RAYS 5, ORIOLES 2 Evan Longoria hit two home runs, Jake Odorizzi picked up his first home victory this season and host Tampa Bay won for just the fourth time in 28 games.
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Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in Washington. It was Murphy’s 18th homer of the season and the fourth pinch-hit homer of his career.
The Nationals had very few opportunities before Murphy’s heroics.
The Washington Nationals played an 18-inning marathon against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, marking the franchise’s longest regular-season game since 1989, back when the team was still known as the Montreal Expos, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Neftali Feliz took over on the mound for the Pirates in the bottom of the seventh and gave up back-to-back, one-out singles by Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper, but Wilson Ramos lined softly to second in the next at bat allowing Josh Harrison to make the catch and step on the bag for an inning-ending double play. That’s not how Hurdle drew it up, but he became the winning pitcher when Marte deposited a pitch from Perez (2-3) into the left-field seats.
The game lasted 5 hours, 48 minutes. Seventeen pitchers combined for a total of 540 pitches, but it was the one Perez (2-3) shouldn’t have thrown that the Nationals lamented afterward.
“I just think that I was getting the ball down, being able to locate it”, Kuhl said. “If I made one quality pitch I followed it up with a subpar (one)”, he said.
ANGELS 8, WHITE SOX 1 (at Anaheim, Calif.) – Albert Pujols hit a pair of two-run homers, Jered Weaver pitched seven innings and Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep. The Pirates got an excellent start from Chad Kuhl, were staked to a lead thanks to some timely extra base hits, and handed the ball to the most reliable closer in baseball in Mark Melancon. “I got a pretty good pitch to hit and put a pretty good move on it”.
METS 5, PHILLIES 0: Jacob deGrom tossed a one-hitter, Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera homered and NY beat Philadelphia.
The 2015 All-Star allowed five runs – four earned – with five strikeouts.
Scherzer otherwise held the Pirates scoreless over his seven frames, as he struck out seven batters while allowing six hits, a walk and just the one run.
“It was a start we needed out of him, and I think it’s a start he expected out of himself”, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Central start ended at 6:23 p.m., stellar outings by Pittsburgh’s Chad Kuhl and Washington’s Max Scherzer felt like a distant memory.
“It was so long I don’t even remember Scherzer even pitching”, Baker said.
The Pirates should have taken the lead in the 16th on a double by Josh Harrison, but a ideal relay from Washington centre fielder Michael A. Taylor to shortstop Danny Espinosa to catcher Wilson Ramos was good enough to get Eric Fryer at the plate. Hurdle accurately called it a insane game. Blake Treinen, Shawn Kelley, Jonathan Papelbon and Yusmeiro Petit all tossed one inning apiece to take them through the 11th.
The game was also the longest in Nationals history.
Pirates: OF Gregory Polanco remained out with a sore left hamstring, but general manager Neal Huntington hopes he’ll play Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
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RANGERS 4, CUBS 1 Cole Hamels pitched eight dominant innings in his first game at Wrigley Field since throwing a no-hitter at the famed ballpark a year ago, and visiting Texas stopped a four-game slide.
