Justin Verlander joined a very small group of pitchers in Major League Baseball history Sunday afternoon.

The San Francisco pitcher struck out three in the opening inning of the Giants’ 8-0 loss to the Washington Nationals. The third strikeout made him just the 10th pitcher in big-league history to record at least 3,500 strikeouts in his career.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner received a big ovation from the home crowd at Oracle Park as he closed the inning and slowly walked back to the dugout before tipping his cap.

Verlander is now 10th on MLB’s all-time strikeouts list, nine away from matching Walter Johnson. Nolan Ryan is the all-time leader with 5,714. Verlander is the active leader in the big leagues. Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw are the only other active players in the top 30.

“I was happy to get there, happy to have the moment with the fans,” Verlander said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “It’s cool. It’s a cool milestone, something that I really appreciate what it’s taken to get there.”

Despite the historic start, Verlander struggled the rest of the way against the Nationals, a team he was previously unbeaten against in his career. The 42-year-old allowed 11 hits and five runs in five innings. The Nationals put up four runs in the second inning, thanks to a two-RBI double from James Wood and a two-run homer from CJ Abrams. 

The win was the second straight for the Nationals, who now sit at 47-70. The Giants are 59-59 and are third in the NL West. Verlander holds just a 1-9 record this year, his first with the Giants, in 20 starts and nearly 100 innings pitched. He signed a one-year, $15 million deal to join the Giants this season after a short run back with the Houston Astros.

San Francisco will be back in action Tuesday night to begin a three-game series with the San Diego Padres. Verlander is slated to make his next start Aug. 16 against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Perhaps New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was trying to fire up his team that had lost six of its past eight games. Maybe he was showing frustration over alternating pitching and hitting struggles as the Yankees slide further down the AL East standings. 

Whatever the reason, Boone gave himself an early exit from Sunday’s 7-1 defeat to the Houston Astros by getting ejected in the third inning. It was his fifth ejection of the season, leading all MLB managers. 

Boone began arguing with home plate umpire Derek Thomas after he called a low sinker to Ryan McMahon a strike. Judging from strike-zone graphics, the pitch was borderline but was out of the zone. 

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Apparently, that was one low strike too many for Boone’s liking and he shouted at Thomas from the dugout. Thomas called timeout and warned Boone, saying, “that’s enough” before tossing him from the game. 

That prompted Boone to come out of the dugout to confront Thomas, saying “You f***in’ need to fix it.” 

At that point, the Yankees were down 2-0 on a first-inning home run by Jose Altuve, his 21st of the season, and an RBI double from Christian Walker in the third. Even worse, the Yankees hadn’t gotten a hit off Astros starter Jason Alexander (cue your George Costanza “Seinfeld” jokes). 

Alexander, making his fifth start of the season, didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning when he gave up a single to Ben Rice on a 92 mph sinker in the outer middle of the strike zone. The Yankees finally broke through with a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by McMahon, scoring Jazz Chisholm Jr., but still trailed 4-1. 

One highlight for the Yankees may have been Devin Williams allowing no hits or runs in the fifth inning with three strikeouts. It was the first time in his past six outings that the embattled closer didn’t allow a run. 

Boone had already been ejected, so perhaps it wasn’t his decision to use Williams in a low-leverage situation. But using Williams under such circumstances was important for him to regain some confidence amid a terrible season, most recently typified by serving up a two-run homer to Taylor Trammell in Friday’s loss to the Astros. 

Max Fried allowed four runs and eight hits over five innings for the second consecutive start. Since returning from a blister injury, the left-hander has yielded 17 earned runs in 22 innings. Tim Hill put any chances for a Yankees comeback out of reach by getting blitzed for three runs and four hits in the ninth inning, including a home run by Carlos Correa. 

“I wholeheartedly believe that we are going to get rolling and turn this thing around,” Boone said after the game. “When it does, then you start to really build that next layer of confidence.”

One day after becoming the first woman to umpire an MLB regular-season game, Jen Pawol was behind home plate for Sunday’s game between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves, making her the first female umpire to call balls and strikes for an MLB game. 

With strike zone graphics now a mainstay on MLB broadcasts and resources like MLB Gameday showing balls and strikes in detail, calls by home plate umpires are under more scrutiny than ever. Unfortunately, Pawol contributed to that discourse with a dubious first strike call.

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The opening pitch of the game from Braves starter Joey Wentz was inside and out of the zone, but Pawol called the 93 mph fastball a strike. 

As Braves play-by-play broadcaster Joe Simpson said, “Joey Wentz likes that first call from Jen Pawol!” 

That pitch looked far inside on the TV broadcast and MLB Gameday confirmed that location.

Marlins second baseman Xavier Edwards didn’t dispute the call or show much reaction to it. The Braves then called timeout to get the ball to commemorate the occasion for Pawol. However, perhaps sensing where Pawol’s strike zone was situated, Edwards swung at a fastball thrown even further inside and hit it up the middle for a single.

Pawol appeared to settle in and find the strike zone better from there, calling that inside pitch to right-handed batters consistently and getting several borderline calls correct. Wentz and Marlins starter Cal Quantrill also helped out by locating most of their pitches in the zone. Through four innings, Wentz threw 44 of his 65 pitches for strikes, while Quantrill threw 29 of 46 in the zone. 

Pawol made her major-league debut on Saturday, umpiring the first game of a doubleheader between the Marlins and Braves at first base. She worked the second game of the twin bill at third base. As part of her duties at first base, she checked Braves pitcher Hurston Waldrep for illegal substances after the first inning. 

