Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays, Mariners win big

The Yankees offense may be sputtering but several of their AL rivals brought the fireworks to the ballpark tonight. Let’s jump right into the action.

Tampa Bay Rays (53-26) 11, Kansas City Royals (21-55) 3

On a day when Rays manager Kevin Cash benched star shortstop Wander Franco for disciplinary reasons, their offense hardly skipped a beat down one of its most potent bats. Jose Siri kicked things off with a three-run blast in the second — part of a 3-for-4, four RBI afternoon — and the bats kept rolling from there.

Every member of the Rays lineup had a hit with seven tallying multi-hit afternoons, adding four more runs in the fifth off Zack Greinke. The future Hall of Famer ended with seven runs on his scorecard. Nick Pratto led off the game with a home run while Salvador Perez added a two-run shot in the third, but there was no keeping up with the hosts, who capped off the night with a three-run eighth to put double-digits in the run column.

Seattle Mariners (37-37) 13, Baltimore Orioles (45-29) 1

The Mariners’ ten-run outburst against the Yankees seems to have ignited their offense, as they dropped a baker’s dozen on the Orioles. They tagged Kyle Gibson for five runs in three innings including a four-run third highlighted by a Tom Murphy two-run homer. They were no kinder to reliever Keegan Akin, ambushing him for seven runs on seven hits in the eighth inning including a string of six consecutive singles.

Every member of the Mariners starting lineup had a hit with only José Caballero failing to register an RBI in the contest. Anthony Santander accounted for the Orioles’ lone run — a solo shot in the seventh — one of only three hits for the visitors as they were mashed in the series opener, 13-1.

Oakland Athletics (20-58) 5, Toronto Blue Jays (41-36) 4

If you can believe it, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had not hit a home run at home entering today, a fact made all the more remarkable by the home-run-friendly renovations made to the Rogers Centre outfield wall in the offseason. He broke that duck with a mammoth three-run missile in the Blue Jays’ four-run third — the only inning in which the hosts would score.

The A’s had a fast start, scoring three in the first including a two-run bomb from JJ Bleday. He added a third RBI with a sac fly in the fifth to level the scores before Shea Langeliers blasted a go-ahead home run off Toronto closer Jordan Romano in the ninth.

Los Angeles Dodgers (42-33) 3, Houston Astros (41-35) 2

In a rematch of the 2017 World Series, both teams did their scoring earlier before the bullpens locked it down. Mookie Betts led off the bottom of the first with a home run and drove in another the following inning via sac fly. Back-to-back solo shots from Mauricio Dubón and Kyle Tucker to lead off the fourth accounted for all of Houston’s offense.

Michael Busch responded in the bottom-half with an RBI double, and the Dodgers would hang on from there for an eventual 3-2 victory.

Other Games

Minnesota Twins (39-38) 4, Detroit Tigers (32-42) 1

Kenta Maeda returned from a two month injury absence to log one of the best starts of his Twins career — five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts. Royce Lewis and Max Kepler homered in a three-run third as the Twins coasted to a 4-1 divisional win.

Milwaukee Brewers (39-36) 7, Cleveland Guardians (36-39) 1

Wade Miley pitched six scoreless innings allowing just three hits to out-duel Shane Bieber. Willy Adames had himself a day, going 4-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI to headline the Brewers’ emphatic 7-1 victory.

Boston Red Sox (40-37) 3, Chicago White Sox (32-45) 1

Boston won this head-to-head between the color-coded hose thanks to 6.2 innings of one-run ball from Brayan Bello. Rafael Devers’ two-run home run in the fourth was the difference as the Red Sox held on for a 3-1 win.