Last night was one where a lot of Yankees fans were probably somewhat distracted by a certain basketball game being played at Madison Square Garden. Yours truly was among those.
However, the Yankees had a game themselves on Monday night, and it was also quite the dramatic one. After going back and forth with the Guardians for nine innings, a Paul Goldschmidt fielders’ choice in the eighth sending the game to extras. There, Cody Bellinger came up with a huge bases loaded, two RBI single to put the Yankees in front
for good. Following some brief drama in the bottom of the 10th, David Bednar eventually locked things down to give the Yankees a nice win on the road in Cleveland.
While that was happening, there was some other (baseball) action going on around the league. Let’s check in on what happened in today’s edition of the Rivalry Roundup.
Tampa Bay Rays (38-25) 3, Boston Red Sox (27-37) 1
The Yankees drew even with Tampa Bay on Sunday, but they couldn’t take the AL East lead back on Monday as the Rays downed Boston. Six different Rays pitchers combined to hold the Red Sox to just one run on four hits, striking out 1o in a victory over the Red Sox.
Yandy Díaz got the game’s scoring started with a home run in the bottom of the first, but the Red Sox answered back on a Marcelo Mayer homer in the third. However after that, it was pretty much all Tampa Bay.
The Rays got the lead back thanks to a Jonathan Aranda RBI single in the fifth and ended up holding it from there. Díaz picked up another RBI with a sacrifice fly in the eighth, giving TB some insurance they didn’t end up needing.
On the mound, Rays starter/swingman Ian Seymour did a respectable job, allowing just that one run in four innings. The Rays’ bullpen took things over from there and finished things off without much issue. Five Rays relievers combined to scatter just four more Boston hits, all of which were just singles. Connelly Early was perfectly solid on the mound for the Red Sox, he just didn’t get a whole lot of support from his offense.
Other Games
- Seattle Mariners (35-32) 6, Baltimore Orioles (31-36) 3: A five-run fifth inning ended up being enough for the Mariners to put away the Orioles. Baltimore took an early lead and kept Seattle off the board through four innings, but the M’s caught fire in the fifth. Josh Naylor did the big damage, hitting a grand slam to put the M’s in front for the first time on the game. Emerson Hancock was solid enough for Seattle on the mound to ensure that granny put the Mariners in front for good, despite the Orioles threatening at some points.
- Philadelphia Phillies (36-30) 5, Toronto Blue Jays (32-35) 3: The Phillies put up a combined five runs over the second and third innings, and while the Jays kept them off the board after that, Toronto couldn’t muster enough of a rally to come back. Adolis García got things started with a two-run homer in the second, and Philly tacked on three more on a couple hits the following inning. The Blue Jays had some chances and got within two, but they couldn’t fully comeback. They went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position on the game and struck out 10 times against Cristopher Sánchez, who was very good once again.
