Last night’s Yankees/Astros game was so preposterously weird that I’m just going to skip the “brief summary” part of the Yanks’ Thursday relevance and go straight into the Rivalry Roundup. Check out Josh’s recap for more. At the end of the day, the Yankees won, inching a half-game ahead of Boston for sole possession of second place in the AL East and three behind Toronto. The Blue Jays are coming to town for a crucial three-game that begins tonight so hold onto your butts and let’s see if the Yanks can
chip away at that Jays lead by finally playing some good baseball against them in 2025.
Aside from the Yankees’ head-to-head in Houston, none of the other American League teams currently in playoff position were active on Thursday. The Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers, and Mariners were all off. So for today’s Rivalry Roundup, we’ll peak in on the AL Wild Card periphery, which has only been made interesting by Seattle collapsing in on itself.
Since tying the Astros for the AL West lead on August 12th, the M’s have gone 6-14, which would be the worst mark in baseball if the Twins weren’t a torn-down horror show that gets mopped by Literally the White Sox. Back on Seattle though, the team’s implosion has basically ensured that all of Toronto, New York, and Boston will be in the playoffs no matter who wins the division, as all are near-locks to be better than Seattle given that there are only so many games left. (The Yanks are five up on the Mariners while Boston is 4.5 ahead.) More relevant for the sake of today is that it’s allowed fringe teams near .500 to remain in the mix.
Kansas City Royals (71-69) 4, Los Angeles Angels (66-74) 3
The Royals were on the bubble of getting bumped from the Rivalry Roundup since we apparently have to include those pesky Rays again (more on them in a minute), and things looked bad when rookie Noah Cameron gave up a three-run tank to Luis Rengifo, putting KC down 3-0 before the hometown fans even get to see ‘em bat.
Sometimes, it helps to play the Halos though. Cameron put seven more Angels on base through five against him, but never again dented home plate. They were then held hitless in three innings of relief by Jonathan Bowlan and Lucas Erceg.
Meanwhile, the Royals chipped away at Kyle Hendricks. Trade Deadline acquisition Adam Frazier took his fellow veteran yard in the second, and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino did the same in the fourth. Those were actually two of the only hits he gave up in six frames, but they hurt. Maybe the Halos should have kept him in because KC legend Salvador Perez worked a full count against José Fermin and hit one out in the first at-bat of the seventh, tying this one up at 3-3.
The Face of the Past tied it. The Face of the Future put the Royals ahead.
It’s really a testament to Bobby Witt Jr.’s ridiculous 2024 that his 2025 is considered a step down. The 2024 AL MVP runner-up has a 130 wRC+ and nearly 7.0 fWAR in 137 games of his age-25 season. He’s terrific and the primary reason why the Royals are still in the playoff hunt.
Although closer Carlos Estévez made it interesting in the ninth on a one-out double from Yoán Moncada, the tying run was stranded on second. Estévez struck out Oswald Peraza and Logan O’Hoppe to end it. Kansas City gained a half-game on the idle Mariners and now sit just two behind the third Wild Card spot. It is worth noting though that despite many damaging injuries (including to Nathan Eovaldi), the Rangers are 1.5 games back of Seattle and sit between them and KC. They do have to play the Astros next though, while the Royals get to host the aforementioned free-falling Twins this weekend. We’ll keep tabs on them.
Tampa Bay Rays (71-69) 4, Cleveland Guardians (69-70) 2
These guys again. They mostly sold at the Trade Deadline and were essentially buried! As of the end of play on August 21st, this is how far back they were in the Wild Card picture (shortly after the Yankees hammered them with homers in that two-game set at Steinbrenner Field):
Seven out, with even the Angels in front of them! Goodness.
Suddenly though, the Rays caught fire, and including last night, they’ve won 9 of their last 11 games—including now seven in a row—to zoom up the standings. Ryan Pepiot needed 90 pitches to go just five innings, but he made them no-hit innings. The Tampa Bay pitching staff actually held Cleveland to a lone José Ramírez single through eight, until Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo went back-to-back with solo shots off Pete Fairbanks.
The Rays’ offense had scratched out four runs off Logan Allen early on with the kind of ribbies that your uncle loves: an RBI single in the first (Christopher Morel), an infield hit to deep shortstop that drove in another in the fourth (Carson Williams), a grounder to second that saw the runner from third beat the throw home (Josh Lowe), and a safety squeeze in the sixth (the rookie Williams again). So Fairbanks was able to shake off the homers and retire the next three batters in order to secure that seventh-straight win.
I suppose that I should briefly note that the Guardians themselves are only 3.5 back of Seattle, so ideally one of these teams just puts the other out of commission for the rest of September during the four-game set this weekend.
