Trevor Bauer was centre of attention as the Los Angeles Dodgers' eight-game winning streak came to an end with a 5-2 defeat to the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
Bauer publicly labelled the Astros as "hypocrites" and "cheaters" in February last year in light of the MLB sign-stealing scandal.
There was no love lost for Dodgers ace Bauer, who was silenced by the Astros in Houston midweek
The Astros were led by Jose Altuve's lead-off solo home run, his sixth of the season.
With both sides tied at 1-1 at the bottom of the sixth inning, Carlos Correa homered for the Astros.
Bauer managed only three strikeouts across six innings, with four hits but he walked a season-high four, before the Astros brought in three runs in the seventh inning from Nate Jones.
Albert Pujols came in late for World Series champions the Dodgers but could not produce any heroics as their winning run was halted.
Rays back among winners with walkoff
The Tampa Bay Rays – World Series participants during last season's coronavirus-shortened campaign – returned to winning ways. After their 11-game winning streak was snapped on Tuesday, the Rays recorded a 2-1 walk-off triumph over the Kansas City Royals. Tyler Glasnow starred on the mound for the Rays with 11 strikeouts across eight shut-out innings. It was the sixth game this season that Glasnow has had 10 or more strikeouts, surpassing Gerrit Cole and Shane Bieber. Glasnow has tallied 10-plus strikeouts and allowed five hits or fewer in all five home starts this season. According to Stats Perform, the only other pitcher in the modern era to do so was Johan Santana in 2004.
The in-form San Diego Padres made it 11 wins from their past 12 games with a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the 10th inning. While the Brewers lost, they now have three home runs by pitchers in a season for the first time since 2011.
Miguel Sano's three-run homer guided the Minnesota Twins past the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 for a three-game sweep.
A pair of Tommy Edman home runs fuelled the St Louis Cardinals, who upstaged the high-flying Chicago White Sox 4-0 to avoid a three-game sweep.
Shildt ejected after hat-swap request
There was an ugly incident between the Cardinals and White Sox when St Louis manager Mike Shildt was ejected. Shildt was sent from the dugout after pitcher Giovanny Gallegos was told by umpire Joe West to swap his hat as it allegedly had a foreign substance on it. Shildt was incensed and came out arguing, leading to his ejection.
Homer history in Angels-Rangers
Justin Upton hit his first-ever lead-off home run on Tuesday and he backed that up with another in the Los Angeles Angels' 9-8 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday. It was Upton's 10th home run of the season. Adolis Garcia also homered for Texas, scoring the most in a month by a rookie in Rangers history.
Wednesday's results
Minnesota Twins 3-2 Baltimore Orioles
St Louis Cardinals 4-0 Chicago White Sox
Oakland Athletics 6-3 Seattle Mariners
Los Angeles Angels 9-8 Texas Rangers
Chicago Cubs 4-1 Pittsburgh Pirates
Miami Marlins 4-2 Philadelphia Phillies
Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers 1-0 Cleveland Indians
San Diego Padres 2-1 Milwaukee Brewers
Houston Astros 5-2 Los Angeles Dodgers
Boston Red Sox 9-5 Atlanta Braves
San Francisco Giants 5-4 Arizona Diamondbacks
New York Yankees-Toronto Blue Jays (postponed)
New York Mets-Colorado Rockies (postponed)
Washington Nationals-Cincinnati Reds (suspended)
Blue Jays at Yankees
The New York Yankees (28-20) will look to resume their series against the Toronto Blue Jays (24-23) following Wednesday's postponement with an American League (AL) East doubleheader, weather permitting on Thursday. Top Blue Jays prospect Alek Manoah will make his debut in the opening game, with the Yankees countering with Domingo German.
MLB: Ohtani has career-high 3 doubles in Dodgers' 20-hit attack
Shohei Ohtani had a career-high three doubles and the Los Angeles Dodgers collected 20 hits in an 11-2 rout of the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.
Ohtani went 3 for 6 with RBI doubles in the eighth and ninth innings. He leads the majors in batting average (.371), slugging (.695), OPS (1.128), extra-base hits (21) and doubles (14).
Mookie Betts and Will Smith each had four hits and rookie Andy Pages homered as the Dodgers won their third straight following a three-game skid.
Landon Knack earned his first win in his second career start, allowing two runs and three hits in six innings. He retired his last 13 batters and struck out five.
Nick Senzel homered for the Nationals, who didn’t have a baserunner after the second inning.
Trout hits MLB-leading 10th home run in loss
Mike Trout became the first player in the majors to reach 10 home runs this season, but Gunnar Henderson had three hits and three RBIs as the Baltimore Orioles held off the Los Angeles Angels, 6-5.
Trout got the Angels on the board with a solo shot off starter Dean Kremer in the sixth inning. This is the third time in the past seven seasons that Trout has been the first in MLB to reach double digits in homers.
Los Angeles rallied back from a 6-0 deficit and had the tying run on first in the ninth, but Jo Adell was caught stealing to end the game.
