Last Night In Baseball: AL West Lead Change; Have The Twins Arrived?

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 last night in Major League Baseball:

We have a new leader in the American League West.

Defeating the Texas Rangers at home, 11-2, the Houston Astros (56-55) now have a half-game lead on their in-state rival for first place in the AL West. It marked Houston’s ninth win in its last 10 games.

As for Friday night, the Astros’ offense went to work in the bottom of the second inning and continued to pour it on. In said inning, left fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled home a run, which designated hitter Yordan Álvarez later followed with a two-run single. Shortstop Jeremy Peña singled home a run in the fourth, with third baseman Isaac Paredes and first baseman Christian Walker hitting back-to-back solo home runs to open the fifth.

Texas put two runs on the board in the top of the sixth, but Houston put the game out of reach with a four-run seventh inning, with catcher Yainer Diaz — who had a game-high four hits — hitting a solo homer, Peña smacking a two-run double and Paredes adding an RBI single. An eighth-inning RBI single from Lucas Spence got Houston to 11 runs. The Astros got 5 ⅔ innings from Hunter Brown, who gave up just two runs.

The Miami Marlins won six in a row, then lost 12 in a row and are now back on track after playing the National League East?

Following the prolonged losing streak, the Marlins have won four of their last five games, highlighted by a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and, most recently, a Friday night road win over the New York Mets.

Miami scored the bulk of its Friday night runs in what was a four-run fifth inning. Center fielder Jakob Marsee had an RBI double, which catcher Joe Mack later followed with a two-run single and second baseman Xavier Edwards followed with an RBI single.

Then, in the sixth, first baseman Kyle Stowers got hold of a curveball and hit it over the right-center field wall for a solo home run, his 16th long ball of the year. On the hill, Janson Junk pitched five scoreless innings (no earned runs) for the Marlins, who won 5-2.

The Marlins are now 56-55, good for being just 1.5 games behind the Phillies for the third NL wild-card seed.

The Detroit Tigers may be gearing up to trade one-fifth of their roster at the MLB trade deadline, but they came to play in Sacramento.

Athletics catcher Jonah Heim hit an RBI single in the bottom of the first, and it was all Tigers after that — it just took a couple of hours. Detroit infielder Kevin McGonigle leveled the score at 1-all in the top of the third with a solo home run and then drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

The Tigers broke the game open with a seven-run eighth inning that saw center fielder Max Clark — who had three hits in what was his MLB debut — log an RBI double, infielder Javier Báez bring home a run on a single and catcher Dillon Dingler hit his first career grand slam.

But there was more.

Báez had a two-run single in the top of the ninth, and right fielder Ben Malgeri blasted a two-run homer, giving Detroit a resounding, 13-1 victory. Clark, Báez and first baseman Spencer Torkelson each tallied three hits. The Tigers rolled with a bullpen day after scratching right-hander Casey Mize in the wake of reported trade talks surrounding both him and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. In all, the A’s were held to just three hits.

As for the one who had the big swing of the night, Dingler, a 2026 All-Star, leads the Tigers in home runs (23), RBIs (72) — which also leads MLB catchers — slugging percentage (.520) and OPS (.853).

The 2024 NL Rookie of the Year and 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner is going through a rough spell.

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes lasted just four innings in a road tilt against th