Not much went right for the Yankees during their 10-2 loss to the Reds yesterday. The defense was shoddy, Will Warren got rattled and gave up a game-breaking tank, and they made mistakes at both the plate and on the bases. In short, if you knew nothing about the game aside from the fact that they lost 10-2, you’d probably guesss that they played poorly.
The silver lining is that every team has awful days. That’s the sport! And the Yankees hadn’t lost a game by this margin in over a month. Just for
a few points of comparison, the Dodgers lost by eight to the Angels on June 7th, the Braves got blanked by the Red Sox 8-0 on May 27th, and the Rays have actually suffered multiple 8-0 losses in June. The Yankees have mostly stayed competitive, even in losses. They’re 15-7 since Memorial Day. Sleep off the ugly loss and move on! Even with Aaron Judge out and Chase Burns going today for Cincy, this is still a very talented team to watch.
Here’s some of what else was going on around the Junior Circuit on Saturday.
Tampa Bay Rays (42-31) 3, Washington Nationals (40-37) 4
The Yankees’ three-game lead in the AL East remained intact despite the blowout because the resurgent Nationals capably turned away the Rays down in St. Petersburg. At the outset, it seemed like it could’ve gotten ugly in a hurry for the visitors, as Cade Cavalli allowed the first three batters to reach on singles, loading the bases with no one out and masher Junior Caminero due up. But Cavalli hung in there and limited Caminero to a sacrifice fly before getting a double-play ball from Richie Palacios.
Likely NL All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams then wasted no time in bringing the score back to even at 1-1, launching an Ian Seymour pitch for his 16th homer of 2026 to begin the second.
Nasim Nuñez soon cashed in the Nats’ second run of the inning, doubling in Dylan Crews after the latter followed Abrams’ homer with a single to center.
The Rays continued to grind against Cavalli, making it a 2-2 game when Chandler Simpson drove in Caminero on an RBI knock in the third. The crushing blow would not land for Tampa Bay however, and though Cavalli would exit having recorded just 8 eights on 68 pitches, Mitchell Parker held them down. He got the last out of the inning and then combined with Brad Lord to cover the next five scoreless. The bullpen also got a huge assist from center fielder Jacob Young, who made a phenomenal catch in center to rob Victor Mesa Jr. of a game-tying double in the eighth.
Young left the game with a side injury and the Nats had to lose the DH to cover themselves on defense, but it was worth it — especially when the ninth got dicey.
Washington had taken the lead in the fifth with the help of a leadoff hit by Keibert Ruiz and a James Wood double to move the catcher to third. A soft groundout by erstwhile Baby Bomber Andrés Chaparro made it 3-2, Nats. Thanks in part to Young, that’s where the score remained in the final frame. One-time top prospect Dylan Crews smashed a homer off Cam Booser to give the Nats insurance that they would need with 2025 Amed Rosario trade return Clayton Beeter in to close it out.
Two batters into the ninth Beeter had already allowed Tampa Bay to chip away one run. Taylor Walls walked, stole second and third, and dented home plate when Yandy Díaz singled him in. Jonny DeLuca pinch-ran for Yandy and swiped second himself, putting the tying run in scoring position with the winning run of course at bat in recent All-Star Jonathan Aranda. But Beeter got Aranda to fly out, fanned Cedric Mullins, and intentionally walked Caminero to set up a three-pitch strikeout of Ben Williamson. Thanks, old pal!
Other Games
Toronto Blue Jays (38-39) 8, Chicago Cubs (40-37) 6: The Jays have had a weird enough American League pennant defense this year that we’ve probably said this about at least a few of their wins this year. Nonetheless: Boy, they needed this one. Fresh off sweeping the Red Sox at Fenway, the Cubbies had cut ’em down to size by blowing them out 16-2 at Wrigley on Friday and comfortably led 5-0 entering the seventh yesterday thanks to homers by Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw. Colin Rea departed following 5.1 scoreless innings, but the Chicago bullpen absolutely beefed it. Trent Thornton allowed a three-run bomb to Daulton Varsho that allowed Toronto to get back into it, and in the eighth, Caleb Thielbar and Jacob Webb got smacked around on RBI knocks by Alejandro Kirk and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to tie the game at 5-5.
Then Kazuma Okamoto unloaded on Webb to put the Jays ahead:
The Cubs almost got back into it though. Mason Fluharty immediately loaded the bases on a walk and two hits, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate. Closer Louie Varland entered to put out the fire, getting the next three batters in order and only allowing one of the baserunners to score. An error by Varland in the ninth did grant Chicago two shots to tie it up on another dinger, but Shaw was caught looking and rookie Pedro Ramírez grounded out to end it.
Cleveland Guardians (41-36) 8, Houston Astros (36-42) 1: The top pick of the 2024 MLB Draft, Travis Bazzana, has only played 46 games, but I’m beginning to think that there’s probably no better pick to lead the AL All-Star contingent at second than him. He clobbered a pair of homers off Spencer Arrighetti (the first leading off the game) as part of a smooth Guardians win in Houston, and the 23-year-old rookie is now hitting .274/.369/.476 with a 136 wRC+. He finished the day 4-for-4 with five RBI. Ernie Clement will likely get voted in as the All-Star starter, but Bazzana would probably be my pick for the keystone reserve. Anyway, as far as standings are concerned, Cleveland’s win put them one up in the AL Central with the Pale Hose losing in Detroit earlier in the day.
Seattle Mariners (39-39) 1, Boston Red Sox (31-43) 5: The AL West is back to a merely .500 leader, as the M’s lost their second in a row to the Red Sox. They only hold first place alone because the A’s got blown out by the Angels in West Sacramento, which says more about the true quality of the A’s than anything else. Anyway, up in the Emerald City, Boston rookie Connelly Early outpitched Emerson Hancock, allowing just one run on two hits in six innings of work, fanning seven while Wilyer Abreu’s 414-foot blast put the Red Sox ahead in the fourth. The rest of their runs scored on only infield singles and a wild pitch, but they count all the same.
