One of the clubs normally featured in here, the Baltimore Orioles, found themselves on the receiving end of a late-inning beatdown Sunday as the Yankees turned a close game into a rout in the eighth inning. But all the Yanks’ other rivals were in action with Sundays featuring full slates of games.
Sunday’s biggest takeaway in terms of the standings is that the Highly Irritating Rays won again to stay at New York’s heels. But the Red Sox and Jays lost, and you love to see that. Unfortunately, Sunday’s biggest stories
could be injury related as both the Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins had their starting pitchers leave their respective games early.
Toronto Blue Jays (16-18) 3, Minnesota Twins (15-20) 4
This game quickly turned into a nightmare for Minnesota. And when I say quickly, it took nine pitches. After hurling that ninth pitch, Twins ace Joe Ryan immediately left the game with elbow soreness. It’s obviously too soon to know the severity of the injury but any time a pitcher leaves a game after showing diminished velocity (his final pitch was a fastball at 90.9 mph; his season average is 92.6 mph), you fear the worst.
To Minnesota’s credit, they did not flinch. Five relievers combined to cover this de facto bullpen game, with Andrew Morris taking over for Ryan, throwing 3.2 innings of scoreless ball, and earning his first career win. Offensively, the Twins notched a lone run in the first then three run-scoring doubles in the fifth extended the lead to 4-0.
The Jays meanwhile got four innings out of phenom Trey Yesavage in his second start of the season after returning from injury. Offensively, they mounted a late charge, getting on the board with a run in the sixth. Then, in the ninth, Kazuma Okamoto clubbed a two-run home run to get Toronto within one, before Minnesota finally slammed the door shut.
Boston Red Sox (13-21) 1, Houston Astros (14-21) 3 (F/10)
It was the Moveable Object versus the Stoppable Force this weekend at Fenway. Boston and Houston split the first two games this weekend, meaning whoever won Sunday’s game would take the series. Luckily for Boston, they had Ranger Suárez pitching, fresh off eight shutout innings with 10 strikeouts against Toronto. He looked to be on form again today but, like Ryan in Minnesota, was felled by injury. Suárez left after four innings with a hamstring injury.
Boston then dipped into its bullpen and their parade of relievers did yeoman’s work, allowing a sole run. Meanwhile, the Astros pitching staff, which has been catastrophically bad, managed to match the Sox, allowing one run and sending this game to extras.
In the top of the tenth, Cam Smith came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. Smith ripped a ball off the Green Monster to plate a pair, leaving Houston three outs away from taking the series at Fenway. Things got dicey in the bottom of the tenth with Boston loading the bases with only one out. But Bryan Abreu managed to induce a game-ending twin-killing to, for what feels like the first time all season, hold on to a Houston lead.
Other Games
Tampa Bay Rays (21-12) 2, San Francisco Giants (13-21) 1 (F/10): The Rays continue to be Annoying. But it’s also the Giants’ fault for deciding not to score any runs after putting a one in the run column in the first. From there, the game remained 1-0 until the home eighth when Tampa tied it with a squeeze play. Of course. In the bottom of the tenth with super-speedster Chandler Simpson on second, Jonathan Aranda dunked a single into right field. Game over. Annoying.
Cleveland Guardians (18-17) 1, Athletics (18-16) 7: The first place Athletics. What a wild sport baseball is. Sunday, the Athletics’ offense was too much for Cleveland. The A’s put up three-spots in each of the fifth and sixth innings to provide the winning margin. The two clubs combined for four long balls on the day. And don’t look now but Jeff McNeil has rediscovered his form at the plate. The 2022 NL batting champion had three RBI on the day and is now hitting .314 on the season.
Seattle Mariners (16-19) 1, Kansas City Royals (15-19) 4: Luis Castillo has been catastrophically terrible in 2026. Entering Sunday, he “boasted” a 6.35 ERA and was allowing 12.1 H/9. In that context, the four runs he allowed over six innings Sunday is a downright masterpiece. And in all seriousness, he pitched better than his line suggests. He just couldn’t escape the meltdown inning. In the third, a bases loaded walk, a force out, and a sacrifice fly allowed three Royals to score and that was enough for the win.
Detroit Tigers (18-17) 7, Texas Rangers (16-18) 1: The final game of the weekend saw Jack Leiter, son of former Yankee Al Leiter, take the ball for Texas while Detroit went with a bullpen game. Leiter was up and down, going 6.2 innings and whiffing 10, but also allowing five runs. Meanwhile, the Tigers bullpen stifled the Rangers offense outside of a lone run. Former #1 pick Spencer Torkelson supplied the power for Detroit, with a two-run bomb. Detroit’s rookie phenom Kevin McGonigle continued his outstanding debut season with a multi-hit game and a pair of RBI.
