Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Jays upset O’s, rest hold serve

The Yankees fell in extra innings to the Mets, splitting the Citi Field portion of the Subway Series with their crosstown rivals. It’s hard to complain after the comeback on Tuesday saved this from being a mini-sweep, but with the way that the seventh inning played out it sure felt like the Mets were trying to give that one away. Oh well, roll with the off-day and start anew on Friday.

Unfortunately, the rest of the league wasn’t off last night and most of them capitalized on the Yankees loss to gain some more ground.

Tampa Bay Rays (49-22) 6, Oakland Athletics (19-51) 3

Well Oakland, you gave it your all and we appreciate you for that. The worst-team-in-baseball-turned-hottest-team-in-baseball entered with a seven-game winning streak and had taken the first two games of this series, but they couldn’t hold out forever against the top team in the league.

They did briefly entertain the idea of doing it to ‘em a third time, however. In the second inning JJ Bleday launched a three-run homer that put the A’s up 3-1 and had fans of chaos excited, but Tampa countered with three runs of their own in the fifth. A couple of insurance runs in the seventh and ninth ensured that Tyler Glasnow walked away with the win, despite getting touched for the homer and in general struggling to put batters away.

Toronto Blue Jays (38-31) 3, Baltimore Orioles (42-25) 1

In the no-way-to-win match of the day, Toronto closed the gap between them and the Yankees to just a game as opposed to the Orioles pulling a little farther ahead in the Wild Card race. José Berríos continued his resurgent season with 7.2 innings of shutout ball, allowing just four baserunners all game. Kyle Bradish wasn’t fooling anyone, striking out jusr a single batter in seven innings, but he was matching Berrios step-for-step until the sixth inning when he hung a pitch and George Springer took him deep to left.

The Jays tacked on two more in the eighth thanks to doubles from Whit Merrifield and Bo Bichette, and the insurance runs ended up mattering. The O’s finally found some footing in the ninth, working three straight singles while down to their last out and scoring a run. Unfortunately for them, Jordan Romano wasn’t going to be beat a fourth time in a row, and instead struck out Adam Frazier to end it.

Texas Rangers (42-25) 6, Los Angeles Angels (38-32) 3

Stop me if you heard this before, but Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer as the Angels lost, 6-3. Granted, Ohtani’s blast came in the ninth when the rally was by-and-large too late, but he still wound up being 66 percent of the offense.

The real story was the Rangers offense shining once again, though they had to outlast Reid Detmers to do so. Detmers shut them down for six innings, but once the ball got handed over to Jimmy Herget they struck. Marcus Semien did the immediate damage, lifting a two-run shot, and Corey Seager went back-to-back with him for good measure. Then in the eighth, Mitch Garver and Leody Taveras singled home runs to put it out of reach. The Rangers survived despite Andrew Heaney tossing 95 pitches in just 3.2 innings, forcing them to bullpen their way through the majority of the outing. Grant Anderson and Josh Sborz did yeoman's work for the cause, and even though he got tagged by Ohtani Will Smith otherwise escaped the ninth without allowing it to escalate into blown save territory.

Houston Astros (39-29) 5, Washington Nationals (26-40) 4

The rematch of the 2019 World Series has found these two franchises in drastically different states, and unlike in that championship Houston has managed to win these home games. A 4-0 lead after four innings thanks to a two-run double and a homer from Jose Abreu alongside a solo shot from Yainer Diaz put Houston in a comfortable position, but Washington made it interesting late.

Down 4-1 entering the ninth inning, the Nationals were gifted a baserunner thanks to an error and Corey Dickerson drove them home immediately on a double. Ildemaro Vargas later put the ball in play that allowed Dickerson to score from third, and then Dominic Smith tripled to miraculously tie the game. The Nats couldn’t take the lead however, making two straight groundouts to end the threat, and that would cost them. In the bottom of the ninth the first two batters hit singles, and after a strikeout and a walk the bases were loaded for Jake Meyers. He hit an ideal double-play ball to the drawn in infield, but after getting the forceout at home the throw to first hit the runner, allowing the runner from third to score.

Other Games

Boston Red Sox (34-35) 6, Colorado Rockies (29-41) 3: Garrett Whitlock turned in his best start since April, tossing seven innings of two-run ball while the Sox backed him up with a five-spot in the seventh to take the lead for good. Old friend Rob Refsnyder hit the go-ahead two-run triple to seal it for Boston.

Minnesota Twins (35-33) 4, Milwaukee Brewers (34-34) 2: The AL Central has a team above .500 in our latest check-in, as the Twins capitalized on a four-run third inning to take this game away from the Brew Crew. Carlos Correa had a two-run triple, and Joey Gallo pushed across the last run with a single that puts him in striking distance of the Mendoza Line.

San Diego Padres (33-34) 5, Cleveland Guardians (31-36) 0: Welcome to the Fernando Tatis Jr. show — the superstar went 3-for-4 with a homer to leadoff the game and set the tone for the Padres. Their season-long struggle still has them well out of a playoff spot currently, but they’re nearing the first step of a comeback by drawing within a game of the .500 mark.

Miami Marlins (38-31) 4, Seattle Mariners (33-34) 1: The play of this game came in the ninth inning with the bases loaded for Seattle, when Jesus Sánchez absolutely robbed Eugenio Suarez of a game-tying grand slam. Suarez had to settle for a sacrifice fly, but that would be the only run the Mariners mustered in their rally, lining out right after to end it.