Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Blue Jays win to gain ground, Rays fall short

The Yankees returned to a some frustrating ways on Friday night, losing 7-6 to the Brewers after having taken a 5-0 lead in the second inning.

Even beyond the frustration that it led to, the loss means it became an opportunity for some of the competition to gain some ground. Let’s see who did and who didn’t in today’s edition of the Rivalry Roundup.

Toronto Blue Jays (82-63) 6, Baltimore Orioles (75-68) 3

A two-home run game from Matt Chapman led the way for the Jays, but George Springer provided the crucial blow as Toronto came away with the win in a dinger-filled game.

Chapman had given the Blue Jays the lead with a solo shot in the second inning, but Adley Rutschman answered with a two-run homer in the fourth, putting Baltimore in front. Then with two on and two out in the fifth, Orioles’ starter Jordan Lyles was a strike away from retiring Springer and getting out of a crucial jam. Instead, the Jays’ center fielder went deep, and Toronto wouldn’t trail again.

Chapman added some insurance runs with his second home run of the game. Baltimore would get one run back on Gunnar Henderson’s second career home run in the ninth, but that came too little, too late.

Texas Rangers (63-81) 4, Tampa Bay Rays (80-64) 3

The Rays had their chance at a rally, but they ended up leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth as the Rangers escaped.

Tampa Bay had taken an early lead in the second, but Texas answered back with a four-run inning in the third, with RBI coming from Corey Seager and a Nathaniel Lowe home run, going deep against his former team.

The Rays would get a run back in the sixth, but they failed to convert several other chances. In total, Tampa Bay left 12 runners on base and went just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

Houston Astros (95-50) 5, Oakland Athletics (52-93) 0

It was the Yordan Álvarez Show in Houston as the Astros’ slugger homered three times and doubled once as they shutout Oakland.

Álvarez’s performance was impressive enough that it managed to completely overshadow Justin Verlander’s return. In his first start since August 28th, Verlander looked like he never missed a beat, throwing five no-hit innings before exiting the game. Houston’s bullpen couldn’t continue that on to put up a combined no-hitter, but they did continue to put up zeroes and keep the A’s off the board.

Los Angeles Angels (62-82) 8, Seattle Mariners (80-63) 7

Despite falling into 4-1 and 8-4 holes, the Mariners nearly clawed their way back, but they eventually fell one run short.

Julio Rodríguez actually led off the game for Seattle with a home run, but the Angels immediately answered back with two runs in the bottom of the first. From there, LA kept building out their lead, thanks to two homers from Luis Rengifo and another from Mike Trout.

However, the Mariners kept answering and went into the bottom of the ninth down just two runs. Carlos Santana got one of them back with a home run, but Seattle couldn’t keep the rally going after that.

Other Contenders

• Cleveland Guardians (77-66) 4, Minnesota Twins (72-71): The Twins had been cruising along for most of the game, getting five shoutout innings from Bailey Ober, and a sixth from Michael Fulmer, as they opened up a 3-0 lead. However, Cleveland rallied with three runs in the seventh, and then took the lead on a wild pitch in the eighth, which ended up being enough for the win.
• Detroit Tigers (54-89) 3, Chicago White Sox (74-70) 2 (10 innings): After managing just three hits and no runs off Tigers’ starter Matt Manning, the White Sox managed to battle back and tie with two runs in the eighth inning. However, they forgot to finish the job against the less than stellar Tigers. After Chicago went down in order in top of the 10th, Detroit got the win on a walk-off sac fly from Victor Reyes in the bottom half of the inning.