The first day of July features a good, healthy helping of baseball action. That means 15 games, all but one coming during the day. That night game, by the way? The Red Sox and Yankees rubber match. It wasn't pretty, though. Let's get to it.

Sunday's baseball scores

Yankees pummel Price

The Yankees and Red Sox just played a series between the teams with the two best records in baseball and none of them were competitive. Three blowouts. As such, on the whole, it was really only fun to watch for Yankees fans. 

Sunday looked like it could be a good pitchers' duel, too. Luis Severino entered with an AL-best 2.10 ERA while David Price was going well (7-1, 2.72 ERA in his last nine starts). 

One of them did well on Sunday night. As the headline above indicates, it wasn't Price. The Yankees would tattoo him for long ball after long ball. When the dust settled, he was headed to the showers after just 3 1/3 innings. The Yankees scored eight runs on nine hits against him, including a whopping five home runs. 

Previously in Price's career, he had never even allowed more than three home runs in a game. In fact, in his 275 career starts before Sunday night, Price only allowed more than two home runs in a game five times and, again, never more than three homers. 

Price had also never given up more than eight runs in an outing fewer than four innings. 

Basically, this was probably the worst start of Price's career. 

The Yankees homers came from Aaron Hicks (2), Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and Kyle Higashioka. 

Hicks added a third homer later in the game. This was his fifth career multi-homer game and first-ever three-HR game. 

Also, the Higashioka shot was his first career hit: 

Severino, by the way, was brilliant again. He threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings and only allowed two hits (both singles). His ERA is now down to 1.98 and has a great shot to start the All-Star Game. 

The teams are virtually tied now atop the AL East, with the Yankees having a percentage-points lead for the best record in baseball. 

Nationals still struggling as Phillies walk them off 

On June 9, the Nationals had a 1/2 game lead in the NL East and were 11 games over .500. Since then, they've gone 5-14 and now sit a shocking six games back of the division. Over than an almost-inexplicable 17-run game on Friday night, here were their runs scored by game this week: 0, 0, 3, 2, 3 (in 13 innings). Good versions of Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy showing up would certainly be welcome, though the problems run much deeper than just on the shoulders of those two. 

Sunday, the Phillies held the Nationals to eight hits in 42 at-bats (.190). They did draw eight walks, but in 13 innings they left nine runners on base, thanks in part to going 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. They also hit into three double plays.

On the winning side of things, the Phillies are in a good way right now. They hit a rough patch at the beginning of June, but have now won five of their last six series with the only loss being to the Yankees. They are now eight games over .500, one short of their season-high.

The win Sunday was a fun one, too, with Andrew Knapp's walk-off bomb: 

Mariners win seventh straight

Last Sunday, the Mariners were licking their wounds after having been dismantled by the mighty Yankees and Red Sox to the tune of losing six of their last seven. Looking ahead, though, a week with seven games against the Orioles and Royals just might be what the doctor ordered. 

Sure enough, the Mariners did what great teams do. They destroyed their inferior competition, winning all seven games this week. They are now an unreal 26-11 in one-run games. Overall, the Mariners are a season-high 23 games over .500. We're past halfway in the season. This team must be taken seriously. Even if they play one game worse than .500 ball the rest of the way, they'll have won 92 games. 

On Sunday, throw the credit to two likely suspects. James Paxton was brilliant, working eight scoreless innings and allowing only two hits and two walks while striking out 11. We'll see you in D.C., Mr. Paxton, alongside closer Edwin Diaz, who struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth for his MLB-best 32nd save. 

Giants coming on strong

The Giants on Sunday completed their sweep of the first-place Diamondbacks and it was merely a continuation of what's been happening for the last several weeks. They just finished an 18-10 June and now have won 10 of their last 12 games. They now sit just 2 1/2 games out in the NL West, which looks like it could be the race involving the most teams in contention down the stretch. 

Cubs, Braves both survive scares to sweep

Heading to the bottom of the seventh with a 6-0 lead, surely the Braves felt pretty safe. A rally produced two runs and two baserunners for Tommy Pham, who then homered to make it a one-run game. The tying run would reach base for Marcell Ozuna, too, but the Braves survived for the win, completing the sweep of the Cardinals. 

Thanks to an eight-run second that included a Jon Lester three-run home run, the Cubs cruised to the fifth inning with a 9-1 lead and the sixth with a 10-3 advantage. Here's Lester's shot: 

The Cubs took an 11-5 lead to the top of the eighth when youngster Dillon Maples got two easy outs. But then ... double, walk, single, triple and home run and it was all of a sudden 11-10. Yikes. Would they really blow this one? 

