We don't get our usual full slate of games on a Friday night, as the Phillies-Nationals game was rained out. Still, 14 games will do. We had plenty of home runs, some pitchers' duels, nail-biters and a walk-off. Let's run through everything you need to know from Friday night, May 12, 2017 in Major League Baseball. 

Game results

Astros 5, Yankees 1 (box score)
Blue Jays 4, Mariners 0 (box score)
Rays 5, Red Sox 4 (box score)
Twins 1, Indians 0 (box score)
Braves 8, Marlins 4 (box score) 
Rangers 5, Athletics 2 (box score)
Brewers 7, Mets 4 (box score)
Padres 6, White Sox 3 (box score)
Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (box score)
Royals 3, Orioles 2 (box score)
Dodgers 6, Rockies 2 (box score)
Diamondbacks 11, Pirates 4 (box score)
Angels 7, Tigers 0 (box score)
Giants 3, Reds 2 in 17! (box score)
Phillies at Nationals, postponed

McAstros take down Yankees

Easily the best series of the weekend in terms of the two teams' records heading in is the Astros visiting the Yankees. On Thursday, the Astros took the series opener on the strength of Dallas Keuchel's arm and Carlos Correa's bat, among other things. 

On Friday, two players with a "Mc" to start their last names did in the Yankees, including an old friend. 

Former Yankees/current Astros catcher Brian McCann came through with the big blow of the game, a three-run blast in his old stomping grounds: 

Though the Astros would tack on two more -- with the red-hot Correa going 2 for 5 with a double, run and RBI -- McCann's shot was more than enough, given how well Lance McCullers pitched. 

The young McCullers worked six scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking none while only allowing four hits. The outing moves McCullers' ERA to 2.98 on the season and he has 57 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings. In seven big-league seasons, the elder Lance McCullers never made an All-Star team. At this rate, Junior is gonna top him at age 23. 

The Astros move to 25-11, which is the best record in baseball. 

Cardinals winning streak ended by Eddie Butler/Willson Contreras

The Cardinals had won six in a row coming into a series against their biggest rival, the defending champion Chicago Cubs. Things appeared to be in the Cardinals' favor early, too. 

Consider: 

  1. Mike Leake was pitching for the Cardinals. He entered the game with an NL-best 1.79 ERA. 
  2. Eddie Butler was pitching for the Cubs. It was his season debut at the big-league level, but he carried a career 6.50 ERA into the game. 
  3. Kris Bryant was a late scratch due to a stomach bug.
  4. In Bryant's spot, Jon Jay was inserted, but he was removed after the first inning due to back spasms. Tommy LaStella was put into that spot to play second, moving Ben Zobrist to right field. This left the Cubs with Miguel Montero as the only available bench option aside from Addison Russell, who could only pinch hit due to a lingering injury. 

The Cubs would get two solo homers off Leake, both by Willson Contreras. Here's the second shot: 

Meantime, Butler was incredible, routinely freezing the Cardinals with a cutting mid-90s fastball. He'd only give up two hits in six scoreless innings while striking out five. 

LaStella would add a solo shot in the seventh and that would be enough. 

The Cardinals got a Randall Grichuk homer and then two walks against Carl Edwards Jr. in the seventh inning for a serious threat, but it was ended by Contreras picking his old teammate, Dexter Fowler, off first base to end the inning (video here). 

Contreras was not having a good year heading into this one, but he comes away with the two home runs and this huge pickoff (and an error in the ninth which could have been costly, but I believe it should have been on Anthony Rizzo -- and it didn't end up meaning anything anyway). 

And Butler's Cubs debut was sparkling. 

The Cubs move to 18-17 while the Cardinals are 19-15. It's Jon Lester vs. Carlos Martinez on Saturday. Yes, please. 

Gallo's 12th homer is a walk-off

After a 13-20 start, the Rangers appear to have a bit of momentum. Friday night was their second straight walk-off victory and fourth straight win overall. Wily veteran Mike Napoli did the honors with a three-run job on Thursday. This time around, it was the 23-year-old Joey Gallo doing the honors: 

The Rangers actually entered the ninth trailing the A's by a 2-1 deficit, but Jonathan Lucroy singled, Rougned Odor singled pinch runner Pete Kozma to third and Napoli drove Kozma home with a sac fly to tie it. Carlos Gomez followed with a double to set the scene for Gallo's clutch blast. 

The shot was Gallo's 12th of the year. The only players with more are Eric Thames, Ryan Zimmerman and Aaron Judge, each of whom has 13. Gallo is only hitting .203 with a .309 on-base percentage, but he's hitting for enough power to prove a down-order asset in the absence of future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre. 

Harvey's rough season continues

We don't need to rehash everything Matt Harvey has gone through off the field in the past week. If you're here and reading this, you know about the suspension and everything that came with it. Somewhat lost in the shuffle is that he's been pretty bad at pitching these past two seasons. 

That continued Friday in Milwaukee. 

Harvey would give up home runs to Jett Bandy, Eric Sogard and Orlando Arica -- not exactly Murderer's Row -- en route to coughing up five runs on seven hits in five innings. Equally as troubling would be the five walks. 

On the year, Harvey has a 5.63 ERA. He's given up 10 home runs and 18 walks in 40 innings while having only struck out 26 hitters (the 5.85 K/9 would easily be the lowest of his career). 

Things might get worse before they get better here. 

Sano keeps slugging

Twins youngster Miguel Sano entered Friday hitting .304/.441/.667. He's been punishing the baseball on a regular basis, as he leads the majors in average exit velocity by a wide margin, for example. 

Friday, he kept things going on the same track: 

Right on cue with the on-screen graphic! Perfect. 

Sano becomes the fastest Twins player to 10 home runs in a season (32 games) since 1986, when Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett needed only 23 games to get there, per Dustin Morse of Twins' communications. 

The blast would be all the Twins needed, as Ervin Santana continued his unbelievable season. He did walk five, but he didn't allow a run in seven innings of work while striking out four. The bullpen threw up two scoreless innings as well and the Twins take the game from the Indians in Cleveland. Santana's ERA is down to 1.50 on the year. 

Bellinger keeps bringing it, too

So much for a temporary promotion to the majors. Cody Bellinger has totally forced the Dodgers' hand to keep him in The Show and he's just piling on at this point. He added another homer to his dossier on Friday: 

Bellinger is now hitting .323/.391/.726 with two doubles, a triple, seven homers, 18 RBI and 17 runs in 16 games in the majors at age 21. Get outta here with that, right? 

More importantly for the Dodgers was winning the game in Colorado, 6-2. Clayton Kershaw threw well again and the Dodgers are now 21-15, 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Rockies with two more games to go in the series. Might we see a change at the top? Stay tuned. The Rockies have only lost one series since April 12 and two all year while the Dodgers just burned their ace. 

A very fun mid-May series, this one. 

Marlins are floundering

Back on Sunday, April 23, the Marlins won to move their record to 10-8. It's not exactly taking the league by storm, but it's a good start. Just to put some perspective on that record, it's a 162-game pace of 90 wins, which would surely be good enough for at least a wild card spot. The Marlins do carry the longest playoff drought in the NL, after all. 

Since then? Boy, things have gotten really bad. The Marlins dropped their fourth consecutive game on Friday, but the bigger picture is worse. Since that April 23 win, the Marlins are 3-13, dropping them overall to 13-21 and within striking range of the worst record in the NL. 

Quick hits