For the last few months, this space has featured the Rays heavily, given there was real intrigue about whether they or the Yankees would end up with the AL East title. Tampa slipped ahead of the Yankees in the division early in the season, but they never got too far afield, and as the season progressed and New York saw its cavalcade of wounded stars start to recover from injury, it seemed very plausible that the Yankees would eventually challenge the Rays at the very top of the American League.
Unfortunately,
that never quite materialized. The Yankees are six back with seven to play, needing a miracle to catch the Rays in the division, meaning that the primary focus of our Rivalry Roundup may about to be extinguished. Now, we’ll have to focus more on the periphery, as there still is much to be decided out in the AL Central, the AL West, and in the race for the third Wild Card. That latter race was the only one impacted yesterday, with just three total MLB games on the slate, one of them featuring the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles, who maintain slim but non-zero chances of snagging a playoff spot.
Baltimore Orioles (76-81) 4, Toronto Blue Jays (77-80) 3
This game was delayed by rain, but the Blue Jays wasted no time getting to Baltimore starter Shane Baz once the contest got underway. Toronto opened the game with back-to-back walks from Brett Bateman and Alejandro Kirk, before singles by Nathan Lukes and George Springer scored both runners. A run-scoring sac fly by Kaz Okamoto put the Orioles in a 3-0 hole by the time Baz recorded his first out.
That gave Trey Yesavage a comfortable lead to work with, the young right-hander making his first start since undergoing meniscus surgery in early August. The O’s got on the board against Yesavage in the first thanks to a remarkable piece of hitting from Pete Alonso, who climbed the ladder to drive a high Yesavage fastball over the wall in right field:
That’d be the only blemish for Yesavage in a brief outing, with the Jays pulling Yesavage after just two frames as he ramps up at the end of the season. Baz settled in after his first-inning bump as well, allowing just one hit over the next five innings. That gave Baltimore some time to pull closer, and they did in the sixth, Gunnar Henderson hitting his 24th homer of the season off rookie reliever Chad Dallas:
Toronto essentially deployed a bullpen game with Yesavage serving as an opener, and for a while, it seemed the strategy might work. Brendan Cellucci, José Rodríguez, and Mason Fluharty each turned in scoreless outings of relief, but with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Jays turned to the typically dependable Tyler Rogers to face Alonso with one on. The Polar Bear got off a mighty swing on a Rogers sinker, hitting a stinger that cleared the left field wall in the blink of an eye:
Alonso’s two-homer game gave him 40 on the season, and was enough to deliver Baltimore a 4-3 win, with (Yankee legend) Rico Garcia closing out the ninth to earn the save. It’s a crushing loss for Toronto, who looked like they might run away with it early, but now drift to 3.5 games back of the White Sox for the last AL Wild Card with just five games to play. The O’s remain technically alive, 4.5 games back of Chicago.
AL Standings
