Last Night In Baseball: The Phillies Hold On In Key Wild-Card Matchup

Big rallies, another Jackson Merrill homer, a really weird review and Freddie Freeman getting it done – sort of. Monday’s MLB action provided all that and much more.

Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

Right fielder Derek Hill scored the first run in this game between the Phillies — holder of one of three NL wild-card slots — and the Cardinals, a team that would very much like to be one of those three. He also made this lovely little catch while Philadelphia was up 4-2, and St. Louis was threatening with one down and a runner on second in the bottom of the seventh.

That saved a run, and good thing, too. For the Phillies, anyway. Shortstop Edmundo Sosa would double in two runs for Philadelphia in the eighth, making it a 6-2 game… right before the Cards woke up. First baseman Alec Burleson doubled in a run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 6-3, then shortstop Masyn Winn doubled on a grounder that deflected off Phils’ pitcher Alan Rangel — 6-4.

José Fermín followed up Winn’s double with an RBI single, turning it into a 6-5 ballgame. Rangel retired the last two batters of the inning to keep things there, but that’s a whole bunch of damage in one inning that could very well have made it a tie game if not for that Hill grab an inning before.

Jonathan Bowlan took the mound in the ninth for the Phillies, and, despite the chaos of the previous inning, retired the side just like that to extinguish the hopes of a full comeback by the Cardinals.

The Phils kept pace with the Diamondbacks, tied for the second wild-card spot, while the Cardinals fell to 4.5 back and saw all five teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings pick up a game on them.

The Rays were down to the Athletics, 6-2, in the top of the eighth. And then things changed for Tampa Bay, and fast. New pitcher Seth Johnson came in, and then DH Yandy Díaz singled to start the inning, and first baseman Jonathan Aranda followed with his own. Third baseman Junior Caminero sent them both home with a 410-foot, three-run dinger, his 34th blast of the season.

Johnson then walked right fielder Ryan Vilade, and was relieved by José Suarez. Outfielders Jonny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson both singled, tying things up 6-6.

But there was more to come — there still hadn’t been an out made. Catcher Nick Fortes walked, then shortstop Taylor Walls singled in a pair.

Suarez finally got an out, but was then relieved by Scott Blewett. Yandy Díaz batted for the second time, and while he made an out, it was a sacrifice one — 9-6, Rays. A wild pitch moved Walls to second, then Aranda made it double digits with another single.

The scoring stopped there, for both the Rays and the A’s — Tampa Bay has won seven in a row, and is second in the majors with 72 wins while holding a six-game lead in the AL East. The A’s… well, the A’s have 72 losses.

Rangers-Angels ended up going to extra innings because of this catch by Wade Meckler in right. Check this out.

It would have been 4-1 Rangers, if not for that grab, but instead the game remained tied 1-1 at the end of nine. Except, the universe apparently really wanted this to be a 4-1 game, so it ended up that way, despite Meckler’s efforts. Right fielder Brandon Nimmo singled in a runner in the 10th, making it 2-1…

…then first baseman Jake Burger singled in a pair to make it 4-1 a few batters later.

The Angels didn’t answer any of those runs in the bottom of the 10th, with Jacob Latz loading the bases before harmlessly getting out of danger and giving the Rangers the W. Texas got back over .500 with the victory, 60-59, leaving it half-a-game behind the Astros in the AL West and 1.5 up on the final wild-card spot in the AL.

Now, KiiiKiii is a South Korean musical group, not a fivesome of professional athletes, so remember that while you judge the start and stop nature of this throwing motion.

That lengthy pause might mess with velocity, but maybe not as much as it could ruin a batter’s timing.

In the bottom of the third, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman singled to left, then advanced to second when Shohei Ohtani scored to cut the Royals’ lead to 3-2. Freeman tried to pull that off again in the seventh, with the score tied 5-5. It half worked!

Ohtani managed a repeat and scored a second time to give Los Angeles the lead, but Freeman wasn’t so lucky at second this time around. It ended up not mattering in the end for either team: the Dodgers didn’t score again, but neither did Kansas City, and Los Angeles took the first game of the series.

Astros’ shortstop Jeremy Peña had been in the midst of an 0-for-24 slump at the plate, which for the glass half-full crowd meant he was due. With the score tied 3-3 in the 10th inning, Peña snapped his 0-fer with an RBI single to give Houston the lead.

The Astros would plate a couple more when infielder Isaac Paredes hit his 21st double of the season, scoring Peña LaMonte Wade Jr. Houston would hold on for the 6-3 dub, keeping it in first place in the AL West despite the Rangers’ also winning.

This one is going to take a longer explanation, which you can find embedded belowor in write-up form.

In the end, the Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays, 2-1, so the run didn’t end up mattering. Still — weird. That’s baseball.

The Mets took on the Braves, and despite the fact that New York is in last place in the NL East and the Braves nearly 20 games up, the best of the division has consistently struggled against its worst. And Monday was no exception: the Mets won their seventh game in 11 chances against the Braves, 8-5. And former starter Kodai Senga took the mound in the ninth to close things out, where he earned his first career save… just before rookie outfielder Carson Benge went to toss the milestone ball to a fan.

Whoops!

The Padres had won consecutive games, and center fielder Jackson Merrill had homered in both of them. Facing the Brewers on Monday in a pivotal series for San Diego — Milwaukee is MLB’s best team this year, as well as at the top of Rowan Kavner’smost recent power rankings, while the Padres are fighting for a wild-card spot — Merrill went yardagain. And the result? The Padres won, again.

Merrill’s two-run homer scored first baseman Ty France, who had driven in San Diego’s only other run of the game with a home run in the second. This was a much better performance for deadline acquisition Casey Mize than the first attempt, too: Mize went six innings with two runs allowed against Milwaukee, and that was it.

The Padres needed the W, too, as the Diamondbacks — one of the two teams a game up on San Diego for the last wild-card spot — managed to win their game, too. Arizona took on the Rockies, and crushed them, 9-0. Third baseman Nolan Arenado did the most damage against Colorado, going 2-for-4 with a run and four RBIs, courtesy a grand slam in the bottom of the first.

That won the game right there, in the technical sense, but and Arizona kept pace with the Phillies and ahead of the Padres — the D-backs also picked up half-a-game on the idle Marlins as well as a game on the defeated Cardinals.