Austin Hedges had the best Sunday.

Hedges scored the first run in the Cleveland Guardians‘ 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles, then saved his best score for the postgame, when he proposed to his girlfriend, Lexi Dickinson, on the field.

With a few friends and teammates present, a “Lexi, will you marry me?” message was displayed on the scoreboard at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

“Really hoping to win that game,” Hedges said. “I was going to do it regardless, but I really wanted to win that game to make it extra special.”

Hedges, 33-year-old, 12-year major-league veteran catcher, admitted to being nervous the entire day.

“Lots of nerves, lots of nerves,” Hedges said. “A lot of nerves about – I’m always nervous for baseball games. I mean, obviously that’s a good team over there and we want to win the series. And just trying to stay present, knowing that there was some activities after. But special day, special day to be able to soak it all in.”

Hedges said that he’s had the engagement ring since spring training and was looking for the right moment to propose to Dickinson, who he has had been dating since November 2024. After the successful proposal, Hedges’ teammates joined in an on-field celebration.

Hedges has played six of his 12 big-league seasons in Cleveland, and also spent time with the San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers, with whom he was a member of the team’s 2023 World Series winners.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Austin Hedges gets engaged after Guardians’ win over Orioles

NEW YORK (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic are the finalists for NBA MVP.

It had been a laborious weekend for the Giants bats. After two — count ‘em two — high intensity games in which they scored 17 total runs on 31 hits over 21 innings, the offense looked relatively exhausted in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Washington. Spring’s bipolar nature abruptly swapped the tank-top heat of summer for an abrasive, chill-laced wind. Sunday was a day of indoor batting practice, of clubhouse breakfast buffets, of yawns in the dugout. They team had secured a series win and won three in a row. Didn’t they earn a day to just chill, to just zone out in the batter’s box and suck seeds on the bench with your cleats up? What does the good book advise? I say, unto thee: Pack all thou grinding and disciplined at-bats, thou situational contact, thou two-baggers and round -trippers and rallies and swipt bases into six days in order to rest on the seventh.

Obviously I don’t actually think the offense played with this level of lackadaisicalness, but it did, at time, look like they took these words to heart. Hitters truly did observe at the plate. Their swings were often hole-y as lefty opener PJ Poulin, struggling veteran Miles Mikolas, and recent Triple-A arrival Andrew Alvarez cruised through 9 shutout frames.

Mikolas, who lugged a 11.49 ERA (15.2 IP) into this game, scattered four singles across four scoreless innings while striking out 4. His four-seam fastball and its  -3.3 RV/100 earned three of his four strikeouts. Previous opponents had hit .316 and slugged .526 against the pitch… but not these opponents. Seemingly non-descript fastballs exposed out over the plate proved fatally feisty for Willy Adames and Heliot Ramos. Four of six swings elicited by the pitch came up empty. Only one of them was put into play. 

Frustratingly unproductive outs added up to an 0-for-11 day with runners in scoring position. And I joke that the offense took the day off, but the reality is some work was being done because the table was set multiple times. San Francisco out-hit Washington 8 to 7 and also got a boost from three defensive errors. 11 at-bats ain’t nothing to sneeze at. Those chances were more than enough rungs on a ladder to help the Giants climb out of their three-run hole. The difference proved to be a lack of decisiveness. A 2-run shot that echoed Ramos’s game-tying homer on Saturday, or his 3-run blast on Friday night, was glaringly absent.

Instead with a chance to bring home a run or two, the Giants batters piled up six strikeouts and also hit into a double play. They had a runner standing on second base with nobody out in the 6th, 8th, and 9th innings…and that runner managed to reach third just once. 

And to be clear, no tension or suspense was built in these at-bats with runners on. These were not gritty, 10-pitch showdowns, or spirit-filling shows of defiance and resistance. They were blink-and-you-missed-it outs. A candlelight in a windstorm. Mere whimpers. Twice Drew Gilbert and Patrick Bailey reached with two outs to set-up an RBI chance for Willy Adames, and twice Willy Adames flailed at strike three. The first time, in the 2nd, Adames was felled on three straight fastballs from Mikolas. In the 4th, he managed to see four. 

