Thursday brought an interesting slate of action: no games scheduled later than 8:10 p.m. ET, and remarkable day action, thanks in part to some tasty pitching matchups.

Thursday's scores

Hamels shines for Cubs

Cole Hamels continues to look like a great pickup for the Cubs.He entered Thursday with a 0.72 ERA and 3.83 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first four starts.

Hamels then added to that against the Reds, throwing his first complete game of the season while permitting just one run on eight hits and two walks. He also struck out seven batters.

Hamels received seven runs of support from the Cubs bats. Javier Baez, as he so often is, was the lineup's brightest spot, going 3 for 5 with a homer and double. He scored three runs. Anthony Rizzo also contributed two hits, including his 21st home run. 

Rockies walk off on Desmond homer

The Rockies entered Thursday in what's become an unusual position for them: a loss against the Padres would have resulted in their first lost series since early August.

You can read the subhead above. You know exactly what happened instead. But to state it for effect: Ian Desmond spared the Rockies from a defeat with a walk-off two-run home run:

That's Desmond's 20th homer of the season. He entered the day with just an 86 OPS+, but his homers count all the same.

As for the Rockies' streak of winning series, they'll now host the Cardinals for three games. Those two teams currently possess the NL's wild card spots, making this weekend's set a pivotal one -- as well as a potential preview of postseason action. 

Nola gets leg up in Cy Young race?

Looking at the day game pitching matchups was beautiful. Aaron Nola vs. Max Scherzer and then Madison Bumgarner vs. Jacob deGrom. We've been talking for weeks about how no one should ignore Nola in the deGrom vs. Scherzer debates, and he was the best performer on Thursday. 

Nola went eight scoreless innings, striking out Bryce Harper with two on and a two-run lead with his final pitch to end the eighth. 

He only gave up five hits while walking one and striking out nine. Scherzer allowed just a two-run Odubel Herrera homer in his seven innings. He struck out 10 against four walks and only gave up two hits. 

Meanwhile, in Queens, deGrom allowed just one run in six innings and was saddled with the loss. Like Scherzer, he had 10 strikeouts and four walks. Bumgarner went eight strong, giving up just one run while striking out eight. He looked like his old self, and the Mets had actually been hitting well of late. 

Still, it's about the trio of Cy Young contenders, all of whom should also be in MVP consideration. 

Here's how their full-season lines look now: 

  • deGrom is 8-8 with a 1.71 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 214 strikeouts in 174 innings. 
  • Scherzer is 16-6 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 244 strikeouts in 181 2/3 innings. 
  • Nola is 15-3 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 169 strikeouts in 169 innings.

This thing is going down to the wire, isn't it? Regardless, Thursday was good for Nola. 

Most importantly, he stopped the Phillies' four-game losing streak. 

Acuna gets revenge against the Marlins

Ronald Acuna Jr. took advantage of playing the Marlins for the first time since being intentionally plunked by hitting a long home run that damaged a Marlins Park wall. Check out the full story here.

Red Sox salvage split with Indians

If this was a true ALCS preview, we'd need at least two more games to see who is set to advance to the World Series. After the Indians took the first two games of the series, the Red Sox punched back with two wins to come away with a split. These two wins were rather convincing blowouts too, as the Red Sox come away having outscored the Indians 23-15. 

Thursday, David Price continued his stretch of dominance. He entered the game with a 1.35 ERA in his last five starts. He threw up eight zeroes in this one, allowing only three hits (all singles) while striking out seven and not walking anyone. He is all kinds of locked in right now with Chris Sale on the disabled list. 

Offensively, the Red Sox did almost all their damage in one inning, putting up a six-spot in the fifth inning. They did it with three two-RBI doubles: 

The Red Sox are back to an MLB-best 51 games over .500. That's a 162-game pace of 113 wins. The franchise record is 105. They only need to go 16-17 the rest of the way break that record. 

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