The trade deadline is 12 days away and we're heading into what will be a very hot weekend of baseball on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Here is what you need to know about Friday's 15-game slate of big league action.

Select games can be streamed regionally via fuboTV (Try for free). For more on what channel each game is on, click here.

Who wins every MLB game? And what underdogs can give you a huge victory tonight? Visit SportsLine now to see the exact score of every MLB game, plus get full player stat projections, all from the model that simulates every game 10,000 times.

Baseball schedule/scores for Friday, July 19

Leake comes within three outs of perfect game

Seattle Mariners right-hander Mike Leake came within three outs of pitching the 24th perfect game in MLB history on Friday night at T-Mobile Park. Instead, Leake allowed a leadoff single on a 1-1 changeup to Luis Rengifo, after eight spotless frames against the Angels. 

Click here to read more. 

Cards stun Reds with comeback

When a game is headed to the sixth inning with a 7-0 score, the lead is generally secure, save for maybe some Coors Field madness. Even if the trailing team come back, you very rarely see it happen in one inning. And yet that's exactly what happened in Cincinnati Friday night. 

The Reds had a 7-0 lead. Tyler Mahle was working on a shutout. And then this madness happened. 

Click here to read more.

Trade candidate Stroman looks strong

On Friday night in Detroit, the Blue Jays laid waste to the Tigers, and scouts from several teams watched it happen. 

The scouting presence was a heavy one in large measure because Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman was on the mound. The 28-year-old Stroman is widely expected to be dealt before the July 31 trade deadline, and interested teams were on hand to get perhaps one last look at him. 

Which interested teams were at Comerica Park on Friday night? Here's a possibly partial listing: 

The Phillies and Padres are also known to have some level of interest in Stroman, and presumably there are others. Anyhow, here's what all those scouts saw: 

player headshot
Marcus Stroman
NYY • SP
vs. DET, 7/19/19
IP7
H6
R0
SO5
BB0
View Profile

Stroman with that outing lowered his 2019 ERA to 3.06 after 20 starts. His 93 strikeouts against 34 walks in 117 2/3 innings don't look all that impressive by 2019 standards, but Stroman's ground-ball percentage of 57.1 makes up for it. In this start, he went sinker-slider-cutter, as he usually does, while mixing in a four-seamer and changeup. The deep repertoire is working well for Stroman, and the heavy reliance on sinkers and cutters is helping him induce playable contact. All of this is to say Stroman is looking like a worthy addition.

Stroman this season is owed the balance of an exceedingly modest $7.4 million salary, and he's not eligible for free agency until after the 2020 season. That additional year of control will greatly add to his appeal on the market and, by extension, significantly raise the Jays' asking price. Given how many teams are interested, that asking price figures to be met. 

Rizzo snaps home run drought with grand slam

It's not often a hitter as good as Anthony Rizzo goes more than a month without a home run, especially in the juiced ball/launch angle era, but it happens. Rizzo went into Friday's series opener with the Padres without a home run in his last 26 games, the third longest homer drought of his career. He last went deep on June 16.

In his second at-bat Friday, Rizzo snapped that homer drought with authority. He clubbed an opposite field go-ahead grand slam against San Diego southpaw Eric Lauer. To the action footage:

That is home run No. 20 for Rizzo and his first in 33 days. He was two games short of tying the second longest homerless streak of his career (28 games in 2013) but well short of his career high (46 games spanning 2011-12).

To be clear, Rizzo was not in a slump between home runs. He hit an excellent .300/.407/.422 with nine doubles and one triple in 108 plate appearances between homers. Rizzo was still producing. He just wasn't hitting the ball over the fence. Now that the monkey is off his back, don't be surprised if he goes on a homer binge these next few weeks.

Bell sets Reds record for managerial ejections

Here's rookie Reds manager David Bell getting heated over plate ump Carlos Torres' ejection of Eugenio Suarez: 

The initial argument stemmed from Suarez's getting punched out by Torres on a questionable called strike three to end the first inning. Once Suarez was run, Bell emerged and was shortly thereafter tossed for the seventh time in this, his rookie managerial season. Even though it's just July 19, that's already a franchise single-season record: 

So that's seven ejections for Bell, and he's reached that record mark by game 95. He's now tied with Ron Gardenhire of the Tigers for most ejections in 2019. Each is on pace to threaten the all-time single-season record of 12 managerial ejections, which is shared by Hall of Famers Bobby Cox and John McGraw. 

Let's repeat that Bell is in his first season as a major-league skipper before you appreciate this nugget: 

Yes, Bell ranks 185th out of 709 managers in MLB history when it comes to ejections, and he's a mere 95 games into his tenure. Cox, by the way, is all-time champ with 158 ejections.

Remain defiant and employed, David Bell, and history is yours. 

Alvarez keeps crushing with a 474-foot homer

Astros rookie DH/outfielder Yordan Alvarez entered Friday with a slash line of .330/.405/.680 (182 OPS+) through the first 26 games of his career. Along the way, Alvarez has put up an average exit velocity of 93.0 versus a league mark of 87.5 and a hard-hit rate of 50 percent versus a league mark of 34.4. So he's producing, and that production has been earned. 

Speaking of earned production, regard this blast from Friday night against Rangers ace Mike Minor: 

That one left the bat at 112.2 mph and traveled a whopping 474 feet. Speaking of: 

The 22-year-old Alvarez has a strong minor-league track record, and he's crushing the ball at the highest level thus far. He's looking very much like a key piece for a team with legit designs on the World Series. 

Quick hits