It took some unexpected heroics from Ryan McMahon, but the Yankees picked up a much-needed victory in their series opener against the Royals. Having just played a very frustrating series against the Angels, the last thing they needed was a dumb loss to open the set against Kansas City.
While the Yankees wouldn’t lose any ground on Friday night, let’s see if they gained on anyone in today’s Rivalry Roundup.
Boston Red Sox (8-11) 1, Detroit Tigers (10-10) 0 (10 innings)
Ranger Suarez and Casey Mize put on a pitchers’ duel at Fenway, with the Red Sox scoring the game’s
only run on Masataka Yoshida’s walk-off single in the 10th inning.
Not only did the Red Sox get the better of Detroit in the end, Suarez won the duel as well. He ended up going eight innings, allowing just two hits and a walk. For the Tigers, Mize struck out more batters, K’ing seven, but he went 6.2 frames, having given up three hits and a walk.
However as those numbers indicate, it’s not as if either teams was just wastefully blowing chances. Sure, they had their runners, but neither team could breakthrough until the game went to extras.
In the 10th, a flyout allowed the Tigers to move their auto-runner to third, but they couldn’t bring them home the last 90 feet. Boston then took advantage in the bottom of the 10th, as after an out and a walk, Yoshida chopped through a single to walk it off against Will Vest.
St. Louis Cardinals (11-8) 9, Houston Astros (8-13) 4
Nolan Gorman’s three-run homer in the seventh off Bryan Abreu helped the Cardinals break open a game against the Astros, allowing them to pull away for the win.
The game went back-and-forth early. While the Cardinals scored the game’s first three runs, the Astros pulled two runs back in the bottom of the third. St. Louis then added a run back to their lead, but Jose Altuve’s fifth-inning home run got Houston back within a run.
However Gorman’s homer gave the Cardinals a four-run advantage, and St. Louis went on to tack on a couple more runs, ensuring that the final couple innings weren’t super stressful. The Astros have now lost 11 of their last 14 games.
Texas Rangers (11-9) 5, Seattle Mariners (8-13) 0
Jacob deGrom and the Rangers’ bullpen combined to shut out the Mariners, as Seattle ended up leaving nine runners on base in another tedious loss for their home fans.
The Mariners will probably end up shaking their heads about this one, as they went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, in addition to the nine left on base. Besides that, Texas scored three of their runs in the final three innings, meaning Seattle had plenty of time before that with the game still close.
deGrom was okay, but only lasted four innings, having allowed four hits and two walks. Texas’ bullpen picked things up the rest of the way, although every reliever put at least one Seattle runner on.
On the offensive side of things, the Rangers scored in the game’s very first at-bat, when Brandon Nimmo homered. In total, Texas recorded 15 hits, with Wyatt Langford going 3-for-5 and driving in one of the runs.
Arizona Diamondbacks (12-8) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (7-12) 3
The Diamondbacks roughed up Eric Lauer, while Michael Soroka was pretty good for them to take the opener of this interleague clash.
Toronto busted out an opener for this one, sending Braydon Fisher to the mound to start this game. He got through the first inning fine, but when the Jays turned to Lauer as the bulk guy, Arizona started to get going. While Toronto actually took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, Arizona immediately answered with a Nolan Arenado homer in the bottom of the fourth, and then took the lead thanks to Corbin Carroll and Jose Fernandez in the fifth.
While a Myles Straw homer got Toronto back within a run, Soroka ended up giving Arizona seven good innings, with just those two runs allowed. Arizona eventually tacked on, with Toronto scoring more run, but not doing too much else over the final innings. The Jays remain in the AL East cellar.
Other Games
- Baltimore Orioles (10-10) 6, Cleveland Guardians (11-10) 4: This game remained scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when the Guardians broke through with four runs. Except, the Orioles then answered with six runs in the top of the eighth, swinging the game back in the other direction. Jeremiah Jackson’s three-run homer to give Baltimore the lead ended up being the game-decider as the O’s held on after that.
