MLB scores, schedule: Yankees win game but suffer potentially huge loss, hot Blue Jays victorious again

Thanks to doubleheaders in Baltimore and Cleveland minus a rainout in Detroit, Saturday brings us an overstuffed MLB slate of 16 games. Settle in!

In early action, the Yankees pulled to .500 but suffered (yet another) costly loss. Meantime, the Indians get back their injured superstar. 

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

Baseball schedule/scores for Saturday, April 20

Yanks notch costly win in the Bronx

As you see above the Yankees won easily at home over the Royals and in doing so leveled their record at 10-10. Along the way, though, this happened: 

And that begat this: 

Aaron Judge left today's game with a left oblique injury. He will go to NewYork Presbyterian Hospital for further evaluation and an MRI.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 20, 2019

Aaron Judge batting .288/.404/.521 on the season and as usual has provided plus fielding in right, so this would be a huge loss to the already hobbled Yankees. Speaking of already hobbled: 

Need a closer for that team? Dellin Betances and his shoulder are here to help. If Judge hits the injured list -- and it would be surprising if he didn't -- then he'll become the 13th Yankee on that ledger of misfortune. Relevant: 

Is there any chance that Aaron Judge avoids the injured list?

“Probably not, no.” - Aaron Boone

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 20, 2019

As for Saturday's win, Masahiro Tanaka worked seven innings of one-run ball, and Clint Frazier had three hits including a homer. Speaking of the increasingly vital Frazier, he's now batting .351/.371/.649 on the season. He'll need to keep that up if the Yanks are to withstand the loss of Judge on top of all those other injuries. 

Also Boone was ejected in this one after a spectator interference call cost Gleyber Torres a home run. 

Goldschmidt makes Busch history

The Cardinals keel-hauled the Mets in St. Louis on Saturday. Miles Mikolas became the first Cardinals starter to pitch into the eighth inning, and Jose Martinez gathered three hits. Slugger Paul Goldschmidt did this: 

Mercy me. Some relevant digits on that one: 

Put a sub-90 mph fastball on tee for the likes of Cloutin' Paul Goldschmidt, and he might just pulverize it into the history books. So it is with this longest recorded Busch bomb in the Statcast era. 

Speaking of Goldbird (going with this as his nickname over the manifestly inferior "Goldy"), his 2019 season to date is an object lesson in the value of looking beyond batting average. He went 1 for 5 against the Mets, which dropped his average to .235. However, Goldschmidt also has eight homers and 12 walks on the season, and that lifts his overall line to .235/.333/.556. In other words, Goldschmidt has been highly productive despite a batting average on balls in play (BABIP) that's well below his established norms. Once that number (probably inevitably) rises, you'll really see some numbers out of ... Goldbird. 

The red-hot ... Blue Jays? 

Through Sunday, April 7, the Blue Jays were 3-8 and sporting one of the most pathetic offenses in baseball. It seemed like they were in danger of being no-hit every other game. A week later at 5-11, things didn't appear to be much different, but we can look deeper and see that things started to turn. That week, they split with the Red Sox and lost two of three to the Rays (which, at the time, was perfectly acceptable). Their loss to the Red Sox was by just a run in walk-off fashion and they scored 27 runs in those five games. 

That better play has borne fruit this week. After winning in Oakland on Saturday, the Jays are 5-1 this week in road games against the Twins and A's. They've moved to 10-12 on the season, which isn't half bad given the state of their roster and where things started. 

Saturday, it was a pretty complete workover of the A's. The Jays scored 10 runs while pounding out 15 hits, including three homers. The Blue Jays also didn't allow a run until garbage time in the ninth. Matt Shoemaker started and put up three more scoreless innings, running his ERA to 1.57 and WHIP to 0.87. Unfortunately, he only managed three innings because he got hurt. It's a left knee sprain, per the ball club, and he'll get an MRI Sunday.

That certainly puts a damper on things in Toronto, so we'll offer up this highlight in hopes to cheer some Jays fans up: 

Freddy Galvis with an infield version of the Kevin Mitchell! 

The bottom line with this team is it wasn't nearly as bad as it was playing early, and it's probably not as good as it is playing right now. Remember ... it's early ... ebbs and flows ... let the season breathe ... embrace the grind. All that stuff. 

Quick hits

To recap:

Friday, Jacob deGrom's elbow felt "barky." The Mets placed him on the injured list and scheduled an MRI.

Saturday, deGrom played catch because he felt no pain. The Mets are considering canceling his MRI.

The team hopes deGrom can pitch in New York next week.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 20, 2019

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