Thanks to a Bay Area doubleheader, there are 16 MLB games on the schedule on Saturday. Here is everything you need to know about the day in baseball. Make sure you check back for updates throughout the day (and night).

Saturday's scores

Indians win 17th straight

The molten-hot Cleveland Indians won again Saturday afternoon, extending their franchise record winning streak to 17 games. They've outscored their opponents 118-30 (118-30!) during the 17 games. They've only trailed in four out of 153 total innings during the streak as well, including for the first two innings Saturday. The Orioles took a quick 1-0 lead on three singles in the first inning.

The Indians responded with one run in the third, one run in the fourth, one run in the fifth, and one run in the seventh. Franchise shortstop Francisco Lindor swatted his 28th home run of the season for an insurance run late in the game. Starter Josh Tomlin allowed two runs in five innings, which qualifies as a poor outing for Cleveland's rotation these days.

The current 17-game winning streak is the second-longest winning streak in baseball over the last 50 years. Only the Athletics, who won an AL-record 20 straight games in 2002, have had a longer winning streak. Here's are baseball's longest winning streaks over the last half-decade:

  1. 2002 Athletics: 20 wins
  2. 2017 Indians: 17 wins and counting
  3. 1977 Royals: 16 wins
  4. 2001 Mariners: 15 wins
  5. 2000 Braves: 15 wins
  6. 1991 Twins: 15 wins

Astros lose twice, fall into tie with Indians

Beyond the winning streak, the Indians are now tied with the Astros for the best record in the AL, thanks to the Astros dropping both ends of a doubleheader to the A's Saturday. The bullpen was brutalized in both games as the Astros were outscored 22-5. They're in no danger of losing the AL West, of course, but the top seed is in play. 

The best record in the league would secure home-field advantage through at least the ALCS. Then again, maybe home-field advantage doesn't matter much. The Indians have actually played better on the road this year:

  • Home: 38-29 (plus-97 run differential)
  • Road: 48-27 (plus-109 run differential)

Of course, playing at home in the postseason is much better than playing on the road, even if your season record says you've had more success away from your ballpark. Players prefer to sleep in their own beds and have their home fans behind them as much as possible. 

Further, top seed makes a big difference in opponent in the first round. Let's say the Yankees lose the wild card game. Getting the top seed in the AL could mean the difference between playing the Red Sox or, say, the Twins or Angels in a five-game series in the ALDS. That's a wide gap. 

Dodgers lose again

The team that was 91-36 and on pace to set the single-season MLB record for wins has lost 14 of its last 15 games now. The only win in there was a 1-0 win against the Padres where Clayton Kershaw started, too, which is as much of a gimme as one can get in the majors, really. 

Well, other than playing the Dodgers in these last two weeks. 

The current losing streak is nine, which is the longest the Dodgers have suffered in the last 25 years. 

They are still almost certainly going to win the NL West -- it's a 10-game lead with 20 games to go -- and have a good shot to end with the best record in the majors, but this stretch is amazing in its juxtaposition to what the Dodgers were 15 games ago. 

Brewers embarrass Cubs, move to within three

The wind was blowing in for Saturday afternoon's NL Central bout in Wrigley Field, so the Brewers went with the "death by a thousand paper cuts" method of winning. 

In an eight-run third, the Brewers went walk, single, walk, double (it was a hard grounder down the first-base line), single, single, walk, double, sac bunt, sac fly and line out. 

In something you rarely see, the Brewers loaded the bases with no outs, cleared the bases and then loaded them again with no outs. That's a pretty good way to score loads of runs. 

With the Cubs offense already having to deal with Chase Anderson and, again, the wind blowing in, that was pretty much the game. The Brewers would relentlessly tack on seven more runs -- including a Hernan Perez homer where the wind wasn't an issue -- and make a laugher out of this one. 

With one game left in the series, the Brewers now trail the Cubs by three games in the NL Central. 

Cardinals also within three

The Cardinals only gathered four hits on Saturday, but they made them count. One was a two-run Yadier Molina home run, another was a solo shot from Matt Carpenter and the fourth was a Paul DeJong double that would lead to the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

A fun little note on this one: Former Pirates reliever Juan Nicasio came on to get the save. Remember, the Pirates let him go on irrevocable waivers the last week of August to the Phillies and then the Phillies turned around and traded him to the Cardinals this past week. Now he nailed down the save for his contending team against his former teammates. 

The Cardinals are tied for second in the NL Central with the Brewers, trailing the Cubs by three games. 

Stanton clubs No. 54

Giancarlo Stanton continues to inch closer to 60 home runs, as he hit his 54th of the season on Saturday night. Here's the shot: 

More on the home run here.

Sale strengthens push for Cy Young

Red Sox ace Chris Sale worked six scoreless innings while striking out eight in Saturday's blowout victory. He's 16-7 with a 2.76 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 278 strikeouts against 38 walks in 195 2/3 innings this season. 

The Red Sox, more importantly, maintain their 4 1/2 game lead atop the AL East over the Yankees. 

More history for Hoskins

Phillies rookie Rhys Hoskins just keeps making history when it comes to reaching home run numbers quicker than anyone ever has. He hit his 14th home run of the season on Saturday in just his 30th career game. 

One tidbit: 

Montemurro next pointed out that Ted Williams set this one in 1953 upon his return from the Korean War and Hoskins still have 20 games left to play. 

