The Yankees were off on Thursday, alongside a fair bit of the league. As they head out to St. Louis to start their latest road trip, there were still a number of notable AL teams on the field for them to scoreboard watch, including the division leaders in the East and Central and the team right behind them in the Wild Card standings.
Toronto Blue Jays (71-51) 2, Chicago Cubs (68-52) 1
We were treated to a pitchers’ duel in Toronto, with Matthew Boyd and Max Scherzer both dealing from the get-go. Both went seven innings, scattering a handful of hits
while inducing plenty of soft contact throughout the day. For Scherzer specifically it was his best start of the season, tying his longest outing and lowest amount of runs given up. It was also his fourth straight quality start, showcasing that he’s still got some fuel in the Hall of Fame tank.
However, he did blink first in this contest. After recording the first out of the sixth inning, Scherzer hung a middle-middle curveball to Michael Busch who appropriately launched it 409 feet to right field for a solo shot. The 1-0 Cubs lead wasn’t held for long though, as Boyd flinched in the seventh. He allowed a leadoff walk to Davis Schneider, and after he was bunted into scoring position Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the sacrifice irrelevant by hammering an 0-2 curve to center. The two-run shot put Toronto up for good, as their bullpen allowed just a single hit in the remaining two frames.
Detroit Tigers (71-52) 4, Minnesota Twins (57-64) 3 (11 innings)
Tarik Skubal was his usual workhorse self for Detroit, going seven innings to add to his Cy Young campaign. However, while six of them were excellent, one had him exiting with a no-decision instead of being in line for a win. The Twins got to him in the third inning, starting with Edouard Julien’s solo shot before Austin Martin doubled, Byron Buxton singled, and a ground out brought in another run. Luke Keaschall singled to bring home Buxton, but after a walk to Royce Lewis Trevor Larnach grounded out to end the frame.
The Tigers bailed out their ace pretty quickly, however. Riley Greene hit a two-run shot in the fourth to cut into the deficit, and in the sixth Javier Báez led off with a double and Colt Keith singled to bring him in and tie the game. Then the offenses got blanketed by the bullpens as they came in and took us to extras, where the Tigers whiffed on their chance to score the ghost runner. Then the Twins came up in the bottom of the frame and bunted Alan Roden over to third, setting up Martin with a chance to walk it off. He only managed a check-swing grounder, and the throw to the plate narrowly beat out Roden even after a replay challenge. Buxton lined out to end it, and an 11th inning was needed.
This time, Detroit wouldn’t let things slip away from them. A wild pitch moved the ghost runner up immediately, and Gleyber Torres lifted a sac fly to push the run across. Meanwhile, the Twins went down in order in the bottom half to end it.
Other Games
Cleveland Guardians (63-57) 9, Miami Marlins (58-63) 4: The Marlins must’ve had high hopes after they started out with a three-run first inning, but it came crashing down as Cleveland matched them with a three-spot of their own. The Marlins took another, smaller lead in the fourth when Heriberto singled home a run, but the Guardians took their first lead when they scored two in the fifth and padded it with a four-run seventh fueled by several singles, a fielding error and a fielder’s choice to throw to the plate too late, and a sacrifice fly to drive home the final run.
Baltimore Orioles (55-66) 5, Seattle Mariners (67-55) 3: The Orioles took over thanks to back-to-back big innings, beginning with three runs in the fourth inning including Ryan Mountcastle managing to steal home plate. Then in the fifth inning, Gunnar Henderson doubled home a run and Mountcastle lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0. Seattle got back into it with a pair of runs in the sixth when Julio Rodríguez blasted one to right field, and they threatened to complete the comeback in the ninth inning. They loaded the bases with one out, but Randy Arozarena grounded out to bring in the only run of the rally after narrowly beating out a double-play ball. Josh Naylor grounded out in the next at-bat, closing the game out.
