The Chicago Cubs on Saturday dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers 16-0, while in Phoenix, Taiwanese-American outfielder Corbin Carroll propelled the Arizona Diamondbacks to victory in a five-run ninth inning over the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout was stunned in Houston when a fan grabbed the ball out of his glove.
One night after being shut out, the Cubs broke out for 14 runs and 15 hits in the final three innings of a 16-0 victory to hand the Dodgers their first home loss of the season and their worst home shutout loss in franchise history.
The Cubs finished 21 hits, including nine for extra bases.
Photo: AFP
“The boys came out swinging, and it was pretty cool to see,” said Chicago’s Carson Kelly, who homered twice among his three hits and drove in three runs.
Michael Busch, once a top prospect in the Dodgers’ farm system, had four hits, including a homer and two doubles, and drove in three runs. Ian Happ had three hits and scored two runs, and Miguel Amaya replaced the injured Seiya Suzuki (right-wrist pain) in the fifth inning and homered among his two hits and drove in three runs.
Kelly keyed a five-run seventh inning with a homer 384 feet (117m) over the left-field wall against Dodgers reliever Ben Casparius, and then crushed a 391-foot homer on a floater from infielder-turned-pitcher Miguel Rojas for a two-run shot in the ninth.
Photo: AP
“You have to take a quick swing, not a big swing,” Kelly said, when asked how hard it is to homer off a 64kph pitch. “You have to find the right timing of it.”
The Cubs pushed their major league-league-leading run total to 112, which is 21 more than the second-place New York Yankees (91), and Chicago have outscored opponents by 41 runs, a margin nearly twice as much as any other team.
Busch, who homered off Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki for a 1-0 lead in the second, came within inches of a monster game when he was robbed of a grand slam by center fielder Andy Pages to end the third.
“I saw him [make the catch] — unfortunately,” said Busch, a former minor league teammate of Pages. “He’s a good player. I didn’t want him to do that, so we’re gonna have to have a conversation.”
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks found some life after 17 scoreless innings starting from Friday’s 7-0 loss to Milwaukee to Saturday night’s ninth-inning rally of the three-game series.
The Diamondbacks’ five-run ninth gave them a 5-4 victory, just when the Brewers were poised to post back-to-back shutouts and clinch their fourth straight series win.
Carroll had two hits, including a two-run double in the ninth to get the Diamondbacks within 4-3, and he scored the tying run on Jake McCarthy’s single. Lourdes Gurriel Jr’s sacrifice fly capped the win.
McCarthy was 2-for-30 this season before that at-bat. Carroll has reached base in all 15 games this season.
Garrett “Hampson’s walk, I thought, was pretty crucial,” MLB.com quoted Arizona manager Torey Lovullo as saying. “And Corbin was hot. He’s on a heater right now, and you just feel like he’s going to do something special. So it was probably the build-up that happened.”
According to MLB.com, as of Friday, Carroll homered five times in 14 games this year.
In Texas, a fan grabbed the ball out of Trout’s glove after he reached into the right field stands to make what appeared to be a great catch against the Houston Astros.
Trout raced into the right-field corner on the fly ball hit by Yainer Diaz in the second inning of the Angels’ 4-1 win, leaped and extended his left arm into the stands to make the grab.
However, a fan wearing an Astros jersey was also reaching for the ball at the same time. The ball appeared to simultaneously glance off the fan’s hand while Trout made the catch. The fan immediately snatched the ball from Trout’s glove with his left hand.
Trout gestured emphatically to umpires that the fan had taken it out of his glove. The fan then looked as if he was trying to give the ball back to Trout, raising both arms while holding the ball in his right hand.
“I jumped in, it was in my glove and the guy just literally took it out,” Trout said after the game. “He was really apologetic. I learn new things every single day. Once I go into the stands, it’s free game. Being in center field is a little different because I don’t really get that play.”
First base umpire Alan Porter ruled it a foul ball and not a catch.
“He said it doesn’t matter,” Trout said of what he was told by Porter. “As soon as your glove goes into the stands, it’s fair game, and if it hits their finger or the ball hits their hand, I guess it’s ruled dead.”
Elsewhere, the Seattle Mariners defeated the Texas Rangers 9-2, the Detroit Tigers blanked the Minnesota Twins 4-0, the Philadelphia Phillies topped the St Louis Cardinals 4-1, the Athletics took down the New York Mets 3-1, the Baltimore Orioles pipped the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4, the Miami Marlins survived the Washington Nationals 7-6, the New York Yankees toppled the San Francisco Giants 8-4 and the Chicago White Sox outplayed the Boston Red Sox 3-2.
The Atlanta Braves overpowered the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4, the Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals 6-3, the Cincinnati Reds sank the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 and the San Diego Padres shut out the Colorado Rockies 2-0.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with Reuters
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