Yesterday was that more elusive kind of day in the Major League Baseball regular season when fans paid more attention to news and trade rumors than the actual action on the field. Such is the Trade Deadline! And it was a busy one, even if Yankees fans saw no catching or bullpen help come through those doors. That just adds to the pressure on acquisitions Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos, as well as top prospect George Lombard Jr., who got “the call” following an ugly 13-7 Yankees loss to the Cardinals.
García hit an electric go-ahead homer in his debut, but the bullpen made it go for naught.
Here’s what else was afoot in terms of relevant American League action on Monday. Note that we’ll have more specific Trade Deadline-adjacent divisional rundowns later today, so you won’t see as much on them here. Also, the Red Sox were off, even if poaching a franchise catcher from your division rival on counts so much as an offday.
Tampa Bay Rays (66-46) 13, Colorado Rockies (45-68) 9
You’ll forgive me for not going long on the Rays getting to play on the Moon yesterday while boosting their AL East lead back to 3.5 games over the Yankees. Technically, the Yankees are actually closer to those aforementioned third-place Red Sox now! Isn’t that fun?
Junior Caminero unshockingly set the tone early in this one, belting two homers through the first four innings as Tampa Bay quickly surmounted an 8-1 lead on Michael Lorenzen and Tanner Gordon.
Taylor Walls also delivered a two-run single, and RBI knocks from Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson were key to the rally as well. Aranda also plated a run with a double in the eighth, and a Richie Palacios two-run shot off Gordon ended up saving manager Kevin Cash some unexpected agita.
Starter Ian Seymour had been solid enough with two runs allowed in six innings of work — excellent stuff for Coors, really — but Michael Grove and Casey Legumina were pretty bad. They combined for seven runs and eight hits allowed in just 2.2 innings, forcing Cash to turn to Kevin Kelly for the final out in the ninth. Colorado had scored four times in the ninth and had the tying run in the hole. Had it not been for Palacios, it would’ve been closer with former Yankees farmhand T.J. Rumfield the actual tying run at bat. Regardless, Kelly got Rumfield on a first-pitch fly out to end it.
Other Games
Houston Astros (58-56) 1, Toronto Blue Jays (53-60) 3: This is the only other game we’ll touch on today, as we’re dropping the Rangers from the Rivalry Roundup after a brief return, tagging in the now-AL West leading Astros. I’m not happy about it either, but it makes the most sense since I don’t want to drive the other Rivalry Roundup writers batty by having to cover three meh AL West teams (yes, Seattle’s presently out now, too).
So of course the Astros repaid this “faith” by scoring one run against a seller — one who even gave Houston an outfielder before the game in Daulton Varsho. Jeremy Peña’s RBI single in the sixth represented Houston’s only scoring despite nine hits and two walks against Shane Bieber, who evidently did not make for an interesting enough Trade Deadline addition for anyone this time around. The Jays wisely had Braydon Fisher issue an intentional walk to Yordan Alvarez following the Peña hit, loading the bases but getting a foul-out from Isaac Paredes to escape the jam. Brendon Little registered some key K’s for Toronto as well, entering to fan Zach Dezenzo as the possible tying run in the seventh before more impressively doing the same to to the mighty Alvarez an inning later.
On the other side, Cristian Javier surrendered an early solo shot to Alejandro Kirk and former ’Stro Jesús Sánchez also drove in one with a single before Ernie Clement plated a third with a sacrifice fly. The Jays’ bullpen helped that stand up as Tyler Rogers pitched a perfect ninth.
