Last Night In Baseball: Rockies Beat Red Sox In Maybe Never-Before-Seen Fashion

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Teams have won with a walk-off triple when down by two runs before. It’s a rarity, but it has happened. In the Divisional Era of MLB — since 1969 — it had occurred just five times, per MLB’s Sarah Langs. Joe Torre was the first, with the Cardinals in 1971. Manny Mota then pulled it off later that summer with the Dodgers. The next would wait until 1980, with Dave Collins tripling the Reds to a W. Then Juan Beníquez with the Blue Jays in 1987, and not again until 2006, when Grady Sizemore won it for Cleveland via walk-off triple. The sixth occasion and first in 20 years went down on Monday, when Rockies’ center fielder Jake McCarthy hit a walk-off triple to defeat the Red Sox, 3-2. Here is where things get exceptionally, historically rare, though: that triple was the eighth hit in a row for the Rockies, meaning Colorado had eight hits in a row to end the game over its final eight plate appearances, which has never happened at least as far back as 1961, per Elias. It’s entirely possible that, before last night, no team had ever registered eight-straight hits to end a game, but that’s as far back as reliable play-by-data can confirm. How did the Rockies win by one run, down by two, while managing to record hits in eight consecutive plate appearances? A combination of luck, both good and bad. Reliever Garrett Whitlock came on in the bottom of the eighth, and retired pinch-hitter Troy Johnston on a liner to first. Edouard Julien then entered as a pinch-hitter, and singled to center (1). Mickey Moniak, who had just been activated off the IL, also came in to pinch-hit, and singled on a liner to right (3). Second baseman Willi Castro batted as scheduled, and dumped a single into center (3). The Sox did get the second out here, though, as Julien attempted to score on the play. Ill-advised, considering Ceddanne Rafaela and his arm patrol center for Boston. Not even close, and there was no real reason to run with no outs and the Rockies needing two, anyway. In fact, the very next batter, right fielder Tyler Freeman, also singled (4), and would have driven in a run if Julien was still on third. Instead, Castro was thrown out trying to get to third base, and the inning ended despite four-straight batters recording hits. Dominant closer Aroldis Chapman entered in the ninth to try to keep the Rockies off the board, but Colorado’s bats weren’t done yet. First baseman TJ Rumfield singled to open the inning (5), catcher Hunter Goodman singled, as well (6) and then rookie shortstop Cole Carrigg hit the seventh-straight single for the Rockies to load the bases with no outs. This one was an attempt at a bunt for a hit down the third base line, and Carrigg succeeded — no one was tempted to take an extra base here. That brought up McCarthy, who, as you already saw, tripled off a nearly 100 mph sinker middle-middle, getting it right down the line at third past Chad Durbin and into left field. All three baserunners scored, giving Colorado not just eight-straight hits to end the game, but the walk-off win, too. The National League formed back in 1876, 150 years ago, and serves as the origin point for what would become modern Major League Baseball. And it’s entirely possible that, in those 150 seasons, no one has ever done what the Rockies and McCarthy just pulled off. Now, more than ever: Baseball! With the Braves scuffling a bit over their last 10 games, the Dodgers have capitalized. With a series-opening win against the Twins on Monday, Los Angeles became the first team in MLB to reach the 50-win mark in 2026. And they did it in a game where the only offense, from either team, came from the long ball. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani got things going with a leadoff homer in the top of the first inning, sending an 87 mph change from starting pitcher Zebby Matthews over the wall 414 feet away to right-center. Ohtani smoked that middle-middle offering, too, as it came off the bat at nearly 113 mph. The Twins would respond with Byron Buxton’s 25th homer of the year. Minnesota’s center fielder is now leading the AL in dingers, and while his season line is great, he’s been exceptional over his last 15 games, batting .356/.406/.814 with eight of those 25 dingers. Neither team would score again until the sixth. Eric Lauer came on in relief of opener Will Klein following the first, and the lefty tossed six shutout innings. Meanwhile, Matthews shut the Dodgers down from the second through fifth innings, but in the top of the sixth first baseman Freddie Freeman connected on another middle-middle offering that didn’t do enough to fool him, and launched it 423 feet to center to make it 2-1, Dodgers. Matthews really only made the two notable mistakes, but they were to the wrong hitters, and his offense didn’t save him. The Dodgers would shut the Twins down the rest of the way and win, 2-1. Despite this defeat and being 38-42, Minnesota is just two games back of a wild-card spot in the AL. Los Angeles wasn’t able to gain more ground on the Padres with its 50th win of the year, but the Dodgers are already up nine on San Diego and it’s June, so that’s probably going to be just fine. The Padres’ focus is more on maintaining a wild-card spot despite the offense completely abandoning them during the first half of the season. And while that happened again on Monday — the Padres scored just one run — San Diego kept the Braves off the board entirely. Center fielder Jackson Merrill might have gone 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, but he also made this sick catch that kept the Braves from scoring, so it’s impossible to say if his performance was bad or not. Manny Machado has been a disaster at the plate this season, batting just .185 through 75 games, but his power hasn’t abandoned him. He has 13 doubles and now 14 home runs, allowing him to slug .384 — nearly 200 points better than his average — and also in this instance giving the Padres the only run of the game. Also excellent was starting pitcher Michael King: he went seven scoreless with five strikeouts against no walks, while scattering six hits. The bullpen took over from there, and Mason Miller struck out two in the ninth to close things out for the Padres. It took 10 innings for the Brewers to defeat the Reds, but they got there in no small part because of the return of starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff. The righty took the mound for the first time