Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays complete four-game sweep of Red Sox

The Yankees dropped a disappointing series to the Reds to open up this week’s homestand, losing in extra innings on a day where they got a great start out of Nestor Cortes. This capped off a series that was quite a comedy of errors, one where they were simultaneously disappointing to see not win but also fortunate to have even gotten one of the three. Not exactly a description you want to give to literally the Reds.

New York wasn’t the only team active last night, and there was plenty of drama abound. Let’s make the rounds and see what the Yankees’ rivals managed to do:

Boston Red Sox 4 (47-43) vs. Tampa Bay Rays 5 (49-40)

The Red Sox have not fared well on the road since meeting up with the Yankees. They dropped the first three games of this series against Tampa, but they were looking good for six innings in the series finale. Kutter Crawford was dealing with a 3-0 lead, allowing just three baserunners and striking out six to this point, but it all came crashing down as soon as the seventh inning started.

Jonathan Aranda led off with a ground-rule double to left, and a Christian Bethancourt single moved him over to third. Josh Lowe found an 0-1 offering that he could drive and slapped a ball into right, scoring a run. Crawford was lifted for John Schreiber after the Lowe double, but the party had just started. Taylor Walls welcomed Schreiber with a single that scored two and allowed him to move to second on the throw home, and then Schreiber hit Luke Raley. A sac bunt brought both runners into scoring position, and Yandy Diaz cashed them in with a single to center. Ji-Man Choi hit another double, but Diaz was thrown out at the plate to prevent a sixth run from scoring. Still, it was too late for the Sox — they rallied in the ninth and scored one to close the gap, but Jalen Beeks was able to secure the save.

Kansas City Royals 3 (36-53) vs. Toronto Blue Jays 1 (47-43)

It’s tough to imagine swapping out 10 players overnight for a road trip as one of the worst teams in the league and being remotely competitive, let alone winning. Well, the Royals managed just that last night, taking the Blue Jays lineup and nullifying it completely. Their starter, Angel Zerpa, made one mistake to Matt Chapman in the fifth inning, but otherwise the pitching staff kept the Blue Jays from getting anything rollings. Meanwhile, Kevin Gausman had just served up the lead in the top half of the inning, and from there the Royals cruised, adding a run in the ninth on a solo shot just for good measure.

Chicago White Sox 12 (44-45) vs. Minnesota Twins 2 (49-42)

The AL Central continues to be a strange land where no one team can ultimately look too good, and the White Sox showed up to keep that mantra going. They demolished the division leaders in this one, hammering Sonny Gray for six runs in 3.2 innings, and then added more off of every reliever the Twins brought out except for Trevor Megill. Johnny Cueto continued his weird renaissance season, pitching six innings of one-run ball to lower his season ERA to 2.80. In a season of many disappointments for the ChiSox, he’s been an unexpected bright spot.

Houston Astros 3 (58-30) vs. Los Angeles Angels 2 (39-51)

The Angels are apparently incapable of winning unless Shohei Ohtani does everything for them, and they continued this trend on Thursday. They did get a solid start out of Reid Detmers, who went six innings and allowed two runs, but their offense only managed two runs as well off of Framber Valdez. The game was knotted until the 10th inning, when Houston managed to move over and score their Manfred runner while the Angels mostly struck out. For the record, Ohtani was 1-for-3 with a run and two walks as a batter in this one.