The Yankees were looking a little dire on Tuesday, getting blanked by Bryan Woo and his 6.71 road ERA for five innings and continuing those struggles against the Seattle bullpen until the seventh inning. After Ryan Weathers allowed a solo shot to Randy Arozarena in the sixth and it looked like that sole mistake was going to leave him with a loss, the offense rallied for four runs, Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham driving in a pair each on singles to pull ahead. That outburst got them back in the win
column after dropping the finale of their Atlanta series, and they’ve needed every win they can get to keep pace in an AL East race that is turning into a pressure cooker.
Tampa Bay Rays (73-46) 12, The Athletics (47-73) 4
The Rays stormed back to take Monday’s game against the A’s, scoring eight runs in the eighth, and they kept rolling from the get-go in Tuesday’s bout to win their eighth in a row. They got started with an error giving them a leadoff baserunner and Junior Caminero cashed them in with his 35th home run of the season for a 2-0 advantage. In the third they tacked on one more, with two walks and a wild pitch putting runners on second and third before a fielder’s choice cut down the lead runner. Chandler Simpson got a rare sacrifice double play marked down when he lifted a fly ball to center, getting the run in before the cutoff throw to home was redirected to second base and gunned down the trailing runner.
By the fourth inning the makings of a blowout were setting in, with Taylor Walls and Yandy Díaz both hitting home runs to double the lead to 6-0. The A’s got on the board in the bottom half with Lawrence Butler launching a two-run shot, but it was all the A’s would get for a while and the Rays were just getting started. The sixth inning saw Walls hit his second homer of the night (the only two homers he’s hit all year by the way), the seventh brought home two more Rays on a Victor Mesa Jr. blast, and in the eighth it was Carson Williams’ turn to hit a homer as he brought in three runs. At the end of that run it was 12-2 Tampa Bay, and their starter was still going strong.
Nick Martinez was on the mound for the Rays and he went the distance in this outing on 101 pitches. Never one to punch out batters at a high rate, Martinez only struck out five but managed to scatter eight hits and didn’t walk a single batter. The A’s did give him a fight in the ninth, stringing a trio of hits together to push across two more runs, but Martinez buckled down and got a pair of grounders to wrap up the complete game, the 15th pitcher to do so this year.
Other Games
Boston Red Sox (64-55) 3, Toronto Blue Jays (58-63) 5: This game had the two results that Yankees fans wanted to see: Cy Young competitor Dylan Cease had a mediocre night, but the Red Sox still lost. Adley Rutschman made his debut for the Sox after coming over at the deadline from Baltimore and going through a short rehab assignment, and the Sox catcher had a solid day going 1-for-3 with a pair of walks. It was Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela who did the damage for Boston though, hitting solo shots in the fourth and fifth respectively to put them up 3-1.
Toronto responded in the bottom of the fifth, however, tying the game up on a Charles McAdoo sac fly and a Brett Bateman RBI single. The sixth saw them take the lead as George Springer led off with a walk, moved to third on a single, and scored when Ernie Clement beat out a potential double play ball up the middle. Myles Straw brought in an insurance run in the eighth with an RBI double, but the Sox would strand Masataka Yoshida at second base in the ninth to make it redundant. Boston has dropped four in a row since winning 27 of 30, now sitting three back of the Yanks and nine behind Tampa Bay.
Chicago White Sox (61-57) 4, Cincinnati Reds (57-61) 5 (10 innings): The White Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead powered by homers from Brenton Doyle, Edgar Quero, and Miguel Vargas, cruising behind Sean Burke as he pitched seven strong innings. The only blip on the radar came when Burke allowed a solo shot to Eugenio Suárez in the fifth inning, but he handed a solid lead to his bullpen just to watch it go up in flames. The Reds scored three in the eighth as soon as he left, Tyler Stephenson tying the game on a two-run single. In extras Elly De La Cruz lifted a sacrifice fly to drive in the Manfred runner, while Chicago was ineffective in the bottom half, striking out before lifting two weak pop ups and officially spoiling Pope Hat Night.
Texas Rangers (60-60) 2, Los Angeles Angels (46-74) 3: Cody Bradford lasted seven innings for the Rangers, but one inning would undo him. Up 1-0 in the third off of a Joc Pederson solo shot, Bradford was facing the bottom of the Angels’ order and allowed a leadoff single to Wade Meckler. Meckler got bunted over to second and then scored on a Zach Neto single to tie the game, before Mike Trout got aboard on a hit by pitch and the Angels ran a double steal to put them both in scoring position. Nolan Schanuel got Neto in on a sac fly and Vaughn Grissom scored Trout with a double out to left to give the Angels a lead they wouldn’t surrender. Texas got one back in the sixth as Jarred Kelenic singled a run in, but the backend of the Angels’ bullpen managed to strike out five of the last seven Rangers they faced to close the door on a comeback attempt.
Houston Astros (61-60) 1, San Francisco Giants (50-70) 4: In another case of no one being able to pull away with the AL West, Houston couldn’t capitalize on the Rangers’ downfall. Yordan Alvarez got the Astros a brief 1-0 lead in the second inning on a sac fly, but Drew Gilbert got it right back in the bottom half with an RBI single and from there it was all Giants. Drew Cavanaugh’s RBI single in the fourth put them ahead, Bryce Eldridge hit a solo homer in the fifth to extend the lead, and Christian Koss doubled in another run for good measure. As such, Houston remains half a game up on Texas for the AL West lead despite only sitting one win above .500.