After Casey Schmitt led off the 6th with a double, southpaw Andrew Alvarez, who had been called up from the Rochester Red Wings earlier in the day, dispatched Jung Hoo Lee with a sinker, slider, curveball. Easy as A-B-C. The hot-hand Ramos fouled off three pitches in the middle of the zone before being called out on strikes. In the 8th with a runner on third, pinch hitter Jerar Encarnacion waved helplessly at an 0-2 curveball from Alvarez to end the innings. Easy as 1-2-3. 

Just another outing of little to no run support behind a solid Robbie Ray performance. After getting beat by a pair of solo shots in Cincinnati, Ray swallowed another bitter pill in D.C., logging his second quality start of the year as well as his third loss.

The veteran had been excellent for four innings, uncharacteristically pitching with efficiency and count leverage. The Nationals recorded three soft-contact singles in the first three innings, and Ray did well to manage the undeserved traffic.

Jacob Young led off the 2nd with a bloop single, but Ray softened the lead-off hit with back-to-back strikeouts. In the 3rd, Keibert Ruiz managed an infield single on a soft roller and advanced into scoring position after a James Wood walk. More troublesome soft contact off the bat off of Curtis Mead resulted in a heads-up defensive play by Willy Adames to expose some poor baserunning by the lead runner Ruiz. Brady House then flew out to deeeeep center field before Ray escaped the jam by inducing a routine flyout from Abrams. 

The relief of that escape lasted one more inning before Washington broke through the scoreless deadlock in the 5th.

A bunt single from Nasim Nunez was the inconspicuous start to the Nationals 3-run rally. Nunez promptly stole second and from scoring position scored on Keibert Ruiz’s double — a “double” really in name only. Off the bat, the ball looked to be destined to be caught. It boasted an xBA of .170. It lingered in the air. Perhaps the wind pushed it further away from Ramos than expected. He initially broke back towards the wall before course correcting to the right. The ball clipped the end of his glove before finding grass. An opportunity for out missed there. But Ramos got the ball quickly into Adames in shallow left. Nunez had a late break for home, and the relay to the plate beat him by plenty, but Bailey couldn’t corral the hop before prematurely bringing his glove over for the tag. The baseball rolled freely up the line as Nunez came to a complete stop, turned around, and cheekily leaned on the plate. 

Either end of that play could’ve produced an out. Instead the Nationals claimed the lead and then extended it. Two pitches later, Mead jumped on a first pitch change-up to plate the second and third runs of the day. 

The three earned runs allowed are so far a season high for Ray. He went on to bag two more strikeouts (7 K on the day) and complete the 6th before being relieved by scoreless appearances by Keaton Winn and JT Brubaker. All for naught though. The crooked number in the 5th proved to be a bridge too far for San Francisco’ listless lineup. Considering the looming midweek series against LA, and the arms they’ll be facing (Yamamoto, Ohtani, Glasnow), the offense might be kicking themselves for shrugging off the opportunities that presented themselves today. 

There should be no rest for a 9-13 team.  

WHAT A WEEKEND!!

Nebraska baseball sweeps USC and solidly plants itself in 2nd place in the Big Ten standings. This is the first sweep of a ranked opponent in Haymarket Park since that legendary 2015 Texas series. It also happened to be the highest attended series in the Big Ten era of Haymarket Park, and the 5th highest all time. Three straight walk-off wins, including 2 by way of the 10 run rule has the Huskers sitting at 15 in the RPI, putting them in the mix to reach their biggest goal every year, hosting a regional.

The Trojans were actually the first to score, getting to Husker starting pitcher Gavin Blachowicz right away in the top of the first. Kevin Takeuchi singled up the middle and advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw. He came home a couple batters later on a Jack Basseer RBI single.

