Last Night in Baseball: Yankees, Guardians Go Extra in Division-Leader Clash

There is always baseball going on—almost too much baseball for one person to keep up with.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by finding out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

The Yankees and Guardians are both in first place in their respective divisions — New York essentially tied with the Rays in the AL East, Cleveland 1.5 games up on the White Sox in the AL Central — making this week’s series between the two not only a test for each, but necessary to stay atop the field. This is doubly true as the Guardians haven’t been good against teams above .500, while the Yankees are not only worse in that regard, but are now without Aaron Judge thanks to injury.

The opener was a rollercoaster with the Yankees coming out on top, but it took extra innings to get that result. The Yankees tied the game 5-5 in the top of the eighth when DH Paul Goldschmidt — who also opened the scoring with a homer in the first — grounded into a force out but pushed a run across in the process. The score would remain 5-5 until extra innings, thanks in no small part to this incredible double play that ended the eighth.

Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a ball right between the legs of reliever Cade Smith, but shortstop Brayan Racchio didn’t lose sight of the ball, scooped it up right at second and spun while on the ground to get the first out, then threw it to first to second.

The Yankees would threaten again in the 10th, however, and had a challenge to use at the perfect time: after an intentional walk to first baseman Ben Rice, new DH Max Schuemann, who had previously entered as a pinch-runner, challenged a high strike call and ended up walking to load the bases with one out.

This was bad news for the obvious reasons, but then there was the fact that left fielder Cody Bellinger was next. Bellinger has had an excellent season — he’s hitting .276/.373/.474 — and drove in two runs here with a single to left to put New York up 7-5.

The Guardians would end up trying to answer back in the bottom of the 10th, with right fielder Angel Martínez leading off the inning with a walk to put two on. However, David Bednar would retire the next two batters and then got Rocchio to ground out to end the game.

The Yankees were able to keep pace with the Rays — they trail them by 0.003 points in winning percentage, not even enough to be a half game behind — while the Guardians failed to put more distance between themselves and the White Sox in the standings. However, there are two games left in this series, so both of these situations could change.

The Athletics started a home streak in their future at home in Las Vegas on Monday, and this probably wasn’t actually a taste of what A’s baseball will be about when it settles down for good. And that would be for the best, or they’ll never be able to convince a pitcher to join them.

The A’s hosted the Brewers and the two combined for 34 hits, 11 walks, 82 total bases and 29 runs. The two teams managed to score 29 runs while still stranding a total of 21 runners – the entire game was made of offense and then it just kept going because it was still tied at the end of nine.

However, it almost wasn’t. The A’s were up 10-8 in the top of the ninth and trying to secure the W, and then first baseman Andrew Vaughn happened. Or it really did again when he had a home run left in the third to make it 4-3. Here, Vaughn drilled a 292-foot two-run double to make it 10-10.

And while the Brewers didn’t score again in regulation, they opened up extra innings with a barrage. Left fielder Jackson Chourio made it 11-10 with a sac fly, then catcher William Contreras, with two runners still on, blasted a ball 463 feet to center to make it 14-10.

The A’s weren’t deterred: shortstop Shea Langeliers hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th, then first baseman Nick Kurtz hit his second homer of the day to make it 14-13.

Jonah Heim entered as a pinch-hitter right after Kurtz’s blast, tying things up with a back-to-back solo shot.

Somehow, both teams went scoreless in the 11th — exhausted from all that scoring beforehand, of course — and then the Brewers came up in the 12th with DH Christian Yelich starting at second. He stole third, setting up what ended up being the game-winning play.

Chad Patrick came on in relief to close things out for the Brewers in the bottom of the 12th, and the A’s immediately tried to put on a run to tie things up and keep the game going. Shortstop Alika Williams dropped a sac bunt to move Zack Gelof to third, but that was as close as the Athletics would get. Langeliers struck out swinging, Kurtz was intentionally walked and second baseman Jeff McNeil couldn’t get the job done.

Amazingly, all of this still resulted in fewer extra-base hits than the Brewers hit on Sunday – Milwaukee then had 10. Maybe throw fewer strikes to these guys for a few days, just to be safe.

The Angels took on the Astros in Houston on Monday, and this one also had to go to extras to be resolved. The Astros tied things up in the sixth on a double by right fielder Cam Smith, but then shortstop Zach Neto picked up his one hit of the day — a big one — to give the Angels the lead back, 4-3.

