Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Mariners take sole possession of AL West lead

The Yankees’ youth movement and the fun that’s come with it continued on Saturday as they came away with a 5-4 win, clinching the series against the Astros. Rookies Anthony Volpe, Everson Pereira, Jasson Domínguez, Austin Wells, Jhony Brito, and Oswald Peraza in a starring role all chipped in for a nice win.

While it was a good night for the Yankees on that front, let’s check in on what happened around the AL yesterday.

Wild Card Mix

Boston Red Sox (70-66) 9, Kansas City Royals (42-95) 5

Thanks to 13 hits (and two Royals’ errors), the Red Sox pounded Kansas City pitching as they ended a five-game losing streak. Led by Alex Verdugo with three, all but one Boston starter recorded a hit as they struck early and often.

The Red Sox started with three runs in the first inning and three more in the third as they knocked out Royals’ starter Alec Marsh early. Boston pitching was hardly dominant themselves, but their offense did more than enough to get them the win.

Colorado Rockies (50-85) 8, Toronto Blue Jays (74-62) 7

The Blue Jays scored two runs in the top of the ninth and had the bases loaded after that, but they couldn’t complete a comeback as they fell to the Rockies.

Toronto started the game on fire, scoring four runs in the top of the first, and added another in the second. However, Colorado slowly chipped away after that, before taking a lead with a four-run inning of their own in the fifth, pounding Yusei Kikuchi. The Rockies’ held a three-run edge going into the late innings, which ended up being just enough to stave off the Jays’ comeback.

Division Contenders

Cleveland Guardians (66-70) 7, Tampa Bay Rays (82-54) 6 - 11 innings

The Rays took leads into both the bottom of the ninth and the 11th, but could hold neither as the Guardians came away with a walk-off win on Stephen Kwan’s sacrifice fly.

The teams traded the lead back and forth a couple times, with the biggest being a 4-1 lead for Cleveland. However, homers from Christian Bethancourt and Jose Siri brought the Rays back and gave them a 5-4 edge going into the late innings. They held that lead going to the ninth, when Kwan came up with a game-tying RBI single with the Guardians down to their final out.

Cleveland narrowly avoided going a run down in the 10th, but then did on a Brandon Lowe sacrifice fly in the 11th. While Tampa Bay got the first out of the bottom half of the inning, Bo Naylor drew a walk, which was followed by a game-tying José Tena single. Naylor moved to third on the play, from which he was able to score in the next at-bat as Kwan was the hero again.

Seattle Mariners (77-58) 8, New York Mets (62-74) 7

With the Astros and the Rangers — more on that in a second — both losing, the Mariners are back atop the AL West on their own as they pulled out a win over the Mets. J.P. Crawford go-ahead home run in the ninth broke a late tie and propelled Seattle back atop the division.

The Mariners needed Crawford’s heroics in part because they couldn’t hold onto a 7-3 lead. The Mets scored three runs in the sixth, before tying the score in the eighth on Jeff McNeil’s RBI triple. However, thanks to Crawford’s homer, Seattle had a lead going into the bottom of the inning, which ended up being handy.

Daniel Vogelbach led off the bottom of the inning with a hit off the wall, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. That ended up being important as DJ Stewart followed that with a single. Mariners’ reliever Justin Topa then bounced back and followed that by getting the last couple outs, sealing the win.

Minnesota Twins (71-65) 9, Texas Rangers (75-60) 7 - 10 innings

Folks, Aroldis Chapman was at it again. He came out for a second inning of work in the 10th, and promptly threw a wild pitch, walked a batter, and allowed a go ahead single to Carlos Correa. That was part of a three-run 10th inning for the Twins, which ended up being big, as they withstood a Rangers’ rally in the bottom of the inning to win.

Former Yankee Jordan Montgomery got the start for Texas, but he got knocked out in the fourth as Minnesota put up five runs in the frame, rallying after the Rangers had gone up 4-0 early. The Twins held a lead until the eighth inning, when Texas tied things up on a Robbie Grossman sacrifice fly.

Chapman had actually come in during the ninth and got two outs to keep the Twins off the board. However, his offense couldn’t get the win in the bottom of the inning, and Bruce Bochy sent him back out for the 10th, when things went haywire.

Baltimore Orioles (84-51) 7, Arizona Diamondbacks (70-66) 3

Led by a three-run Cedric Mullins’ home run, the Orioles put up six runs in the fourth inning, which ended up being enough for a win over the Diamondbacks.

Arizona took the lead initially, scoring two runs off Kyle Bradish in the third. However, that ended up being all they would get off the O’s starter, who put in six solid innings. Meanwhile, Baltimore would answer back with six runs on seven hits in the fourth, with all six coming right in a row. Adley Rutschman added a solo homer later on as Baltimore cruised from there.