Bo Bichette Makes History, Rookie Sensation Extends Extra Base Hits Streak!

MLB.com reports:

Bo Bichette, maker of history.

In his short time in the big leagues, Bichette has altered the record books, both in Toronto and around the Major Leagues, seemingly every time he’s stepped on the field.

• Box score

With a home run in the fifth inning of the Blue Jays’ 12-6 loss to the Yankees on Thursday -- his fourth, and first at Rogers Centre -- the 21-year-old shortstop added to his already impressive Major League resume. The long ball extended his streak of extra-base hits to nine games, making him the first rookie since Ted Williams in 1939 to accomplish the feat.

“We’re watching history, that’s what we’re doing,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “The doubles and home runs, that’s why everybody’s saying, ‘Wow.’ He’s fun to watch. I’m glad I’m here watching him. Front row.”

Despite the feeling of familiarity Bichette’s latest accomplishments bring to a team that has seen nothing else from the young infielder during his time in the Majors, his first home run in front of a home crowd of 34,108 was one that will stick with him for at least a little while.

“When I hit the homer, that was the first chills moment I’ve had in the big leagues so far,” Bichette said. “Running around the bases, and the crowd was pretty loud, the loudest I’ve ever had. So that was a pretty cool moment.”

In the sixth inning, Bichette doubled to extend his streak of two-base hits to nine games as well, the longest stretch the Majors has ever seen. The double also helped MLB Pipeline's No. 8 prospect become the first player to notch 13 extra-base hits in his first 11 games.

Mets Go Over .500 On Alonso's 35th HR

MLB.com reports:

Pete Alonso ambled toward the lip of the Mets’ dugout, where a microphone awaited him. Alonso had just nestled the final out of the Mets’ 5-4 win over the Marlins in his glove, securing a doubleheader sweep and ensuring that New York, for the first time since May 2, would end the night above .500. He was asked about the Citi Field crowd, which had buzzed all evening.

Before he answered, Alonso looked up, gazed around him and raised his fist into the air, triumphant.

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The Mets, now 57-56 and 2 1/2 games back in the National League Wild Card race despite falling a season-high 11 games under .500 barely three weeks ago, suddenly have a chance to make something out of a season once feared lost. Many unaffiliated with the team have been slow to trust, calling this 17-5 run a product of a soft schedule, an unsustainable mirage. And perhaps it is.

The Mets just know they weren’t going to achieve anything without reaching .500 first.

“Getting to this point has been really tough,” Alonso said. “But now, anything can happen.”

Consider the types of things that happened in the seventh inning of Game 2, for example. Trailing by two runs, the Mets received a jolt when J.D. Davis, who has filled in admirably for injured left fielder Dominic Smith, homered to cut Miami’s margin in half. An announced crowd of 29,645 stirred.

Three batters later, Michael Conforto clobbered a game-tying home run 440 feet to right field, sending it flying toward the upper rows of Citi Field’s second seating deck. Next came Alonso, who lined a more modest, but equally impactful, homer over the fence in left. 

Upon returning to the dugout, Alonso heard enough fans chanting his name that he reemerged for a brief curtain call. “People are still showing rabid support, and I love that,” Alonso said. “That’s one of the best things about the big leagues, is playing in front of the thousands of people in the seats every night. We want to put on a big show, and we want to win for them. We want to do something special.”

Astros Pitcher Aaron Sanchez Combines To No Hit The Seattle Mariners

CBS Sports Reports:

On Saturday, Houston Astros pitchers Aaron Sanchez, Will Harris, Joe Biagini and Chris Devenski combined to no-hit the Seattle Mariners. The Astros beat the Mariners 9-0 (box score) at Minute Maid Park.

The no-hitter was the 12th in Astros history and first since Mike Fiers no-hit the Dodgers in 2015.

Sanchez, in his debut with Houston after being acquired at the trade deadline from the Blue Jays, threw six innings of no-hit baseball. The right-hander gave up two walks and struck out six Seattle batters. Sanchez was a woeful 3-14 with a 6.07 ERA during 23 starts with the Jays prior to the trade. Sanchez became just the second pitcher in MLB history (Mark Langston, 1990) to be part of a combined no-hitter in his first start with a team.

Harris took over and continued the no-hitter with a hitless seven inning, only allowing one walk. Biagini, another trade deadline acquisition from the Blue Jays making his debut for the Astros, put up another hitless inning, giving up one walk while striking one in the eighth inning. Devenski closed out the ninth inning by retiring the side.

Saturday was the second combined no-hitter in franchise history. The other one came on June 11, 2003 when Roy Oswalt, Pete Muro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combined to throw a no-hitter against the Yankees.

It's the second time Seattle has been no-hit this season, as the Angels threw a combined no-hitter against the Mariners in July, in their first home game after the death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. The 2015 Dodgers are the most recent team to be no-hit twice in one season.

Not only have the Mariners been on the losing end of two combined no-hitter this season, but both losses have been by at least 9 runs. It's the largest losses in any combined no-hitters ever.

Saturday's combined no-hitter is the third no-hitter in the majors this season. Oakland Athletics right-hander Mike Fiers no-hit the Cincinnati Reds in May for the first of the season.

Nelson Cruz Hits 3 Homers In A Game Again... Makes History!

MLB.com reports:

Nelson Cruz is making his home runs seem so routine that some players in the Twins’ dugout don’t exactly know how to handle it.

“Do we just celebrate every single time, or do we just treat this as a normal at-bat every time and pat him on the back a little bit?” starter Kyle Gibson said.

The answer?

