After a difficult two-week stretch, it was nice for the Yankees to have a laugher series against the Royals. They swept their first series since the opener against the Giants, the pitching staff bouncing back to limit Kansas City to six runs across the three games while Aaron Judge and Ben Rice are really finding their power strokes to lead an offensive awakening. They enter a well-deserved offday atop the standings in the AL East.
Many of their AL rivals were also in action on Sunday, so let’s recap
the events of those games.
Houston Astros (8-15) 5, St. Louis Cardinals (13-8) 7
The Cardinals thoroughly outclassed the Astros in this series, scoring 23 runs in three games to continue their surprising start to the campaign just a half-game back of first. Matthew Liberatore gave St. Louis six strong innings, limiting Houston to a run on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts, the lone damage coming in the form of a Carlos Correa sac fly in the third after Taylor Trammel reached on a one-out triple. The Cardinals then ambushed starter Mike Burrows for four runs in the fifth. Masyn Winn and Pedro Pagés singled around Nathan Church walk to load the bases with two outs. Victor Scott II walked to force home the first run, JJ Wetherholt singled home the next two, and Iván Herrera singled home the fourth.
Houston wouldn’t go quietly, responding with three runs in the eighth to level the scores. Yordan Alvarez became the first in MLB to ten home runs with a two-out solo shot. Jose Altuve singled, Christian Walker walked, and a wild pitch advanced the pair to scoring position allowing both to come home on an Isaac Paredes game-tying, two-run single.
That sent the game to extra-innings, where a crucial error by Brice Matthews at third gifted St. Louis the win. His misplay of a Jordan Walker grounder followed by a Ramón Urías HBP loaded the bases, and Winn won the game with a bases-clearing triple. Houston would attempt to rally, an Altuve RBI single cutting the deficit to two, but it wasn’t enough to prevent their 13th loss in their last 16 games.
Seattle Mariners (10-13) 5, Texas Rangers (11-11) 2
Bryan Woo gave the Mariners seven strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk along with six strikeouts. He clearly ran out of steam in that seventh inning, allowing a Corey Seager leadoff walk, Wyatt Langford single, and Joc Pederson HBP to load the bases, followed by a Josh Jung sac fly and Evan Carter RBI double. Offseason trade acquisition MacKenzie Gore was nowhere near as sharp for Texas, yielding five runs on seven hits and a walk in five innings.
All five of Seattle’s runs came vie three home runs off Gore. Rob Refsnyder led off the first with a solo shot, his first hit in a Mariners uniform. J.P Crawford struck with a two run bomb in the second after Mitch Garver drew a leadoff walk. Randy Arozarena capped off the trio with a two-run blast of his own after Julio Rodríguez kept the fifth inning alive with a two out single.
Toronto Blue Jays (8-13) 10, Arizona Diamondbacks (13-9) 4
On the verge of being swept for the second time this season, the Blue Jays bats broke out for double digit runs to salvage a win. Eight of the ten came in the first inning to tie a franchise record against starter Ryne Nelson, who managed to record just one out after allowing eight hits and a walk. In fact, the first eight Blue Jays reached safely as they sent an eventual 12 batters to the plate. Doubles from Kazuma Okamoto and Nathan Lukes were the big blows in the inning, Toronto scoring all their runs despite the ball not leaving the yard in the frame.
Okamoto would later add a solo home run to lead off the third while Lukes and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each contributed three-hit afternoons. Kevin Gausman has been one of the best starters in baseball to open the season, so spotting him an eight-run first inning lead pretty much meant the game was over before Arizona had even come to bat. He pitched six innings of two-run ball, allowing seven hits and a walk against four strikeouts. The Diamondbacks scored consolation runs in second and sixth, the lone bright spot a pinch-hit, two run home run by Jorge Barrosa in the seventh.
Detroit Tigers (12-10) 6, Boston Red Sox (8-13) 2
Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet entered the season as the consensus favorites in the AL Cy Young race. Skubal lived up to that billing with six innings of one-run ball and ten strikeouts to silence Boston on Saturday, but Crochet couldn’t return serve. Coming off his worst start with the Red Sox — 11 runs in 1.2 innings against the Twins — Crochet allowed five runs on seven hits including a pair of homers in five innings against Detroit. It’s the third of his five starts in which he has allowed at least five runs, the southpaw left with a 7.88 ERA after departing. On the otherside, Framber Valdez authored another stellar start for the team that signed him to a three-year, $115 million deal over the offseason. He held Boston to a run on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in six innings, meaning he has allowed one or fewer earned runs while lasting at least six innings in four of his five starts with the Tigers.
The two sides traded runs in the first, Dillon Dingler opening the scoring with and RBI double before Willson Contreras answered in the bottom half with a solo home run. But then Detroit struck for four runs in the fifth, all with two outs after Crochet struck out the first two batters of the frame. Jahmai Jones crushed a solo blast followed by a walk from Gleyber Torres and single from Matt Vierling to set up a three run wall scraper from Dingler, giving the starlet catcher four RBIs on the day.
There would be no more scoring until the ninth, when again the teams traded runs. Torres collected an RBI single in the top half and Caleb Durbin an RBI double in the bottom of the frame to bring us to our final score, 6-2.
Other Games
Cleveland Guardians (13-10) 8, Baltimore Orioles (10-12) 4
It was the José Ramírez show in Cleveland, the future Hall of Famer slugging a pair of solo home runs as the Guardians tagged Orioles Opening Day starter Trevor Rogers for six runs on six hits and two walks in five innings. Taylor Ward crushed a three-run blast in the Orioles’ four-run fifth to make this a one-run game, but Cleveland restored their cushion by scoring a pair in the eighth. Rookie Juan Brito hit a two-run double and Brayan Rocchio collected three hits and three RBIs batting ninth.
