Just when the Yankees looked like they were beginning to really roll with six consecutive series wins and 15 victories in a span of 17 games, they’ve hit a very annoying wall. They were swept in Milwaukee and the losing streak is now at four in a row after the bullpen blew its third consecutive game — right in tandem with the offense squandering several opportunities to add insurance runs that never crossed home plate. Joy!
It was far from a full slate on Monday, but here’s what was going on from the
notable American League teams in action.
Tampa Bay Rays (27-13) 8, Toronto Blue Jays (18-23) 5
The Rays Train (steamboat?) kept on humming north of the border. Kevin Gausman reached a personal milestone as the sixth active pitcher with at least 2,000 career strikeouts, but that was cold comfort to him on Monday night. He only fanned four other Rays, and Tampa Bay knocked him around for seven runs on ten hits, as he needed 100 pitches just to get through 4.2 innings.
The Rays jumped on Gausman early and often. It was 1-0 after three batters due to two singles and a sacrifice fly. Richie Palacios made it 3-0 when he plated Junior Caminero and Jake Fraley on a two-out crack through the right side. An RBI triple by Taylor Walls (yikes) in the second added a fourth run, and though Walls was retired on a fielder’s choice at home, Chandler Simpson reached first on that play. He stole second and scored on a Jonathan Aranda single.
Toronto fought back against tough customer Drew Rasmussen, who coughed up a three-run bomb to Andrés Giménez. The light-hitting infielder came up big again in the seventh to record his first career multi-homer game and give him all five Jays RBIs on the night.
Both shots came with his team behind by five runs, however, as the Rays had kept building on their lead after the first Giménez homer. Aranda had the most impressive insurance delivery on a 415-foot clout off Gausman in the fifth. Rays relievers Hunter Bigge and Bryan Baker recorded the final five outs, nailing down another win. They’re two games up on the Yankees in the AL East.
Other Games
Seattle Mariners (20-22) 3, Houston Astros (16-26) 1: The Baseball Bar-B-Cast recently described the 2026 Mariners as “stuck in neutral,” and that seems apt for a club that should be leading this AL West with ease and is instead hovering just below .500, two games behind a merely adequate A’s team (in first place at 21-19). Cal Raleigh’s now hitless in his last 36 at-bats, but the M’s at least took the right step forward at the start of a four-game set in Houston. George Kirby grinded through five innings with just one run allowed, the bullpen was nearly pristine, and the bottom of the Seattle lineup delivered multiple RBI on knocks by Dominic Canzone and Cole Young. Julio Rodríguez hit a majestic solo shot, and Andrés Muñoz struck out Seattle nemesis Yordan Alvarez as the tying run at the plate to end it.
Cleveland Guardians (22-21) 7, Los Angeles Angels (16-26) 2: Folks, is it good when it’s the year 2026 and Alek Manoah is your best pitcher on a particular night? That’s the fate that befell the Angels in Cleveland, as the Guardians beat up on Brent Suter, José Fermín, and Kirby Yates for a combined seven runs in the second and third. With Joey Cantillo firing six shutout frames to keep the Halos at bay, it was a breezy win for the Guardos. The big hits came on two-run singles by Brayan Rocchio and Daniel Schneemann, and then a rookie Travis Bazzana plating a pair on a double against Yates.
