1. Marco Estrada, Toronto Blue Jays. Who says the Blue Jays don't have an ace?!?! Estrada lost his perfect game in the eighth inning on an infield hit (right after Josh Donaldson made this spectacular catch). Still, it was his second consecutive start he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning (match that, Max Scherzer!) and that's pretty awesome:
Marco Estrada is 1st pitcher to take a no-no into the 8th inning in consecutive starts since Dave Stieb in 1988. pic.twitter.com/H33jOrsUaC
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) June 24, 2015The Blue Jays ended up beating the Rays 1-0 in 12 innings when Chris Colabello homered off Brandon Gomes.
2. University of Virginia. After losing the first game of the best-of-3 College World Series to Vanderbilt, the Cavaliers avenged last year's defeat with two straight wins to give the ACC its first CWS title since Wake Forest in 1955. With Virginia leading 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a runner on, Vandy sent a pinch-hitter to the plate -- a kid with one hit all season. Umm, you can guess the odds of that working out. Nathan Kirby struck him out to complete the win.
While that does seem ridiculous, a reader on Twitter said that Brad Ausmus did the same thing -- well, kind of -- in last year's playoff with the Tigers. Trailing the Orioles 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Ausmus pinch-hit Hernan Perez -- who had one hit all season for the Tigers. He grounded into a double play to end the season and the Tigers released Perez a couple weeks ago after he began the season 2-for-33.
3. Ivan Nova, New York Yankees. In his first start in the majors since last year's Tommy John surgery, Nova tossed 6.2 scoreless innings as the Yankees beat Cole Hamels and the Phillies 10-2.
4. Oakland Athletics. Everybody wants Scott Kazmir, Ben Zobrist and maybe even Stephen Vogt ... but don't count the A's out of the playoff race just yet. They scored eight runs in the first two innings off Wandy Rodriguez to beat the Rangers 8-2. Yes, they're 9 games behind the Astros but they've been a pretty good team with a horrible bullpen. If the Astros come back to the pack, the AL West is soft enough that the A's could have a big second half.
5. Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants. The All-Star catcher hit his second grand slam in five days as the Giants shut out the Padres 6-0 behind Ryan Vogelsong. A Will Middlebrooks error leading off the the inning led to five unearned runs off Ian Kennedy, who has allowed the fourth-highest slugging percentage among qualified starters.