would win, 7-5.

Well, at least the only injury was to pride

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