Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Orioles swept by Astros

Atlanta’s Max Fried extinguished the Yankees’ hopes of avoid a third consecutive series loss. With six good innings of one-run ball, New York was kept quiet for the vast majority of the afternoon and dropped the finale, 3-1. Honestly, the Yankees very easily could have fallen off the top of the AL East for the first time since May 12th. Fortunately for them, their newest rival had an awful weekend against their previously-slumbering biggest rival of the best decade.

It’s time to bring forth today’s Rivalry Roundup.

Houston Astros (38-40) 8, Baltimore Orioles (49-28) 1

The O’s had to be riding high as they entered play on Friday with 10 wins in their last 13 games and a decisive series victory in the Bronx capped by a 17-6 eruption. They were a season-high 24 games over .500 and within half a game of first place. But they fell behind Houston on Friday, 14-3, and needed a lot of runs against bad Astros relievers to make the final score a more respectable 14-11. Then they lost again on Saturday, 5-1, and the Yankees’ win put them a game and a half over Baltimore.

As noted, the Yankees lost again on Sunday, but so did the Orioles. They suffered just their second sweep since May 2022 and Houston continued to makes its own statement of refusing to truly fade from the potential playoff picture. Even a first half that has done nothing but aggravate their fans, they’ve now won five in a row, sit at nearly .500 now, and are just four games back of a postseason spot. Concerning!

The story around the two teams leading up to Sunday was more interesting than the game itself. The Astros wasted no time in getting to Albert Suárez as easily as the Yankees did last Tuesday. Jose Altuve got to work with his 38th career leadoff homer, and Houston was off to the races from there.

Alex Bregman doubled to begin a 4-for-4 afternoon, and one out later, Yainer Diaz knocked the first of four-straight Houston hits. By the time the dust had settled, it was 4-0, Astros.

On a day in which Framber Valdez brought his good stuff to the yard, the ballgame was basically over at that point. The southpaw held the vaunted O’s to one run on six hits in seven innings, fanning seven in total on 104 pitches. The Astros are creeping ever-so-closer back into the playoff picture, and despite the fact that Orioles losses helped enable it, I’m uneasy about the whole ordeal! Don’t look up who Houston is playing next because that will just make you worry even more.

Miami Marlins (27-50) 6, Seattle Mariners (45-35) 4

I gave the Mariners some respect by bumping them up to the main part of the Rivalry Roundup. They have repaid that by dropping two of three to the dead Fish. Welp.

Friday went to pieces in walk-off fashion on a hit by Tim Anderson of 41 wRC+ fame. A win on Saturday wasn’t enough to fully keep the Marlins at bay. Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off with a double, and though Bryce Miller retired the next couple batters, he would pay for not finishing the job. Jesús Sánchez walked, Jake Burger singled Chisholm in, and the subpar Nick Gordon cranked a three-run homer to put Miami up, 4-0 (just like Houston).

Chisholm added an RBI single in the next frame and Sánchez went yard to put the Marlins up by six runs.

Miami had to be glad that they tacked on those final bits of offense, as Seattle rallied to nearly take the game away from the home team’s slapdash pitching staff. Instead, Dylan Moore struck as the tying run to end the seventh, Julio Rodríguez never advanced past first base in the eighth, and Tanner Scott nearly imploded in the game’s final frame. It began with a Mitch Garver single and a Cal Raleigh walk, giving Seattle multiple chances with the tying run now on base.

It wasn’t to be. Ryan Bliss flew out, J.P. Crawford went down on strikes, and even with a sharp Moore hit to load the bases, second baseman Otto Lopez saved the day by snaring a Julio liner to end the game. The M’s led the AL West by 10 games as recently as Wednesday morning; now, Houston is six back and Texas is 6.5 games behind. Beware, PNW.

Other Games

• Cleveland Guardians (49-26) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (35-42) 5: The Guardians were going to be here regardless, but we may be near the end of the line in terms of considering the Jays even remotely relevant. They’ve dropped six in a row and are now a season-worst seven games under .500, trailing all American League teams except for the lowly Angels, A’s, and White Sox. Also, top position-player prospect Orelvis Martinez (who debuted this weekend) just got popped for an 80-game PED suspension. As for Sunday, the Jays came back flat after a 40-minute rain delay in the third, blowing a 3-1 lead as .390 hitter Steven Kwan went deep for Cleveland and Josh Naylor belted his 20th homer of 2024. Second baseman Spencer Horwitz’s two homers went for naught. Sell, baby, sell.

• Boston Red Sox (42-36) 7, Cincinnati Reds (36-41) 4: I’ve been saying a bunch about other teams’ recent high and low-water marks of 2024, so it worth warily noting that Boston is now a season-best six games over .500 following their eighth victory in their last nine contests (and get to face those slumping Jays next). Connor Wong and Rob Refsnyder started and ended Boston’s scoring, as the Red Sox built a 7-1 lead. Despite Brad Keller’s best (?) efforts in relief, the Boston bullpen held on to win this series over Cincy.

• Texas Rangers (37-40) 4, Kansas City Royals (42-27) 0: The Royals and Rangers are heading in opposite directions, with Texas polishing off a sweep of KC with its second-straight shutout. Max Scherzer made his season debut following December back surgery, permitting just a MJ Melendez double in 57 pitches across five shutout frames and tying Greg Maddux for 11th on the career strikeouts list with 3,371. Josh Smith and Wyatt Langford delivered extra-base knocks for Texas. The Royals have been fully usurped in the AL Central by the Twins, who beat the A’s in a 3-0 shutout that saw Pablo López perfect through 5.2 innings in a 14-K performance.

• Tampa Bay Rays (38-40) 3, Pittsburgh Pirates (37-40) 1: Paul Skenes sadly can’t do it alone in Pittsburgh, no matter how much the 2023 No. 1 overall pick has wowed across his first eight career starts. The Rays plated a single run off him in seven strong frames of six-hit ball, and Skenes struck out eight, retiring his last 11 batters in a row and finishing at 101.5 mph. Alas, Pittsburgh generated just three hits off Aaron Civale and the Tampa Bay bullpen, and once Skenes was gone, a semi-small-ball rally in the eighth gave the Rays the runs they needed.