Brandon Morrow got the final four outs to preserve the win, though the Twins' tying run did reach second base in the ninth.

Quite a scare for two of the NL's top teams, eh? 

The Braves hold their three game lead in the NL East with the sweep after a rough patch against non-contending teams. The Cubs rebound from a five-game losing streak (that included being swept in four games by the Reds) by now having won five of their last six games. They sit just a half-game behind the Brewers in the NL Central and are tied in the loss column. 

Indians halt A's streak with authority

The A's brought a six-game winning streak into Sunday and it was fair to say they were the hottest team in baseball, given that they'd won 13 of their last 15 games. 

The Indians took a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh only to see the A's creep back within two, 5-3. Then the Indians offense decided it was tired of messing around and threw up an eight-spot in the eighth to pull away for good. It was an absolute hit parade, too. In the inning, the Indians recorded five singles and two doubles. 

On the latter, good lord they were a doubles machine on Sunday. Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Yonder Alonso and Lonnie Chisenhall each had two. Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes and Jason Kipnis rounded out the doubles for a grand total of 10. The record for doubles in a game is actually 13 (Cardinals, July 21, 1931) and the Indians' club record is 12 (July 13, 1996), but it's still a huge number. 

Even though the Indians had lost four of five heading into Sunday, their win Sunday moves their AL Central lead to nine games. 

Mets escape cellar

The Mets concluded their series with the Marlins on Sunday, winning the finale behind a strong pitching performance from Steven Matz. For as sorry as it sounds, it was a big win: New York's victory means the Mets are once again ahead of the Marlins in the standings, albeit barely.

It's unbelievable that the Mets season has came to this, given how they started and that they possessed a share of first place as recently as May 1. But here, some two months and a 5-21 June later, the Mets are just happy to avoid last place.

The Mets will now jet to Toronto for a two-game series before returning home in time to begin a 13-game homestand that will see them host the Rays, Phillies and Nationals. The Marlins, for their part, will play the Rays, Nationals, and Brewers, so it's possible the two teams trade last place between now and the All-Star Break. 

Harvey-led Reds top Brewers

Matt Harvey came as close as one can to recording a quality start without actually recording it in his Sunday outing against the Brewers.

Harvey threw 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball, limiting the Brewers to just two hits as part of a win. He struck out six and recorded 12 whiffs on 68 pitches -- six of those coming on his slider, which has been more effective lately than it was during his time earlier this season with the Mets. His exit was spurred not by performance, but by a rain delay.

Harvey has now lowered his seasonal ERA to 4.91 -- that's a feat, considering it was 7.00 when he joined Cincy's rotation. 

Tigers end losing streak

It's a new month, and so far July has brought better vibes for the Tigers.

Detroit entered Sunday having lost 11 consecutive games, the longest such streak in baseball. The Tigers had not won a game since June 17, and had seen their record dip from 36-37 to 36-48. Yet on Sunday the Tigers were able to start the month off right, boat-racing the Blue Jays by a 9-1 score.

The Tigers had came close to knocking off the Jays in each of their previous two games, losing by a run apiece, including in walk-off fashion on Saturday. On Sunday, they didn't leave the game to chance. Instead, they throttled J.A. Happ in what figured to be one of his final starts for the Jays: he exited in the sixth having allowed 10 hits and seven runs. (Happ's opposite, Jordan Zimmermann, threw seven one-run innings.)

The Tigers were paced by four hitters who had multiple knocks: Niko Goodrum collected three singles and a double; Nicholas Castellanos homered and drove in four; Jacoby Jones also homered and drove in two; and Jose Iglesias added a pair with two singles. Add it all up, and that was more than enough. 

Snell continues to excel

Blake Snell is having a better season than you realized. The Rays' lanky lefty entered Sunday's matchup against the Astros sporting a 2.31 ERA and 2.83 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Snell found a way to improve both marks despite facing the World Series champions. In 7 1/3 innings, he struck out 10 batters and walked one. He also allowed just four hits and one run. For those wondering, he now has a seasonal ERA of 2.23 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.00. Pretty good, folks.

Behind Snell, the Rays were able to score a 3-2 victory. They took three of the four games they played against the Astros, and will now head to Miami over .500 on the season. 

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