Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Astros win wild game over Mets

After a poor road trip, the Yankees’ good fortunes upon returning home continued on Wednesday night. A recalled Jhony Brito put in a good effort on the mounds, and a couple home runs were enough to get the job done to secure the series win over the Mariners.

Tonight, they’ll go for a sweep of Seattle. However before we get to that, let’s check in on how the Yankees’ AL competition did on Wednesday night.

Tampa Bay Rays (52-25) 7, Baltimore Orioles (45-28) 2

Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes got the Rays off to a good start when they hit back-to-back homers to lead-off the second inning on route to a win where they never trailed.

In total, Tampa Bay scored four runs in the second inning, as they also took advantage of two throwing errors by Orioles’ pitcher Taylor Wells. In general, Arozarena led the way for the Rays, finishing the day 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBI. Meanwhile, pitcher Taj Bradley went six innings for the Rays, allowing just one run on three hits, as he struck out eight Orioles.

Baltimore’s lone runs came on Ramón Urías and Gunnar Henderson homers.

Toronto Blue Jays (41-35) 6, Miami Marlins (42-33) 3

The Blue Jays scored five runs in the second inning and mostly cruised from there.

Toronto brought all nine batters to the plate in the second inning, with RBI hits coming via Cavan Biggio, Kevin Kiermaier, George Springer, and Whit Merrifield, and they pretty quickly jumped on reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara (who continues to scuffle in 2023).

Meanwhile, Kevin Gausman was mostly pretty solid on the mound for the Jays. While Miami eventually got to him for a couple runs, Toronto’s offense from the second ended up being enough. In his six innings, Gausman allowed three runs on eight hits, while striking out six.

Houston Astros (41-34) 10, New York Mets (34-40) 8

After 18 runs, 19 hits, 16 walks, 3 errors, and several lead changes, the Astros emerged with a 10-8 victory in a wild game over the Mets. The FanGraphs win probability tracker for this game is quite the roller coaster.

Too much happened to go over all the game action, so here is a list of scores at the end of various half innings:

• Astros up 2-0 after the bottom of the first
• Mets up 4-2 after the top of the third
• Astros up 6-4 after the bottom of the third
• Tied 6-6 after the top of the fourth
• Astros up 9-6 after the bottom of the fourth

While the Mets wouldn’t hold the lead again after that, they did get back in the game, only to fall a run short. Neither starting pitcher — Cristian Javier for Houston and Tylor Megill for New York — lasted past the third inning.

On the offensive side of things, Alex Bregman led the way for the Astros, going 3-for-5 with two RBI, while Daniel Vogelbach went 3-for-5 with three RBI in a losing effort.

Texas Rangers (46-28) 6, Chicago White Sox (32-44) 3

Home runs from Ezequiel Duran and Jonah Heim helped the Rangers break open a lead, which they held on for to beat the White Sox.

Chicago actually opened the game’s scoring, picking up a run in the bottom of the first. However, Texas eventually got going and scored a run in the third and two in the fourth, which led to the end of Michael Kopech’s day after just four innings. Heim then capped things off with a three-run homer in the fifth, giving Texas a lead that would hold up.

On the mound for the Rangers was Martín Pérez, who put in a good performance. He went seven innings, allowing three runs (only two earned) on four hits and two walks.

Other Games

• Cleveland Guardians (35-38) 7, Oakland Athletics (19-57) 6: Thanks to a two-RBI, go-ahead, eighth inning double from Steven Kwan, the Guardians rallied past the A’s. Oakland’s offense had a solid game, but their pitching couldn’t hold the lead, allowing three runs over the seventh and eighth innings.
• Minnesota Twins (37-38) 5, Boston Red Sox (39-36) 4 (10 innings): After losing the lead in the eighth inning, the Twins eventually came back to win on a walk-off in the 10th. Kyle Farmer delivered the win with an RBI single. They needed that W too, as Cleveland still sits just one game behind them in the AL Central.