It wasn’t a particularly fulfilling Friday night for the Yankees, who missed a chance to gain ground in their last-ditch effort to capture the AL East. They remain three games out with eight to play and no tiebreaker in their favor. The division title is probably not happening. Trevor Rogers and the Orioles’ defense were too much to overcome yesterday, and some misplays helped the Orioles get a couple of their runs. Final score: 4-2, Baltimore.
That’s the abbreviated report from the Charm City. What
else was afoot around the Junior Circuit?
Kansas City Royals (77-77) 20, Toronto Blue Jays (89-65) 1
No, that’s not a typo of a 2-1 score or anything like that. The Jays really got their asses handed to them by the Royals, who entered play with the lowest run total in the American League (589, 3.85 per game). In fairness, half of those runs were actually plated in garbage time with backup catcher Tyler Heineman on the mound in the seventh and eighth before old friend Isiah Kiner-Falefa cleaned it up.
That being said, this would obviously have still been an ugly night if Heineman had been pristine, as he entered with Toronto trailing 10-1. Max Scherzer only got two outs while allowing seven runs on seven hits (including two doubles by rookie DH Carter Jensen) and a walk, casting serious doubt as to whether he actually deserves a playoff start in the rotation behind Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber. In Scherzer’s own words, he took a haymaker to the face, erasing the good vibes of George Springer’s leadoff homer in a hurry while the likes of Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Perez rounded the bases. When Michael Massey slugged a two-run homer, it was 7-1, KC, before Scherzer recorded his second out.
Given a reprieve from the Springer dinger that began the game, Michael Lorenzen settled in quite nicely for KC and smothered any faint Toronto dreams of a comeback. He allowed just two hits in 7.2 innings following the homer, and his offense kept the foot on the pedal. By the time the dust settled—especially after the Heineman shenanigans—the Royals had a franchise record 27 hits, and 10 of their players had multi-hit nights (just the fourth time in MLB history for that oddity).
Again, it’s a shame that the Yankees couldn’t gain any ground. There is now even less margin for error.
Let us at least bid farewell to the September 19th Jays with rookie Jac Caglianone hitting a tank off Heineman.
Seattle Mariners (85-69) 4, Houston Astros (84-70) 0
It was so close to a perfect night for the Mariners, who began this pivotal AL West weekend series by shutting out the Astros for just the sixth time in their head-to-head history while striking a blow to ‘em in the heart of Houston itself. It was a barrage of solo shots dropped primarily on All-Star righty Hunter Brown, with Julio Rodríguez, Eugenio Suárez, Victor Robles, and Josh Naylor all going deep for Seattle as the M’s moved back into first place.
The only bad news? Seattle’s own All-Star righty starter, Bryan Woo, had to depart from this game after some discomfort while warming up for the sixth inning. He had been brilliant, with five shutout frames, one hit allowed, and seven strikeouts. In the postgame, he revealed that it was diagnosed as pectoral tightness, and that he would undergo testing on Saturday. Neither Woo nor manager Dan Wilson seemed publicly alarmed just yet about it and it feels more likely than not that Woo will return soon, but that’s an unwanted concern hovering over Seattle’s probably playoff Game 1 starter.
As for Houston, they’re still just one back of Seattle, but they did also fall back to the third Wild Card spot behind Boston and a mere game and a half up on red-hot Cleveland. It’s a weird time for the Astros, who regained Isaac Paredes from the IL but also just placed Yordan Alvarez there with an ankle sprain and will not get him back until the final series of the regular season at the earliest.
Boston Red Sox (84-70) 11, Tampa Bay Rays (75-79) 7
Despite the final score, this game was actually fairly taut through six. The Rays made their few hits count against Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet. Yandy Díaz doubled in the first and scored on Nick Fortes’ groundball single. Carson Williams and Yandy then belted solo shots. That’s all four knocks accounted for, but a 3-2 lead! Crochet was pretty nails otherwise, striking out nine over six innings.
The Rays were already well into their bullpen by the middle frames, as starter Drew Rasmussen needed 76 pitches to record just nine outs. Cole Sulser and Griffin Jax did their jobs, but Garrett Cleavinger fell short. Ceddanne Rafaela began the seventh with a single and Jarren Duran followed with a game-breaking two-run shot.
The inning soon ended, but the floodgates were open. Cole Wilcox had to wear it for Tampa Bay, coughing up seven runs in the eighth, though only three were earned due to bad defense behind him. The Red Sox had an 11-3 lead by the first pitch of the home half, and the final score only looked different because southpaw Chris Murphy had an ugly ninth inning for Boston. Former Yankees prospect Everson Pereira belted his first career grand slam, and it was 11-7 with two down in the ninth.
The Rays managed to get the tying run in the on-deck circle following consecutive singles to Díaz and Jake Mangum. Murphy then buckled down and struck out Josh Lowe to polish off the win for Boston. They’re two back of the Yankees and do hold a tiebreaker over them if it’s needed for seeding. As an aside, the Rays were eliminated from playoff contention with this loss. Remember when MLB was openly wondering if the size-limited George M. Steinbrenner Field would be necessary in the postseason? Well it’s a moot point now.
Atlanta Braves (71-83) 10, Detroit Tigers (85-69) 1
The Tigers have been in control of the AL Central for almost the entire season, but it’s suddenly gotten a bit nervy in the Motor City. They’re 5-11 in September, opening the door for the Guardians’ 14-4 month thus far to severely slash the division lead. On July 8th, Cleveland was 15.5 games behind, and as recently as the morning of September 5th—two weeks and a day ago—the Tigers were ahead by 11 over the Guardians.
Detroit followed its sweep at Cleveland’s hands by dropping its fifth consecutive home game. Charlie Morton was terrible against his former Braves teammates, as all of Atlanta’s first five batters reached base. Ozzie Albies’ single gave them a 3-0 lead, and Ronald Acuña Jr. helped double it in the second with a two-run bomb.
That marked the end of Morton’s night after just four outs. The Tigers must very well have to go full Skubal and Chaos in the postseason again because their starters have been bad outside of their Cy Young ace.
Back to Friday action, Bryce Elder stymied the Tigers with relative ease, limited them to one run on five hits in seven innings. He-Seong Kim and Drake Baldwin added insurance run homers for Atlanta in the final two innings. Remember, following this weekend series, there’s one more head-to-head between Detroit and Cleveland between Tuesday and Thursday, so buckle up. It could get interesting.
Other Games
- Cleveland Guardians (82-71) 6, Minnesota Twins (66-87) 2: The Guardians won their eighth game in a row to keep the heat on Detroit, taking advantage of Pablo López leaving early with forearm tightness. A 2-2 tie was broken in the eighth at Target Field as Bo Naylor singled in a pair against Cole Sands. Steven Kwan and Angel Martínez delivered RBI doubles in the ninth. The Tigers might be in danger.
- Miami Marlins (74-80) 6, Texas Rangers (79-75) 4 (12 innings): Say adios to the Rangers from the Rivalry Roundup, as their entirely unexpected midsummer surge is going to fall short of a return to October. They were long shots at this point anyway, and now, they trail the third Wild Card by five games (with Cleveland between them). Rowdy Tellez briefly gave hope by belting a game-tying homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, but the Marlins punched back for three in the 12th against Patrick Corbin (a desperation option in relief) and Texas couldn’t come back from that. Sorry to Bruce Bochy, I suppose.
