If you wanted an example to show that anything is possible on any given day in MLB, yesterday’s game between the Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds was perfect for you.

The Astros have been awful this season and went into their game against the NL Central-leading Reds trailing their opponents by a staggering 39.5 games in the standings.

The Reds took the series opener 9-3 on Friday and yesterday, with Homer Bailey pitching brilliantly, you would have expected the Reds to come out on top yet again.

However, Brandon Phillips was ejected in the top of the eighth inning due to getting into an argument with the home plate umpire, resulting in Wilson Valdez taking Phillips’ place at second base. With the score tied at 1-1 and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Houston’s Jose Altuve hit a routine groundball to Valdez which should have led to a put-out and the game heading into extra innings.

Instead, the ball scuttled through Valdez’s legs allowing Matt Downs to score the winning run in a 2-1 victory for Houston.

The standings do not lie: the Reds are a vastly superior team to the Astros this season. Yet with a good pitching performance (courtesy of Lucas Harrell) and a bit of luck, it’s still possible in baseball for the lesser team to find a way to win every now and then.

It’s not likely you’ll see another team win on a walk-off nutmeg in today’s games, but anything is possible in this sport.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Texas at Cleveland (Holland – McAllister)
18.05. Baltimore at NY Yankees (Tillman – Hughes) *ESPN America
18.07. Tampa Bay at Toronto (Price – Romero)
18.10. NY Mets at Miami (Young – Buehrle)
18.35. St. Louis at Washington (Westbrook – Strasburg)
19.05. Cincinnati at Houston (Arroyo – Norris)
19.10. Minnesota at Kansas City (Vasquez – Mendoza)
19.10. Pittsburgh at Milwaukee (McDonald – Gallardo)
19.20. San Francisco at Chicago Cubs (Cain – Wood)
20.10. San Diego at Colorado (Kelly – Francis)
21.05. Boston at Oakland (Matsuzaka – Anderson)
21.10. LA Angels at Seattle (Weaver – Iwakuma)
21.10. Arizona at LA Dodgers (Miley – Capuano)
22.05. Philadelphia at Atlanta (Hamels – Maholm)

01.00. Chicago White Sox at Detroit (Sale – Verlander) *ESPN America

The Orioles-Yankees series has lived up to its billing so far and we go into the finale of the three-game series today with it all squared up at 1-1.

The Cardinals won a wild one yesterday 10-9 to give them a shot at securing a creditable four-game series split in Washington today, although Stephen Strasburg will be intent on spoiling that bid in one of his few remaining starts before the Nationals shut him down for the season.

The Pirates need to start winning games in bunches and they were dealt a blow yesterday as Corey Hart hit a walk-off home run to make it two loses in a row at the hands of the Brewers.  James McDonald is on the mound for the Buccos today trying to rescue a win from the series before they begin a six-game homestand against the Astros and Cubs.

The ESPN Sunday Night Game looks set to be a cracker between the White Sox and Tigers.  Detroit has taken the first two games of the series to close to within one game of Chicago and they can draw level at the top of the AL Central with a victory today.  With Chris Sale and Justin Verlander on the mound, you couldn’t ask for a better pitching match-up to close out the day’s schedule of games.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above.