MLB scores: Blake Snell flirts with perfect game; CC Sabathia picks up 248th win

Monday brought us a shortened slate of 12 MLB games. The day featured an 18-minute bee delay and a position player on the mound before the night games even got underway. Here is everything you need to know about Monday'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.

Baseball scores for Monday

Snell flirts with perfect game after making changes

Reigning AL Cy Young Blake Snell did not look like himself in his first two starts back from the injured list. Snell missed 11 days after dropping a piece of furniture on his foot and breaking his toe, and in his first two starts back, he combined to allow 10 runs (nine earned) in 6 1/3 innings. Ouch.

Over the weekend Snell told reporters, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, he identified some things he needed to adjust. He just wouldn't say what those things were. From Topkin:

"I saw stuff that I need to clean up that I'd like to keep to myself," he said Sunday. "Through this week I felt very confident, very comfortable with how I've been throwing the ball."

Snell added he was "happy to attack Arizona next," referring to Monday's start against the D-Backs, and gosh, he was not kidding. Snell retired the first 17 batters he faced Monday before Ildemaro Vargas broke up the perfect-game bid with a two-out single in the sixth inning. Snell finished the night with nine strikeouts in six scoreless innings.

Tommy Pham contributed to an early 6-0 lead with a second inning grand slam against Merrill Kelly. Tampa Bay scored in five of its eight offensive innings and improved to 22-12 with the win. That is the best record in baseball and the franchise's second-best start through 34 games (the 2010 Rays started 24-10).

Yankees pound Felix, Sabathia picks up 248th win

Not long ago a Felix Hernandez vs. CC Sabathia matchup was a battle of aces. Now it's a battle of (relative) old-timers. Felix and Sabathia met in the Bronx on Monday night and the Yankees jumped all over Hernandez, scoring seven runs and hitting three homers in the first three innings. Luke Voit, Brett Gardner and rookie Thairo Estrada all took Felix deep. It was Estrada's first MLB home run.

Sabathia threw five workmanlike innings to pick up his 248th career win. He recorded his 3,000th career strikeout last time out, remember. Sabathia became the 17th player and only the third lefty in the 3,000-strikeout club. He'll soon become the 14th pitcher in history with 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. Only two lefties have done it:

Sabathia has already announced he will retire following this season, so he won't join Johnson and Carlton in the 300 wins/4,000 strikeouts club. Getting to 250 and 3,000 is pretty cool though. Two more wins and Sabathia will be in the club. Also, the injury ravaged Yankees won for the 12th time in their last 14 games Monday night.

Senzel homers again ... and again

Last week, the Cincinnati Reds called up Nick Senzel in the hopes that he could help spark an offense batting .211, the second-worst mark in the majors. Batting leadoff, the Reds rookie and new everyday center fielder blasted two home runs off Drew Pomeranz in Monday's win over the Giants, a leadoff homer and another in the second inning.

Senzel went 4 for 17 in the series with three home runs, and he became the first batter in Reds history to hit three home runs in his first four career appearances according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

This afternoon matchup was an odd one. For starters, the game didn't even start on time because a swarm of bees forced an 18-minute delay. Then, the Reds batters tied the MLB record (set in 1893) for most batters hit by a pitch in an inning with four. All four got plunked in the sixth, two with the bases loaded. 

Oh, and Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval tossed a scoreless eighth inning, but he also hit a batter, which tied the National League record and set a Reds' modern record of five batters hit in a game. Sandoval hit a home run, stole a base, and pitched in the game.

Both Cincinnati and San Francisco sit in the bottom of their respective divisions.

Means shuts down Red Sox again

The Orioles may not be very good this year -- they are on pace for 102 losses even after Monday's win -- but it looks like they've found a keeper in lefty changeup specialist John Means. Means held the Red Sox to one run in seven innings Monday night. It was the fourth time he allowed no more than one earned run in his five starts this year, and it was the second time he faced the Red Sox inside a month, so it's not like Boston's batters went into the game blind.

Means is among the early season leaders in hard contact and exit velocity allowed, so while he doesn't throw his fastball by hitters often, he generates a lot of weak contact with his dead fish changeup. He learned that changeup over the winter too, with help from pitching coordinators brought in by new GM Mike Elias. The club's revamped player development system is already paying dividends.

The O's don't have many long-term keepers on their roster and, truth be told, a 26-year-old rookie with only an average-ish fastball probably isn't a top-of-the-rotation guy. Still, teams forever need third and fourth and fifth starters, and Means looks like he can fill a spot in the rotation going forward. If nothing else, he's earned a chance to continue to show he can be part of the next contending Orioles team.

Rizzo hits 200th career home run

Welcome to the 200-homer club, Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo swatted his 200th big-league homer and his 199th homer with the Cubs on Monday night -- he hit one homer during his 49-game stint with the Padres in 2011 -- during his team's three-run first inning against the Marlins.

Rizzo is the 31st active player in the 200-homer club and he moved into sole possession of ninth place on the franchise's all-time homer list. Here are the top homer-hitting Cubs:

The Cubs hold no-brainer club options on Rizzo for 2020 and 2021, so, by time his current contract expires, he could sit alone in fifth place on the franchise's home run list. That would be pretty incredible considering the Cubs have been around basically since the dawn of time.

Quick hits

Source Link