A Bo Bichette grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning propelled the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-2 home win against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
It was a quiet game offensively early on as both clubs had their ace pitchers working on the mound, with only one combined run through the first six innings.
Toronto's Jose Berrios finished with two earned runs and four strikeouts from just six baserunners in seven complete innings, while Nathan Eovaldi also pitched seven innings for two earned runs, allowing five hits and no walks with his five strikeouts.
The deadlock was broken in the fifth inning through a Lourdes Gurriel Jr solo home run for the Blue Jays, hooking it over the left-field wall, before Matt Chapman doubled the advantage with one swing in the seventh inning.
Chapman's 422-foot bomb to center-field was the biggest hit of the game, but not the most important, as the Red Sox manufactured two runs in the top of the eighth inning to set the table for Bichette.
After three consecutive hits from Santiago Espinal, Bradley Zimmer and George Springer – who took one of the catches of the year earlier in the game – up stepped Bichette with bases loaded and one out in a tie game.
Bichette connected with a sinker over the heart of the plate and sent it to the opposite-field corner, clearing the wall for a grand slam and giving the Jays a 6-2 lead and the win.
Mets rally in the ninth
With a runner on first base and two outs in the ninth inning, the New York Mets trailed 2-0 – and ended up beating the St Louis Cardinals 5-2.
After the Cardinals allowed the runner on first to take second base unopposed, he came around to score after nine-time Gold Glove winner Nolan Arenado committed a rare throwing error in a play that would have finished the game.
Down 2-1, Jeff McNeil doubled to put runners on second and third, setting up pinch-hitter Dominic Smith to drive them both in with an infield hit after he won the race to first base due to some poor fielding from pitcher Giovanny Gallegos.
Brandon Nimmo put the icing on the cake as the next batter, driving in Smith with a two-run homer.
Gonzalez wins it with first career homer
Luis Gonzalez was the hero for the San Francisco Giants in their 4-2 win against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Giants' win was in spite of the best efforts of Brewers ace Corbin Burnes, who pitched a gem, with 11 strikeouts, no earned runs and only four base runners through six-and-two-thirds innings.
When Burnes was eventually pulled after 106 pitches, the Giants' offense woke up, with a two-run Joc Pederson home run in the eighth inning, before Gonzalez's first career home run brought home another two runs to break the 2-2 tie, allowing Camilo Duval to clean up the save.