The Yankees have played with fire this week with the Angels, twice heading to the bottom of the ninth trailing and twice able to find a way to win. Good thing, too, since the AL East, and the American League more broadly, has tightened up quite a bit after the Yankees’ fast 8-2 start. It was a packed day around the league yesterday, so let’s go through it all.
Seattle Mariners (8-11) 6, San Diego Padres (12-6) 7
The Mariners are so weird. The heart of their order is for all intents and purposes punchless thus far. The Big Dumper, Julio, and Josh Naylor
are all mired with sub-.600 OPS. Naylor’s is a considerable distance from .500, for Pete’s sake. Despite that, they’ve still won some games. Wednesday, Randy Arozarena, hitting fifth, set the table and the guys after him did the damage. Arozarena scored three runs on the night as Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone each knocked in a pair.
Raley’s knock came off former Yankee Ron Marinaccio. I’m no pitching coach but I would advise Marinaccio not to leave his 93-mph heater middle-middle. Bad things happen. With Seattle up 6-0, this one looked like it was over.
The Dads got up off the mat in the bottom of the sixth when former Red Sox Xander Bogaerts hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot to left center. The Ms bullpen held them in check from there, with Seattle even bringing closer Andrés Muñoz in for the ninth with a four-run lead. Considering he’d only had one save opportunity all season, it seems like Seattler just didn’t want him rusting on the bench.
But the baseball gods punish managers who send their closers in in non-save situations. Tonight was no different. In short order, with only one out, Muñoz loaded the bases, bringing the tying run to the plate. A sacrifice fly and a single made it 6-4 and now, the winning run came to the plate. Ramón Laureano then singled to make it 6-5, chase Muñoz from the game, and put the Padres on the verge of their first ninth inning comeback of four or more runs at Petco in nearly 20 years.
The man of the hour? Jackson Merrill. And he delivered. His knock to left brought home two and the Padres walked off Seattle.
Boston Red Sox (7-11) 9, Minnesota Twins (11-8) 5
The vibes haven’t been good in Boston in the early going. And you just hate to see it. Unfortunately, for at least one day, they got their stuff together. It helps they had the right man on the mound in the form of 24-year-old southpaw Connelly Early. For his part, Early spun six innings of one-run ball, which is really all you can ask for from a starting pitcher these days.
Meanwhile, the BoSox offense entered today averaging four runs a game with 68 runs in 17 contests. That doesn’t leave a huge margin for error. Led by Trevor Story, the Boston offense decided to blow past that season average in one frame, and then run up the score. With Boston already having scored twice in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead, Trevor Story came to the dish with two men on. His three-run jack put Boston up 5-1.
The final score obscures that this game was not close. Story added a two-run double and Boston extended their lead to 9-1 after six. That score held up until the Twinkies dropped a four-spot in the bottom of the ninth to put themselves within a grand slam of tying the game. Alas, too little too late for the perennial Yankee punching bags. And we were cheering for them, too.
Toronto Blue Jays (7-10) 1, Milwaukee Brewers (9-8) 2
Free agent signing Dylan Cease got the ball for the Jays tonight and effortlessly held Milwaukee down. Six innings of shutout ball lowered his season ERA to 1.74 and, thanks to a Jesús Sánchez first inning sacrifice fly, he left the game with a 1-0 Toronto lead.
Unfortunately for the Jays, Cease couldn’t go all game and they had to turn to the bullpen. In the home eighth, the baseball gods, specifically the BABIP god, punished Toronto and submariner Tyler Rogers. An infield single, an error on the infield, and a groundball poked through right side tied the game. Brice Turang followed with a 97-hopper to second that plated another Brew Crew run.
Milwaukee turned to Abner Uribe to hold that one run lead and end the Brewers’ six-game losing skid. The young righty, facing the bottom half of the Jays’ lineup, set them down in order, ending the losing streak and hanging a tough luck loss on Toronto.
Houston Astros (8-11) 3, Colorado Rockies (6-12) 1
Houston came to Coors Field last week for a three-game set and the Rockies swept them. I assure you, as a man who attended one of those games, it was glorious. Understandably, back in Houston, the Astros search for vengeance. Wednesday night, they obtained a measure of it.
Spencer Arighetti, one of the few healthy starters Houston has, took the ball and gave the Astros everything they could have hoped for. Six innings of one-run ball, punctuated by 10 strikeouts. The Astros put two runs up in the first thanks to a pair of sacrifice flies. Then, in the third. Yordan Alvarez continued his incandescent start with a solo home run.
Surprisingly, given the Astros’ bullpen has been a catastrophe and the Rockies’ pitching staff is… the Rockies’ pitching staff, that was it for the scoring. It was 3-1 after three and it was 3-1 after nine. For all you Immaculate Grid players out there, former Yankee (for a hot minute) Enyel De Los Santos picked up the save for Houston, his second of the season.
Other Games
Detroit Tigers (9-9) 2, Kansas City Royals (7-11) 1: This was a pitcher’s duel. The two starters combined to allow two runs over 12.2 innings and the AL Central rivals stayed tied at one through seven innings. The play of the game came in the home eighth with little-used outfielder Wenceel Pérez facing Royals reliever Eli Morgan. Pinch-hitting for the injured Zach McKinstry, Pérez went yard to break the tie and that was enough for the Tigers to hold on for the one-run win.
Cleveland Guardians (10-9) 3, St. Louis Cardinals (10-8) 5: The Cards were a nigh-unanimous pick by the PSA staff to finish in the NL Central basement. And to be fair, they’ve only played 18 games. But I think everyone will agree they’ve been a pleasant surprise. Tonight was no different. The two teams were tied at one into the bottom of the sixth when rookie sensation JJ Wetherholt put the Cards up one with a sac fly. A two-run single from Alec Burleson gave the Cards a three-run lead, one they managed to hold onto en route to their 10th win of the season. Dustin May went six solid innings in the win.