Another tidbit: 

What an unbelievable start to a career. 

Judge ties rookie walk record

In his first plate appearance Saturday, Yankees rookie Aaron Judge worked his MLB-leading 155th full count -- Jose Bautista is a distant second with 135 -- and eventually took ball four from Rangers righty Andrew Cashner. It was Judge's AL-leading 106th walk of the season, and it tied the rookie walk record. Only six rookies in history have drawn 100-plus walks:

  1. Aaron Judge, 2017 Yankees: 106
  2. Les Fleming, 1942 Indians: 106
  3. Ted Williams, 1939 Red Sox: 105
  4. Lu Blue, 1921 Tigers: 103
  5. Jim Gilliam, 1953 Dodgers: 100
  6. Al Rosen, 1950 Indians: 100

There is a bit of a discrepancy with Teddy Ballgame's rookie walk total. Baseball-Reference.com lists it at 107 walks while the Elias Sports Bureau has it at 105 walks. Elias is the official statistician for Major League Baseball, so the record books say Williams walked 105 times in 1939, not 107. Either way, Judge figures to shatter the rookie walk record before the end of the season.

Abreu hits for cycle as White Sox explode

Sure, it was a game between non-contenders, but there was some fun -- albeit one-sided fun -- in the White Sox drubbing of the Giants. 

The Sox collected 13 runs on 20 hits, which included six home runs. Per the White Sox, it was just the 13th time in franchise history the White Sox hit six homers in a game. 

Jose Abreu went 4 for 5 with three runs and three RBI while hitting for the cycle. Here's the triple that completed the job: 

This was the first time in Abreu's career that he hit for the cycle. 

Padres storm back with a six-run ninth

It looked like yet another Diamondbacks win as they took a 6-0 lead into the seventh inning and even a 7-2 lead into the ninth. 

Instead, the Padres would score six runs before the D-Backs left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. 

In the top half, Wil Myers hit his second homer of the game, a two-run job to cut it to 7-4. The D-Backs then turned to volatile closer Fernando Rodney. He would get a strikeout before walking a guy, giving up a double and then coughing up three singles in a row, the latter one by Carlos Asuage and giving the Padres' their 8-7 lead. 

Arizona is still pretty well set as the top NL wild card. This was just notable due to the six-run, ninth-inning comeback by the Padres. 

Blackmon makes leadoff man history

Rockies leadoff man Charlie Blackmon is having an amazing season and here's yet another illustration of that: 

The NL distinction might seem cherry-picked, but realize the AL has had the DH -- and, thus, no pitcher spot in the nine-hole -- since 1973. 

Since there are three weeks left, Blackmon will have the record at some point. 

Chapman returns to closer's role

Roughly three weeks ago, the Yankees demoted the struggling Aroldis Chapman out of the closer's role following a string of rough outings. He'd allowed a run in four straight outings, including multiple runs in three straight outings at the time.

Chapman allowed one run in five appearances and 4 2/3 middle relief innings following the demotion, and on Saturday, he returned to his familiar closer's role. He nailed down New York's win over the Rangers with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Manager Joe Girardi explained the decision to use Chapman as the closer prior to Saturday's game. From Mike Mazzeo of the New York Daily News:

"I'm hoping to lock it down to one guy. I think it's important that we try to do that," Girardi said. "But I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to have those three arms down there. And you mix and match. That's not the worst thing in the world, but you'd kind of like to lock it down."  

Dellin Betances handled closing duty during Chapman's demotion with David Robertson setting up. Betances allowed a two-run walk-off home run to Manny Machado on Tuesday, which seemed to spur on the closer change. Luis Severino, Robertson, and Chapman combined to one-hit the Rangers on Saturday.

Quick hits

  • Brewers ace RHP Jimmy Nelson will miss the rest of the season with a rotator cuff strain and partially torn labrum. He suffered the injury diving into first base after making too wide a turn around the bag on a single Friday night.
  • Red Sox LHP David Price threw two 16-pitch simulated innings Saturday, according to ESPN. Everything went well and Price is expected to throw a longer simulated game in four or five days. He's been out since late July with an elbow injury.
  • Indians IF Jose Ramirez is not in Saturday's lineup. This is his third straight game on the bench as he nurses a sore wrist. There's no reason for the Indians to push their star player given their hot streak and enormous division lead.
  • Angels 3B Yunel Escobar suffered a setback with his oblique injury and has been shut down, reports the Orange County Register. Escobar has been out since August 8. It's unclear whether Escobar will return before the end of the regular season.
  • Mets IF Jose Reyes said he would like to finish his career with the team, though the Mets are "lukewarm" about bringing him back next season, reports the New York Post. Reyes, 34, is hitting .237/.307/.402 with 19 steals this season.
  • Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said he will prioritize pitching this offseason, and may trade from his infield depth to get it, reports MLB.com. It's been speculated the team could dangle 3B Maikel Franco as trade bait.
  • Giants 1B Brandon Belt, who has not played since August 4 due to a concussion, is unlikely to return this season, reports NBC Bay Area. This is Belt's fourth career concussion, though doctors have told him his career is not in jeopardy.
  • The Yankees have signed top Dominican shortstop Ronny Rojas for $1 million, reports Baseball America. This means New York has $1 million less in international bonus money to offer Shohei Otani should he decide to come to MLB this offseason.