Thursday brought us a light and early slate, but there was plenty of action, notably in the daytime with several walk-off winner. Let's get to it. 

Thursday's scores

Gary Sanchez sends 'em home

For a long time, Thursday's Twins-Yankees tilt wasn't going particularly well for the hosts. Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson no-hit the Yanks for 5 2/3 innings, and the Yankees trailed 3-0 in the sixth and 3-1 in the ninth. 

That brings us to the bottom of the ninth. Two on, no out, and at the plate Gary Sanchez is presented with an 0-1 fastball from Fernando Rodney ... 

That's Sanchez's sixth homer of the season, and that's the first walk-off homer of his career. After a sluggish start to the season, the Yankees have now won six straight and for the moment has edged ahead of the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East. The spiraling Twins, meantime, have now dropped seven in a row. On that point ... 

Developing ... 

Sale, J.D. outlast Jays

On paper, having to face the Red Sox with Chris Sale on the hill just feels like a loss without even taking the field. The Blue Jays looked like they had his number early on Thursday, though. In the first inning, they loaded the bases with one out. They came away with a run, which normally might feel like a letdown, but it was against Chris freaking Sale. 

In the second, Devon Travis homered off Sale. In the third, Justin Smoak did the same. 

Through three innings, the Blue Jays were leading Sale and the Red Sox 3-1 and had gotten four hits, a walk and a hit batsman off one of the elite pitchers in baseball. 

No matter for the 18-5 Red Sox. They trimmed the lead to 3-2 in the fourth and then J.D. Martinez came through with the proverbial big blow in the fifth: 

An opposite-field, three-run home run with two outs? Pretty damn good work. The Red Sox wouldn't look back and they are now an MLB-best 19-5. 

Hendricks (barely) tops Anderson in Wrigley duel

Arguably the best NL series of the weekend set started in Wrigley Field Thursday night, kicking off a four-gamer between the first-place Brewers and the two-time defending NL Central champion Cubs. Finesse-and-command starters Chase Anderson and Kyle Hendricks had everything working in this one. They both threw up zeroes through five innings. In the bottom of the sixth, Kyle Schwarber came through with a solo shot that would prove to be the only run of the game. 

That's number seven on the year for Schwarber, who is hitting .286/.398/.629 with 17 RBI. 

This one was mostly about the pitching, though. Anderson took the hard-luck loss after allowing only that one run on five hits while walking one. Hendricks worked seven scoreless innings, giving up just four hits while striking out five against zero walks. Both pitchers were hitting spots and Hendricks' two-seamer was a thing to behold. 

Interestingly now in the Central, the top four teams are pretty well bunched up. Pay particular attention to the loss column: 

  • Cardinals, 15-9
  • Brewers, 16-10
  • Pirates, 14-11
  • Cubs, 12-10

Even better? The Brewers and Cubs have three more games coming while the Cardinals head to, you guessed it, Pittsburgh for a three-game weekend series. Go NL Central! 

Bradley enjoys the bombs

The Diamondbacks pounded the Phillies on Thursday, and in the course of their 8-2 win in the rubber match, they mashed three home runs (from the somewhat unlikely sources of Jarrod Dyson, Nick Ahmed, and David Peralta). Know who particularly enjoyed the show? Arizona lockdown reliever Archie Bradley, who also took the opportunity to dunk on the home fans ... 

You gotta wear that one, Phils fans. 

Acuna blasts first career homer

In his MLB debut on Wednesday night, Braves outfielder and the top prospect in baseball Ronald Acuna notched a hit and a run scored. On Thursday against the Reds in Cincinnati, Acuna blasted the first home run of his big-league career. Witness ... 

Mercy. That was a 416-foot blast off Homer Bailey (a homer off Homer) that left the bat at 106 mph. Of course, Acuna got the obligatory silent treatment back in the Atlanta dugout ... 

Acuna's just 20 years old, he possesses every baseball tool imaginable, and he's pretty much done nothing but rake despite playing against older competition at every stop. In other words, you can expect to see much more of this sort of thing for years to come. 

The Atlanta youth movement was keenly felt in this particular victory. Dansby Swanson had a hit and an RBI, and standout second baseman Ozzie Albies added a homer of his own. Speaking of which ... 

Yep, the present and future are bright in Atlanta. 

Pirates walk it off 

The big on-field story for Pittsburgh on Thursday was Ivan Nova, who worked 8.0 scoreless innings against the Tigers (five strikeouts against no walks) and outdueled Michael Fulmer across the way. The margin of victory came courtesy of Corey Dickerson (DFA'd by the Rays coming off a 27-homer campaign in 2017), who blasted the walk-off ... 

And with that the upstart Pirates are 14-11 on the season. 

So do the Cardinals

Headed to the seventh inning, the Mets were holding a 1-0 lead in St. Louis. Then, the war of attrition truly began, and some of that was battling against futility. After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the seventh, the Cardinals would score one run in the seventh and eighth to even things up. The game would eventually head to extra innings. 

In the top of the 10th, the Mets took a 3-2 lead. The rally came with two outs and with an assist to Cardinals reliever Luke Gregerson -- and, arguably, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny for leaving him in for too long. After a pair of singles, Gregerson would walk two. Yes, he walked in the Mets' go-ahead run for them. 

No matter, the Cardinals would grab one off Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the 10th. Jose Martinez doubled to deep center to drive home the run on a ball that arguably should have been caught by *cough* defensive replacement Juan Lagares. 

The game would extend to the 13th, when Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler would drive home Martinez in walk-off fashion. 

As far as the Cardinals (and Pirates) go, check out the NL Central portion of the Brewers-Cubs blurb. Good stuff. 

Quick hits

Live team updates