since April 30, after nearly two months off to deal with shoulder inflammation and a cyst that had formed in the area, and looked like he never had any time off at all. Woodruff struck out 10 batters without allowing a walk nor a run, and gave up just one hit in six innings. The Brewers pulled him after 79 pitches, however, while Brady Singer matched the performance on the other side: he went seven scoreless with seven strikeouts against a pair of walks and two hits allowed. No runs ended up being scored until the 10th, with both bullpens dealing following the departure of the starters. Tony Santillan entered in relief with Jake Bauers the extras runner on second, and center fielder Garrett Mitchel walked to lead things off. Right fielder Sal Frelick sacrificed to get the runners over, then infielder Joey Ortiz knocked a run in with another sacrifice. A wild pitch by Santillan scored a second run, and good thing for Milwaukee, too, as a ground out by first baseman Sal Stewart in the bottom of the 10th scored Cincinnati’s first run of the game. A second one didn’t come, though, and Milwaukee held on for its 47th victory of the season. The White Sox and Guardians had a back-and-forth fight on Monday, as the two vie for position atop the AL Central. Chicago would score early, going up 2-0 after three innings then adding another in the sixth, but Cleveland would tie things up in the seventh inning. Steven Kwan entered as a pinch-hitter and walked, then another pinch-hitter, Daniel Schneemann, singled. A wild pitch followed that moved both runners over, then second baseman Travis Bazzana walked to load the bases. Rookie Kalil Watson would come to bat as the third pinch-hitter of the inning, and he picked an excellent spot for his first big-league hit. Watson then stole second base, and first baseman Rhys Hoskins would hit a single to drive in the third run of the inning and tie the game. Left fielder Sam Antonacci would get one back for the White Sox in the bottom of the seventh, driving in rookie right fielder Braden Montgomery on a ball deflected by Hoskins at first to make it 4-3. That lead would not last: Cleveland managed to score two in the top of the ninth, first on an RBI single by catcher Patrick Bailey to tie it up, 4-4… …and then a lead, the Guardians’ first of the game, when DH Kyle Manzardo drove in Bailey on a sac fly. Reliever Cade Smith, who had tossed a scoreless eighth, remained in the game in the ninth to preserve that lead, and things looked like they were going well enough at first. He retired second baseman Chase Meidroth to start the ninth, and while Braden Montgomery then walked and center fielder Tristan Peters doubled him over to third, pinch-hitter Jacob Gonzalez struck out. Cleveland was one out away from pulling off the come-from-behind win, but Antonacci was up again, and the result was the same as before: an RBI single. Down to their final outs, the White Sox picked up the W, anyway. Chicago pulled back into a tie for first in the AL Central with the win, and has a chance to create a little bit of space if it can keep things going against a Guardians’ club dealing with some of its best hitters sitting on the IL. Nolan Arenado started his career with the Rockies and played in Colorado for eight years, but he was traded to the Cardinals before the 2021 season and spent the last five years in St. Louis. While his final campaign with the Cards was underwhelming, Arenado made three All-Star teams with St. Louis, won two Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger, finished third in the 2022 NL MVP vote and hit .271/.328/.470 with excellent defense in the first of those four seasons. On Monday, he was welcomed back to St. Louis by fans who remembered all of those high points well, as the Diamondbacks visited the Cardinals and the crowd graced him with a rousing ovation during his first plate appearance of the game. Arenado had a strong start to the season but has struggled a bit in June, with his OPS dropping 101 points over the month’s 20 games. The 35-year-old’s defense remains as it always does, though, and there’s still time for his bat to get back to where it was for Arizona. The Cardinals would end up winning, 3-2, with Arenado going 1-for-4 with an RBI — Arizona is now .500, at 39-39, while St. Louis sits 2.5 games up on the wild-card and five back of the Brewers in the NL Central. A triple should be enough — it’s a triple! — but the allure of the inside-the-park homer is strong. Second baseman Xavier Edwards can tell you as much, as he tried to stretch a triple into a homer for the Marlins on Monday. “Tried” being the operative word there. To be fair to Edwards, what a throw from shortstop Ezequiel Duran to get him at the plate. That was a laser right where it needed to be so a tag could be applied. And the Rangers would inevitably defeat the Marlins, 4-3, making Edwards’ out at home that much more important for both sides. But hey, Edwards did tie the game there, and was just trying to put on a show for the Tartan Army in attendance. Of the 20,000-ish fans filling the stadium on Monday, roughly 8,000 were Scotland supporters, awaiting Thursday’s FIFA World Cup matchup against Brazil. And they made their presence felt, in support of Miami. MLB games need more crowd-wide chants and singing. Maybe World Cup visitors like Scotland’s will convince fans of such. Last time out, Orioles’ starter Kyle Bradish threw 7 ⅔ innings with 12 strikeouts against two walks, and allowed just one run. He was just as good, if not better, in his followup start: here, Bradish held the Angels scoreless for eight innings, striking out nine against a single walk while scattering six hits. Left fielder Taylor Ward returned to Los Angeles with a leadoff homer in the first, but the big knock came off the bat of DH Coby Mayo, who hit a three-run jack in the fourth that would prove to be the game-winning hit and more than enough to support Bradish’s performance. The only run the Angels managed came against reliever Rico Garcia in the ninth, who entered in the game because Bradish had thrown 101 pitches to that point. The Orioles were also up 6-0 by then, too: there was little need to push the right-hander into a complete-game shutout in June. Bradish’s ERA is now down to 3.64 on the season, and over his last 30 starts and 160 ⅓ innings dating back to 2024, he has a 3.20 ERA with 194 strikeouts. The Angels did have this going for them, at least. Whatever this is. It’s not by the book, that’s for sure, but it counts just like an orthodox double play, anyway.