As is always the case, Saturday affords the baseball enthusiast a full slate of 15 MLB games. Headliners include a Yankees-Cubs night game at Wrigley and a battle for first place in the NL West between the visiting Diamondbacks and host Rockies. Now let's dig in ... 

Scores

Red Sox 11, Twins 1 (box score)
Rays 6, Blue Jays 1 (box score)
Indians 3, Royals 1 (box score)
Reds 14, Giants 2 (box score)
Pirates 2, Brewers 1 in 10 (box score)
Nationals 6, Phillies 2 (box score)
Cardinals 5, Braves 3 (box score)
Yankees 11, Cubs 6 (box score)
Mets 11, Marlins 3 (box score)
Orioles 6, White Sox 5 (box score)
Rockies 9, Diamondbacks 1 (box score)
Angels 2, Astros 1 (box score)
Dodgers 10, Padres 2 (box score)
Mariners 8, Rangers 2 (box score)
Athletics 6, Tigers 5 (box score)

Giants rotation runs into more problems

The Giants have had an awful week of starting pitching.

Consider Ty Blach's start on Saturday night. He exited after tossing three innings against the Reds, during which he allowed eight earned runs (and 10 total) on 11 hits.

Bad, right? Absolutely. And yet it was arguably not the worst of the week for San Francisco -- and possibly not the worst of the series, even.

That's because on Tuesday Matt Moore allowed nine earned runs against the Dodgers, and on Friday Matt Cain gave up nine runs (all earned) against the Reds.

Everyone knew the Giants would miss Madison Bumgarner, but this is ridiculous. No wonder the Giants entered Saturday with an 11-19 record and a claim to last place in the NL West.

Hicks goes bananas

The Yankees scored 11 runs on Saturday -- thrashing the Cubs to the extent that catcher Miguel Montero pitched the ninth.

One party largely responsible for the Yanks' outburst? Aaron Hicks. On the night, Hicks went 4 for 5 with a stolen base. He doubled, and also drove in three runs on this homer:

Hicks is now hitting .355/.468/.710. Aaron Judge, for reference, is at .320/.416/.773. If Hicks keeps this up, the Yankees will have a decision to make once Jacoby Ellsbury gets healthy. 

The Boston offense finally breaks out

The Red Sox entered their road tilt against the Twins on Saturday ranking a dismal 13th in the AL in runs scored per game. That's a disappointing start for a team that last season paced the junior circuit in runs and OPS.

Yes, DH/warrior-poet David Ortiz has retired, but the Sox could in part offset those losses by getting a full season from high-ceiling rookie Andrew Benintendi. Despite strong production from Benintendi thus far, the Sox haven't been scoring runs. 

Well, in the second inning against Minnesota on Saturday, that changed ... 

Red Sox 2nd
Nick Tepesch pitching:
Hanley Ramirez:Strike looking, Ball, Ball, Foul, Ball, Foul, Ramirez grounded out to third.
Mitch Moreland:Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Moreland flied out to deep center.
Chris Young:Strike looking, Foul, Young homered to left center.
Sandy Leon:Ball, Leon singled to right center.
Josh Rutledge:Strike looking, Ball, Foul, Foul, Ball, Rutledge reached on fielder's choice to shortstop, Leon to second on shortstop Polanco fielding error.
Mookie Betts:Ball, Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Betts walked, Leon to third, Rutledge to second.
Dustin Pedroia:Strike looking, Pedroia doubled to left center, Leon, Rutledge and Betts scored.
Xander Bogaerts:Ball, Foul, Bogaerts singled to right, Pedroia to third.
Andrew Benintendi:Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Foul, Benintendi doubled to left, Pedroia and Bogaerts scored, Benintendi to third.
Drew Rucinski relieved Nick Tepesch.
Hanley Ramirez:Strike looking, Ramirez singled to right, Benintendi scored.
Mitch Moreland:Moreland doubled to deep left, Ramirez scored.
Chris Young:Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Foul, Foul, Young struck out swinging.
End of Inning (8 Runs, 7 Hits, 1 Error)

Yes, it's Nick Tepesch, making just his second big-league start since 2014, but the Sox will take any kind of context that begets a crooked number.

The Sox came in particularly lacking in the power department, but they tallied four extra-base hits in that frame. The greatest of these was of course Chris Young's first homer of the season ... 

Coming in, the Sox in 2017 hadn't scored more than five runs in any single inning, and they hadn't scored more than eight runs in a game. Well, they tied that latter mark in the second inning alone, and when Young homered again in the fifth they scored their most runs of the season. You have to go back to 2015 to find the last time Boston scored at least eight runs in an inning. 

Coming into Saturday, the Sox had managed to stay afloat despite a bad offense. If those bats start producing against non-Tepesch-grade starters moving forward, then a climb up the standings will likely coincide. 

Anderson's woes continue

Cubs starter Brett Anderson entered Saturday night in need of a good outing. Since he opened the season by allowing one run over his first 10-plus innings, Anderson had been on a downward trajectory. Consider that in his past three starts, he'd: allowed eight hits and six runs (all earned) over three-plus innings; walked six batters and allowed five hits (but just three runs) in six innings; and allowed seven hits and seven runs in less than two innings.

Unfortunately for Anderson, he did not get that good outing on Saturday. Instead, he exited after a third of an inning with trainers and boo birds in tow. Worse yet, he'd allowed six hits and five earned runs before he left -- with almost all the damage coming on doubles by Starlin Castro, Gary Sanchez, and Chase Headley.

The severity of Anderson's tweaked back is unclear, but it seems like a disabled list stay might be in order one way or another -- if only to allow him a chance to reset.

Quick hits