Having moved a scheduled Saturday game against the Orioles up to Friday for a straight doubleheader, the Yankees and O’s split the twin bill. Baltimore blew out Brendan Beck and company in a 10-2 loss in the opener—an ignominious follow-up to CC Sabathia’s number retirement—but Ryan Yarbrough and Will Warren combined to lead them to 17 strikeouts in the 6-3 nightcap win. Most importantly, everyone remained healthy. Wins and losses don’t matter for the regular season at this point! Now, they wait
at home for the storm to pass today and see if they can play a Game 162 tomorrow. If not … see you on Tuesday for the Wild Card Series, Boston.
Here’s what else was going on Friday among the remaining AL playoff hopefuls.
Tampa Bay Rays (97-63) 2, Philadelphia Phillies (87-73) 0
We’ll only take a minute on this one since—with all due respect to the playoff hopes of our friends in Philly (but boy is it suddenly getting tense with the Diamondbacks hot on the trail)—it really doesn’t mean much with Tampa Bay locked into the top AL seed. The Phils got a really nice outing from ace Cristopher Sánchez, who fanned 10 Rays in seven innings of work. But he did allow an RBI single to Jonny DeLuca in the first and a solo shot to catcher Nick Fortes in the second, and with the Phillies absolutely sputtering … yeah, that was it. Freddy Peralta blanked Philly through 5.1 before a quartet of relievers completed the four-hit shutout, Bryan Baker notching his 41st save of the season.
Boston Red Sox (86-74) 4, Chicago Cubs (88-72) 3 [Game 1]
It took a little longer than anyone expected, but the Red Sox officially locked themselves into the No. 5 seed in the American League and a date with the Yankees in the Wild Card Series. The best-of-three will begin on Tuesday with all games in the Bronx. At first, it seemed like Boston’s odd skid would continue when the Cubbies plated three within the first four outs. Tyrone Taylor had doubled in Seiya Suzuki following a one-out walk in the first, and the trio of Matt Shaw, Michael Busch, and No. 9 hitter Miguel Amaya continued the mini-parade against Alec Gamboa in the second with with a single and a pair of doubles, Amaya’s going off the Green Monster to drive in a pair.
Part of that rally had involved Shaw getting thrown out on a grounder to third though, and Chicago never scored that fourth run. They would rue that result, with typical starter Jake Bennett getting his first relief appearance in anticipation of the Wild Card showdown and throwing 3.2 scoreless. Greg Weissert and Raymond Burgos continued to keep the Cubs off the board for the rest of the game as their offense rallied off Clay Holmes. A rare error by Dansby Swanson brought in the first Boston run in the fourth, and Holmes allowed a leadoff single to former Yankees teammate Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the fifth, followed by a Roman Anthony double. He got one more out, but Caleb Thielbar entered and allowed a game-tying knock from Adley Rutschman.
The Red Sox took the lead in the seventh, breaking the tie off Aaron Civale when Anthony tripled and Connor Wong doubled him in. With Weissert and Burgos silencing Chicago, that was all she wrote. The only downside for Boston was that surprise story Mickey Gasper had to leave the game early with biceps discomfort.
Boston Red Sox (87-74) 2, Chicago Cubs (88-73) 0 [Game 2]
The weather got gloomier as the day went along but the Red Sox left Fenway with a clean doubleheader sweep. Boston kept Brayan Bello in playoff tune-up mode despite coming off an outing of eight innings of 11-K, one-run ball, and they still twirled a shutout. Bello blanked Chicago through four, departed with his pitch count at 58, and gave way to rookie Jedixson Paez, making his fifth career appearance. Paez outpitched Bello, fanning five in five shutout frames to earn his first career win.
David Peterson’s own five zeroes for the Cubs were in vain. The scoreless tie was broken up in the eighth with IKF and Jahmai Jones (another former Yankee) on base after walks. Wilyer Abreu cracked a double off Ryan Rolison to plate both runners. That was all Boston needed. The Cubs had hoped to host a Wild Card Series at Wrigley, but that’s looking unlikely now with the Padres a game and a half ahead of them. Game 162 will determine their flight path, and they’ll need a flight just to play it. The nor’easter is not supposed to get any better in Beantown over the weekend, so the Sunday game will be at a neutral site: Tropicana Field. Let’s get weird.
Texas Rangers (79-81) 2, Minnesota Twins (76-84) 10
When Jacob deGrom was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, opportunities like this one undoubtedly drove him. Yes, the AL West is lousy, but the Rangers can easily win it and they had deGrom out there against a team playing out the string in the Twins. Even with Joe Ryan on the bump opposing him, they felt great. Instead, Minnesota clobbered deGrom and tallied six in the second, Luke Keaschall delivering the big blow on a two-run triple. The two-time Cy Young Award winner was tagged for eight runs in four innings of work. The news got worse for the Rangers learned that top bat Josh Jung broke his hand on a hit-by-pitch; he’s likely done for 2026. This one had to hurt, and deGrom was furious at himself in the postgame, saying multiple times that he was “embarrassed.”
Houston Astros (79-81) 5, The Athletics (64-96) 6
Well don’t worry Jacob because remember: the AL West is lousy. The Rangers lost while the Astros were still playing on Friday, so they had a golden opportunity to seize control of the AL West, especially because they own the tiebreaker and were facing a terrible A’s team. Said terrible A’s team held off Houston and won, 6-5. A six-run sixth proved to be enough for the A’s offense as Hunter Brown’s once-solid outing went by the wayside with awful relief from Bennett Sousa, who failed to record a single out and allowed three runs. Henry Bolte smacked a two-run triple in the frame and the A’s had a commanding 6-1 lead.
Houston did fight back, in part because the A’s bullpen is horrific. Cam Smith homered and a rally in the eighth broke the score to 6-5 with runners on second and third after a wild pitch. Baby Bomber alum Luis Medina fanned Smith though and Houston was held at bay. Nelson Velázquez got a one-out walk in the ninth to put the go-ahead run on against Hogan Harris, only to be erased on a Jeremy Peña double play ball, stranding Yordan Alvarez in the on-deck circle. For the first time in MLB history, we are guaranteed a full-season division winner with either a .500 record or worse because neither Houston nor Texas can be better than 81-81.
lol
Cleveland Guardians (84-76) 12, Kansas City Royals (68-92) 9
Funky one in KC. The Guardians maintained their hot streak and withstood rallies from the Royals to win late without actually getting all that many hits. They had a dozen runs scored but only nine hits. Carter Jensen slugged two homers and drove in five for the Royals, but it wasn’t nearly enough, even with a tied-up ballgame at 7-7. Six walks and a fielder’s choice in the eighth led to Cleveland plating three without a hit before the surging Angel Martinez drove in two with a double to make it a 12-7 game. Salvador Perez’s 324th career homer cut into the lead in the ninth, but the Guardians held on to maintain their one-game lead in the AL Central.
Chicago White Sox (83-77) 6, Colorado Rockies (57-103) 1
Munetaka Murakami clobbered a pair of dingers to reach 35 in his rookie MLB season, and both came off countryman Tomoyuki Sugano, who he’d homered against twice in NPB play. Sean Burke threw 5.1 innings with one run allowed, and all that was easily plenty for the Pale Hose to take care of business on the South Side. They’ll just need some help from KC if they’re going to pass Cleveland for the division again.
AL Standings
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