Wacha Bats, Pitches Cardinals To Win, Cubs Down Braves

By ESPN

Michael Wacha busted it out of the batter's box on a hot night and was thinking about an RBI as he raced down toward first base trying to beat out a double play during a big second inning.

Not only did he do that, he also threw a three-hitter for his first career shutout, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets 5-0 on Tuesday night.

"Yeah, I am not fast by any means, but I was just trying to get down there and beat it out," said Wacha (7-3), who previously pitched 11 days ago.

Despite a slow start that has them one game under .500, the Cardinals were able to move within 3 1/2 games behind the National League Central Division-leading Milwaukee Brewers thanks to Wacha, who won his fourth consecutive start, and Matt Carpenter, who had four hits.

"Oh, it was awesome. He came out from the first pitch and you could tell he had good stuff," said Carpenter, who picked up his 10th-career four-hit game and first since May 31, 2016, at Milwaukee.

Wacha struck out eight and walked one in his 99th start, allowing only three runners to reach second base.

The 26-year-old right-hander, who was ineffective last season, had not won four straight starts since the 2013 playoffs when he helped lead St. Louis to the World Series.

There were rumors off a possible move to the bullpen for Wacha prior to this season, but St. Louis manager Mike Matheny always thought otherwise.

"You can't forget, it was '13 and this kid came on the scene and then pitched on the big stage and threw some of the better games that we had seen," Matheny said. "And that stuff, when he's healthy, that stuff is right. You know days like this I know reaffirm for him the kind of pitcher that he should be. We see it. Just want to continue to watch it."

Wacha and the Cardinals capitalized on a shoddy Mets defense that let down starter Rafael Montero (1-6) with three errors. Montero allowed four runs, two earned, in six innings. New York has lost three straight and eight of 11.

"We've talked about it. In this league you can't give away outs," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "Big league teams, you can't give them extra outs. They capitalized on them, and with Wacha pitching like he did tonight, a pretty dominant performance, you let him have some extra runs, they're going to beat you."

The first of Carpenter's four hits was a first-inning double into the right field corner. He advanced to third on third baseman T.J. Rivera's throwing error and scored on Jedd Gyorko's sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals took advantage of two more miscues during a three-run second inning. Wacha grounded into what could have been a double play, but shortstop Jose Reyes had trouble getting the ball to first. Carpenter doubled over left fielder Yoenis Cespedes' head to make it 2-0. St. Louis added another run when Rivera couldn't field Tommy Pham's grounder, allowing Wacha to score

"He was locating the fastball well, throwing 93 to 97, 98 and his breaking ball was good," said Mets catcher Rene Rivera. "He got one of the best catchers in baseball behind the plate with Yadi (Molina) mixing up pitches."

Cubs 5, Braves 1

John Lackey didn't consider this a final test to see whether he can hold his spot in the Chicago Cubs' rotation.

Lackey has given no thought to pitching out the bullpen, not after a 15-year career as a starter.

"No, that ship has sailed," Lackey said with a smile. "That ain't going to happen. There's two places for me to be: starting or at home. Except for the playoffs or in big games -- we can compromise."

Willson Contreras hit a three-run homer, Lackey earned his first win in a month and the Cubs won their fifth straight game with a 5-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.

Rain delayed the start of the game for 2 hours, 30 minutes.

The defending World Series champion Cubs moved three games over .500 for the first time since winning at Miami on June 6. Chicago is 2 1/2 games behind NL Central-leading Milwaukee.

The Cubs went up 4-1 in the third on Javier Baez's 11th homer and Contreras' 13th homer, a three-run shot . Chicago led 5-1 in the sixth on Ben Zobrist's groundout.

Lackey (6-9) came off the disabled list to allow one run, five hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out one. The 38-year-old showed no ill effects from plantar fasciitis in his right foot and won for the first time since June 18 at Pittsburgh, a stretch of four starts.

The Braves have dropped two straight after sweeping three games from Arizona.

Atlanta began the night 18-11 since June 2, tied with Houston for the second-best record in the majors. But the Braves' offense mostly sputtered against Lackey, getting only a solo homer from Nick Markakis in the second.

