Yankees Rivalry Roundup: O’s continue to make up ground with shutout win

New York dropped their second game in a row, facing some stiff competition from one of the top NL teams in the Dodgers. Of course, not having Juan Soto for this series is going to hurt their odds, but he had no say in the 11 runs that they gave up to the visiting team this time. While they’ll look to salvage the series finale today, first we’ve got to look back and see if the rest of the AL capitalized on the Yankees tripping up yesterday:

Baltimore Orioles (41-22) 5, Tampa Bay Rays (31-33) 0

The Orioles sure did capitalize, as they rode a dominant pitching performance from Kyle Bradish and their bullpen. Bradish put up six innings of no-run, one-hit ball, picking up nine strikeouts along the way. Yandy Díaz slapped an infield single back to Bradish to lead off the bottom of the first, and from then on Bradish cut down the Rays like they were stalks of corn. He capped off his night on a high note, striking out five straight batters before getting Díaz to ground out to end the sixth.

The Orioles were nursing a 1-0 lead at that point thanks to a Ryan O’Hearn solo shot in the fourth, and Bradish only had 88 pitches of mileage so they easily could’ve let him back out, but they played it cautious and summoned Danny Coulombe from the bullpen to give them two innings of no-hit relief. In the top of the eighth, Jordan Westburg tripled home a run to double their lead, and in the ninth they put the dagger in Tampa Bay. Phil Maton entered to pitch the inning and gave up a leadoff single, a walk, and then a three-run homer to Gunnar Henderson (his 20th, joining Aaron Judge as the only players at that milestone) to put it out of reach. Cionel Pérez came on for the bottom of the ninth no longer in a save situation, and stranded the lone runner he put on.

San Francisco Giants (32-33) 3, Texas Rangers (30-34) 1

In the latest edition of the Rangers’ world falling apart around them, they got shutdown by the Giants outside of the first inning where they worked two consecutive walks into a run on a sacrifice fly. Former Ranger Spencer Howard got the start for San Fran and gave them a solid outing for a spot start, going 4.2 innings with just the lone blip on his radar. He wasn’t particularly effective, but he kept Texas from stringing together any rallies outside of the one he created of his own volition to start the game.

Meanwhile, the Giants got him the lead back quickly, striking for two runs in the third. Austin Slater got on board with a one-out single, and then Heliot Ramos drove him home with a two-run shot out to left. From there, the Giants’ bullpen took over and kept the zeroes coming, as four relievers combined to go the remaining 4.1 innings without incident. The Rangers didn’t get another batter into scoring position until the ninth inning, but by then it was too little too late to rally.

Houston Astros (30-35) 6, Los Angeles Angels (24-40) 1

You just can’t count them out until they’re truly out. The Astros found three key points to punch some runs home, easily enough to overwhelm the hapless Angels and move just a half-game back of the Rangers for second place in the AL West. All but one of the ‘Stros hitters got a hit in this one, and Yordan Alvarez emphasized his 3-for-4 day with a two-run blast that kept the Angels easily out of striking distance.

Hunter Brown’s been slowly working his ERA down after a disastrous April, and he kept that going with six shutout innings against the Halos. He was a little wild, leading to four walks over the course of his outing, but effective enough to generate seven strikeouts, and six of them were swinging. Rafael Montero relieved him in the seventh and allowed a solo shot to Nolan Schanuel for the Angels’ lone run, but the rest of the ‘pen kept things nice and tidy.

Other Games

Kansas City Royals (39-26) 8, Seattle Mariners (36-30) 4: It’s tough to get a big inning against an arm like Luis Castillo, but the Royals got to him in the fifth. The Mariners had just given their guy a 3-2 lead in the top half, an Adam Frazier leadoff double and a Nick Loftin single tied it right back up. After a walk, Vinnie Pasquantino doubled both runners home to give the Royals a lead they wouldn’t surrender, though they added two more for good measure in the sixth on a Kyle Isbel double.

Cleveland Guardians (41-22) 8, Miami Marlins (22-42) 0: Cleveland led this one for all nine innings, but they broke it open in the fifth with a six-run rally. Steven Kwan started it off with a two-run homer, an error gave Cleveland a free baserunner, and from there the hit parade began — Josh Naylor, David Fry, Kyle Manzardo, and Will Brennan all consecutively had RBI base knocks.

Chicago White Sox (17-48) 6, Boston Red Sox (32-33) 1: Letting easily the worst team in baseball coming off of a 14-game loss streak take two in a row from you is not what you want, but it’s what Boston did on Saturday. Brayan Bello was a bit shaky to start, but he unraveled in the fifth inning leading to a Gavin Sheets grand slam to take the lead. Eight White Sox batters reached that inning before Bello got pulled, but even though the last three got stranded the damage was done. The ChiSox ‘pen dominated in relief of Nick Nastrini, earning eight K’s over 4.2 innings to secure the rare win for the South Siders.

Pittsburgh Pirates (31-33) 4, Minnesota Twins (33-31) 0: For six innings Simeon Woods Richardson kept the Pirates off-balance, stranding multiple runners and striking out six to trade zeroes with Pittsburgh, who was running a bullpen game with Luis L. Ortiz as their bulk pitcher. Richardson went back out for the seventh however, and after getting the leadoff man Rowdy Tellez made him pay with a solo shot to break the scoreless tie. That broke the dam, and Pittsburgh returned to score three more in the eighth to suddenly hold a comfortable lead and close it out without incident.

Toronto Blue Jays (31-33) 7, Oakland Athletics (26-40) 0: Kevin Gausman got the best kind of bounce-back start, going the distance and pitching a complete-game shutout against the A’s. He scattered six baserunners throughout, striking out 10 in the process, and his team got him a big lead with a five-run fifth punctuated by a Kevin Kiermaier homer and doubles from Bo Bichette and Danny Jansen.