A packed Friday night featured 15 games, including Albert Pujols's joining the 3,000 Hit Club and a no-hitter in Mexico.

Friday's scores

Pujols joins 3,000 hit club

Angels slugger Albert Pujols on Friday night became the 32nd member of baseball's 3,000 hit club. The milestone hit was a base hit to right field against Mariners starter Mike Leake. Here's a look: 

The 38-year-old Pujols is only the second player born in the Dominican Republic to reach 3,000 career hits, joining Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. Pujols is the sixth player born outside the United States to reach 3,000 hits, joining Beltre, Rod Carew (Panama), Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba), and Ichiro Suzuki (Japan).

Read more here on Pujols' history-making accomplishment. 

Four Dodger pitchers no-hit Padres

The Dodgers and Padres opened their three-game set this weekend in a setting other than PETCO Park. Rather, the games are being played at Estadio Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. It's the first time since 1999 that Major League Baseball is playing a regular-season contest in Mexico and serves as the latest example of the league trying to grow interest in it abroad.

As for Friday's opener, it turned out to be a memorable one. That's because Dodgers 23-year-old right-hander Walker Buehler in just his third major-league start did the heavy lifting in a combined no-hitter of the Padres. 

Here's the final out ... 

Walker worked six hitless before being lifted after throwing 93 pitches. From there, relievers Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia, and Adam Liberatore closed out the 12th combined no-hitter in major-league history. It's the 23rd no-hitter in Dodgers franchise history, which is the highest team total by a significant margin. 

Here's more on the big night in Monterrey. 

Cole dominates again, but will anyone notice?

As you see above, it was a pretty big night in MLB. However, let's not let Pujols and the Dodgers overshadow the work done by Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole. Check out his night against the D-Backs ... 

player headshot
Gerrit Cole
NYY • SP • #45
vs. ARI, 5/5
IP9
H1
R0
SO16
BB1
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That's complete and utter dominance against what's been one of the better offenses in the NL. That's just the 11th complete game this season, and as for those 16 strikeouts ... 

And as long as we're invoking the names of Astros greats ... 

Cole on the season has an ERA of 1.42 with 77 strikeouts against just nine walks in 50 2/3 innings. Even in this high-K era, that's a tremendously high strikeout rate, especially for a starter. We've heard about Cole's jump in spin rate and the controversy that has flowed from that. Whatever the context, Cole has been the best of the best thus far in 2018. 

Mikolas keeps delivering for Cardinals

It's of course too early to pass judgment on the free agent signings of 2017-18, but thus far Miles Mikolas of the Cardinals is looking like one of the savviest additions. After struggling in MLB, Mikolas reconstructed himself over three seasons in Japan, and this past winter he inked a two-year, $15.5 million deal with St. Louis. On Friday, Mikolas blanked the rival Cubs for seven innings while striking out four and walking none. After that effort, Mikolas on the season has a 2.70 ERA in 40 innings with 31 strikeouts and just two (!) walks. He's also running a ground-ball percentage of 51.2. In terms of "return on investment," Mikolas has been on another level. 

Betts makes Red Sox history

Mookie Betts' scorching start to the season has been one of the notable storylines of 2018, and he was at it again on Friday night in Arlington. With an assist from Bartolo Colon ... 

Betts is now batting .369/.446/.864 with an MLB-leading 13 bombs. And there's also this ... 

It says here he's also been the best player in baseball thus far in 2018. 

On the losing side of things, Texas' Nomar Mazara homered for the forth straight game. 

No. 1 (and counting) for Gleyber in tight Yankee win

Yankees phenom Gleyber Torres entered Friday night's home game against the Indians with a highly respectable .317/.356/.390 batting line since his April 22 call-up. However, he had yet to notch his first career home run. You can probably guess what's coming ... 

That's a 420-foot blast that left the bat at more than 105 mph. That's also the first of, one assumes, many big-league home runs by the former centerpiece of the Aroldis Chapman trade with the Cubs. Also, Torres at age 21 years, 142 days becomes the youngest Yankee to hit a home run since John Ellis back in 1969. 

As for the game, the Yankees prevailed in a thriller. At one point, they led 5-0, but the Indians barged back with a five-run eighth. An Aaron Judge bases-loaded walk gave the Yankees a temporary lead, but then the Indians tied it again on a two-out, two-strike Chapman wild pitch in the ninth. Then in the bottom half, another high-ceiling Yankee youngster -- Miguel Andujar -- came up with two outs and runners on the corners. He dumped a single in to right, and with that the Yankees won for the 13th time in their last 14 games. Almost forgotten in all the late-inning drama were CC Sabathia's six scoreless innings. He's of course been dominant thus far in his age-37 campaign ... 

Given the ongoing depth concerns in the Yankee rotation, he's been huge. 

Mikolas keeps delivering for Cardinals

When we talk about the savviest free agent signings of the 2017-18 offseason, we may look back on the Cardinals' inking of Miles Mikolas as one of the best. 

Harper continues thriving in leadoff spot

Bryce Harper on Friday night started for the fourth straight game atop the Nationals' batting order. While Harper is far from a conventional leadoff hitter, he's thrived in that spot thus far. Speaking of which, here's how he started things off against the Phils ... 

Not exactly a towering blast, but opposite-field power is always a pleasing site. On that topic ... 


Source: FanGraphs

Harper of course has power to all fields, but he certainly shows pull tendencies when he goes yard -- hardly unusual for a lefty cloutsman. When he goes oppo, it's typically to left-center. Rarely does he go extreme oppo, as he did in the example you saw above. 

But wait: That's not all! Harper came up again in the third and committed this act of premeditated violence ... 

Yeah, we're going to need some numbers on that absolute unit ... 

Mercy. As for the leadoff thing, Harper now has four homers in as many games as the Nats' No. 1 hitter. As of that second dinger, Harper's now batting .272/.459/.641, and he now leads the NL in home runs. 

Charlie Blackmon, road warrior

You expect, of course, that hitters who call Coors Field home will thrive at a mile above sea level and labor at lower altitudes. Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon, however, is off to a topsy-turvy start in 2018. Coming into Friday night's contest in Queens against the Mets, he had an OPS of .728 at home and 1.116 on the road. This almost certainly won't last, as splits of this kind are prone to random variation even at much larger samples. It's a nugget, though, and it also brings us to this ... 

That's a home run on the road, you know. On that front ... 

Blackmon's been an outstanding hitter in any context since 2016 or so, and that's the case again in 2018. How he's going about it, though, is somewhat unexpected. 

Quick hits

  • The Mets have designated RHP Matt Harvey for assignment after he refused an assignment to the minors. This means the Mets will either trade or release Harvey. Here's a look at some potential fits for Harvey. 
  • The Braves will promote 3B/OF Jose Bautista on Friday to join their big-league club.
  • Marlins activated RHP Tyler Cloyd from the paternity list and optioned LHP Dillon Peters to the minors.
  • The Braves have placed SS Dansby Swanson on the 10-day disabled list with left wrist inflammation.
  • The Tigers have placed 1B Miguel Cabrera on the 10-day DL with a right hamstring strain.
  • ESPN reports that Giants RHP Johnny Cueto is expected to see Dr. James Andrews on Monday regarding his ailing elbow.
  • White Sox 2B Yoan Moncada left Friday night's game with hamstring tightness. He'll be reevaluated on Saturday.

Live team updates