Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Red Sox continue skid, Twins blow out Tigers

With a full slate of games on a Saturday afternoon, you’d be forgiven for losing track of all the American League scores. Fortunately, that’s why we do this, as after the Yankees’ loss to the O’s, the performance of their potential playoff rivals becomes a little more important.

Houston Astros (63-32) 3, Seattle Mariners (51-44) 1

So much for that winning streak. Houston’s clubbed down the Mariners in two straight games coming out of the break, with Justin Verlander being the big star in yesterday’s 3-1 win. The ageless wonder won his 13th game, going seven innings with nine strikeouts, allowing the single run.

It was really stuff that we’ve seen before from JV, whose velo got better and better as the day went on:

Kyle Tucker and Yuli Gurriel provided the offense, each with an RBI double before Jose Altuve added an insurance run, coming home on a wild pitch in the eighth.

Toronto Blue Jays (52-43) 4, Boston Red Sox (48-47) 1

It wasn’t quite the 28 run explosion we saw on Friday night, but the Blue Jays kept up the pressure on Boston, winning 4-1 and keeping the Sox winless in series against AL East opponents this season.

There were no inside-the-park grand slams in this game, with the Blue Jays putting up four runs without a single homer, scoring on two singles, a double, and a sac fly. Alek Manoah was stellar, making just one mistake to Bobby Dalbec in the second inning, the lone blemish in a seven inning, seven strikeout performance. He did get some help from his center fielder, as George Springer made one of the best plays of the day:

Minnesota Twins (51-44) 8, Detroit Tigers (38-57) 4

The first six hitters in the Twins’ lineup all reached base, and all scored a run, in the AL Central leader’s 8-4 drubbing of the Tigers from Comerica Field. Three of those runs came on outs, a pair of sac flies and RBI groundout, but Carlos Correa came out swinging the big stick:

Someone named Joe Ryan got the start, and the win, for the Twins, and he’s off to a pretty decent start to the year. Doesn’t mean I could pick him out of a lineup, but 5.2 innings of one-run ball does just fine when your club is able to put up runs like Minnesota did yesterday.

Kansas City Royals (37-57) 6, Tampa Bay Rays (52-42) 3

We had a near-no-hitter watch in this one, as Brady Singer held the Rays out of the column into the sixth inning before Roman Quinn bunted himself aboard. He was erased on Yandy Diaz’s fielder’s choice, but two batters later Diaz came in on a run-scoring single. getting the Rays on the board en route to eventually tying up the game at 3s.

Bobby Witt Jr. and Whit Merrifield accounted for the Royals scoring early, trading RBI doubles in the third inning. It looked like the Rays might complete the comeback, until the eighth:

Michael A. Taylor and Witt both went deep in the eighth, punishing Ryan Yarborough and icing the game for the Royals. The three stars of the game for KC — Taylor, Witt and Brady Singer — were all well-rested after not making last week’s trip to Toronto, and that rest may have paid off.