The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.
Well, this ruins the narrative: The good news — no, great news — was the wife of Milwaukee Brewers closer John Axford had a baby boy Tuesday. Jameson Aedan Axford, welcome to Wisconsin. Terrific day for Axford! Right? Well, the bad news, at least for dad, was that he did not take the entire day off to be with his family, as his manager suggested he do. Instead, Axford went into work and allowed back-to-back home runs in the ninth to blow a lead, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Brewers 10-9 at Miller Park. Life is a cruel mistress. Sluggers Colby Rasmus and Jose Bautista went deep with solo shots to help pull out the victory, kind of amazing when you consider they combined with Edwin Encarnacion to go back-to-back-to-back earlier in the game against rookie Tyler Thornburg in his first big league start. Toronto hit six homers overall. Via MLB.com, Axford said his feelings were definitely mixed on the day's events:
"Bittersweet, I guess," said Axford of his eventful day. "Obviously, I came here for a reason, which was to do my job. This is my family away from my family at home, and I still have a job to do. If I was sitting in the hospital watching the game, and the same thing happened to somebody else that happened to me in the ninth, I would have felt even worse than I do right now.
"It's my job -- for now, anyways. I'm supposed to be out there in that inning, in that situation."
Asdrubal is Asdrubal does: Facing Cincinnati's Aroldis Chapman and ready for the fastest of fastballs, Cleveland's Asdrubal Cabrera dialed it up for 94 mph cutter and took it over the fence for a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. The Indians won 3-2 in 10 innings for just their third victory in eight games. But, with the help of the Cubs 2-1 victory at the White Sox, they also moved back into first place in AL Central. Classy division! Chapman, who had not allowed a run in his first 24 appearances, has been nicked for six runs in his past six outings.
Count to 10 and start over: The Atlanta Braves stopped the Yankees winning streak at 10, beating them 4-3 in the Bronx. New York was trying to equal its longest winning streak in nearly a half-century. Chipper Jones cut down the potential tying run at home plate in the seventh with a throw from third base. Jones had committed a costly error earlier. Jason Heyward singled in the go-ahead run and also threw out a runner at home from the outfield.
Big fish: Mike Trout went 4 for 4 — in fact, all of the Angels might have gone 4 for 4 — in a 12-5 pounding of the Giants. Albert Pujols hit a three-run homer and Mark Trumbo added a three-run triple. Barry Zito allowed eight runs and nine hits over 3 1/3 innings, so he's still not fixed. Trout now has enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title (which also helps his All-Star cause). At .337, he trails only Paul Konerko for the AL lead.
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Quote of the Day: ''If you look at me know and if you look at me when I first got here in 2001, if I said my first day that my goal is to hit 2,500, on that day people would say that I was crazy. Now looking at, things do come true.'' — Ichiro Suzuki, on reaching 2,500 hits in the majors. He has 3,781 career hits including his time in Japan. Here's the highlight.
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Photo of the Day: E.Y., E.Y, oh!
Eric Young makes a diving catch to rob Cole Hamels of a base hit. Roger Dorn would never dive for anything, you know.
And here's the same play, only with moving pictures!:
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Three Facts for the Water Cooler:
• Detroit's Justin Verlander struck out three, an uncharacteristically low number for him, over seven innings in a 6-3 victory against the Cardinals. Verlander was hitting triple digits on the radar gun as usual, but St. Louis was making contact. ''I was trying to be economical,'' Verlander said. ''My guys gave me a four-, five-run lead, I'm not trying to go out there and strike out anybody.'' OK, FINE.
• The Phillies beat the Rockies 7-2, but also learned that infielder Freddy Galvis has been suspended 50 games for testing positive for a banned substance. He's already on the disabled list for a back injury.
• The Red Sox hit three home runs in support of Clay Buchholz and beat the Marlins 7-5. Boston gives Buchholz 7.51 runs per start, second-best in the majors.
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