Game Recap - Baseball Wiretap

Dylan Cease carried a no-hit bid into the ninth inning Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants before Heliot Ramos broke it up with a line-drive single to center field.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider allowed Cease to push past his typical pitch limits in pursuit of the milestone. Cease threw a career-high 118 pitches, striking out 11 to extend his American League-leading strikeout total to 148.

"Dylan came in after the sixth inning and said, 'I've got 120,'" said Schneider. "I said, 'OK.' And then after the seventh, he said, 'I've got 130.'"

Cease received a standing ovation from the San Francisco crowd after exiting the game. Tyler Rogers closed out the final three outs as Toronto won 10-0.

Schneider explained his decision to let Cease continue pursuing the no-hitter despite the elevated pitch count.

"I'm a fan of baseball," said Schneider. "I think if a guy has a chance to throw a no-hitter, I think you let him do it and I think you make adjustments after that."

Cease previously threw a no-hitter for the San Diego Padres in July 2024. He said Wednesday's outing felt even sharper than that performance.

"I was really commanding the ball well, mixing the ball well," said Cease. "I'm just happy it wasn't Luis Arraez that broke it up again."

Arraez, now with San Francisco, previously ended a Cease no-hit bid in 2022 while playing for Minnesota. He batted directly after Ramos in Wednesday's lineup.

Toronto's defense preserved the bid with two standout plays, including a diving stop by second baseman Ernie Clement and a running catch by center fielder Daulton Varsho at the wall.

Ramos praised Cease's performance following the game.

"I think he's Cy Young-caliber," said Ramos.

Shohei Ohtani allowed multiple earned runs for the second consecutive start Wednesday, pitching through left knee soreness and a bleeding blister on his right middle finger in a 5-4 Los Angeles Dodgers victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Ohtani (7-2) cruised through four scoreless innings before surrendering four runs and five hits in a 26-pitch fifth inning. He recovered to retire the side in order in the sixth, finishing with the win as the Dodgers completed a sweep of Tampa Bay.

"It's just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn't really too pleased," said Ohtani through an interpreter. "But aside from that the stuff was good and I felt pretty good overall."

Ohtani has now allowed eight runs, seven earned, across his last two outings after giving up just seven runs, five earned, in his first 10 starts. His ERA climbed to 1.47, still second-best in the majors among pitchers with at least 50 innings.

His knee forced him to miss a start in Chicago last week and ended a four-game winning streak on the mound with a no-decision at Pittsburgh.

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing expressed little concern over the recent struggles.

"Obviously, we expect close to perfection out of Sho every time he goes out there. So does he," said Rushing. "But there's no reason to worry at all."

Ohtani also batted as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, grounding out on one pitch after Freddie Freeman's two-run homer had given Los Angeles the lead. Ohtani had hit five home runs over his previous nine games entering Wednesday, batting .367 during that stretch.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto carried a no-hit bid into the ninth inning as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Chicago White Sox 7-1 on Saturday, snapping Chicago's eight-game home winning streak.

Yamamoto retired his first 23 batters before Chase Meidroth reached base on a two-out error by shortstop Mookie Betts in the eighth inning. Jacob Gonzalez followed with a groundout to second to end the frame.

Tristan Peters broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff home run in the ninth, driving a 96.6 mph fastball deep to right field for his third career homer. After Edgar Quero flied out to center, Yamamoto exited to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 37,832 and was replaced by Alex Vesia.

Yamamoto improved to 7-4, striking out seven over 109 pitches, 74 for strikes, in his fourth consecutive victory.

Shohei Ohtani returned to the lineup after sitting out Friday with left knee inflammation and delivered a leadoff home run, his fifth of the season and 29th of his career. The 409-foot drive to right field left the bat at 109.6 mph.

Max Muncy homered twice and drove in four runs for Los Angeles. Betts singled in the first inning ahead of Muncy's two-run shot to right-center, his 15th homer of the season, and Muncy added another two-run blast in the eighth.

The Dodgers bounced back after an 8-2 loss in Friday's series opener. White Sox starter Sean Burke fell to 3-4, allowing four runs on six hits over four innings.

Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski threw a 103.7 mph pitch Saturday night against the Colorado Rockies, the fastest by a starter since tracking began in 2008.

The 24-year-old right-hander's record-setting pitch was low and outside to Kyle Karros in the third inning.

"It's one of those things: It is what it is," Misiorowski said. "I'm going to keep going, trying to get strikeouts, and if that's what it takes to get strikeouts, then so be it."

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.