Aaron Judge drove in five more runs and Carlos Rodon won his sixth straight start as the New York Yankees rolled to their seventh consecutive victory with another win over the Minnesota Twins, 9-5 on Wednesday night.
Judge had an RBI groundout in a four-run first against Chris Paddack, lined a three-run triple in the fifth and added a bases-loaded walk in the sixth.
Judge is 10 for 21 with four home runs, a double, a triple and 15 RBIs in his last six games. He has 54 RBIs this season, second in the majors behind Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez (58).
The Yankees have won six straight against the Twins dating to last season and are 106-42 in the series since 2002.
New York, which has outscored Minnesota 28-7 in winning all five meetings in 2024, matched its longest win streak of the season and is tied with Philadelphia for the majors’ best record.
Rodon retired the first 16 batters before Carlos Santana homered with one out in the sixth. The left-hander allowed two runs on three hits in six innings, striking out nine and walking none.
Royce Lewis homered in the seventh on his 25th birthday, a day after he went deep in his return from a strained right quadriceps that sidelined him for 58 games. Lewis became the first player in franchise history to homer in his first three games of a season.
Pivetta dominates Braves as Red Sox win
Nick Pivetta pitched one-hit ball over seven innings and Rafael Devers hit a pair of home runs to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 9-0 rout of the Atlanta Braves.
Pivetta allowed his only hit on an Austin Riley leadoff single in the fourth inning and struck out nine with two walks.
Zach Kelly and Brad Keller each worked one scoreless inning to finish up the one-hitter.
Devers hit a solo homer in the second inning and added a two-run shot in the seventh for the 17th multi-homer game of his career.
Jarren Duran also went deep for the Red Sox, who moved back to .500 by completing a 3-3 homestand.
Braves rookie Spencer Schwellenbach was tagged for six runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings in his second career start.
Cubs walk-off lowly White Sox
Mike Tauchman homered to lead off the ninth inning and the Chicago Cubs rallied again to finish a two-game sweep with a 7-6 win over the Chicago White Sox, who lost their 13th straight game.
Tauchman sent Michael Kopech’s second pitch in the ninth deep to center for his first career game-ending home run.
One night after blowing a 5-0 lead, the White Sox squandered a 5-1 advantage in this one.
Cody Bellinger had a run-scoring fielder’s choice in the fifth and another run scored on a balk to get the Cubs within 5-3. They took the lead with three runs in the seventh on a wild pitch, Bellinger’s sacrifice fly and Ian Happ’s broken-bat RBI single.
Corey Julks and Paul DeJong homered for the White Sox, who have lost 17 of 18 to drop to a major league-worst 15-47.
They have led by at least two runs at one point in each of their last five losses. The 13-game skid matches the single-season franchise record set in 1924.
Dodgers, left-hander Snell agree to 5-year, $182 million contract
In the latest installment of the rich get richer, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and left-hander Blake Snell are in agreement on a five-year, $182 million contract, pending a physical, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
Snell, who turns 32 next month, is a two-time Cy Young Award winner who spent last season with the San Francisco Giants, going 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts.
He had a 6.31 ERA at the All-Star break after a limited spring training, but over his final 12 games, he posted a 1.45 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 68 1/3 innings, including a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2.
Snell won the 2023 Cy Young while pitching for the San Diego Padres and entered free agency. He didn’t have a team by spring training, so he landed with the Giants on a two-year, $62 million contract with an opt-out after the first year, which he exercised.
Durability is a concern with Snell, who has thrown more than 129 1/3 innings just twice in nine major league seasons. He also has a lifetime 4.1 walks per nine innings average and rarely pitches deep into games with only one career complete game.
He becomes the latest addition to the star-studded Dodgers, who gave out the first mega deal of this offseason following Shohei Ohtani's $700 million, 10-year contract last winter.
Snell joins a rotation that already features Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Ohtani.
Ohtani, Judge both unanimous picks for MVP awards
Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were both unanimously selected to win Most Valuable Player Awards in their respective leagues on Thursday.
Judge collected all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. garnered all 30 second-place votes.
Yankees outfielder Juan Soto finished third with 21 third-place votes.
Ohtani was an unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the BWAA. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229.
It is the second AL MVP award of Judge's career after he also won the award in 2022.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. He also drew a league-high 133 walks and posted a spectacular 1.159 OPS.
Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 109 RBIs.
With two MVP Awards to his name, Judge is the seventh player in Yankees history to win multiple MVPs. He joins Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.
There was an extended stretch over the summer where Judge was on a pace to reach and possibly break his own single-season home run record (62 in 2022). The same goes for a bid at a Triple Crown.
The stretch that truly defined his season began on April 27. Judge entered play on that day in Milwaukee with a .178 batting average and .674 OPS on the season. He had only four home runs with 35 strikeouts across 27 games.
Over his next 100 games, through August 23, Judge hit .378 with 45 home runs. It was the first time in MLB history a player batted higher than .375 with 45-plus homers in a stretch of 100 games within a single season.
Ohtani was unanimously voted AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn’t pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December.
Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Ohtani is the first primary DH to win an MVP. He joins Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues.
The Japanese sensation is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each).
Sale, Skubal win MLB's Cy Young Awards
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale were each named the winner of their respective league’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday.
The announcement was hardly a surprise after each ace won their league's pitching triple crown during the 2024 regular season.
This is the first Cy Young for both pitchers.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, enjoyed a break-out year in his fourth full MLB season, and was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase finished third in the balloting, which was completed before the play-offs.
Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, while Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler finished second, ahead of Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who was selected as the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.
The 35-year-old Sale has come close to winning the award before, finishing as runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber in 2017, with five other top-five finishes in voting since his first full season in the majors in 2011.
Since the inception of the Cy Young Award in 1956, there have been 16 pitchers to win his league's pitching crown. And now, every one of them has also won that year's Cy Young.
Skubal and Sale each won an MLB-best 18 games, while Skubal led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts – three more than Sale. Sale's ERA of 2.38 was just a tick better than Skubal's 2.39.
Both were dominant down the stretch in leading their teams to the play-offs, with Sale permitting two earned runs or fewer in each of his final 18 regular-season starts, though he was unable to pitch in the season final or the Braves' NL Wild-Card series loss to the San Diego Padres because of a back injury.
Skubal posted a 1.94 ERA in his final nine outings, and then threw 13 shutout innings in his first two play-off starts in helping the Tigers surprisingly reach the American League Division Series. He ended up going 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three post-season starts.
Skubal became the fifth Tiger to win the Cy Young trophy – and first since Max Scherzer in 2017 – and Sale is the fifth Brave to earn the award – and first since Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in 1998.
Despite several close calls in Cy Young voting for Sale, he has dealt with injuries for the past five seasons, and was limited to a total of 151 innings over the past three years for the Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the Braves, however, he threw 177 2/3 innings and was awarded the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last Thursday.
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