Nebraska responded right away, with DH Jeter Worthley burning the Trojan center fielder and racing all the way to third for a triple. Case Sanderson drove a ball to the wall in straight away center that bounced off the glove of the center fielder and off the wall. He strode into second with an RBI double and remained there all of 1 pitch as Dylan Carey pulled a ball down the left field line for an RBI double of his own, and the first big roar from the 7600 in attendance as the Huskers took a 2-1 lead.

Things went completely sideways for Blachowicz in the 2nd. He was squeezed early by the home plate umpire and walked 3 batters on 3-2 counts, though he was able to pick off the first one. Backed into a corner, Blachowicz grooved one right down the middle that Takeuchi hammered into the Party Porch for a 3 run home run. USC’s best home run hitter, Augie Lopez, then sky-ed a ball that not one Husker defender even moved to attempt to give chase as it cleared the USC bullpen completely. The Trojans put up a 4 spot and take a 5-2 lead.

The Huskers turned to new reliever, Ty Horn to steady the ship, and he did just that. Horn was spectacular, pitching 5 innings, scattering 6 hits and giving up 1 run on a solo home run, again by Augie Lopez in the top of the 5th. Horn struck out 4 and more importantly, walked zero.

The Husker offense went on a tear starting in the 3rd. Carey on a big day, even for him obliterated a ball that despite the 42 degree launch angle, which generally results in a pop fly, still easily cleared the left field fence into the mass of humanity occupying the outfield berm. Carey would go 4 for 5 on the day, with the aforementioned double and home run, good for 2 RBIs.

Nebraska took the lead back for good in the 4th. Rhett Stokes hit a ball hard up the middle that the short stop bobbled for an error. A perfect hit and run call (one of many by the coaching staff on the weekend) had Trey Fikes hit a ball right to where the second baseman was, but vacated to go cover second base. That put 2 on for Mac Moyer against the clearly unraveling Trojan starting pitcher. Moyer did the rare thing for him and pulled the ball and as the right fielder kept drifting back and back, the crowd again went from a murmur to an all out roar as what happened so many times on the weekend happened again, a USC outfielder couldn’t make a play at the wall, and a 3 run home run landed in the first row of the party porch.

The Trojan started remained in there and issued back to back full count walks to Worthley and Sanderson before being pulled. Carey hit a ball to shallow center, his lone out of the day, but Worthley was able to tag up at second base and slide safely into third. That would prove to be very important, as USC uncorked a wild pitch, and Worthley scampered home to put NU up 7-5.

The wild pitch would rear its ugly head for the Trojans again in the 5th, Trey Fikes bunted Josh Overbeek and Rhett Stokes to 3rd and 2nd. Then with Jeter Worthley up with 2 out, the wild pitch hit the backstop. The catcher threw it back to the pitcher covering home, but over his head as Beek slid in. Stokes had rounded third hard and upon seeing the ball by the pitcher took off for home. The first baseman grabbed the ball and tried to toss it back to the pitcher, but his toss was high, and Bolt’s Boys took a soul crushing 9-6 lead.

The onslaught continued. Sanderson led off the 6th with another walk. Carey singled to center to put runners on the corners. Jett Buck took a 1-2 pitch right to the side of the helmet, knocking it clean off. He gathered it up and sprinted to first to load the bases for Drew Grego. Grego has been red hot all series, and this was his magnum opus. The pitcher, rattled from just hitting a guy in the head, put one right down Main Street, and Grego took it for a ride. A second 400+ foot home run in as many days, this one a grand slam. The crowd exploded.

The Huskers added two more in the 6th inning to go up 15-6, but couldn’t get the 10th run differential. That is until the bottom of the 8th. Mac Moyer was hit by a pitch, but not awarded first. Bolt challenged the call and won. A passed ball allowed Moyer to take second base. The Case Sanderson poked a single down the left field line and Moyer ran home and then immediately took off with the rest of his team to catch Sanderson who by this time had run into the middle of center field. Fear not, the team has gotten good at tracking down batters after walk offs, this was their 3rd walk off of the 3 game series against USC. Those Gatorade containers made the 350 foot trek to dead center and doused the Huskers’ first baseman.