It was the 25th homer allowed by Lackey, most in the National League. Lackey has been speculated as possibly moving to the bullpen with the Cubs trading recently for Jose Quintana and getting Kyle Hendricks back from the disabled list in a few days.

Lackey began the season with a career 3.88 ERA. It's 5.04 this year, but he hopes that Tuesday's outing -- preceded by Jon Lester, Quintana and Jake Arrieta -- proves that the rotation is still reliable after a difficult first half of the season.

"We have guys that have done it before, guys who take pride in what they do and want to do better than we did in the first half, for sure," Lackey said.

Sean Newcomb (1-5) lost his third straight start, allowing five runs, eight hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings. The left-hander struck out five.

"Tonight I didn't throw a lot of strikes in spots I need to," Newcomb said. "I was trying to do a little too much with my off-speed, kind of trying to not living pitch by pitch, thinking too far ahead. I just have to attack a pitch at a time, not worry about what's about to happen."

Dodgers 1, White Sox 0

 Clayton Kershaw might not have been as sharp as usual coming off a rare nine-day gap between starts.

Then again, the Dodgers' ace is awfully good, even when he's not at his best.

Kershaw pitched seven innings for his major league-leading 15th victory and the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the Chicago White Sox 1-0 on Tuesday night for their 10th straight victory.

Kershaw (15-2) made his first start since the All-Star break, allowing seven hits and a walk to post his 11th win in a row.

"I was little rusty tonight," said Kershaw, who struck out seven and lowered his ERA to 2.07. "The fastball command wasn't great the first few innings. It got a little better as we went along. Nine days off is definitely not something I'm used to. I'm thankful to get out of this unscathed and get the win."

The Dodgers, with the best record in baseball at 65-29, have won 30 of 34 -- the best 34-game stretch in the franchise's rich history. This is the second 10-game winning streak of the season for the NL West leaders.

Relievers Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen closed it out. Jansen survived a deep fly by Matt Davidson to record his 24th save in 24 chances.

Chris Taylor had four hits and scored on rookie Cody Bellinger's single in the first inning off Miguel Gonzalez (4-9), who lasted six innings and induced three of the Dodgers' four double plays.

Both teams struggled with runners in scoring position, with the Dodgers going 1 for 10 and the White Sox 1 for 8.

"To me, we won a baseball game, which is the most important thing, but you're not always gonna be able to escape games like this," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "So, you gotta cash in. I expect us to be better offensively tomorrow."

Chicago's best chance off Kershaw, who had not allowed more than six hits in a game since a no-decision on May 28, came in the sixth.

With runners on first and third and one out, Tyler Saladino bunted a safety squeeze attempt into the air for an easy play by catcher Yasmani Grandal, then Kershaw ended the rally by getting Yolmer Sanchez to ground out.

"If you look at the line tonight, domination, but it's all relative with Clayton because he's so special," Roberts said. "When everything isn't synced up, you think something's wrong. But he is human and he's not perfect, but he still finds a way to go out there and give us quality innings."

Yankees, White Sox Trade

New York Yankees fans had grown to dislike reliever Tyler Clippard. He had pitched really poorly of late, making him quite unpopular. But a baseball team is like a family, and Clippard was part of the clubhouse that he joined nearly a year ago in a trade, spending more time with his fellow Yankees than anyone else in his life.

Clippard's teammates liked him.

So after Yankees manager Joe Girardi called him into his office following the team's 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday to tell Clippard he had been dealt, Clippard described the feeling as "gut-wrenching." He didn't expect it, even though this is the third year in a row he has been dealt.

His teammates came up to him, offering handshakes and hugs. They'll miss Clippard, they all said. But they also said that the acquisition of a corner infielder in Todd Frazier and two right-handed power relievers in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle in exchange for minor leaguers Blake Rutherford, Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo and Clippard made the Yankees better in 2017.

Even Clippard acknowledged it.

"It is a good trade for the Yankees, for sure," Clippard said. "I understand why."

It is easy to see why the Yankees made this trade. They have a much stronger roster today than they did yesterday. They added three needed players for one underachieving major leaguer. The rest of it, well, that is a big TBD.

The verdict on this deal is probably about five to 10 years down the road. Rutherford, an outfielder, and Clarkin -- a lefty starter who was drafted right after a kid named Aaron Judge in 2013 -- both have potential to be really good major leaguers.

