A Saturday in the middle of May means we get treated all day and night with a full slate of baseball goodness. 

In this one, two Phillies paired together to star in a win, the Reds are looking to have a really nice week, the Rays took back first place, the Tigers lost their sixth straight and there's a lot more to that. The Braves won dramatically against the Brewers. Oh, and a certain first-place team just refuses to lose and the best player in baseball hit a prodigious blast that got him halfway to 500. 

We'll get to all that and more in our daily roundup. Play ball! 

Baseball scores for Saturday, May 18

Astros just won't stop winning

With the Red Sox having recently righted the ship, their ALCS rematch with the Astros this weekend was rightfully heavily hyped. The Astros aren't really cooperating, though, as they never lose these days. They pounced out to a five-run first inning and never looked back in this one. 

The Astros have now won 10 games in a row and have the best record in baseball at 31-15, which is a 109-win pace. The lead the league in most major offensive categories and are pitching well, too. This is the best team in baseball and it's not really close at this point. They're also doing this without Jose Altuve. 

On the Red Sox's end, there's really no shame. The Astros are just a wrecking crew. Buzzsaw games happen to good teams. 

Hot Braves get Freeman walk-off

In about as tough a lefty-lefty matchup as there is, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman hit a 10th-inning, walk-off home run against Brewers relief ace Josh Hader: 

After falling to two games below .500 late last week, the Braves have now won seven of their last eight games and sit just 1 1/2 games out of first in the NL East. 

Tanaka leaves early in Yankees loss

Masahiro Tanaka was forced to depart following six shutout innings against the Rays on Saturday after being struck in the foot by a Yandy Diaz batted ball. Take a look:

Given how the Yankees' season has played out, you might suspect that Tanaka would be heading for the injured list with a fractured foot. For the time being, at least, that does not appear to be the case. Rather, Tanaka has been diagnosed as having a shin contusion:

Tanaka had struck out six and permitted just three hits on 88 pitches prior to his exit. His seasonal ERA is now down to 3.09. 

The Yankees, for their part, were holding onto a 1-0 lead at the time. The Rays would then tie the game in the seventh on a Brandon Lowe home run before taking the lead (for good) on an Austin Meadows dinger in the 11th.

As a result, the Rays are now back in first place in the AL East with one more game to go between these teams.

Have the Mets hit rock bottom? 

There have been whispers about manager Mickey Callaway's job security in the past few weeks, and those will only intensify now. The Mets have lost the first two games of their series to the lowly Marlins. They collected just one hit while being shut out on Saturday. The Marlins entered this series with a 10-31 record. It doesn't get much worse than this for a Mets team that fancied a playoff run in 2019. 

The Mets are now 5-10 in May and have lost four games in a row to bad teams. The only series they've won since April 24 came in a two-gamer against the Marlins. 

The Mets are a season-low four games under .500 and sit 5 1/2 games out in the NL East. They were tied for first on April 24. 

The upcoming schedule should be friendly for the Mets. They have one more against the Marlins before hosting the Nationals for four games and the Tigers for three. Then again, they just lost to the Marlins, so it's not like they've been beating up on the teams they should. 

Reds have a shot at a great week

With their win Saturday over the Dodgers, the Reds have a chance to win home series this week against two first-place teams. They took two of three from the Cubs -- the Cubs' first series loss since they started 2-7 -- and have so far split against the Dodgers. Winning four of six against those two teams would really be a shot in the arm for a talented team that got off to a bad start. 

Josh Bell's power surge continues

The Pirates first baseman had never had a multi-homer game in his career until May 4 of this season. On Saturday night, he had his third multi-homer game in May. 

That's eight homers on the month and 14 in the season for Bell. He's pretty clearly having his breakout season here at age 26. 

Harper launches one, Nola deals

Bryce Harper is known for his on-base skills and his power. He showed off the latter on Saturday, launching one deep to center field in the first inning of the Phillies game against the Rockies:

According to Statcast, that's the second-longest home run of Harper's career (in the Statcast era, anyway):

Harper now has eight home runs on the season. Additionally, he's eight home runs shy of 200 for his career.

Also in this game, Phillies starter Aaron Nola dealt and it's a good sign he's gotten things under control. He had a rough start to the season, but the 2018 Cy Young contender twirled a gem Saturday afternoon in a Philly win. In six innings, Nola scattered eight hits and allowed just one run. The 12 strikeouts had a lot to do with him pitching around all those hits. 

In Nola's last five outings, he's pitched to a 2.30 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings, so he seems to be righting the ship. 

Trout hits HR 250 and it wasn't cheap

Holy smokes, Mike Trout's 250th career home run went 473 feet: 

The kid is halfway to the 500 milestone at age 27. 

Quick hits