Nebraska hits the road again, traveling down to Kansas to attempt to avenge the loss two weeks ago at the hands of the Jayhawks (still the only loss at Haymarket Park all season). They then go to Illinois for the weekend, to take on the Illini who occupy 8th place in the Big Ten currently. If they continue to take care of business the rest of the way, the attendance records set this weekend will be a thing of the past.

It looked like the Mets were going to end their nightmare for a moment on Sunday afternoon in Chicago. But then things took another turn for the worse as Devin Williams blew the save and the Cubs walked it off in the bottom of the tenth inning, handing New York its 11th straight loss.

After the crushing defeat, manager Carlos Mendoza discussed the “tough stretch” the team is going through.

“Yeah it’s tough, it’s tough, especially when you’re going through it,” Mendoza said. “You feel like you got to the ninth inning feeling good, but I mean when you’re playing in one-run games you have to be perfect and it’s hard to play like that. It’s a tough stretch right now.”

The Mets had opportunities to tack on to their 1-0 lead, but finished the game 1-for-9 with RISP and left six on base. Mendoza noted how New York wasn’t “impacting the baseball as a team” and “didn’t hit many balls hard” on Sunday, something that’s become regular during their losing streak. 

When asked if it’s getting “late” to turn things around, Mendoza said the team needs to “find a way” soon.

“11 losses, that’s a lot, whether it’s in April or at any point in the season,” Mendoza said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to find a way. Off day tomorrow and back at it Tuesday.”

Francisco Lindor had one of the scoring opportunities in the sixth inning after Luis Torrens hit a leadoff double, but the shortstop struck out to end the inning. He said it isn’t “a good feeling” to have this long of a losing streak and took accountability for the lack of production, adding that they all need to do a better job of executing in the clutch moments.

“This feeling sucks. It’s not a good feeling,” Lindor said. “You said it, we’re professionals, and we got to find a way out of it. We got to do whatever it takes to end up on top after 27 outs and sometimes 30 outs. It’s not a good feeling. But, no one here is hanging their heads, everybody has their heads held high and they’re fighting for each other.

“Today, they played a good game, but I came up in situations to drive runners in and didn’t do that. It came down to last two outs, I think when I get guys in scoring position, I don’t drive them in, I don’t help the team that way, it can come back. But what it comes down to is me executing, and all of us executing. Like you said, we are professionals and this is what we get paid to do so I got to be better.”

Lindor reiterated that they need to execute on the field, knowing only they can fix the problems on the field.

“We got to bring it,” Lindor said. “We got to continue to bring it day in and day out. No one’s going to feel sorry for us. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to bring it.”

Having been in New York for six seasons now, Lindor understands the outside noise is going to continue until the team strings together some wins. He said they have to keep fighting and not let it distract them.

“Fight for each other, stick for each other,” Lindor said. “What Mendy has said from day one, protect the house. It’s going to get loud. It’s going to get very loud. And ultimately, everyone here knows it and we’ve just got to stick together and stay within ourselves and fight, fight.”

The All-Star agreed that having an 11-game losing streak is shocking, but said they have to forget in order to improve moving forward.

“Yeah, 100 percent. We have a tremendous team. David Stearns put a good team together, but this shows that nobody really cares,” Lindor said. “We’ve got to go out there and get it done and this past week-and-a-half, we haven’t gotten it done. It’s a bad feeling, but we got to turn the page. I’ve always said this, whether we win or lose, look at it for a little bit and then turn the page and focus on what we have in front of us.”

David Peterson, who tossed 3.2 scoreless innings on Sunday, and Williams both agreed with Lindor that the losing streak is on the players, not the coaches or front office.

“It’s on everyone. We’re in this together,” Peterson said. “Everyone has a part in this and we’ve got to stick together. Everyone’s got to take responsibility and accountability. We all need to look in the mirror and see what we can do better to help this team move in the right direction. That’s the job. Like I said, come back ready to go on Tuesday, fight like hell, and play our brand of baseball.”