Henderson homered for the second straight game and added a two-run single in Baltimore’s four-run sixth. He is 9 for 20 in the past five games and 18 for 40 with five home runs and 11 RBIs in his last 10 games, helping the Orioles win eight.
Kremer struck out 10 over 5 2/3 innings and allowed two runs and three hits for his first win of the season.
Surging Braves win in 10 innings
Michael Harris II doubled home Ronald Acuna Jr. in the 10th inning and the red-hot Atlanta Braves topped the Miami Marlins, 4-3, after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth.
The Marlins scored twice in the ninth off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to tie it but failed to score in the top of the 10th.
Harris led off the bottom half with a single to center to score the winning run and send Atlanta to its ninth win in 10 games.
Harris went 3 for 5 and Marcell Ozuna had three hits and two RBIs, giving him an MLB-best 29.
The Marlins were swept for the third time this season and dropped to an NL-worst 6-20.
Liverpool line up Feyenoord coach Slot as Klopp replacement
Arne Slot appears to be at the front of the queue to replace Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager.
Klopp confirmed in January that he would be leaving the Reds at the end of the season.
Xabi Alonso, who has led Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title, was swiftly established as a leading candidate to take the helm at Anfield, where he starred as a player for the Reds between 2004 and 2009.
The 42-year-old, however, is staying put in Germany, and Liverpool's search for Klopp's successor has taken them to Feyenoord's door.
Slot has been previously linked to jobs in the Premier League. Leeds United wanted to appoint him last season before their relegation to the Championship, while he was targeted by Tottenham before they appointed Ange Postecoglou.
The Dutchman intimated when linked with Spurs: "A normal next step would be to go abroad and I've always said that the best league in the world is the Premier League."
Ideally, Liverpool will be aiming for a coach who can come close to replicating Klopp's style of play, and in particular has a flair for working with and developing young players.
Slot has enjoyed fantastic success in Rotterdam. He became Feyenoord head coach in December 2022, after leaving AZ, and went on to win the Eredivisie title in 2022-23, having reached the Europa League final in the previous season.
The 45-year-old has a 64.4 per cent win record from 146 games in charge, winning 94, drawing 29 and losing just 23.
His Feyenoord team have scored 329 goals, an average of 2.2 per match, conceding 147 in return. Slot's points per game is a hugely impressive 2.13.
Feyenoord are, though, set to relinquish their Eredivisie crown, as they trail leaders PSV by nine points. They have, however, won the KNVB Cup this term.
As there is no break clause in the Dutchman's contract, it has been reported that a compensation fee in the region of €10million (£8.5m) could prise him away from Feyenoord.
Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim is another coach who has been heavily linked with the Liverpool job, albeit he is reportedly in talks with West Ham.
MLB: Guardians win fifth straight, improve majors' best record to 17-6
Tyler Freeman and Bryan Rocchio delivered RBIs in the seventh inning and Jose Ramirez homered to lift the Cleveland Guardians to their fifth straight victory, 4-1 over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
The Guardians improved the majors’ best record to 17-6, matching their best start through 23 games. Cleveland also was 17-6 in 1999 and 1966.
Ben Lively allowed one run and five hits over 6 1/3 innings in his Progressive Field debut. He walked one and struck out seven.
Scott Barlow and Hunter Gaddis got the next five outs before Emmanuel Clase struck out the side in the ninth for his seventh save.
Tanner Houck, who threw a three-hit shutout against Cleveland last week, held the Guardians scoreless through six innings before Freeman singled home Will Brennan and Rocchio’s sacrifice fly in the seventh put Cleveland ahead.
Rob Refsnyder had three hits as Boston had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Fried dominates Marlins
Max Fried pitched a three-hitter for Atlanta’s first complete game since 2022 and Adam Duvall belted a two-run homer as the surging Braves blanked the Miami Marlins for the second straight night, 5-0.
Fried didn’t walk anyone and struck out six, needing just 92 pitches to become the first Braves pitcher to complete nine innings since Bryce Elder in an 8-0 win over Washington on Sept. 26, 2022.
Fried notched his fourth career shutout and fifth career complete game as Atlanta won its eighth in nine games.
The Marlins have gone 20 innings without scoring a run and dropped to 6-19.
Duvall’s second home run of the season capped a three-run sixth and extended the lead to 5-0.
Cubs keep Astros reeling
Mike Tauchman hit his first two home runs of the season and the Chicago Cubs scored five first-inning runs in a 7-2 win over the Houston Astros, who dropped 10 games under .500 for the first time since 2016.
Cody Bellinger had a two-run blast in the first inning off J.P. France and Tauchman capped the fast start with a three-run shot. He added a solo home run in the eighth.
Houston has lost three straight and six of seven and, at 7-17, is 10 games under .500 for the first time since an 18-28 start in 2016.
Jordan Wicks limited the Astros to two runs and five hits over a season-best six innings with no walks and four strikeouts.
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