Final Evening in Baseball: Shohei Ohtani Rebounded and the Dodgers Swept the Reds

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball:

Ohtani strikes out 9, Dodgers sweep

Shohei Ohtani had a rough time on the mound in consecutive starts, but it was easy enough to blame those results on “first time pitching into the fifth inning since 2023” and “Coors Field.” Wednesday’s start against the Reds was a chance to redeem himself while also calming down any Dodgers’ fans concerned that oh no Ohtani isn’t going to save the postseason rotation at all, is he — and he delivered.

Ohtani completed five innings against Cincinnati, and looked like vintage Shohei doing it. He struck out 9 batters and allowed a homer, but just a pair of hits overall, while walking another two. Four baserunners, one run and nearly double-digit strikeouts over five innings and 87 pitches? More of that is going to be a problem for Dodgers’ opponents from here on out.

The Dodgers’ offense did the rest of the work, scoring five runs in support of their recovering ace, and that gave Los Angeles a three-game sweep of the Reds. That’s terrible news for Cincinnati, especially considering how easily the Mets handled the Phillies this week — the Reds are now 4.5 back for the last wild card spot, which is not insurmountable but is a whole lot more depressing than 1.5 games back was.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers picked up another game on the Padres in the NL West with San Diego dropping their series to the Mariners. The Padres, at least, are still 2.5 up on the Mets and in possession of the second wild card slot, so their bad week isn’t quite on the level of Cincinnati’s. 

Rangers score 20(!)

That’s right: 20 runs. The Rangers’ lineup was feeling it on Wednesday, and they defeated the Angels 20-3. It’s not like there were one or two big innings and that’s it, either. Texas had a relentless attack going for the entire game: they scored 4 in the first, 3 in the second, another 4 in the fourth, tacked on another in the fifth, then put up 8 more for good measure in the eighth, because apparently the Angels’ spirits hadn’t been broken enough just yet.

Adolis García was the star of the show for the Rangers, as he went 4-for-5 with 2 doubles, a home run, 3 runs and 5 RBIs. He wasn’t alone in the offensive explosion, though — how could he be, with so many more runs to be accounted for? Third baseman Josh Jung had 3 hits, one of them a double, Joc Pederson and Kyle Higashioka both picked up 5 RBIs a piece, and Ezequel Duran — who didn’t even start the game but entered in place of Corey Seager — went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs and a run. Even funnier because Seager, before exiting with the game well in hand, went 2-for-2 with a walk, home run and 3 runs, himself.

The win put Texas back over .500, at 68-67, and they have now won five of their last six to get there. What’s been very frustrating about this team in 2025 — and Rangers fans know this for sure — is that they have the fourth-best run differential in the American League despite being barely above .500: their expected record is 77-58, which would have them atop the AL West with room to spare ahead of the Astros if they were actually at that level. 

And it’s also what makes saying they’re out of it while 4.5 games back and the Yankees starting to come around difficult. They are mathematically still in it, and they do have a real chance given their lineup — Baseball Reference’s postseason odds have them with a 24% chance — but Cy Young contender Nathan Eovaldi is also now likely out for the year with a rotator cuff strain, and what their record should be is far from what it actually is even with him on board. A miraculous September could change a lot, but the Rangers need practically every week to go like this one from here on out to have a chance.

Yordan back

Speaking of the Astros, they got a necessary jolt in their lineup this week with the return of Yordan Alvarez. He’s been one of the team’s best hitters — and one of the league’s best hitters — since his arrival in 2019 as a 22-year-old, and he’s been limited this year by injury after a slow start. He returned to the lineup on Aug. 26, and on Wednesday, Alvarez went boom, helping Houston to a 4-0 win over the Rockies.

Sure, the Astros haven’t looked like a dominant division winner this year — they have the fewest wins of any division leader at the moment, and it isn’t particularly close — but they also lost Alvarez for the entire summer until basically now, had Jeremy Peña miss the entire month of July and have had to dig incredibly deep to even have a rotation thanks to numerous injuries to starters. That’s not hyperbole, either: when the Astros put Brandon Walter on the IL a month ago, he was their eighth starting pitcher there. 

Peña is back, Alvarez is back, the rotation at least has Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown in it — the Astros have the potential to be a lot more dangerous in October than their record suggests.

Suárez back

While Eugenio Suárez wasn’t out with an injury, his bat seemed to be for a bit there after the Mariners picked him up at the trade deadline. That all seems to be behind him, however: while his overall numbers with the M’s are still abysmal owing to how terrible his first 11 games with them were, he’s produced a .265/.357/.633 line over his last 14 contests, which have included 5 homers and 12 RBIs. Here’s one of those homers now:

Suárez has gone deep in consecutive games, and is now up to 42 on the season. He’s back on pace for 51 dingers after seeing that figure drop bit by bit upon his arrival in Seattle, and looks like the hitter the Mariners wanted to get when they reunited with him at the end of July.

The Phillies are going to need home field advantage

The Mets swept the Phillies at Citi Field, finishing off their torture of Philadelphia by blanking them 6-0 on Wednesday. New York is still four games back in the NL East, and hasn’t been consistent enough yet for that to feel as close as that is, but considering they managed this at all after beginning August by going 2-11, well. Pretty impressive!

The Mets have won 10 straight home games against the Phillies dating back to 2024, which, glass half-full, if Philadelphia ends up winning the NL East in the end, they will have home field advantage in the postseason against the Mets, should the two meet up in October. Based on how they have played at Citi for some time now, they are going to need that.

Rookie starter Nolan McLean, in just his third appearance in the majors, threw 8 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts and all of four baserunners. It hardly seems fair to put this much pressure on a 23-year-old in his first go at MLB like the Mets are, but to this point, you would never know that was the situation given his performance. He has a 0.89 ERA with 21 strikeouts against 4 walks in 20.1 big-league innings now. If Jonah Tong can be even half as productive when he makes his MLB debut for New York on Friday, the Mets might actually be in a good place after months of their rotation melting under the summer sun.

A’s sweep the Tigers!

The Athletics swept the AL-leading Tigers with a 7-0 victory on Wednesday — yes, you read that right — and they capped things off with a nifty web gem.

Because the A’s were so terrible for so long in 2025, their recent surge has gone somewhat unnoticed. They won six of their final seven games in July, and have gone 15-9 in August — that’s a 21-10 record dating back to July 24. As a team, the A’s are batting .273/.339/.481 in that stretch. You could call it a small sample, but check their lineup: it’s full of dangerous hitters. Shea Langeliers is leading the league in homers since the All-Star break and has 29 on the season, rookie Nick Kurtz is batting .309/.401/.634 and has been worth nearly five wins above replacement despite playing in 93 games, Jacob Wilson is back from the IL, Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker are established sluggers… at least this part of the Athletics’ future is looking bright.

And now for a less traditional play

A 1-6-4-3 double play? Sure, that checks out. It’s not how you would expect to get the job done, but the Giants pulled it off against the Cubs all the same.

To add insult to injury, San Francisco would end up winning this game 12-3. That kind of hitting in the same game where the opposing pitcher can deflect a ball and have it help his cause instead of hurt it? The Cubs never stood a chance.

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