The cap she wore for Saturday’s opening game was given to the National Baseball Hall of Fame afterward.

Prior to her MLB debut, Pawol umpired over 1,200 minor-league games, beginning in 2016. Before being promoted to the majors, Pawol, 48, umpired MLB spring training games during the past two seasons, the first woman to do so since Ria Cortesio in 2007. 

She became MLB’s first female umpire after the NBA broke that gender barrier with Violet Palmer in 1997. Sarah Thomas was the first female referee to officiate an NFL game in 2015. And in 2022, Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup game.

As Wisconsin was hit with heavy rains and flash flooding, the Milwaukee Brewers went ahead with Sunday’s game as scheduled at Milwaukee’s American Family Field.

And for the fans who braved the weather, the team made it worth their while, defeating the New York Mets 7-6 off Isaac Collins’ walk-off home run. The win gave the red-hot Brewers a series sweep over the Mets, and extended their win streak to nine games.

The team announced Sunday morning that they would be playing as planned, but warned fans about significant road closures into the ballpark. In addition, about half of the parking lots around the venue are closed due to standing water, with the team adding that fans will not be guaranteed parking even if they paid for it in advance.

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Additionally, Sunday’s game was set to be a Jacob Misiorowski T-shirt giveaway, with the Brewers planning to give away the shirts to the first 25,000 fans. Though the giveaway still took place, the team said that a second Misiorowski shirt giveaway will be scheduled on another game.

The game was considered a sellout based on ticket sales, and though there were several empty seats, there was still a remarkable turnout for the game. Per the team, 33,700 fans showed up for the game, out of 42,461 total in paid attendance.

The Milwaukee area was hit with excessive rains starting on Saturday, hitting a two-day rainfall record in the area, per the National Weather Service. The area received 7.96 inches between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, though though some parts of Milwaukee received as many as 10 inches of rain.

Due to the weather, rainwater started to fall onto American Family Field on Saturday during the Brewers’ 7-4 win over the Mets, despite the roof being closed.

After the game, the storm was still going in full force as fans were trying to leave the ballpark. Videos and photos on social media show flooding on the roads and lots around the ballpark well into the night, and on Sunday morning.

Ahead of Sunday’s game, Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger told reporters the reasoning behind letting the game go on as scheduled.

“Obviously it’s not a simple situation. The fact is the building is in great shape, so we’re very fortunate that there was no damage,” Schlesinger said, via MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. “After talking internally … we felt that it was the right thing to do to still play the game. There are ways to get here. Obviously, the fans know that the normal access points are gonna be a little compromised, so they’re gonna make alternate routes.

“We decided that, given that this is the last time the Mets are gonna be here this year, in the regular season, given that the ballpark is in fine shape,” he continued, “we felt we could play the game under these circumstances. The fans that can come, that’s great. Fans that can’t, again, they won’t be negatively impacted by the fact that they can’t use their ticket. We’ll make that exchange available to them, and they’ll come to another game.”

With Sunday’s game continuing as planned, the red-hot Brewers completed the sweep after beating New York 3-2 on Friday and 7-4 on Saturday.

In Sunday’s game, the Mets held an early 5-0 lead. But designated hitter William Contreras stepped up, earning two home runs — a solo homer in the fourth and a two-run bomb in the fifth — to launch the Brewers’ comeback. Joey Ortiz hit an RBI single in the eighth to tie the game, before Collins walked it off.

Milwaukee’s 73-44 record keeps them at the top of MLB, five wins ahead of the nearest competition in both the AL and NL.

Nearly three weeks after signing reliever David Robertson to a one-year contract, the Philadelphia Phillies are adding him to the major-league roster. 

Robertson, 40, has been called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and will join the Phillies for Sunday’s matchup with the Texas Rangers, the team announced. This will be the right-hander’s third stint with Philadelphia, as he previously pitched for the Phillies in 2019 and 2022. 

In six Triple-A appearances, Robertson notched six strikeouts and one walk in 5 1/3 innings, but also allowed six runs and 11 hits. While those numbers may look concerning, Robertson was essentially going through a spring training, building up arm strength and velocity in preparation for a call-up. At the time he was signed, Robertson told reporters he needed three or four appearances to be ready. 

Last season, Robertson pitched for the Texas Rangers, compiling 99 strikeouts in 72 innings with a 3.00 ERA. Over 16 MLB seasons, he has a 2.91 ERA with 177 saves while averaging 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings.

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The Phillies rank 23rd in MLB with a 4.35 ERA from their bullpen, with Jordan Romano (6.64 ERA) and Joe Ross (5.16 ERA) noticeably struggling and José Alvarado serving an 80-game suspension for failing a PED test. 

However, the team made an impact addition to the relief corps by acquiring Jhoan Duran from the Minnesota Twins. He’s pitched three scoreless appearances thus far, with two strikeouts in three innings, and three saves in three opportunities. That included throwing the fastest pitch in Citizens Bank Park history at 103.3 mph to close out a 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers.

With Duran joining Tanner Banks (3.22 ERA) and Matt Strahm (3.33) at the back end of the bullpen, the Phillies now feature a reliable trio in late innings. Robertson will fit in that mix, though he isn’t expected to pitch in high-leverage situations initially. 

At 67-49, the Phillies currently hold a 4.5-game lead over the New York Mets for first place in the NL East. They have won seven of their past 10 games going into Sunday’s game.