The Yankees took home an exciting win on Monday to kick off a series on the south side of Chicago. Ben Rice had a clutch hit in the seventh to give them the lead, and Ali Sánchez’s three-run homer put the nail in the coffin against the White Sox. With the Rays off for the day, it was a free mini-jump for New York in the East to 2.5 games behind Tampa Bay.
Despite the shorter schedule, there was still plenty of action to take in around the American League, so let’s take a look at what went down to open
up the week.
Boston Red Sox (54-50) 4, Toronto Blue Jays (48-58) 2
With the Rays off for the day, The Red Sox game out in Sacramento was likely of chief concern for the Yanks. Things were tight for much of the evening, before one big hit propelled Boston to victory over the Athletics.
The A’s jumped ahead early, when Tyler Soderstrom belted a solo shot in the bottom of the first. The lefty’s 17th homer of the season gave his crew the lead, one they held on to for some time. Starter Jack Perkins pitched well to begin the game, keeping the Red Sox out of the run column for the first five innings of the game.
In the sixth inning, still trailing 1-0, the Red Sox finally made their move. A double from Connor Wong and a two-out walk to Willson Contreras ended the day for Perkins, and suddenly had the A’s on the ropes. José Suarez came on in relief, but found himself in even more trouble by immediately walking Wilyer Abreu. In the next at-bat, Ceddanne Rafaela broke the game open with a towering wall-scraper of a grand slam into left-center field.
Suddenly trailing, the A’s began to answer back with a Jonah Heim solo shot in the bottom half of the inning. His 10th long ball of the season cut their deficit to two runs, but wasn’t enough to help get his squad back in front. After a quiet seventh and eighth innings, the A’s were tasked with taking on Aroldis Chapman in the ninth.
They certainly kept the game interesting, as a hit from Colby Thomas and Nick Kurtz reaching on an error had the winning run at the plate for the Athletics. Chapman dialed it in under pressure, however, as the veteran flamethrower notched back-to-back strikeouts to bring this game to a close as a 4-2 Boston win. The Red Sox surge continues as they hold the second Wild Card berth in the American League with the win. There was some concern, however, as new acquisition Curtis Mead was forced to leave the game early after being hit by a pitch in the fifth. X-rays were at least negative. The team said that he is “day-to-day with a bruised wrist.”
Other Games
Texas Rangers (53-52) 7, Seattle Mariners (52-55) 4: The Rangers did the bulk of their work early in a big divisional game against Seattle on Monday. They scored all seven of their runs in the first three innings, all of which came one homers, with Joc Pederson, Pederson again, Ezequiel Duran, and Jake Burger all going deep in the surge. Kumar Rocker allowed just a pair of runs while striking out seven in his outing, which was more than enough to get by for Texas. Four different Rangers tallied multiple hits, with Pederson’s pair of homers being the highlight. It was an important win for them over their division rival, as the Rangers’ lead grows to 2.5 games with the Astros also passing the M’s thanks to a ninth-inning rally in Anaheim.
