The Yankees had the inverse of Monday’s game playing out in front of them, jumping out to a massive 10-1 lead over the Twins, but they nearly tossed that win into the incinerator. By the time the bottom of the ninth concluded, their lead had dwindled to just a 10-9 advantage, nearly throwing away a second straight game to open the final stretch of their season against “inferior competition.” Still, at the end of the day they did win, and they need every one they can get to lock down a playoff spot
when all is said and done. It’s a two-fold issue though, so let’s see what the field accomplished on Tuesday.
Toronto Blue Jays (89-62) 6, Tampa Bay Rays (73-78) 5
The Rays weren’t expecting to run a bullpen game in this one, but Ryan Pepiot pushed them into the ‘pen far earlier than they expected after getting his previous turn in the rotation skipped over. Pepiot gave up a run in the first inning on a pair of singles, but the second inning turned into his downfall when a trio of walks to start the inning wound up haunting him — George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove them all in to push the lead to 4-0 and chase Pepiot from the game.
The Rays tried their best to erase the deficit with a rally in the third, putting two aboard ahead of Brandon Lowe stepping up to the plate in time for him to launch a three-run homer. However, the first few relievers they went to couldn’t stop the floodgates, allowing solo home runs to Nathan Lukes in the fourth and Joey Loperfido in the fifth inning to push the lead up to 6-3. They closed the gap one more time, scratching across runs in the eighth and ninth inning on RBI singles from Tristan Gray and Lowe, but they stranded the tying and winning run in the ninth as Josh Lowe and Jake Mangum both struck out to end it. Toronto stays five game ahead of New York, with the tiebreaker in hand, making the odds of the Yankees defending their division crown grow ever lower.
Athletics (71-80) 2, Boston Red Sox (82-69) 1
The Athletics staff combined to not allow a single earned run against the Sox lineup, letting just a single run cross home plate when Lawrence Butler fumbled a ball in center field to allow Rob Refsnyder to score all the way from first base. Jeffery Springs pitched four innings and mostly lucked out that the error was the only blemish on his day, as he allowed five hits and three walks in his outing. Former Yankee farmhand Mitch Spence took over and pitched 3.2 innings in relief, keeping the traffic down severely with just four baserunners to his name.
The A’s got Spence the lead in the sixth inning, finally cracking the case against Connelly Early. He allowed a leadoff single to Jacob Wilson, picked up his seventh strikeout of the game for the first out, and then was pulled at 80 pitches for Greg Weissert. Weissert got Brent Rooker to strike out for the second out, but Tyler Soderstrom ripped a double off the Monster in left to tie the game. After a walk, Brett Harris flipped a single out to left that scored Soderstrom and made it 2-1 A’s. Hogan Harris was called on to get the final four outs of the game, and he did so with ease, ending the eighth with a pickoff and inducing a double play to close out the ninth.
Houston Astros (83-69) 6, Texas Rangers (79-73) 5
This was a game of two halves, and the Astros did just a little bit better in their half. Houston jumped out to a 6-0 lead after four innings, chasing starter Merrill Kelly in his shortest start of the year. Jose Altuve started the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and Christian Walker doubled the lead with an RBI groundout in the third inning. That frame could’ve been much more after the Astros got the first two aboard, but they played small ball bunting the runners over and getting the contact to score one. They didn’t need to play small in the fourth — a string of five straight hits forced Kelly’s exit without recording an out and pushing the lead to 5-0, and reliever Cole Winn allowed one of the inherited runners to cross on an Altuve single.
Houston planned for a pitching by committee day when they started AJ Blubaugh, but he locked in for three innings of shutout ball with seven strikeouts to give them a solid opening. Colton Gordon took the baton next and was nails for another three innings, but he did make one mistake to Cody Freeman that turned into a solo shot to break the shutout. Jayden Murray delivered a clean seventh inning, but then Enyel De Los Santos made it a nailbiter again in the eighth when he allowed a two-out, two-run homer to Jonah Heim and an RBI double to Josh Jung. Bryan Abreu was summoned to put out the fire, but he issued a walk and a single to Adolis García that suddenly made it a 6-5 game.
However, the comeback ended there. Abreu put two aboard in the ninth but struck out old friend Kyle Higashioka to end it and keep pace in a tight AL West race.
Cleveland Guardians (79-71) 7, Detroit Tigers (85-66) 5 (10 innings)
Casey Mize started for Detroit and gave them a solid 5.1 innings, striking out eight and walking one, but he exited in line for the loss after giving up three runs in that span. Detroit kept it close, with a Gleyber Torres solo shot in the third and a Dillon Dingler RBI groundout in the sixth closing the gap to one run. They were down to their last out before they managed to tie it up, Kerry Carpenter launching a 429-foot homer off of Cade Smith.
The extra inning was heavily Guardians-favored, however. Steven Kwan led off with an RBI double to score the ghost runner, Angel Martínez tripled to score him, José Ramírez doubled him home to tack on a third run, and after a Kyle Mandarzo double put runners on second and third Gabriel Arias singled home Ramírez to make it 7-3.
Spencer Torkelson did close the gap a little with a two-run homer, but the Tigers had little else going for them in the frame as Riley Greene and Trey Sweeney flew out. The Guardians close to within 2.5 games of the Sox for the final Wild Card spot, and have now won five straight games.
Seattle Mariners (83-68) 12, Kansas City Royals (75-76) 5
The Mariners’ 10th straight victory was fueled by an all-out power display, with Royals starter Michael Wacha eating it for seven runs in 2.2 innings and Daniel Lynch IV standing in for 2.1 innings with three more runs crossing.
Dominic Canzone had a monster day, launching three home runs beginning in the second with a solo shot, tacking on a second solo bomb in the fifth and concluding with a two-run blast in the ninth. However, all eyes were on Cal Raleigh, as the MVP candidate made history with his 55th and 56th home runs of the season. The first passed him over Mickey Mantle for the most homers by a switch hitter in a year, and the second tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. for the most by any Mariner in a single season. We’re obviously partial to Aaron Judge’s MVP case, but it’s undeniable that Raleigh is having a marvelous campaign and is on a heater right now — he’s 8-for-15 with three homers over his last four games.
