The Yankees had a brutal opening to their road trip, giving up nine runs on Tuesday and only drawing close thanks to an Aaron Judge slam and following that up with a 12-run drubbing of their staff on Wednesday. At this point, the first half of the month feels about as far away as spring training was as the team has nosedived into an 12-11 record for the month. They’ve still somehow held onto a slim lead in the division despite their poor play of late, but each loss is an invitation for the competition to catch up and yesterday was no exception. The Red Sox and Blue Jays got their game rained out in just the second inning, but everyone else was on duty:
Baltimore Orioles (50-30) 4, Cleveland Guardians (51-27) 2
The Orioles have been in their own edition of a tailspin, though they’ve played the AL Central leaders extremely close despite the two losses to open the series. They needed to stop the bleeding and avoid the sweep and did just that, thanks to a strong start from Grayson Rodriguez and a good day from their table-setter Gunnar Henderson.
Henderson singled to leadoff the game for the O’s offense, but they couldn’t quite capitalize on the eventual runners on first and second with no one out position they found themselves in. Henderson stayed on beat however, and got another hit in the second to drive in Jorge Mateo and tie the game at one. He stepped up with a runner on in the fifth, but Jorge Mateo rolled the dice on a steal and came up short. Henderson managed to drive in a run anyway, smashing a ball to center field for a solo shot.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez was keeping the Guardians’ offense mostly off balance all night. He went seven strong, striking out four and scattering five hits throughout. Two of those hits did burn him, as the Guardians launched a pair of homers in the second and fifth innings respectively, but both came with the bases empty to limit the damage.
Baltimore still needed to grab the lead for the first time, and they did so in the seventh in a big way. Cedric Mullins led off against reliever Xzavion Curry in his second inning of work and interrupted him by launching a hanging curveball out to right field.
The O’s added insurance off the bat of Ryan O’Hearn in the eighth, as he hit another solo shot to double the lead. Cionel Pérez and Craig Kimbrel stepped in for Rodriguez beginning in the eighth to close out the game, and they didn’t give Cleveland room to breathe. Kimbrel slammed the door with emphasis, striking out the side to end it.
Houston Astros (40-40) 7, Colorado Rockies (27-53) 1
There’s a reason that, despite their poor start to the year, we’ve been adamant about including the Astros among the top spots in these roundups. The longtime menaces of the American League have been on a tear in June and have fought their way back to .500, a far cry from the depths they were once in. They’re only three games out of a Wild Card spot at this point, and 4.5 from the division leaders — look out Seattle.
This game was close for a while, but became a runaway once the Astros got rolling in the seventh inning. Up 2-0 entering the frame, Houston put up a four-spot thanks to some sound baseball decisions on their end and poor play from the Rockies. Houston played small ball with the bases loaded, getting a sacrifice fly and converting a fielder’s choice into a free run when Jeremy Peña beat the throw home. Then Alex Bregman hit into another grounder, but Colorado’s attempt to turn a double play got thrown away allowing another run to score. Finally, Yainer Diaz singled home the final run of the inning to put it fully out of reach.
The Astros also benefitted from a rare gem from Spencer Arrighetti. The rookie has been hit around a bunch this season, pitching to a 6.36 ERA entering the night, but he twirled a career-high seven shutout innings and racked up double-digit strikeouts for the first time as he stranded a measly three baserunners. June has been a particularly tough month for him, as he had completed five innings only once back on June 10th prior to this start, so this bounceback was a welcome sight for the Astros.
Other Games
Seattle Mariners (46-37) 5, Tampa Bay Rays (40-41) 2: Kirby Yates went out and gave his team six solid innings of one run ball, but it took until his final inning of work for his team to give him some support. They got him the lead and then some, though, with Cal Raleigh hitting a three-run homer to go ahead for good and J.P. Crawford adding two more on a single an inning later. The Rays threatened by loading the bases in the ninth with no outs but could only get a single run in before Amed Rosario hit into a game-ending double play.
Kansas City Royals (44-38) 5, Miami Marlins (28-52) 1: Brady Singer also had a magnificent night, pitching 7.1 innings and allowing just a single run way back in the second. However, it took the Royals until the eighth inning to get on the scoreboard. They started their rally with a two-out Bobby Witt Jr. triple, and Vinnie Pasquantino singled him home to tie the game. From there Salvador Perez, Nick Loftin, and Freddy Fermin all had RBI hits to break away and turn a narrow deficit into a comfortable lead.
Milwaukee Brewers (48-33) 6, Texas Rangers (37-43) 5 (10 innings): Milwaukee swung for the fences in the third inning, getting a Jake Bauers grand slam to put them ahead early before Texas countered with a four-run inning of their own in the fourth powered by Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim homers. After the early fireworks Nathan Eovaldi settled down for Texas and the Milwaukee bullpen matched them zero for zero, leading to an extra-inning affair. The Brewers got two strikeouts in the 10th to give themselves an easy opportunity at a walkoff and nearly wasted it thanks to a bunt pop-out and an infield fly call to start the bottom half. Andruw Monasterio still managed to bring the ghost runner home on a laser into the left-field gap.
Minnesota Twins (44-36) 8, Arizona Diamondbacks (39-41) 3: Arizona’s been the first team to manage Royce Lewis, keeping him hitless through the first two games of this series, but his teammates stepped up and put a hurting on Ryne Nelson. Carlos Correa, Carlos Santana, and Jose Miranda all had three-hit days and contributed to the Twins scoring from the second inning all the way through to the fifth.