“It’s tough to explain,” Williams added. “This is one of the most talented locker rooms in the league. We just can’t seem to string it together right now.”

Lindor was also asked how getting star Juan Soto back from the injured list soon could help the Mets out of their slump, but again, said it’s not on one player to be the savior as they all need to execute at the plate and defensively.

“I mean, like I said earlier, Soto is irreplaceable and having him back is going to help us a lot,” Lindor said. “Hopefully he is back [soon]. Top three hitters in the league probably, top two? So yeah he’s going to help us a ton. He’s going to lengthen our lineup.

“Even when he comes, we’ve still got to get it done. It would be unfair to just throw everything on him. As a team we got to come together and execute, that’s what it’s going to come down to.”

New York will have Monday off to regroup and find a way to win on Tuesday when they start a three-game series back home against the Minnesota Twins. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder were frequently dominant while posting the NBA’s best record this season.

They flipped a switch Sunday into playoff mode as they began their quest for a second straight NBA championship in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Phoenix Suns.

The Suns kept things close in the opening minutes of a game that was tied 12-12. But the Thunder closed the first quarter on a 23-8 run to enter the second with a 35-20 lead. From there, it was a runaway for a 119-84 OKC win.

It wasn’t quite the opening salvo the Thunder delivered in their playoff opener last season, a 131-80 thrashing of the Memphis Grizzlies. But it puts them in elite company.

Per ESPN, the Thunder became the second team in NBA history to post a 30-plus-point win in consecutive playoff openers. The other team to do it: The 1986-87 Showtime Los Angeles Lakers.

The 1985-86 Lakers opened their playoffs with a 135-88 drubbing of the San Antonio Spurs. Those playoffs ended in a loss to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference finals.

Their next postseason started with a 128-95 win over the Denver Nuggets. Those playoffs ended with a win over the rival Boston Celtics for the fourth NBA championship of the Showtime era. They followed up with another championship the following season, this time with a win over the Detroit Pistons in the Finals.

Familiar scene in OKC

The Thunder looked very much Sunday like the unit that won the franchise’s first NBA championship last season since moving to Oklahoma City. They locked down on defense, limiting the Suns to 35% shooting from the field while forcing 17 turnovers and blocking seven shots.

Those turnovers led to repeated easy buckets on the other end as the Thunder scored 30-plus points in each of Sunday’s first three quarters.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled from the field (5 of 18) but, as usual, got the job done at the free-throw line in a 15-of-17 effort. He led the Thunder with 25 points and seven assists. He was one of three Thunder players, alongside Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, to record two blocks.

After a regular season hampered by injury, Jalen Williams was back in All-NBA form with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block and 1 steal in an efficient shooting effort (9 of 15 from the field, 2 of 5 from 3).

This is similar to how things started last postseason as the Thunder won a championship. And all is well so far in Oklahoma City’s quest for a second straight title.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were frequently dominant while posting the NBA’s best record this season.

They flipped a switch Sunday into playoff mode as they began their quest for a second straight NBA championship in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Phoenix Suns.

The Suns kept things close in the opening minutes of a game that was tied 12-12. But the Thunder closed the first quarter on a 23-8 run to enter the second with a 35-20 lead. From there, it was a runaway for a 119-84 OKC win.

It wasn’t quite the opening salvo the Thunder delivered in their playoff opener last season, a 131-80 thrashing of the Memphis Grizzlies. But it puts them in elite company.

Per ESPN, the Thunder became the second team in NBA history to post a 30-plus-point win in consecutive playoff openers. The other team to do it: The 1986-87 Showtime Los Angeles Lakers.

The 1985-86 Lakers opened their playoffs with a 135-88 drubbing of the San Antonio Spurs. Those playoffs ended in a loss to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference finals.

