Another day, another clutch ninth-inning dinger for the Yankees. Sunday, Ben Rice broke a tie against the hated Jays with a two-run bomb, a day after Unc Goldschmidt did. Rice’s long ball propelled the Yanks to another win, leaving us all scoreboard watching to see if the Angels could knock off the Rays again. To the surprise of precisely no one, they absolutely could not.
The Angels gave it the old college try but a late offensive outburst buried them. Meanwhile, the Mariners lost another game to
Washington. Detroit did not suffer that fate. Thank the weather for that as their contest was postponed. I’d say that plays into the Tigers hands given they’ve really only had two consistent starters. But one is injured. “Skubal and Mize and pray for overcast skies.” Once Mize is healthy, I guess. Okay. “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” it ain’t. Sue me.
Tampa Bay Rays (41-27) 8, Los Angeles Angels (29-43) 3
Of course bloody Tampa wins a bullpen game on the road. I don’t know what kind of Devil (Rays) magic they’re wielding, but it’s annoying. Tampa burned through six pitchers on Sunday. The final four hurlers who took the mound allowed a total of one hit while walking two and whiffing seven, allowing nary an Angel to cross the plate.
Considering the Angels offense scored three runs off the first two Rays to pitch Sunday, it looked like this one could turn out differently. Alas. On the other side, Grayson Rodriguez recorded precisely seven outs for the Angels, setting them up to burn through six pitchers of their own. Rodriguez’s stinker of an outing leaves him with an 8.06 ERA on the season, by the way.
Honestly, the Angels gave it their best shot and the game was knotted at three into the eighth. Then, the Rays offense broke through. Junior Caminero’s 15th home run of the season, a two-run shot, broke the tie. Not done, the Rays scored thrice more, including another two-run roundtripper, this one from Victor Mesa, Jr. And that was all she wrote. The Angels managed to put a couple runners on in the home eighth and another on in the ninth, but five runs was far too steep a hill to climb.
Other Games
Seattle Mariners (37-36) 1, Washington Nationals (37-35) 10:
Rough weekend for Seattle pitching. Sunday, it was Emerson Hancock’s turn to be on the receiving end of a beatdown. Hancock entered the game with a 2.74 ERA, having allowed more than three earned runs once all season. Six earned runs in four innings (five in the fourth alone) later, and his ERA shot up half a point to 3.28. For an offense with no Cal Raleigh, an impotent Josh Naylor, and a J-Rod whose season OPS (.740) is 54 points lower than his career mark, being down 6-1 through four meant it was getting late early as Yogi would have said. Not content, the Nationals continued piling on, with four runs in the late innings to hit double digits in the run column.
