The big story, sadly, was Giancarlo Stanton getting hit by a pitch. In fact, that was a disturbing theme of the night: Mike Trout got hit twice (leading to retaliation from the Angels); Derek Jeter got hit; Starling Marte got hit and had to leave the Pirates' game and Andrew McCutchen nearly got hit in the head. Some ugly stuff all night long.

Here are five other important results from the day and here's the Hunt for October page with standings, playoff odds and the upcoming schedule.

1. The Yankees were the big winners.

They go from nearly getting no-hit for the first time since 2003 (when six Astros did the trick) -- the Rays' Alex Cobb lost it with one out in the eighth when Chris Young doubled to right-center -- to winning in dramatic fashion when Young hit a three-run, walk-off homer off Jake McGee with one out in the ninth, capping a comeback that had them down 4-0 in the eighth. The A's lost and the Royals lost, so the A's lead over the Tigers for the first wild card is down to one game and the Yankees are now just four games behind the Tigers for the second wild. Hey, you never know ...

2. Carlos Santana is having a better season than you realize.

Remember when Santana was hitting .159 on May 25? That's when he went down with a concussion and missed 10 games. That time off seemed to have cleared his head in more ways than one. Since June 6, he's hitting .278/.394/.534 with 21 home runs and 60 RBIs -- he's tied for second in the majors in home runs since then and eighth in RBIs. He homered in both ends of the Indians' doubleheader against the Twins on Thursday as Cleveland won 8-2 and 2-0 and he's up to .235/.369/.449 for the season with 27 home runs and 77 RBIs while leading the majors in walks. Yes, those first two months count, but he's rebounded to have a solid season at the plate.

3. NL Central race is back on.

Francisco Liriano was great for the Pirates (12 K's, no runs in eight innings) in a 4-1 win over the Phillies and Johnny Cueto was great for the Reds in a 1-0 win over the Cardinals, Cincy's third straight win over St. Louis. The Cardinals' lead over the Pirates is back down to 2.5 games. The schedule still points to the Cardinals -- they have Colorado, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, the Cubs and Arizona the rest of the way, while the Pirates have the Cubs, Boston, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Cincinnati -- but the Pirates are at least putting some pressure on them.

4. Kansas City's defense has a bad day.

The Royals are usually very good on defense but they made three errors and failed to make a couple other plays they should have made, helping the Red Sox to two unearned runs in a 6-3 loss. With Danny Duffy out, Royals manager Ned Yost started Liam Hendriks, the former Twin and Blue Jay with the 5.89 career ERA. He wasn't good and got knocked out in the third inning (although the defense didn't help). With a deep bullpen, maybe Yost could have considered being a little creative and turned it into a "bullpen" game, kind of like the Angels have done recently (including Thursday) with Cory Rasmus, even knowing he's only going to last a few innings at most. I'd rather see that approach rather then expecting Hendriks to pitch a good game.

5. At least Scott Kazmir pitched a good game.

Unfortunately for the A's, Chris Sale was better. White Sox 1, A's 0. Those Bob Melvin postgame interviews are getting depressing.