However, Los Angeles relinquished the lead, with first baseman Christian Walker hitting an RBI single to once again tie the game and force it into extra innings.

The Astros scored again in the top of the 10th when center fielder Jake Meyers — who had entered the game much earlier as a pinch-hitter and then stuck — popped out to second base. That resulted in a play at the plate, but Angels shortstop Logan O’Hoppe missed the throw from Nick Madrigal, allowing Jose Altuve to score.

Los Angeles almost made it right in the bottom of the 10th, but the Angels once again had no luck making a play at the plate.

With no outs and Mike Trout the runner on second, left fielder Jose Siri singled to left and Trout tried to stretch it to a run. Instead, Brice Matthews made a strong throw and struck out Trout for the first out of the inning. This was bad enough, but it got worse when the game ended on a line drive to left — perhaps Trout would have scored there on what would have been the second out of the inning.

However, there was some good news from the Angels’ game for non-Astros fans. Trey Mancini returned to the majors for the first time since 2023, going 1,043 days between big league games. And he also hit an RBI single in his first at-bat.

Mancini, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancerri 2020, didn’t play in the pros in 2024 despite signing with the Reds, and nearly retired before instead signing a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks last season. He has played well in Triple-A in the Angels’ organization this year, and got a shot when a roster spot opened up thanks to Los Angeles putting infielders Vaughn Grissom and Adam Frazier on IL.

And he went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI in his big comeback game!

The Mariners defeated the Orioles 6-3 on Monday, and while baseball is a team sport, it’s also one with some big hits. And Seattle first baseman Josh Naylor had the biggest hit you can get to win it for the M’s.

Naylor’s fifth-inning grand slam put the Mariners up 5-1, and while the Orioles would cut into the lead a bit, it wasn’t enough. Naylor hasn’t actually hit for much power this year, as part of the team’s collective early-season struggles, but he’s hitting a far more respectable .312/.365/.439 with five of his seven homers since April 22, a 39-game stretch: before that, Naylor hit just .531/20, and his numbers are still over .531/20. out of the great hole.

Entering play Monday, the Nationals were 0-29 in games in which they trailed entering the ninth inning, according to MLB Stats. Make it 1-29 now, after a three-run effort in the ninth erased the Giants’ lead and gave the dub to Washington.

Keaton Winn took the mound in place of Logan Webb for San Francisco, and while he got outfielder James Wood to strike out to start his outing, DH Luis Garcia Jr. followed. with a double. First baseman Curtis Mead was then hit by a pitch, a passed ball moved both runners over, and then shortstop CJ Abrams hit a two-run single to tie the game, 3-3.

Abrams would then steal second and left fielder Daylen Lile sent him home to give the Nationals their first lead since the sixth inning, which the Giants promptly erased in the bottom of the frame. Not this time, though: DH Rafael Devers walked to open the bottom of the ninth, and right fielder Jung Hoo Lee singled him into scoring position, but first baseman Bryce Eldridge ended the threat by striking out swinging.

Cristopher Sánchez may no longer be threatening to break the all-time scoreless streak, but it turns out he’s still good at the whole pitching thing. When the Phillies took on the Blue Jays in Toronto, Sanchez went seven innings while allowing four hits, one walk and two runs against 10 strikeouts. The only reason his ERA climbed is because it was already so absurdly low that two runs in seven innings was able to bump it all the way up to 1.54.

Sánchez also got some help when right fielder Adolis García hit his third homer in as many games, a three-run shot 406 feet to left center off Patrick Corbin.

That would be enough for Philadelphia to win, but the Phillies added two more runs later – the final score 5-2. Toronto is still struggling to get back to .500 after a rough start to the year, but the Phillies have accomplished the feat and are now 36-30, good for second in the NL East.

The Red Sox can’t hit, which isn’t news, but Monday served as a reminder of this. Boston went down in order in the first inning, then was met by DH Yandy Díaz on the other side — he immediately extended his on-base streak to 22 games with a leadoff homer on the first pitch he saw.

Now, Boston’s pitching is much better than its offense, and limited Tampa Bay to three runs on the day. The problem is that the lineup only scored one, so the Rays were able to win 3-1 on the strength of five shutout innings from the bullpen following the departure of starter Ian Seymour.

Tampa Bay remains in first place in the AL East — again, 0.003 point winning percentage ahead of New York, a tie for all intents and purposes — and needs to take advantage of this flagging Red Sox team as the Yankees take on the Guardians to widen that gap as much as possible. So far, so good.