Last night in baseball: Justin makes strike history against Verlander cub

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:

Verlander is moving on up

Justin Verlander is one of the all-time greats. It hasn’t been the easiest season for him in 2025, so sometimes it’s easy to forget that, but Tuesday offered a reminder. For one, the 42-year-old got through six innings against the Cubs, limiting them to a pair of runs in what would eventually be a Giants win. The much larger hint about his standing, though, came on his first strikeout of the evening: Verlander punched out Kyle Tucker for the 3,516th strikeout of his career, giving him sole possession of ninth place all-time. 

Verlander had entered the contest tied with Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, the first-ever pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts, and left it at 3,520 career Ks. He’s now just 14 shy of moving into a tie for eighth place on the all-time list with Gaylord Perry, which he can certainly accomplish before the end of the season.

Johnson’s career strikeout figure comes by way of the Elias Sports Bureau, which matters in this instance because the legendary right-hander’s career ended nearly a century ago. And occasionally, with players from that time period, there are discrepancies in the numbers, due to accounting snafus or just plain missing or conflicting information: Johnson is one such player, as Baseball Reference lists him with 3,509 career strikeouts, and there are other sources that have him at 3,508. Elias says 3,515, however, and Verlander himself reacted to securing his 3,516th strikeout as something important. So consider history made on Tuesday, not when Verlander recorded career strikeout number 3,509. (Or 3,510, depending on your source there.) Regardless of which one you believe to be the truth, Verlander has cleared them all now, and unquestionably sits alone in ninth place on the all-time list, ahead of Johnson.

Not seen on Sarah Langs list is Max Scherzer, who is 11th all-time in strikeouts at the moment with 3,468. As he’s just 47 punch outs away from tying Johnson, he’s also just 48 away from knocking literally Walter Johnson out of the top-10 list. Enjoy this kind of thing while it lasts, as 3,000-strikeout pitchers — especially ones at the level of Verlander and Scherzer — might not be something we see a lot of in the future. 

A 471-foot slam?!

What’s tremendous about this Riley Greene grand slam is that you don’t even see it land. The camera tracks Lawrence Butler out in center field for some reason, even though his attempt at getting the ball is mostly to turn around and let his body language go, “Oh.” The Tigers’ outfielder hit a ball over the batter’s eye in center at Sutter Health. Over it! An unthinkable shot to the point that the camera didn’t even bother tracking that high, under the assumption the ball would land somewhere it could be seen.

Four-hundred and seventy-one feet. And a grand slam, to boot, don’t let that get lost. The blast put the Tigers up 4-3 over the A’s, but that was a temporary lead. The Athletics ended up scoring two runs in the bottom of the frame, then Detroit put another run on the board in the fifth — the score stayed tied until the 10th, when the Tigers plated Kerry Carpenter to briefly go ahead, before the A’s scored twice in the bottom of the inning to walk it off. It was an ugly inning for the Tigers, as closer Will Vest gave up a game-tying single to Tyler Soderstrom, and then walked three of the next four batters to give the A’s a literal walk-off.

Stanton’s big night

Poor Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees’ slugger hit a ball 451 feet earlier in the night, and everyone was — rightfully — impressed by it. Except for Riley Greene, apparently, who simply took it as a challenge.

Still, there’s room in our hearts to appreciate both for what they are: majestic taters. Plus, unlike the Tigers, the Yankees won — and they did so thanks to Stanton. It wasn’t just this homer, but just his game in general. Earlier in the evening, he just missed a home run, but still cleared the bases with a long double to left:

The Yankees ended up defeating the Nationals, 5-1, with Stanton driving in all five runs for New York. He didn’t get started until mid-June thanks to his dual cases of severe tennis elbow, but Stanton is having his best season since he was still on the Marlins. He joined the Yankees in 2019, so it’s been awhile, but it should also be pointed out that his current .663 slugging percentage and OPS+ would be career-highs if he can keep them around there for the rest of the season. An injury-shortened season, yeah, but you’d take .313/.388/.663 over any number of games.

Stanton isn’t the only resurgence

George Springer is having an incredible season. After two years of being more like a league-average-ish hitter for the Blue Jays, Springer is having one of his best-ever seasons at the plate, with his 2019 the only one that you could argue is better. Since returning from the IL on Aug. 16, Springer is batting .381/.435/.833 with 6 homers, with two of those coming on Tuesday against the Royals.

Despite missing weeks to injury, Springer has hit 24 long balls — the fifth-most of his career — and another 20 extra-base hits, besides. He’s batting .301/.388/.541, a line even better than what star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has produced for Toronto, and has helped the Jays to a record that sits half-a-game back of being the best in the AL. 

Toronto would have become the best in the American League with the Tigers losing on Tuesday, but the problem is that they lost, too, despite Springer’s big game. They allowed four runs to the Twins in the top of the ninth inning, putting Minnesota up 7-4, and could only scratch out one more run in the bottom of the frame. Still, at 77-56, they have a four-game cushion in the AL East, and a realistic chance at being the AL’s top seed, too.

Mets walk off Phillies

The Mets and Phillies had a real back-and-forth affair on Tuesday, much to the dismay of Philadelphia. While the Phillies went up 2-0 initially, the Mets stormed back with a 5-run fifth inning, with a ball hit just out of the reach of starter Jesus Luzardo and shortstop Trea Turner the initial catalyst. 

The Phillies would tack on another run in the sixth, then in the eighth inning, in a showdown between trade deadline acquisitions, Harrison Bader defeated Ryan Helsey with a 2-run homer to tie things up, 5-5.

Bad news for the Phillies, though, is that their own deadline reliever, Jhoan Duran, was not feeling it on Tuesday, either. He allowed four consecutive singles — to Starling Marte, Pete Alonso, Brett Baty and Brandon Nimmo — and recorded no outs, allowing the Mets to walk it off.

New York might be five games back of Philadelphia still, but they’re even that close because they are now 6-2 against the Phillies in their eight meetings this year. Not to alarm you, but the two face each other five more times before the year is out, as well. Philly is going to have to remember how to defeat the Mets at some point, whether in September or October.

Laureano cashes in

On Sunday, Ramon Laureano robbed Teoscar Hernandez of a grand slam. He apparently pocketed the potential dinger for later, though, as on Tuesday against the Mariners, Laureano hit his own slam — and to where no one was going to catch it.

The Padres’ bats went a little quiet after this 5-run first, but they managed to hold off the Mariners and win, 7-6. Their first victory of the year against Seattle — maybe the pressure of winning the Vedder Cup was getting to them.

The Braves did what now

The Braves had a chance to win on Tuesday against the Marlins as they entered the ninth inning. They game was tied up 2-2, after all, so even if they didn’t score there, all they had to do was keep Miami off the board in the bottom of the inning, then go to extras.

Extras were not necessary. Atlanta scored nine runs in the ninth inning, and ended up winning 11-2. Marcell Ozuna doubled, Nacho Alvarez Jr. walked, Vidal Brujan hit a run-scoring double, Drake Baldwin singled in a pair, Jurickson Profar and Matt Olson both reached and loaded the bases for Ronald Acuña Jr., who then walked to drive in a run, Eli White singled in another, and, finally, Ozzie Albies — who had popped out earlier in the ninth for the first out — hit a 3-run homer to put Atlanta up 11-2.

Overkill, sure, but you can never be too careful in today’s MLB. Not when teams can score nine runs apparently whenever without warning.

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