Their next postseason started with a 128-95 win over the Denver Nuggets. Those playoffs ended with a win over the rival Boston Celtics for the fourth NBA championship of the Showtime era. They followed up with another championship the following season, this time with a win over the Detroit Pistons in the Finals.

Familiar scene in OKC

The Thunder looked very much Sunday like the unit that won the franchise’s first NBA championship last season since moving to Oklahoma City. They locked down on defense, limiting the Suns to 35% shooting from the field while forcing 17 turnovers and blocking seven shots.

Those turnovers led to repeated easy buckets on the other end as the Thunder scored 30-plus points in each of Sunday’s first three quarters.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled from the field (5 of 18) but, as usual, got the job done at the free-throw line in a 15-of-17 effort. He led the Thunder with 25 points and seven assists. He was one of three Thunder players, alongside Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, to record two blocks.

After a regular season hampered by injury, Jalen Williams was back in All-NBA form with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block and 1 steal in an efficient shooting effort (9 of 15 from the field, 2 of 5 from 3).

This is similar to how things started last postseason as the Thunder won a championship. And all is well so far in Oklahoma City’s quest for a second straight title.

In such a short period of time, dare I say that Noah Schultz has really, truly, already arrived?

It almost seems too good to be true, for somebody who’s gotten plenty used to even the best White Sox prospect requiring some adjustment time in the majors. But the young condor-like lefty is is looking like an exception, perhaps just a little bit in the mold of another tall, lanky lefty whose presence undoubtedly changed the current of Sox history.

As far as today’s action goes, Schultz fired five innings of one-run baseball in his second career start, punching out six while walking just one along the way. Even more excitingly, he did it in a way that makes you think there’s a lot more in the tank moving forward.

The vibes were good from the outset in this one, beginning with a manufactured run in the first — courtesy of Chase Meidroth and Edgar Quero — and expanding farther with a towering Derek Hill fly ball to start what wound up being a bevy of White Sox home runs:

On another part of the lineup, I won’t mince words. Miguel Vargas spent the entire series against Tampa Bay getting completely hosed on some excellent batted balls. His BABIP entering today was a a paltry .161, which is stupid given the fact that he runs around league average in terms of swing speed and hitting the ball hard. His BABIP actually decreased today, but that’s because his one hit wasn’t a ball in play, as he demolished a baseball out to left field in the second inning to spot the Sox a four-run early lead for the second straight day:

I spoke in the game thread about how Schultz was either going to need to get better at spotting his breaking balls to righties or he’ll have to figure out how to effectively use his changeup. While he did manage to break out the cambio quite a bit more, his breaking ball command remains a work in progress, as evidenced by the wildness of the breakers on his pitch chart this afternoon:

The spinners weren’t quite rolling for Schultz today, but a lot of the other stuff was. That changeup I was just talking about? It drew six swings, all against right-handed hitters, three of which resulted in whiffs. Overall, an excellent 30% of swings against Schultz came up with air over his five innings of work, heavily contributing to allowing just one run and one hit on the board. He also walked one, but more than compensated with six punchouts in total.

That one run, though? Schultz learned the consequences of being unable to spot a breaking ball in Sacramento’s half of the second inning. After being ahead in the count, 1-2, Schultz wasn’t able to locate either his fastball or sweeper near enough to the zone to put Darnell Hernaiz away, and when forced to throw one over the plate on a 3-2 count, the young righty made him pay:

It became somewhat clear that Schultz’s high velocity last week was at least partly a function of debut-at-home adrenaline. He still reached back to touch 97-98 mph a few times today, but after one time through the order he settled more at 94-95 mph. With his huge frame and unconventional release point, that was still enough to remain effective through all five of his innings.

At least the Sox offense actually gave him enough of a cushion to work comfortably late into the outing. Just as on Friday, Munetaka Murakami provided the death blow for the Athletics with yet another mammoth homer on a Springs breaking ball that hung like a half-dry chunk of beef jerky:

That makes eight homers on the year for Murakami, bringing him into a three-way tie with Jordan Walker and Aaron Judge for second in the majors. With that homer, he also became the Sox leader in home runs over their first 22 games with the team, actually surpassing José Abreu’s magical start to the 2014 season.

