Game Recap - Baseball Wiretap

One big inning was more than enough Sunday for the New York Yankees.

Fueled by a fiery pep talk from captain Aaron Judge, the Yankees scored 13 runs in the third and beat the Athletics 13-8, finishing one run shy of the highest-scoring inning in the storied history of the franchise.

"Remarkable," manager Aaron Boone said. "Glad we were able to make it stand up. Obviously, a lot of really good things offensively. ... I don't think the prettiest game on either side, necessarily. But we were able to make a really outstanding inning stand up."

Fernando Tatis Jr. finally connected for his first home run of the season -- and it was a blast.

Tatis slugged a 451-foot solo shot to left field in the fifth inning against Washington on Saturday, although the San Diego Padres went on to lose 9-4 to the Nationals. Tatis, who has five 20-homer seasons in his career and hit 42 in 2021, had not gone deep in 240 plate appearances before this game -- the longest drought in the major leagues.

He then singled in the first inning and struck out in the third before his fifth-inning drive off Foster Griffin gave San Diego a 3-1 lead.

"I just knew right away," Tatis said. "About f---ing time."

 Yankees manager Aaron Boone watched the hits begin to pile up on the massive, crown-shaped scoreboard beyond the centerfield wall at Kauffman Stadium, and he knew that his team was doing something impressive against the Kansas City Royals.

He didn't know until afterward that it was something historic.

Yes, there were six home runs, including two from Amed Rosario. And the Yankees put up 24 hits in the 15-1 romp, their most since a game against Baltimore in July 2011. But what set the performance apart from all others Tuesday night -- including all those games played by Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle -- was this simple fact: For the first time in their storied history, the Yankees got at least two hits from every single player in their starting lineup.

Jacob Misiorowski has been reaching new milestones for velocity just about every time he pitches, and that might explain the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander's lack of surprise over his latest achievement.

Misiorowski threw 57 pitches of at least 100 mph -- the most by any individual in a game since pitch tracking began in 2008 -- while getting 12 strikeouts to match his career high Monday in a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"That's what I do," Misiorowski said. "I throw hard."

The Houston Astros have pitched several combined no-hitters. This one might have been the biggest surprise.

Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai threw six hitless innings after walking three of the first four batters he faced Monday night. Steven Okert then got three outs before Alimber Santa made his major league debut and retired the final six hitters to complete the Astros' 17th regular-season no-hitter -- four of them combined efforts -- in a 9-0 win over the Texas Rangers.

"The first inning, you never thought that this was going to be the outcome of the game," manager Joe Espada said. "Imai, he continued to compete. ... He continued to pound the zone, he fought through it. Six strong innings, and then the rest is history."

Aaron Judge hit a fly to right field, briefly watched the ball go over the wall and dropped his bat at first base before starting his trot.

His long home run drought was over, and there was a celebration waiting for him at the plate.

Judge ended a career-high, 11-game slump without an RBI, hitting a two-run homer off Kevin Kelly in the ninth inning that lifted the New York Yankees over the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 Sunday for their first win in five games this year against their American League East rival.

"That's just a great swing from him," manager Aaron Boone said.

Four years after considering retirement, Bryan Torres made it to the major leagues at age 28 and homered for the St. Louis Cardinals in his debut.

"Eleven years to get to here," Torres said, fighting back tears after helping the Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-1 in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader. "I'm not a homer guy. Today, my debut, it just happened. I've been learning to manage the pressure. When the heart is going too fast, you have to slow things down. I felt a little pounding in my chest today."

Torres, who first played minor league ball in 2015, hit seventh and played left field.

Gerrit Cole crouched behind the mound, stared at the dirt and after a 569-day absence climbed on the rubber in a major league game that mattered.

"Just let it rip downrange and see what we got," the New York Yankees ace thought to himself.

Cole allowed two hits over six shutout innings Friday night in his return from elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. He left with a 1-0 lead that the Yankees wasted in a 4-2 loss to the major-league-best Tampa Bay Rays.

"It was almost like a second debut," the 35-year-old right-hander said. "It was nice to get back in the fire."

Shohei Ohtani pitched seven scoreless innings Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants, lowering his ERA to 0.82 and snapping the Los Angeles Dodgers' four-game losing streak in a 4-0 victory. It was the third time in four starts that Ohtani did not appear in the lineup on a day he pitched, part of a deliberate effort by the club to manage his return to a full two-way role for the first time since 2022.

Ohtani will also sit out Thursday's series finale as the Dodgers look to address a prolonged hitting slump. In his first 10 games this month he collected just three singles and a double across 36 at-bats before an opposite-field home run Tuesday ended a 13-game homerless drought. He has managed only seven home runs and a .796 OPS on the season.

"I do want to contribute more offensively," Ohtani said through an interpreter. "I haven't done so this year, so I'm looking forward to doing that."

On the mound the picture is starkly different. His 0.82 ERA leads the majors by a wide margin, with the second-best mark belonging to New York Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler at 1.35. Ohtani also ranks third in WHIP at 0.82 and 11th in strikeout percentage at 29.2%. His ERA through seven starts is the sixth lowest in the wild-card era dating to 1994 and the second lowest by a Dodgers pitcher at that point in a season, behind only Fernando Valenzuela's 0.29 mark in 1981.

"He wants to be the best pitcher in baseball," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "And right now, he's doing it."

Ohtani acknowledged the numbers carry an element of fortune. He noted his final out Wednesday came on a flyball near the warning track and a baserunner being doubled off second after losing count of the outs.

"That could have really swayed my ERA," Ohtani said. "So I think there's some luck involved, as well."

Roberts confirmed that Ohtani's absence from the lineup on pitching days is directly connected to extending his outings. Last week at Houston he threw 89 pitches over seven innings. Wednesday he went back out for the seventh with 90 pitches already thrown and worked out of trouble. The Dodgers operate a strict six-man rotation, which has limited his total innings relative to peers.

Ohtani, who turns 32 in July, said he feels healthy despite the offensive struggles and remains focused on contributing on both sides of the ball.

"Ideal situation is to be great on both sides of the ball," he said. "But if I'm not contributing offensively, then I know I can contribute on the pitching side of things."

Make it 10 wins in a row for the Chicago Cubs again. That's twice in one season -- for the first time in nine decades.

Ian Happ extended his on-base streak to 29 games, Michael Busch hit a three-run double and the Cubs clinched their second 10-game winning streak this year with a 7-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

This is the first time since 1935 that Chicago has had two 10-game winning streaks in a season. The only time the Cubs had more was in 1906 with four.