There are some who think Rutherford will move through the minors fast. But he is only 20 years old, hitting .281 in Class A and the Yankees have plenty of young outfielders. They might regret the deal one day but that wasn't the case Tuesday night, at least not in Girardi's office or in his clubhouse. Not even Clippard.

Probably the biggest piece in the trade is the least famous one. Kahnle, 27, has been a strikeout machine for the White Sox and is three years away from free agency. He was in the Yankees' system before the team lost him in the Rule 5 draft in 2013. He is striking out 15 per nine innings. His ERA is 2.50.

The Yankees allowed Robertson to walk after he had an exceptional year as their closer in 2014, though neither side really wanted to let go. The Yankees chose to sign Andrew Miller and pick up the first-round compensation as Robertson went to Chicago. Now he's back. He will not pitch the ninth or the eighth innings regularly, but more likely the seventh or maybe even earlier.

Robertson is owed $13 million for next season, so he can help the Yankees this season and possibly could turn into a trade chip this winter or next July if the Yankees want to tinker with their roster again.

Robertson is striking out batters at a high rate -- 12.7 per nine innings -- his best since 2014 when he replaced Mariano Rivera. He struck out 13.4 per nine then, which got him paid. His walk issues are still there, but he has cut down his free passes from 4.6 per nine to 3.0. Meanwhile, Clippard's 4.95 ERA is 101st out of 109 relievers in the game with 35 innings or more.

The additions offer further protection for the Yankees' five-year, $86 million investment in Aroldis Chapman. In theory, they might be able to protect his expensive left arm.

Frazier, now 31, came to prominence in the Little League World Series for Toms River, New Jersey, famously taking a photo with Derek Jeter as a kid and then playing against him as an adult.

He is hitting only .207 but, with Greg Bird probably out for the rest of the season, the Yankees wanted an upgrade over Garrett Cooper and Ji-Man Choi. Frazier has been much better away from Guaranteed Rate Field, hitting .267 with a .923 OPS compared to .142 and .585 at home. Frazier is a free agent at the end of the season, so the Yankees have no monetary commitment beyond the next few months.

Girardi wasn't sure whom he would put at first base -- Frazier or Chase Headley -- but either way the Yankees will feel as if they have established major leaguers at both corners. In making the deals, though, they have sent a message that was felt in the clubhouse: The front office believes this Yankees team, which is three games back in the American League East and holding the second wild card, can make the playoffs and maybe, with this bullpen, make some noise.

When looking at the Yankees' trade with the White Sox, it is important to take a glance around the AL -- there is one super team in Houston, then everybody else. Factor that in with the Yankees having played only one postseason game since 2012 and you can begin to understand why general manager Brian Cashman felt he could uphold his "careful buyer" mantra and make the trade.

There is no doubt that the Yankees are a better team, with a superior chance to win this season than they had before the deal. Long term, no one knows. But that is an opinion for a long time from now.

Tuesday, July 18 Scoreboard

Baltimore 12, Texas 1

Pittsburgh 4, Milwaukee 3

Arizona 11, Cincinnati 2

St. Louis 5, New York Mets 0

Philadelphia 5, Miami 2

Chicago Cubs 5, Atlanta 1

New York Yankees 6, Minnesota 3

Boston 5, Toronto 4 (F/15)

Los Angeles Dodgers 1, Chicago White sox 0

Houston 6, Seattle 2

Detroit 9, Kansas City 3

Colorado 9, San Diego 7

Tampa Bay 4, Oakland 3

Washington 4, Los Angeles Angels 3

San Francisco 2, Cleveland 1 (F/10)

Wednesday, July 19 Schedule (All Times Central)

Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, 11:10 a.m.

Philadelphia at Miami, 11:10 a.m.

New York Yankees at Minnesota, 12:10 p.m.

Seattle at Houston, 1:30 p.m.

San Diego at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Oakland, 2:35 p.m.

Cleveland at San Francisco, 2:45 p.m.

St. Louis at New York Mets, 6 p.m.

Texas at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Toronto at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Arizona at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

Detroit at Kansas City, 7:15 p.m.

Washington at Los Angeles Angels, 9 p.m.