The third Saturday in August brought us a full 15-game slate of big league action. We have everything you need to know from the action-packed game in the Bronx as well as Jon Lester's impressive outing in the Cubs' bounce-back victory. Are the Astros soon to have a race in the AL West? Someone who is ridiculously hot homered again, making history, and the Rays avoided history by finally scoring. 

That and more --  you won't believe what happened in D.C.! -- in our daily roundup. Off we go. 

Who wins every MLB game? And what underdogs can give you a huge victory? Visit SportsLine now to see the exact score of every MLB game, plus get full player stat projections, all from the model that simulates every game 10,000 times.

Baseball scores for Saturday, August 17

Nationals storm back four times in crazy affair, still lose

This was the game of the night and really perfectly sums up how baseball is played in 2019 with so many huge home runs. We're going to kind of run through it blow by blow, as it was amazing to watch it unfold and it'll be fun to try and recreate it for you. 

The Brewers tagged Nationals starter Anibal Sanchez for five runs in the third inning. A pair of home runs would tie things up by the bottom of the fourth. Juan Soto's two-run shot: 

And Adam Eaton's three-run blast: 

The Brewers would then build back a three-run lead at 8-5 heading to the sixth inning. The Nationals would plate one with two runners on for Trea Turner and ...

An inning later, Howie Kendrick would crush a two-run homer to the batters' eye in dead center. 

The Nationals trailed 5-0 and were leading 11-8 heading to the ninth. What a game. 

Oh wait, we aren't done yet. Christian Yelich hit his 40th homer:

Mike Moustakas hit a two-run shot to tie it: 

Ryan Braun gave the Brewers the lead with a solo shot:

In the bottom half, the Nationals scored a run to tie it and had the bases loaded with nobody out for the top of their order. Josh Hader would strike out Turner, Eaton and Anthony Rendon in succession. Mercy. 

This thing would go 13 and then -- guess who? -- Yelich homered again: 

That's 41. The Nats would tie with a Victor Robles sac fly in the bottom half, though. Seriously, this was unreal. 

Onto the 14th! Eric Thames hit a two-run bomb. 

The Nats plated one with the tying run on third base in the bottom half, but failed to score him. The final batter was starting pitcher Joe Ross in a pinch-hit situation with no relievers left in the bullpen. 

Good lord, this was ridiculous: 15-14 in 14. Both teams were on their last reliever. Both teams didn't have a backup catcher left and had to have their catcher examined by an athletic trainer in extras. So much more. 

Those of us watching saw 29 runs on 38 hits, which included 11 home runs with 19 pitchers used (not counting Ross' pinch-hit effort). The Brewers' seven homers tied a franchise record. Both benches were emptied. This was truly one of the most epic games of the year. 

Braves even things up in possible NLCS preview

We're probably going to get numb to home run records like this, but it's worth noting that the Dodgers Twitter account announced the team's 24 homers in the past six games is a major-league record. Max Muncy and Matt Beaty went yard Saturday. 

Still, the Braves took this one to even the series between the two best teams in the National League. 

The two clubs squared off in the NLDS last season and though the Braves did get one game, the Dodgers outscored them 15-8 in the 3-1 series win and it just seemed like a "men vs. boys" type situation. That won't be the case this year. The Braves were fledgling contenders last year but this team is legit, a mix of veteran leaders and young superstars. One of the vets, Josh Donaldson, put them ahead for good with this shot in the bottom of the sixth: 

The rubber game in this incredibly fun series comes Sunday with Max Fried (14-4, 3.78) going for the Braves and Tony Gonsolin (1-1, 3.21) going for the visiting Dodgers. 

Aquino homers again in Reds win

Reds rookie Aristides Aquino just keeps making history. He gave the Reds some breathing room in the fifth inning Saturday with this three-run shot: 

The operative word here is history, because that's now 11 home runs in Aquino's first 17 career games. That's a record. No one else in baseball history has ever started a career that way. Amazing. He's now hitting .345/.390/.964. That's not his OPS at the end. That's just his slugging. 

There's also this: 

Frank Robinson is pretty great company to keep. 

The Reds remain on the periphery of contention, sitting 6 1/2 games back in both the wild card and division. Hey, you never know. It's a mediocre division and the top three teams have looked deeply flawed much of the season. 

The Cardinals' loss drops them back into a tie in first place with the Cubs. 

Rays score for the first time in 30 innings, walk off

The Rays scored two runs in the first inning Thursday night and were blanked in the final eight frames. Friday, they were shut out by the Tigers. Saturday, they got through 12 innings without scoring a run. The streak was 29 innings without a run. The record is 48, so they weren't close, but they are a contender and they couldn't score against the Padres and Tigers. 

