Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Houston erupts, Sox walk it off

If the Yankees weren’t sure that they were in a rough spot, last night was a perfect example of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. An absolute gem from Domingo Germán got them into the ninth with a shutout, only to watch the loss creep in when Clay Holmes was summoned from the ‘pen and promptly blew it. It’s not great here, folks.

But right now isn’t about here — it’s about the rest of the league. Last night only had three of the Yankees’ rivals in action across two games, so let’s get into the results:

Boston Red Sox (16-14) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (18-11) 5

The only game with impact on the AL East featured a pair of the teams going against each other, and there were some early fireworks. Boston got on the board first with a pair of doubles to lead off the first inning, and then a Justin Turner single drove in another run. Toronto countered in the second with a pair of walks that set up Bo Bichette, who tagged Corey Kluber for a three-run shot.

Things settled down for a while, but José Berríos ran into some more trouble in the sixth. Jarren Duran started it off by drilling a curveball to straightaway center, no small feat in Fenway, and then two batters later Enmanuel Valdez launched a two-run shot as well. That was the end of Berríos’ day, and though Tim Mayza cleaned up the rest of the inning the Red Sox were now up 5-3. The Blue Jays got those runs back in the eighth, however, when a pair of errors allowed them to keep the inning going and score.

A 1-2-3 top of the ninth set up Boston with a chance to walk it off, and they wasted no time. Alex Verdugo was the first batter up, and he called game:

Houston Astros (16-13) 7, San Francisco Giants (11-17) 3

It’s rare to get a win when your starter fails to record a single out, but the Astros rallied after getting put on the backfoot immediately. Luis Garcia gave up a single to the leadoff batter, and then a mound meeting converged to discuss pain that Garcia felt in his elbow. Garcia was pulled from the game and later sent for an MRI, but in the meantime the Astros had to scramble to get a reliever in.

Brandon Bielak was the guy tapped for the emergency outing, and he gave a solid performance. Bielak tossed four innings and recorded six strikeouts, only finding himself in trouble in the third when Joc Peterson deposited a ball into the seats for a two-run blast. Houston tied things up in the fifth on a Mauricio Dubón single, and then exploded in the seventh to go ahead for good. Dubón started the scoring with an RBI double, followed by an Alex Bregman single and an RBI groundout from José Abreu. Jeremy Peña singled home the fourth run of the frame, and finally Corey Julks singled one last run in.

LaMonte Wade Jr. found his pitch in the eighth for a solo shot to give San Fran some hope, but it was short-lived. The Giants went down in order afterwards, and in the ninth they only managed to slap a single from J.D. Davis before the Astros’ ‘pen closed it out.