Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Springs twirls six no-hit, Cardinals demolish Chris Bassitt

With a full weekend of play down, we’re starting to actually settle into the regular season here. Every team now has a series in the books, with the Yankees opening the season very nicely with a quality showing across three games with the Giants.

How did the rest of the Yankees’ American League rivals fare in their opening sets? Let’s find out:

St. Louis Cardinals (2-1) 9, Toronto Blue Jays (1-2) 4

After a couple of pretty tight games to open this series, Toronto sent their top free-agent acquisition, Chris Bassitt, to the mound in the rubber game. His Blue Jay debut was about as ugly as it could have possibly been; Bassitt allowed as many hits (10) as batters he retired. He exited with one out in the fourth having allowed nine runs, striking out none and yielding three dingers.

The Cardinals smoked all three of those homers in the first inning, with Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, and Nolan Gorman going deep to grab a 4-0 lead.

Toronto actually responded well, putting three across against Jordan Montgomery in the second, but the Cards kept piling on Bassitt. Burleson led the way with a pair of doubles to go with his dinger, while Montgomery settled down after the second to toss five solid innings and earn the win.

Houston Astros (2-2) 3, Chicago White Sox (2-2) 6

Chicago denied Houston a first series win, riding a strong Mike Clevinger start to a split this four-game set. Clevinger managed five shutout with eight strikeouts against three walks to outdo Astros fourth starter Luis García.

Luis Robert Jr. got things started with a solo shot in the fifth, and the White Sox tacked on two more the next inning on an RBI single from Andrew Vaughn and an RBI double from Oscar Colas. Houston scraped one across in the sixth to make it 3-1, but a Tim Anderson RBI double in the eighth and Yoan Moncada’s two-run homer in the ninth provided some breathing room for Chicago.

The Astros staged a rally in the ninth, scoring two and putting the tying run on with two outs against Reynaldo Lopez, but the left-hander held on to close things out at 6-3.

Tampa Bay Rays (3-0) 5, Detroit Tigers (0-3) 1

The Rays kept putting the hurt on the Tigers to open the season. Coming off a blowout on Saturday, Jeffrey Springs put the Tigers in a chokehold, dominating Detroit for six innings of no-hit ball. Springs struck out 12, with a lone walk the only blemish on his line. The right-hander doesn’t throw hard, with his four-seamer rarely cracking 93 mph, but he’s in possession of a nasty changeup, which generated nine whiffs on the day,

Kevin Cash yanked Springs after six and 81 pitches, with reliever Colin Poche promptly allowing a single to Riley Greene to scuttle the combined no-no. But Tampa still cruised, getting offensive contributions from Randy Arozarena, who hit his first homer of the year, Wander Franco, who had two hits, and Jose Siri, whose two-run single in the sixth provided the winning margin. Jake Rogers homered for the Tigers to give them their only run of the game.

Cleveland Guardians (3-1) 6, Seattle Mariners (1-3) 5 (10 innings)

Another tight game in what was a very fun series between a couple of seemingly pretty fun teams. Julio Rodríguez led off with a solo homer to put Seattle ahead, but Cleveland quickly struck back against Marco Gonzales, with Mike Zunino smashing a three-run homer in the second:

Cal Quantrill wasn’t able to hold things for the Guardians, with Seattle coming right back with an RBI single from Eugenio Suarez and a two-run double from Cal Raleigh to retake the lead at 4-3 in the third. The teams exchanged runs in the fifth, before a Steven Kwan RBI single knotted things up at five in the seventh.

Each side had chances to knock in the go-ahead or winning run in the late innings, but the two bullpens held steady, taking the contest to extras. Cleveland struck in the tenth, with a throwing error from Raleigh costing Seattle a chance at escaping the frame unscathed and allowing Jose Ramirez to score:

The Mariners got the tying run to third with one out in the bottom half, but former Yankee farmhand Trevor Stephan got the final two outs without incident to secure

Other Games

Boston Red Sox (2-1) 9, Baltimore Orioles (1-1) 5: This was another topsy-turvy game in a series full of them. Boston scored one run in each of the first three innings, only for Baltimore to tie things with a three-spot off Tanner Houck in the fifth. Boston responded with a three-spot of their own in the bottom half before ultimately taking the game 9-5. Masataka Yoshida, Rafael Devers, Adam Duvall, and Enrique Hernandez all had multi-hit games to drive the offense.