Well, they finally broke through with two outs in the 13th for the walk-off win, thanks to Mike Brosseau. 

The Rays' pitchers also set a franchise record with 24 strikeouts. The MLB record is 26, so if the offense kept coming up empty they might have set a record. They did set one record. They didn't walk anyone. The 24 strikeouts were the most in MLB history without a walk. 

The win was the most important thing, though, and now they can breathe freely going into Sunday with the weight off their collective chests. 

Starting pitcher Ryan Yarbrough, by the way, worked 6 1/3 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and zero walks. Last time out, he went 8 2/3 scoreless with eight strikeouts and no walks. He's on a nice little run. 

Astros hearing footsteps in AL West?

The A's took down the Astros for the third straight game Saturday and are now within 6 1/2 in the division. The Astros struck first Saturday, but the A's put up two crooked numbers (five runs in the third; three in the fifth) and cruised. Four different A's had multiple hits and five of them drove home runs. 

Of note on the Astros' side, rookie slugger Yordan Alvarez keeps slugging. He hit two homers. Here's the second: 

He's now slashing a ridiculous .344/.426/.719 with 10 homers and 55 RBI in just 52 games. He didn't get enough help from his teammates, though. 

Bigger picture, the A's have the chance Sunday to four-game sweep the Astros and move to within 5 1/2 games. This isn't actually close yet -- SportsLine gave the Astros a 99 percent chance to win the AL West before Saturday's game, so surely the needle didn't move a ton -- but it's workable. The two teams have five games remaining this season, so the A's would need some help, but we've seen historic comebacks from them before. It's worth monitoring, especially if the A's win the matinee finale Sunday.

Yankees' Torres homers twice

Led by second baseman Gleyber Torres, the Yankees beat the Indians 6-5 in the penultimate game of the four-game series. Torres homered twice in the victory, bringing his season total to 29 home runs, and the 22-year-old made some history by doing so.

Along with Torres' two-homer day, Didi Gregorius and DJ LeMahieu each homered off Indians right-hander Zach Plesac. Yankees lefty James Paxton took the mound for the Yankees and was able to finish his day after a shaky first inning, notching his ninth win on the season.

The Indians have lost four of their past five games while the Yankees have won four of their past five games.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, manager Aaron Boone, outfielder Brett Gardner and pitcher CC Sabathia all were ejected. The arguments got started when home-plate umpire Ben May called a final strike on Cameron Maybin, and it only escalated from there. Here's more on the craziness that ensued.

This seems to be becoming a common occurrence for New York. Last week, Gardner got ejected (mistakenly) and last month, Boone called his team "savages" in a home-plate tirade after his ejection.

In what could easily be a preview for this year's playoffs, the two teams will face each other for the series finale Sunday. Right-hander Mike Clevinger faces Sabathia as the veteran left-hander makes his return from the injured list. Sabathia, 39, has been out since July 28 with right knee inflammation.

Lester throws six scoreless innings for 10th win

After dropping four straight games, the Cubs notched a bounce-back 2-0 win over the Pirates at PNC Park on Saturday. Not only did Chicago snap its losing streak, but it gained a little bit of a confidence boost when it comes to playing on the road. Matt Snyder on Friday took a closer look at how the Cubs' awful road record may cost them a postseason berth. With Saturday's win, the Cubs improve to 65-58, and they're now in possession of the second NL wild-card spot, but it's a tight race with five teams within four games. Now, onto to the game.

Veteran lefty Jon Lester tossed six scoreless innings, and worked his way out of three bases-loaded jams. With the win, Lester records his 10th win on the season. Here's Lester's final line:

player headshot
Jon Lester
STL • SP • #31
IP6.0
H4
R0
ER0
K3
BB5
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Third baseman Kris Bryant homered in the seventh inning to break a 0-0 tie game. It was Bryant's 25th homer this season and his third in five games. The Pirates stranded 11 runners in the loss, and the last-place team is now 51-71 on the season, and 7-26 since the All-Star break. The Cubs and Pirates will face each other Sunday for the three-game series finale, with Cubs left-hander Jose Quintana facing off against the Pirates' Mitch Keller.

Also, the bullpen was nails in this one with clutch performances from Tyler Chatwood and Rowan Wick. The Cubs are also likely to get Craig Kimbrel back Sunday and it's possible the bullpen struggles will soon be in the rear view mirror. 

Highlight of the day: Ramel Tapia with the robbery

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