Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Everybody else wins

The Yankees didn’t get off to a great start in their series with the Blue Jays, dropping the opener 6-1 in lackluster fashion. They’re behind the eight-ball on continuing their unbeaten series streak, but they’ve also been in this position in the previous four somehow. Regardless, they fell yesterday, and that gave their competition the opportunity to gain some ground — barring the Guardians, who got rained out — let’s see who capitalized.

Chicago White Sox (7-13) 7, Tampa Bay Rays (17-3) 8

Apologies to our own Malachi Hayes, but the White Sox are quite useless. They fell behind 4-0 to Tampa in the first inning, handing out a pair of walks before Josh Lowe doubled them home and then Harold Ramirez mashed a two-run homer. Almost immediately after that, they jumped into the lead: they chained together a trio of singles to drive home runs in the second and then walked in a pair of runs in the third (with a wild pitch bringing home another).

After an Eloy Jimenez solo shot in the fourth, the White Sox held a 7-4 lead. Tampa got one back in the bottom of the fourth, but then the bullpens came in and locked each offense down. That is, until the ninth inning when Tampa took their last stand. Reynaldo Lopez entered for the save and promptly coughed up a solo shot to Christian Bethancourt. After a Yandy Diaz single, Brendan Lowe called game:

Houston Astros (10-10) 6, Atlanta Braves (14-6) 4

Our second in a line of comeback games also featured a four-run inning to start the game. Atlanta put the first batter of the game on base via error and were punished when Alex Bregman doubled him home, but they took it to Hunter Brown in the bottom frame. Ronald Acuña Jr. led off with a double and Austin Riley doubled him home, then after Sean Murphy walked Ozzie Albies slapped the third double of the inning. Vaughn Grissom singled him home, and it was 4-1 Atlanta just like that.

Just like in the Tampa Bay game, Houston also went into their bullpen early and managed to staunch the bleeding. In the seventh they managed to strike back, beginning with a Corey Julks walk and a Yanier Diaz double. Jake Meyers and Mauricio Dubon both contributed hits that tied the game, and Bregman walked to continue the threat. However, the big bats of the lineup failed to do much else and the game entered the ninth tied. Dubon singled with one out, but it was up to Yordan Alvarez with two outs to get the big blow. He delivered, crushing a two-run blast to center that put Houston up at just the right moment. Ryan Pressley worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth to secure the save and keep Houston floating at .500.

St. Louis Cardinals (8-12) 2, Seattle Mariners (9-11) 5

After a rough opening start, George Kirby has delivered nothing but quality starts for the Mariners. He continued that trend in this game, pitching six innings of two-run ball. The only damage came in the second inning, when Jordan Walker laced a two-out double to right field. Seattle’s breakout came in the bottom of the sixth tied at two, starting with a Julio Rodriguez walk and stolen base. Eugenio Suarez also walked, prompting St. Louis to pull Steven Matz, and both runners moved up on a wild pitch from new pitcher Drew VerHagen. Teoscar Hernandez went down on strikes but was able to reach base thanks to a dropped third strike, setting up AJ Pollock to double home a pair, and Jarred Kelenic lifted a sacrifice fly to get a third run in.

Other Games

Detroit Tigers (7-11) 1, Baltimore Orioles (12-7) 2: Michael Lorenzen and Tyler Wells got together for an unheralded pitchers’ duel and Wells won out, tossing seven shutout to Lorenzen’s five. Austin Hays launched a solo shot in the seventh to get Baltimore on the board, and though Detroit tied it up in the top of the ninth, the Orioles knocked a pair of hits around and walked it off on a fielder’s choice to first that was just slow enough to beat the play at home even with the infield in.

Boston Red Sox (11-10) 5, Milwaukee Brewers (14-6) 3: Nick Pivetta was just good enough to hold on in his outing, lasting 5.2 innings and picking up seven strikeouts to seven hits and a walk. Meanwhile, Alex Verdugo smashed a two-run shot and former Yankee Rob Refsnyder alongside Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida singled home runs to put Boston on top.