Though Wednesday is a seemingly annoying day for those in normal weekday jobs, in the baseball world it's a veritable fan paradise. Every team is in action and said action is spread throughout, running from 1:05 p.m. ET through a night game out west. Let's get to it. 

Wednesday's scores

Gray, power bats carry Yankees

As you see above, the Yankees on Wednesday night notched their 40th win of the season in extras over Toronto. Doing the heavy lifting was Sonny Gray ... 

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Sonny Gray
STL • SP • #54
vs. TOR, 6/6
IP8
H2
R0
SO8
BB2
Pitches99
Strikes63
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Gray's hardly been a bastion of consistency since becoming a Yank, but he certainly had it going in Toronto on this night. Here's a sampling of his work ... 

Hittin' ain't easy, folks. 

On the offensive side of things, the Yankees broke the stalemate in the top of the 13th thanks to Aaron Judge ... 

That's Judge's 17th homer of the season, and he hasn't missed a beat in his "sophomore" campaign. Soon thereafter, Giancarlo Stanton crafted the hardest hit homer of 2018 ... 

Woof. That blast gives the Yankees 98 home runs on the season, and that total leads the majors. 

Cubs stun Phils

At one point in the ninth inning, the Cubs had a mere 6.6 percent chance of beating the Phillies, whom they trailed 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. The Phillies had plated a pair in the top of the ninth, so to whatever extent momentum exists in baseball (hint: to no meaningful extent), the visitors had it. 

Well, the Cubs loaded the bases in the ninth. Jason Heyward -- he of the notable struggles at the plate since becoming a Cub -- came to the plate with two outs. Let's pick up with the 2-2 pitch from Adam Morgan ... 

Yep, that's a walk-off grand slam. It's also a most unlikely walk-off grand slam ... 

Given that the rival Brewers and Cardinals both lost on Wednesday, that was indeed a huge blow struck by Heyward. 

Angels win but lose Ohtani to blisters

The Halos edged the Royals on Wednesday night for their fourth win in a row. Justin Upton and Ian Kinsler each homered. The bad news, though, is that right-hander Shohei Ohtani was forced to leave because of what turned out to be blister issues. 

On the upside, Ohtani has dealt with blister issues before this season. On April 17, he was forced out early from a start against the Red Sox, but he was able to make his next scheduled start. On Wednesday night, Ohtani walked three in four innings and spotted just 33 of his 63 pitches for strikes but struck out four and allowed only one run. On the season, Ohtani on the mound has a 3.10 ERA after nine starts. 

Astros flip switch with big seventh inning

The Mariners came into this one with a five-game win streak, while host Houston had a modest three-game losing streak. Going into the bottom of the seventh, the Astros trailed by a run, and thus were in danger of perpetuating those trends. The champs, though, broke through for four runs, which provided the margin you see above. This means the Astros have now reduced Seattle's lead in the AL West to a single game. The SportsLine Projection Model still expects the Astros to win the division by nine games, but for now the M's are hanging in there.

Colon makes history

Rangers right-hander Bartolo Colon, 45, certainly wasn't dominant on Wednesday night against Oakland -- two runs on six hits in five innings of work -- but he did enough to get the win. As it turns out, getting the win occasioned some history for Colon ... 

Colon isn't the pitcher Marichal was, but that's still a pretty nifty accomplishment. 

How did things go for the Cardinals? 

Here's how things went for the Cardinals ... 

Gyorko became the first Redbird position player to pitch in a game since Ruben Tejada on May 20, 2016. Anyhow, the Marlins throttled the Cardinals thanks in large measure to Starlin Castro, Derek Dietrich, J.T. Realmuto, and Lewis Brinson, who combined for 14 hits on the night. 

Speaking of Brinson, here he is hitting his second homer of the night. This one's off, um, Jedd Gyorko ... 

Here, watch this

The Rockies beat the Reds on Wednesday night in Cincy. Here's pretty much all you need to see from the game in question ... 

To repeat: The Rockies beat the Reds on Wednesday night.

Benintendi also doing work for Boston

Is Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi getting overlooked? No doubt, J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Chris Sale, and Craig Kimbrel are all having excellent seasons, but so is Benintendi. He was not so long ago one of the top prospects in all of baseball, and last season he turned in a solid rookie campaign.

This season, though, he's been even better. He provided some evidence of that stirring claim on Wednesday against the Tigers ... 

Yep, that's No. 10 on the season for the 23-year-old outfielder. He also added his 16th double in this season. Was it a good night for Mr. Benintendi? 

No, people, it was a very good night. Benintendi is now batting .296/.378/.544 for 2018. He's also stolen 10 bases in 11 attempts. 

Giants steal win

The Giants entered Wednesday's rubber match against the Diamondbacks having won five of their last six games. Make it six of their last seven.

The Giants seemed certain to lose Wednesday's contest, as they trailed 4-2 with two outs in the ninth inning. Yet Alen Hanson homered, tying the game off Brad Boxberger and giving San Francisco new life. They took advantage an inning later, as Andrew McCutchen doubled and Brandon Crawford drove him in with a walk-off single.

At 31-31, the Giants are now 1 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks in a messy National League West. Every team is within five games of the division lead and four are within two. Don't expect anyone to run away with this thing anytime soon.

Rays 'opener' flops miserably

For the last several weeks, the Rays have been employing the "opener" strategy a few times a week. That is, they'll use a relief pitcher as a starter and then -- after just one or two innings -- have an actual starter come in as a reliever. 

Wednesday, Jonny Venters only got one out in the first inning, but he did walk two and allow three hits en route to five earned runs. 

By my calculations, in "opener" games, the Rays have allowed 12 earned runs in 10 innings pitched. Yes, that's a small sample, but it's a 10.80 ERA. Sure, Venters' outing Wednesday sways the numbers, but the opener has allowed runs in five out of nine outings. The idea is to get a clean inning or two for the faux-starter and that's just not happening on a regular enough basis to justify. 

Mets' misery continues

Yes, the Mets are banged up, but they are atrocious right now. This might be rock bottom. After being shut out on Wednesday, they've now scored one run in 18 innings against the woeful Orioles. They've now lost six in a row. 

What's worse, since an 11-1 start, the Mets are 16-31. Put another way, since those first 12 games, they've played like a 55-win team. 

Carrasco rebounds, Rajai makes history

The last few times out hadn't been too kind to Carlos Carrasco. He'd permitted 14 hits, 11 runs,and three homers in nine total innings against the Astros and Twins, inflating his seasonal ERA from 3.65 to 4.50.

On Wednesday, Carrasco got back on track by shutting down the Brewers, holding them to a run over seven innings. He limited the Brew Crew to eight hits and a walk, all the while striking out 10.

Rajai Davis made some history, by the way, becoming the oldest player since Ichiro to record three steals in a game:

Having swept the Brewers, Cleveland will need head on to Detroit for a three-game series as part of an ongoing road trip. 

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