"Yeah, you celebrate it!” Jonathan Schoop said. “Every homer, you celebrate. You score runs. It's fun to hit home runs and score runs.”

Cruz has given his teammates plenty of chances to contemplate that question in the last two weeks.

The 39-year-old slugger smashed three more homers, including a 466-foot blast to the third deck in left-center field, in the Twins’ 11-3 victory over the Royals on Saturday at Target Field to notch his second three-homer game in 10 days and his second consecutive game with five RBIs.

• Box score

Cruz, the reigning American League Player of the Week, has 11 homers and 23 RBIs in his last nine starts.

“Well, my vocabulary is not good enough to really do the guy justice,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He continues to impress even us. We get to see a lot of really interesting and exceptional performances in this game. If you’re around long enough, you see a lot of impressive things, but what we’re watching right now is something that the likes of it, I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

“I mean, he's not missing,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “You throw something that's got a little too much of the plate, and he's gonna ride it.”

The three blasts pushed Cruz’s season homer total to 30, tying him with Max Kepler for the team lead and giving him 30 or more homers in each of the last six seasons. All 30 of Cruz’s homers have come as a designated hitter, breaking Chili Davis’ 1991 record for most single-season homers hit by a designated hitter in club history.

Pitcher Zack Greinke Traded To The Houston Astros

MLB.com reports:

The Astros were gathered in the visiting clubhouse at Progressive Field about three hours before Wednesday’s game against the Indians, minutes before the 4 p.m. ET Trade Deadline hit. They were refreshing their phones and staring at the TVs, eager to find out the latest trade news. Some, like Justin Verlander, tweeted about the anticipation.

Astros manager AJ Hinch, sitting on pins and needles all afternoon, finally got the word from president of baseball operations and general manager Jeff Luhnow that Houston had landed right-hander Zack Greinke and cash in a blockbuster deal with Arizona. His goal was to be the first to share the news with the players before they saw it on social media, which meant making a quick dash to the clubhouse.

News was trickling out, but Hinch turned off the TVs and announced a move that entrenches Houston as MLB's World Series favorite.

“There was some hooting and hollering,” said right-hander Gerrit Cole, who is a friend of Greinke. “It was like 4:08, I think, is when it broke and AJ came in with a [huge] smile. We were very excited.”

The Astros pulled off four trades on Wednesday, none bigger than the Deadline-busting deal to acquire the six-time All-Star and former American League Cy Young Award winner Greinke, who will join Verlander, Cole and Wade Miley atop Houston’s built-for-October rotation.

“Incredible day for the organization and our team,” Hinch said. “The energy in our room after a thing like that happens is palpable. You know that what you have in front of you is one of the greatest opportunities to keep the winning ways alive.”

Mookie Betts Cranked 3 Homers Against The Yankees

The Sporting News reports:

It's one of the oldest clichés in baseball lore - a superstar meets an ailing young fan before a game, and the fan implores his hero to hit a home run.

That scenario unfolded at Fenway Park on Friday night, albeit with a unique twist, as Boston Red Sox slugger Mookie Betts met 10-year-old Nico Sapienza through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Mookie hit not just hit 1 homer, he cranked 3 homers in the game, making it a really special night for the youngster. 

A three-homer night might be enough to finally silence talk concerning whether Betts will come back around. He has found that swing again, as Betts' three shots off of New York Yankees left-hander James Paxton showed Friday, finishing the evening 4-for-5 with four runs, a double, 5 RBIs and a career-high 14 total bases in a 10-5 victory. It's only the eighth time a Red Sox hitter has recorded 14 total bases or more in a game. Betts extended the longest on-base streak in the American League to 23 games, during which he's hitting .383/.464/.670 with five homers and 10 doubles, raising his overall line to .289/.399/.507. On the season, Betts has struggled against lefties, hitting .236/.352/.330 after hitting .368/.471/.736 against southpaws last season, so breaking out in a Paxton start was a nice additional development.

Nelson Cruz Hits 3 Homers Against The White Sox

Star Tribune reports:

Nelson Cruz blasted a home run to right-center field in the fifth inning Thursday night that traveled 430 feet. That’s quite a poke, but it wasn’t as far as his other ones.

Yes, other ones. Plural.

Cruz also cannoned a 473-foot shot in the first inning and a 433-foot rainmaker in the third, making it the 11th time in Twins history a player has hit three homers in a game and the seventh since 2016. All three home runs came off All-Star righthander Lucas Giolito as the Twins rolled to a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Nelson Cruz blasted a home run to right-center field in the fifth inning Thursday night that traveled 430 feet. That’s quite a poke, but it wasn’t as far as his other ones.

Yes, other ones. Plural.

Cruz also cannoned a 473-foot shot in the first inning and a 433-foot rainmaker in the third, making it the 11th time in Twins history a player has hit three homers in a game and the seventh since 2016. All three home runs came off All-Star righthander Lucas Giolito as the Twins rolled to a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Cruz’s 385 home runs rank fourth among active major leaguers. And he has hit the most home runs over the past five seasons. He’s hit six home runs over his past four games — enabling him to pass Barry Bonds as the oldest player with that many homers in a four-game stretch.

The 39-year-old remains a force, hitting three homers in a game for the first time in his 15-year career.

“I think it is a lot of work and make sure I do my weights,” Cruz said. “Make sure I sleep well, rest. Do my tea, stuff like that. I think for anybody if you can have experience in your job, you can do a lot of things when your body feels good and the experience helps.”

The Twins maintained their two-game lead in the American League Central as Cleveland defeated Kansas City 5-4 in 14 innings.