Rich went into Mark’s stadium looking to make up some ground on first place and put some distance between himself and Phil. Things started out well, as Rich took the first game, 3-2 in 12 innings. Rich was ahead, 2-0 until the 8th inning, when Jeff McNeil cracked a 2-run shot to tie the game for Mark. The game remained knotted until the 12th when three singles pushed the go-ahead run across for Rich and Kenta Maeda (11-2) pitched his 4th shutout inning of relief for the win. From there, things went downhill for Rich. Lance Lynn (W, 9-5) and Joakim Soria combined on a 2-hitter in game 2 to win, 4-0. In game 3, Gio Urshela hit 2 homers, and Luis Castillo struck out 14 as Mark prevailed again, 8-2. In game 4, desperate for a split, Rich could only manage single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings. Mark put up 3 runs in the second and added an insurance run in the 5th to take the game, 4-2. Mike Leake (8-7) was the winner, while David Price (5-8) took the loss.
John’s team saw an opportunity on the scoreboard, but dropped the first game to Tim, 9-4, as Brad Keller (7-9) outdueled Walker Buehler (5-10). John’s team then snapped out of it and took 3 straight to open a 4 game lead over Rich.
Phil’s team went to Paul’s stadium and took 3 of 4, pushing Phil past Rich into 2nd place in the division by a game and 3 games behind John for first place.
In the other division, Robert went to Bob and Jake deGrom (14-4) did Jake deGrom things – shutting Bob out on 4 hits and striking out 11 while walking 1. Bob’s team fought back, however, to earn a split.
Dougald and Chris played each other, 1 game apart for playoff position. They split, leaving Chris in 2nd, 1 game ahead of Dougald and 4 games behind Robert.