Last Night in Baseball: This Dodgers Win Had Everything

Fox Sports

7 days ago

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: Dodgers win a wild one
The Dodgers have had it pretty rough of late. They entered their series with the Twins on Monday having lost 10 of their last 12 games, with those two wins coming against the Giants, a team absolutely blowing their shot at catching up to Los Angeles this month with their own performance. Coming off of a sweep at the hands of the Brewers, the Dodgers were still searching for their first post-All-Star Game dub, and things didn't look great on that front with Shohei Ohtani giving up a first-inning home run to Byron Buxton.
However, it ended up being the only run that Ohtani would allow in his three innings of work, in which he also struck out three Twins against one walk and allowed four hits. And he erased that damage himself in the very same inning with his own long ball:
That marked the first time since 1979 that a pitcher allowed and hit a homer in the first inning of the same game, when the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22. The two teams scored a combined 13 runs in the first inning, with Randy Lerch the pitcher in question.
As MLB's Sarah Langs noted , it's also the fifth game in which Ohtani, as a starting pitcher, has hit a first-inning homer. No other player has pulled it off more than twice. Of course, historically, pitchers have had to wait until the bottom of the order came up in order to even have a chance at a homer, but that doesn't take away from Ohtani's accomplishment here so much as remind you of how special his bat is, since he can be right up there leading off in the first place.
He wasn't the only Dodger to have a big night, however. Will Smith went deep twice, with a solo home run in the fourth and another in the sixth, and Andy Pages would make it 5-1 Dodgers with his own blast in the seventh. While those last two dingers ended up just being insurance runs for Los Angeles, they were mere inches away from being cashed in.
The Twins entered the ninth still down 5-1, but Buxton led off the inning with a walk, and then Brooks Lee was hit by a pitch. The Dodgers would swap in Kirby Yates for Tanner Scott, but he loaded the bases by walking Ryan Jeffers. Kody Clemens would drive Buxton in with a sacrifice fly, making it 5-2 Dodgers. Two outs, but two on, and Carlos Correa at the plate with a chance to tie it. He nearly did.
James Outman had subbed in for Teoscar Hernandez as a defensive replacement at the start of the inning, and switched with Pages in the outfield so he'd line up in center field. Outman then ended the game by robbing Correa of a three-run home run that would have tied things up 5-5. Baseball: it's good. Brewers latest W a big one
The Brewers, after a 6-0 win against the Mariners on Monday, have now won 11 games in a row. Notable not just because 11 is quite a few Ws strung together, but thanks to what this particular win means: with the Royals crushing the Cubs, 12-4, Milwaukee now has sole possession of first place in the NL Central, and their 60-40 record both ties them for the most wins in the league with the Tigers, and gives them the best record in MLB this year owing to Detroit having played one more game, which they lost.
At 11 games, the Brewers are also just two shy of their franchise-best win streak of 13 dubs in a row, set back in 1987. That team finished third in the AL East that year, despite a 91-71 record, as they opened the season with 13 consecutive victories before going 78-71 the rest of the way. Given Milwaukee's middling start to the year compared to their play the past two months — the Brewers are 29-12 since June — this season feels like it's going in the opposite direction of that one, at least. Phillies walk off on… CI?!
The Phillies won in pretty much the most unconventional way possible. Tied with the Red Sox 2-2 in Philadelphia in the bottom of the ninth, with the bases loaded, the Phillies would score and walk it off thanks to catcher interference.
Sarah Langs posted that this is just the second instance of a walk-off win via catcher interference since at least 1969, with Johnny Bench getting called for CI against the Dodgers back in 1971. Here, it was Boston's Carlos Narváez getting dinged for it.
Catcher interference is bad enough in a vacuum, but here it's extra painful: for one, the Phillies would win because of it, but two, it came on a pitch that Edmundo Sosa had absolutely no business swinging at in the first place. At least when a hitter crushes a ball out of the zone for a home run a pitcher can tip their cap to them for the feat. Here, Sosa made a terrible decision and was rewarded for it because Narváez couldn't stay out of the path of an ugly swing.
Just so it doesn't get lost in the weirdness of this win: Zack Wheeler dominated, again, throwing six innings of two-run baseball while striking out 10 and walking none. Wheeler has five starts with at least 10 strikeouts in 2025, and in those five games he's walked a grand total of zero batters. Jays win franchise-best 11th-straight home game
The Blue Jays have been rolling of late. They now have a four-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East after defeating them 4-1 on Monday, and they're six games up on Boston after the Sox lost via CI. And while they don't have a meaty general win streak intact any longer like the Brewers do, the Jays did set a franchise record for consecutive home wins with that W over New York. Toronto has won 11 in a row at home, breaking the record held by their 1985 squad.
That team finished 99-62 and lost in the ALCS to the eventual World Series-champion Royals. The 2025 edition of the Jays is on pace for 96 wins, but given how they've played since May 8 — Toronto is 39-21 since then, a 105-win pace — they might have a shot at snapping another '85 team record, which is the single-season franchise wins total. Suárez goes yard again
Eugenio Suárez has been on an absolute tear of late. In his last six games, the Diamondbacks' third baseman has hit seven home runs while batting .450/.560/1.550. He has sole possession of the NL home run lead, and has now tied Aaron Judge for second in the majors with 36 courtesy this blast on Monday night.
Those seven homers are notable in an odd statistical way, too, as they aren't just Suárez's last seven dingers, but also the last seven that his team as a whole has hit. That puts him in a three-way tie with Sammy Sosa (2000) and Mike Schmidt (1979) for the longest such streak in MLB since at least the expansion era, which began in 1961. If Suárez goes deep again on Tuesday, and does it before any other D-backs can, he'll stand alone at the top of a very strange mountain. Ramírez does it again
José Ramírez hit his 20th home run of the season on Monday against the Orioles in what would be a 10-5 Guardians win. Outside of its place in Cleveland's offensive attack against Baltimore, that long ball was notable for another reason: it marked the fifth-straight season and seventh overall that Ramírez has had at least 20 home runs and 20 steals. He's now three shy of the all-time leaders in 20/20 seasons, the father-and-son duo of Bobby Bonds and Barry Bonds.
Ramírez has a pair of 30/30 seasons, as well, in 2024 and 2018, and in the case of the former, he was one home run shy of being the seventh-ever player to post a 40/40 campaign. He's always had a combination of power and speed, as evidenced by the sheer volume of 20/20 years, but with the rules changing regarding pickoffs and the general shift toward more steals, Ramírez has picked up the pace of late. He's already at 29 steals, and is on pace for a third 30/30 year. He's also just 25 home runs and 28 steals away from becoming the ninth-ever 300/300 player for his career.
Oh, and Ramírez can field, too. This is how the Guardians sealed Monday night's win:
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