Hey, remember when Abreu came up and hit a walk-off grand slam within a few weeks of joining the team? Even the bad times produce some good times in this game.

Anyhow, Murakami wasn’t the only of Springs’ worries. Immediately after surrendering Murakami’s blast, Colson Montgomery decided to make his day even worse by knocking one into the batter’s eye in dead center field for his fourth dinger of the young season.

After much consternation yesterday, we did see Grant Taylor toe the rubber again, though in a much less useful situation than if he had been available yesterday — which he understandably wasn’t after heavy work on Thursday. Taylor worked around a tapper of a single to put together a scoreless seventh inning before getting touched up just a bit for two runs, just his second set of runs allowed this year. Still, the stuff looked as excellent as ever, and he still has yet to allow a home run in the major leagues. He’s not quite Mason Miller — nobody is — but he does have a chance to go neck-in-neck with Caleb Bonemer as the franchise’s best second round pick since Terry Forster back in 1970.

The rest of the game was easygoing for a Sox bullpen that desperately needed an easygoing game. Taylor gave way to Jordan Leasure in the seventh inning, and Leasure managed to keep the ball in the yard to bring the game to the eighth at 7-3. Bryan Hudson got into a little bit of trouble in his own bridge inning, bringing the 7-4 game just close enough that, with an off-day tomorrow, Will Venable felt comfortable giving Seranthony Domínguez his seventh save opportunity, and ultimately, his fourth successful conversion of the year so far.

The squad gets the day off tomorrow as they move south for a three-game bout with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have looked pretty dang good across a 14-8 start in a bitterly competitive NL West. We’ll see you for that one on Tuesday night, at 6:40 p.m. Central time!

Offence! By the Toronto Blue Jays! So the legends were true…

After a terrible four game stretch, this win was cathartic.

This one got late early. Nathan Lukes lead the game off with a single, Ernie Clement doubled to put runners on second and third, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lined a single to bring them home. Jesus Sanchez, Eloy Jimenes and Andres Gimenez each singled in turn to score a third and load the bases, and then a Kazuma Okamoto double to left increased the margin to five. After a Myles Straw walk, Brandon Valenzuela was the only Blue Jay not to reach the first time through the order, striking out swinging. Not to worry, as Nathan Lukes lined a double to left for his second hit of the inning, clearing the bases. That spelled the end for Ryne Nelson, who recorded just one out while giving up eight. Reliever Andrew Hoffmann escaped the inning from there and get through the second unscathed, but Okamoto lead off the third with a home run to run the Jays tally up to nine. The tenth run came in the next frame, as Vlad singled, was pushed up on a Sanchez walk, advanced on a wild pitch, and came home on a Gimenez sac fly.

Meanwhile, Kevin Gausman stayed sharp. He gave up a ground ball single in the first, and one run on a walk and a pair of singles in the bottom of two. He went back to holding the snakes scoreless in the third, fourth and fifth. Arizona got one more back in the sixth, on a Lourdes Gurriel jr. single and an Adrian Del Castillo double. All in all, Gausman gave up two earned on seven hits and a walk over six, striking out four.

Mason Fluharty gave two back in the bottom of the seventh, on a Ketel Marte single and a Jorge Barrosa home run. 10-4 would be the final, as Tommy Nance and Braydon Fisher combined to shut the door.

Jays of the Day: Nobody actually qualifies because the good work was spread around. Lukes had three hits and two doubles, Vlad had three of his own, and Okamoto had a homer and a double. Every Jays batter got on base. Gausman also deserves a nod.

Less So: Nobody.

Tomorrow it’s on to Anaheim for *bass reverb voice* Blue Jays After Dark. Dylan Cease (0-0, 1.74) will try to finally get a win in the books after four excellent but indecisive starts. The offence will contend with Reid Detmers (1-1, 3.57). First pitch is set for 9:38pm ET.