The Yankees kept the good vibes rolling on Tuesday, demolishing the Rays by double-digits as they unleashed nine home runs for the second time this season to once again tie the franchise record. Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton, and José Caballero all went deep twice, while Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Ben Rice all added one of their own. Their fourth win in a row and sixth in their last seven games suddenly has them in position to take back the top Wild Card spot after briefly looking like
they could slide out of the playoff picture entirely beforehand. It all depended on whether their rivals could follow suit or not, and as it turned out, they sure couldn’t.
Toronto Blue Jays (74-53) 7, Pittsburgh Pirates (53-74) 3
Of course, they didn’t get every result that they wanted, and the Blue Jays managed to hold serve to keep the division deficit at five games. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the second inning, loading the bases in the first on a hit by pitch and a pair of walks before Alejandro Kirk and Nathan Lukes singled them all home. Then in the second, Myles Straw walks in front of George Springer, who deposited his 20th home run of the year to straightaway center field for a two-run shot.
Meanwhile, Max Scherzer turned in yet another strong start for the Blue Jays as he rounds into form late in the year. He went six innings, allowing just a single run in the bottom of the second when he loaded the bases with no outs but managed to only get dinged on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa groundout that moved the runners up.
Toronto’s lead expanded in the seventh inning when Kirk launched a two-run blast to make it 7-1, and though the Pirates tacked on a couple of runs in the seventh and eighth facing the Blue Jay bullpen they wasted further chances to put up crooked numbers. In the seventh they put men on second and third with no outs only to score a lone run on a sac fly, and in the eighth, they capitalized on a single and error putting Nick Gonzales on second base to knock their third and final run in. They ran out of juice from there, going down in order in the ninth against Jeff Hoffman.
Baltimore Orioles (59-67) 4, Boston Red Sox (68-59) 3 (11 innings)
The Orioles have played the spoiler role excellently, sweeping their two-game set against the Red Sox. It wasn’t pretty, as they were outhit and committed an error to give Boston every chance to take this one, but they clamped down whenever a scoring threat emerged to persevere.
The Sox got on the board first, thanks to a balk in the third inning advancing the runner from third. However, the inning started with a leadoff single and a fielder’s choice botched into a fielding error that put two on with no outs, and that was the only run that they scratched across. It was part of a long theme for the night, as Boston went 0-for-13 with RISP.
Baltimore turned the tides in the fifth inning, starting with Jackson Holiday making up for his error with a leadoff double before Luis Vázquez walked. Justin Wilson came on in relief of Walker Beuhler and got Gunnar Henderson to line out for the first out, but Ryan Mountcastle lined a single to left to tie the game and Colton Cowser doubled to center to take the lead. Greg Weissert came in to put out the fire, but threw a wild pitch that scored a third run in the frame before he struck out Dylan Beavers to end the frame. It was 3-1 O’s, and Boston was completely silent in response as they went down in order for the next three innings.
Boston snapped out of it in the eighth inning, working the bases loaded with no outs, only for Rico Garcia to come in and strike out the side. Still, with three outs left to rally Nathaniel Lowe bailed them out in the ninth — he hit a two-run shot to tie the game after Romy Gonzalez led off with a walk. The Orioles then struck out back-to-back batters before walking the bases loaded, giving Boston a golden opportunity to walk it off. Trevor Story couldn’t come through, grounding out to third to force extra innings.
The Orioles could do nothing with their half of the 10th, striking out to strand a pair of runners and putting the ball back in Boston’s court. A hit by pitch and walk loaded the bases for the third consecutive inning, but this time it was Abraham Toro who couldn’t get the job done, grounding into a 4-6-3 double play to strand them all.
They wouldn’t get a fourth shot at it — Baltimore played small ball moving the ghost runner over and scoring on a soft dribbler in front of the plate that Connor Wong could only go to first with. Then the Sox went down in order in their half, bunting the ghost runner over and choosing not to send him on a fly ball to center for the second out. Alex Bregman popped up to finish it off, pushing Boston a game below New York in the standings.
Detroit Tigers (75-53) 1, Houston Astros (69-57) 0 (10 innings)
Tarik Skubal and Hunter Brown lived up to the billing, dishing out a combined 13 shutout innings, with Skubal striking out 10 in his seven frames of work to bring his season total to 200 punchouts exactly. The Tigers actually got all five of their hits during Brown’s outing, but he skillfully scattered and stranded them all. There were some close calls, including Zach McKinstry leading off the fifth inning with a triple only for the rest of the Tigers’ lineup only managing a walk.
The Astros, meanwhile, had one opportunity against Skubal and blundered it. Ramón Urías came up with one on and two out and laced a double down the right field line, bringing Yainer Diaz all the way home just to get beaten at the plate by a strong relay from Kerry Carpenter to Gleyber Torres. The Astros challenged the play, but video replay confirmed the call as Dillon Dingler just barely nabbed Diaz before his hand slid across the plate.
The Astros floundered from there, hitting into a couple of double plays to kill any attempt at rallying, while the Tigers couldn’t get the ball to drop anywhere away from a fielder bringing this game to extras as well. There, the Astros went down in order and faced disaster in the bottom half. They got Andy Ibáñez to fly out for the first out and moved the ghost runner to third before intentionally walking Dingler, winning their chosen matchup with Javier Báez with a strikeout. Jahmai Jones and Torres both worked walks to force in the lead runner however, giving Detroit a walk-off walk.
Other Games
Philadelphia Phillies (73-53) 6, Seattle Mariners (68-59) 4: The Mariners were the other domino piece that the Yankees needed to fall, and they got just that. Kyle Schwarber hit a solo shot in the first inning to give Philadelphia a brief lead, Randy Arozarena tied it back up with an RBI double in the second, and then the Phillies opened up a more sizeable gap with a pair of runs in the third and a Bryson Stott solo shot in the fourth. Seattle tied it back up in the seventh thanks to Eugenio Suárez’s two-run double, but J.T. Realmuto put it to bed with a two-run shot in the eighth.
Arizona Diamondbacks (61-66) 6, Cleveland Guardians (64-61) 5: The Yankees gained some ground on the team directly outside the playoff picture as well, as the Guardians narrowly lost to the D-Backs in Arizona. Eduardo Rodriguez and Tanner Bibee both grinded through their starts to provide some longevity for their teams, but the offenses feasted in the middle innings. José Ramírez briefly put Cleveland up 4-2 with a two-run blast in the fifth, only for Arizona to tie it in the bottom half on Corbin Carroll’s RBI triple and then take the lead for good in the seventh when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled home a pair of runners.
Kansas City Royals (65-61) 5, Texas Rangers (62-65) 2: We’re technically covering this game for the Rangers but that might change as these two teams have flipped their fortunes over the last 10 games, with Kansas City going 8-2 and Texas 2-8 in the same span of time. Home runs were the name of the game here, as Corey Seager and Joc Pederson hit solo shots to put Texas up 2-1 around a Vinnie Pasquantino solo homer, and then Mike Yastrzemski tied it up on a blast to right field in the sixth inning. Jonathan India was hit by a pitch to force a run in and give the Royals the lead in the seventh, and Bobby Witt Jr. gave them insurance with a two-run bomb in the eighth, the 100th of his young career.
