Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays fall to Mets in extra-innings battle

After a pretty nice start to the series north of the border, Wednesday night’s game was a frustrating one for the Yankees. After 10 innings of no runs from the Yankees’ offense, the pitching eventually couldn’t keep the Blue Jays off the board. Danny Jansen’s walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th gave Toronto their first win of the four-game set.

As that was going on, many of the Yankees’ AL rivals were in action, some of whom were playing in some wild games. Let’s check in on what went down on Wednesday.

New York Mets (21-23) 8, Tampa Bay Rays (32-12) 7 - 10 innings

In a season where a ton of stuff has bounced in the Rays’ favor, this game very much did not. Tampa Bay blew three separate late leads in a wild loss to the Mets.

While Tampa’s offense didn’t do much early on, their 2-0 lead was holding up going into the bottom of the seventh. Josh Fleming and the Rays’ bullpen was very impressive for the first six frames, keeping the Mets off the board. However in the bottom of the seventh, Mets third baseman Mark Vientos hit a two-run homer in his first MLB game of the 2023 season. That began a back-and-forth battle over the next couple innings.

A two-run Brandon Lowe homer in the eighth led the way as the Rays scored three runs over the last two innings to take the lead. In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets were then down to their last out in the ninth when Francisco Álvarez tied things up again.

That sent the game extra innings and Manfredball. The Rays seemingly took full advantage of starting with a runner on, as they scored two runs off former Yankee David Robertson. However, there was still one last twist yet to come. After Brandon Nimmo singled to give the Mets two runners on, Pete Alonso came to the plate and ended one of the crazier games played anywhere this season.

Baltimore Orioles (28-15) 3, Los Angeles Angels (22-22) 1

Thanks to a couple runs and a very strong outing from Kyle Bradish, the Orioles were able to win a low-scoring game over the Angels.

Baltimore got all of there runs over a three-inning stretch from the third to the fifth. They scored a run each in all of those frames, with Austin Hays homering for the last of those runs in the fifth.

Mike Trout got LA’s lone run with a fourth inning homer, but their offense couldn’t do much of anything against Bradish after that. After the Trout homer, the O’s starting pitcher allowed just two more runners to reach base, one of which was quickly erased by a double play.

Houston Astros (24-19) 7, Chicago Cubs (19-24) 6

After trailing by five runs going into the eighth and three going into the ninth, the Astros rallied to win on Kyle Tucker’s walk-off.

The Cubs scored six runs over the first four innings, taking control after a poor start from Houston pitcher J.P. France. Meanwhile, Drew Smyly put in an good outing, striking out eight as he allowed just one run in six innings.

However once the Cubs went to the bullpen, things started to go haywire. First, Houston got two runs back on RBI hits from Alex Bregman and Jose Abreu in the eighth. Chicago then turned to Keegan Thompson for the ninth, but he quickly allowed a single and then a home run to Jake Meyers. After another walk, the Cubs went back to the bullpen and brought in Brandon Hughes. While Hughes did get one out, he also loaded the bases, setting Tucker up for his heroics.

Other Games

• Los Angeles Dodgers (28-16) 7, Minnesota Twins (24-20) 3: After they had taken the lead on an error by Dodgers’ pitcher Caleb Ferguson in the top of the seventh, the Twins allowed a five spot in the bottom half of the inning, losing the game in the process. After the first two hitters of the inning went down in order, four straight Dodgers reached base with two outs. James Outman then capped things off with a grand slam, which ended up being the difference in the game.

• Boston Red Sox (24-20) 12, Seattle Mariners (21-22) 3: The Red Sox jumped on the Mariners, scoring nine runs in the first two innings and never looked back in a dominant win. All but one of Boston’s starters had at least one hit, and Pablo Reyes led the way with a two-home run game.
• Atlanta Braves (27-16) 6, Texas Rangers (26-17) 5: Orlando Arcia’s go-ahead homer in the top of the ninth was the difference as Atlanta squeaked by Texas. The Rangers held a lead going into the eighth, but Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley came up with RBI hits in the eighth, allowing Atlanta to tie the game ahead of Arcia’s homer.
• Chicago White Sox (16-28) 7, Cleveland Guardians (19-23) 2: As a team, the White Sox slugged three home runs and seven runs, as their pitching staff held the Guardians in check. Jake Burger had a three-hit day for Chicago, including one of the aforementioned homers.