The Yankees are finally on a little hot streak to counterbalance the awful stretch they played early in the month, winning their fifth game in six tries as they took down the White Sox for the second straight day. This time it was a nail-biter, a three-run second inning powered by doubles from Anthony Volpe and Max Schuemann being all the damage in the game until the ninth inning when David Bednar’s repeated usage finally caught up to him and he allowed a two-run homer to Chase Meidroth to make things
interesting. Thankfully, Bednar still converted the save by hunkering down to strike out Everson Pereira.
With another tack in the win column, the Yankees kept the pressure on the Rays as they opened a series up against the Rangers in the Trop and the Sox as they continued their series out in Sacramento. Let’s see how they managed to hold up.
Tampa Bay Rays (62-44) 1, Texas Rangers (55-52) 4
Griffin Jax started this game off strong for Tampa, striking out three of the first four batters he faced, and he’d eventually end up with 10 K’s over 5.2 innings of work. Despite that, he’d find himself the hard-luck loser of this one as a pair of singles and a throwing error on his part in the second inning set up Nicky Lopez to lift a sacrifice fly to put Texas on the board, and then in the third inning a Joc Pederson single and Wyatt Langford double were again met with a sacrifice fly. That was all the runs he’d give up, but it was enough to hand him the loss as Tampa’s offense struggled against Cal Quantrill and company.
Quantrill sat down the first 10 Rays he faced before finally finding himself in a jam in the fourth inning. Jonathan Aranda became the first Tampa baserunner on a single to left, and Junior Caminero doubled to put runners on second and third. A catchers’ interference put Cedric Mullins aboard to load the bases with just one out, but Quantrill hunkered down and induced a massive double play ball from Chandler Simpson, getting a grounder right back to him and throwing home before Austin Wynns narrowly beat the speedy Simpson hustling down the line to first.
The fifth was a one-two-three reset for Quantrill, but his day ended after allowing a one-out walk in the sixth. New pitcher Peyton Gray collected the second out on a grounder that moved the runner over to second, but then Caminero ripped a triple out to center to finally get the Rays their first run. It proved to be their only one though, Caminero getting stranded as Mullins struck out thanks to an overturned strike two.
Texas’ small ball got them the lead for good, but they added on with their more traditional method of scoring. Wynns launched a solo homer, his first of the year, in the seventh inning, and in the eighth Ezequiel Duran was plunked and promptly stole second base to put himself in scoring position for Evan Carter’s single up the middle. Now holding a 4-1 lead, Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz were able to prevent any fires from emerging in the final frames.
Other Games
Boston Red Sox (55-51) 3, Athletics (45-62) 4: Jake Bennett get the Sox some length, lasting 6.2 innings, but he got stretched just a little too thin and faltered late. The A’s held a slim 1-0 lead in the seventh inning when Henry Bolte led off with an ABS-overturned strikeout-turned-walk and got bunted over to second. The small ball setup didn’t end up mattering as Brian Serven crushed a fastball in the top of the zone for a two-run homer, putting the Athletics up three and chasing Bennett from the game.
Boston got one of those runs back in the top of the eighth, Wilyer Abreu singling home Masataka Yoshida, but the A’s countered with another crucial run in the bottom half as Lawrence Butler ripped an RBI double. Boston had a rally in them though, getting one aboard with two outs for Connor Wong who deposited a ball over the wall in left for a two-run shot of his own. Suddenly back to a one-run deficit, Anthony Seigler narrowly missed tying the game sending a ball out to the warning track on a line that Bolte managed to track down.
Cleveland Guardians (55-53) 6, Cincinnati Reds (49-56) 5 (Game 1): The Guards and Reds had a doubleheader on Tuesday, and Cleveland came out on top in the first set thanks in large part to a Kyle Manzardo grand slam that came about after a challenge overturned a hit-by-pitch earlier in the at-bat. The Reds didn’t go away quietly though, stopping the bleeding there and proceeding to take one run back in the third on a Cal Stewart solo shot before charging to take the lead in the fourth. Tyler Stephenson ripped an RBI double, Edwin Arroyo added an RBI single, and with two outs Stewart singled home another two runs to peak ahead. However, Cleveland’s bats were up to the challenge and tied the game in the fifth on a sac fly before laying down a successful safety squeeze in the eighth to go up for good.
Cleveland Guardians (55-54) 0, Cincinnati Reds (50-56) 2 (Game 2): Things calmed down in the back half of the doubleheader, the Guardians finding themselves unable to get anything going against a bullpen game from the Reds. Five pitchers combined to allow just three hits and four walks, Jose Franco pitching the bulk outing with 3.2 innings of work, and while Gavin Williams was dominant pitching seven strong with 12 strikeouts his day was overshadowed by a JJ Bleday solo shot in the first inning and a wild pitch that he fired off in the fifth allowing a second run to score. Cleveland had a chance to rally in the ninth, getting a man on for Petey Halpin who crushed one to the gap in right-center, but Dan Myers leaped at the wall and came away with the game-winning out instead.
Seattle Mariners (53-55), Los Angeles Dodgers (67-40) 6: The what-could’ve-been World Series matchup from last year probably feels bittersweet to the Mariners after the topsy-turvy season they’ve had this year, but they opened this series up with a thrilling win. Shohei Ohtani got the Dodgers on the board first with a solo shot in the first inning, but Seattle countered with a Cal Raleigh blast in the second. The Dodgers could’ve gone up big with the bases loaded and no outs in the third, but a Freddie Freeman double-play ball meant only one run scratched across instead and the Mariners made them pay an inning later with a pair of blasts from Julio Rodríguez and Rob Refsnyder to go up 4-2.
Los Angeles went right back to the well, Tommy Edman doubling in a run before Ohtani later tied the game on a single in the bottom half of the inning. Max Muncy added a solo shot to lead off the fifth putting the Dodgers back on top, the final bit of damage against Luis Castillo in an ugly outing where he allowed 11 hits, but Dominic Canzone got it right back with a blast of his own in the sixth. The counterpunches ceased for an inning as the seventh was finally a quiet frame, but Canzone saved his best for last crushing a two-run blast in the eighth inning to put Seattle up for good.
This classic of a game wouldn’t be complete without ninth inning drama, and we got plenty of that. Dalton Rushing led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and Ohtani collected his third RBI of the night with a double out to right. Ohtani was then able to get to third thanks to Victor Robles bobbling the ball, meaning the Dodgers had the tying run 90 feet away with no outs. Andrés Muñoz collected himself and struck out Andy Pages for the first out, got Freeman to ground out harmlessly to first, and after walking Max Muncy to put the winning run aboard induced a grounder from Mookie Betts to close the door on a Dodger comeback. What a wild one!
