With a week remaining until the trade deadline, every game could influence a team's thinking as it pertains to buying, selling, or standing part. As such, Wednesday's slate of action is an important one, with a number of storylines worth watching. Here is everything you need to know about Wednesday's MLB action.

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

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Baseball scores for Wednesday, July 24

Stroman gets tough luck loss in possible final Blue Jays start

Wednesday night Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman made what might've been his final home start in Toronto. Stroman is a prime trade candidate and the smart money is on him being moved before next week's trade deadline.

If Wednesday's game was indeed his final home start at Rogers Centre, Stroman went out with a bang. He allowed one run and struck out six in seven innings. Alas, Shane Bieber was dynamite on the other side, so that one run allowed was enough to saddle Stroman with a loss. Rough.

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Marcus Stroman
NYY • SP
July 24 vs. Indians
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The Toronto faithful of course gave Stroman a big standing ovation when he walked off the field following the seventh inning. He's been a great Blue Jay these last few years and is one of the final ties to the 2015-16 ALCS teams.

As for Bieber, he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Eric Sogard, another Blue Jays trade candidate, broke it up with a leadoff double. Sogard's double was Toronto's only hit on the night.

The Indians have won nine of their last 11 games and continue to put heat on the AL Central leading Twins.

DeJong goes deep three times

For the third time in last 10 days, there was a three-homer game in baseball Wednesday night. Travis d'Arnaud hit three homers last Monday, Robinson Cano hit three homers this Tuesday, and Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong went deep three times on Wednesday. It is the 13th three-homer game in baseball this season.

Pirates reliever Michael Feliz hit DeJong with a pitch following his second home run. It's unclear whether it was intentional -- Feliz is not exactly known for his control -- but, either way, DeJong got revenge with the third home run. St. Louis is the first team with multiple three-homer games this season. Paul Goldschmidt had one back in April.

Wednesday's win was the fourth straight and tenth in the last 12 games for the Cardinals. They've climbed to within a half-game of the first place Cubs in the NL Central and currently sit in the second wild-card spot.

Yankees beat Twins to close out wild series

The three-game arena baseball series in Target Field is over. The Yankees beat the Twins in the series finale Wednesday night thanks to home runs by Aaron Hicks, Gleyber Torres, and Edwin Encarnacion. 

Long men Nestor Cortes (one run in 3 1/3 innings) and Devin Smeltzer (one run in five innings) restored order in the middle innings for a bit Wednesday. Here are the combined numbers for this ridiculously high-scoring series:

  • 57 runs
  • 111 baserunners
  • 20 home runs

Again, this was a three-game series. The Yankees and Twins are two of the highest scoring teams in baseball and they showed it this week. By the way, the home run was Encarnacion's 30th of the season. He's the only player in baseball to hit 30-plus home runs in each of the last eight seasons.. 

Minnesota's loss combined with Cleveland's win means the Indians are only two games back in the AL Central. They haven't been that close since May 5.

Rays win but Red Sox protest

The Rays successfully avoided being swept by the Red Sox on Wednesday, winning a 3-2 contest that folks will remember for other reasons.

In the eighth inning, the Rays executed the Waxahachie Swap -- that is, they moved reliever Adam Kolarek from the mound to first base, with Chaz Roe subbing in and retiring a hitter before Kolarek moved back to the mound and Nate Lowe replaced Roe at first base. In moving Kolarek elsewhere, the Rays had to sacrifice the DH. In the bottom half of the inning, they had to pinch-hit because the vacated DH spot was up.

If all that sounds confusing, well, yeah. It confused everyone, especially as it pertains to the Rays' batting order. Boston manager Alex Cora even protested the game under the belief that Tampa Bay made some illegal substitutions.

Protests seldom result in anything changing or being replayed, so the odds are this will be much ado about nothing. We have more on the odd incident at the Trop here.

Nats sweep Rockies in doubleheader

The Nationals keep flying high and the Rockies continue to free fall. Washington swept Colorado in a doubleheader Wednesday and they've now won 36 of their last 51 games. That's a 114-win pace across 162 games. The Rockies, meanwhile, have now dropped 21 of their last 28 games. Ouch.

Free agent pickup Patrick Corbin was the hero in the nightcap, striking out seven in six shutout innings. He's been marvelous during Washington's hot streak.

The two wins combined with the Braves losing to the Royals moves Washington to four games back in the NL East. It's the closest they've been since May 4. As for the Rockies, they're now eight games back of the second wild-card spot with seven teams ahead of them in the standings. That's a bad place to be.

Verlander stymies A's

The Athletics and Astros completed their series on Wednesday -- a three-game set that saw the Astros take the first game behind a dominating Gerrit Cole performance, and the Athletics take the second in nail-biting fashion. The rubber match on Wednesday combined a little of both of its predecessors, with the Astros winning a close one behind a stellar outing.

Justin Verlander threw six shutout innings, permitting two hits and two walks while fanning 11. Verlander threw 101 pitches, inducing 16 swings and misses, including eight on his heater. 

Houston's offense, meanwhile, was led by mainstays Jose Altuve and George Springer, who each homered. Altuve also added a double as part of a three-hit effort.

The Astros, having secured the series -- as predicted by CBS Sports -- now hold a 7 1/2 game division lead.

Stat of the day: Long homer from VanMeter

You may not have heard of Reds rookie Josh VanMeter before, but he did his best to change that on Wednesday, delivering a long home run in a loss against the Brewers. Take a look:

For those wondering, Statcast has that at 463 feet -- or the second-longest in Reds history, at least within the boundaries of the Statcast era:

VanMeter entered the day with an 80 OPS+ and one dinger in 36 games. Clearly there's more in his bat.

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