Colton Coswer (Orioles) demolishes Kenley Jansen (Tigers) Sunday afternoon in the bottom of the ninth. 

Here, I’d like you to visit the first three departments. Guess what’s unique about the events in question other than that they were part and parcel of a walkoff Sunday.

No Drought About it Dept.—Aaron Judge couldn’t have chosen a better way to end a home run drought if he tried Sunday. After eleven games without hitting one out or driving one in, Judge ended a scoreless game with a two-run blast that also handed his Yankees their first win against their American League East rival Rays this season.

The win also pulled the Yankees to 4.5 games back of the Rays.

Till the Cowser Come Home Dept.—Continuing the apparent Day of the Walkoff, Colton [The Milkman] Cowser–a late-game insertion as his Orioles opened a doubleheader with the Tigers—decided enough struggle was enough, for himself and his club.

A wise decision. He yanked a game-ending three-run bomb into Camden Yards’s center field bleachers. His victim: veteran reliever Kenley Jansen, formerly a bullpen ace with the Dodgers, the Braves, the Red Sox, and the Angels. The bad news was the Tigers getting revenge in the nightcap, 4-1.

“I feel like we’ve been right there a lot of the year. It feels like we’ve been one hit away a lot of times,” Cowser told reporters postgame. “I feel like you’re always just a couple wins away from getting on a roll. I feel like we have the clubhouse to do it. I think everyone has the right mindset in here and just got to keep showing up and getting your work in and playing good, clean baseball.”

From Zero to Quarto Dept.—Bad enough that the Mets lost a series to the Marlins on their own demerit at the plate. Worse had to be the way Heriberto Hernandez rubbed it in in the bottom of the ninth Sunday: after a double, a sacrifice, a walk, and an intentional walk, Hernandez ripped a hanging changeup from Devin Williams over the center field fence.

Until that blow, Williams had spent his previous ten appearances allowing no runs. It left the Mets finishing a road trip 2-5 and shut out for the sixth time this season so far. The Marlins, meanwhile, swept a set for the first time since they swept the Rockies to open the season.

Hernandez’s salami was also the first to end a ball game when the score was 0-0 entering the plate appearance since Justin Maxwell did it in 2013, according to the invaluable Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

INTERMISSION: FIGURE IT OUT, YET?

DRY CYCLE DEPT.—Time’s up. Those three walkoff bombs amounted to three-quarters of hitting for a home run cycle: two-run homer, three-run homer, grand slam. The only thing missing was a walkoff solo blast. The last opportunity for it would be the Angels, hosting the Rangers, and tied at one going to the bottom of the ninth.

Sure, Angels lefthander Reid Detmers set a career high with fourteen strikeouts. It tied him for the fourth-most strikeouts in a game without surrendering a walk, with Dan Haren (2012) and Andrew Heaney (2019), but two behind franchise leader Frank Tanana (17, in 1975).

Only who cared about him? Whom among the Angels, with Mike Trout having struck out to end the eighth, had it in him to walk it off with a solo nuke now?

Vaughn Grissom? Leadoff strikeout. Jorge Soler? Base hit to left. There went that opportunity. So Jo Adell was then hit by a pitch to set up first and second. And Oswald Peraza grounded one to second that looked like a certain extra innings-sending double play . . . until Rangers second baseman Justin Foscue threw off line, enabling pinch-runner (for Soler) Donovan Walton to score the winner.

On the bright side, the Angels finally became the final team in the Show to hang up their twentieth win of the season. It only took them about two months. But the further bright side was the Angels sweeping the Rangers this weekend. It’s their first series sweep all season so far.

NOW, BACK TO OUR REGULARLY-SCHEDULED PROGRAM

Running of the Bulls Dept.—Decades ago, Casey Stengel hectored his Yankee hitters, “Get your runs now—Father Time is coming!” He meant Hall of Fame legend Satchel Paige, when Paige worked for the Indians and the St. Louis Browns. But these days, those managing against the Dodgers might hector their players, “Get your runs now—the bulls are gonna grab you by the horns!”

With their 5-1 win over the Brewers Sunday, the Dodgers bullpen pushed its scoreless inning streak to 38. The Elias Sports Bureau says it’s the longest in the Show since the 2017 Indians,  and seven-and-two-thirds shy of the Show record set by the 1962 Tigers.

The Dodgers broke a one-all tie in the fifth with Kyle Tucker’s two-run triple and Andy Pages’s two-run homer, and the pen picked up where starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto left off, Yamamoto keeping the Brewers scoreless following a second-inning, run-scoring infield out, before the pen took over for the final two.

Sunday’s win meant the Dodgers taking two of three from the Brewers, the first of the wins an 11-3 Saturday blowout. It also meant the Dodgers going up another half game on the Padres in the National League West, the imperialists!