After dropping five of six, the Yankees got back on track yesterday with a strong showing against the Mets at Citi Field. Cam Schlittler outdueled Clay Holmes, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Spencer Jones had timely hits, and Ben Rice’s solo shot off Craig Kimbrel was the icing on the cake in a 5-2 win. It did stink to hear in the postgame that Jones fractured Holmes’ fibula on a line drive though. Holmes is a great dude who has defied the odds by turning back into a good starter. Call this one of the morse somber citations of “That’s baseball, Suzyn.”
Here’s what else was going on around the American League’s best on Friday night.
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Tampa Bay Rays (29-14) 7, Miami Marlins (20-25) 2
The Rays are on some kind of heater right now. On the morning of April 22nd, they were 12-11 after clinching a series loss to the Reds. Since then, they’ve now won 17 of their last 20, zooming to the front of the American League in a season when they weren’t really expected to compete. The bottom still might fall out to some degree, but these wins are banked and they keep on coming.
Remember when Janson Junk inexplicably shut out the Dodgers in a six-inning effort in LA a few weeks ago? That was fun. Anyway, the long-ago Yankees prospect got smoked by the Rays last night, with a Yandy Díaz two-run shot in the first setting the tone. They plated two more in the second and then another pair in the fourth on Taylor Walls’ double.
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Southpaw Ian Seymour was the opener for Tampa Bay and was fine through two with a Connor Norby solo shot the lone real blemish on his line. Jesse Scholtens took over after that, and the righty evidently decided that this was a good strategy for him as well. During his five innings of work, he allowed a few hits but likewise held them to a Jakob Marsee homer with no one on base.
The Rays quickly atoned for that anyway, as the struggling Cedric Mullins muscled up a long ball to mark their seventh run against Junk. Casey Legumina finished off the Fish with two perfect frames. Tampa Bay has won 11 in a row at Tropicana Field.
Toronto Blue Jays (19-25) 2, Detroit Tigers (20-25) 3
You know, this once could’ve been a Trey Yesavage vs. Tarik Skubal matchup had the Tigers’ ace not gone down with an injury earlier in the month. Instead, the Tigers had an opener with Ty Madden expected to cover the bulk of the action in Skubal’s place. But not even Skubal’s effective replacement was safe — Madden left the ballgame after recording only one out in the third, as he got drilled by a comebacker from Yohendrick Piñango.
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That scare aside, Detroit’s Johnny Wholestaff strategy worked out, exactly matching Yesavage’s effort of six innings with four hits and two runs allowed. Although Toronto’s tallies came on a two-run double by Andrés Giménez in the second, the Tigers’ bullpen kept them at bay from there. That gave their offense some leeway to eventually knot it up at 2-2 off Yesavage thanks to bases-loaded wild pitch to score Kevin McGonigle and then an RBI double from Riley Greene down the right-field line during Yesavage’s final frame.
Drew Anderson did yeoman’s work for Detroit with Madden unable to eat innings. So instead Anderson went four scoreless, limiting Toronto to a Brandon Valenzuela single that was quickly erased on a double-play ball from George Springer. Veteran Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth, giving his team an opportunity to walk it off.
The Tigers did just that. With the beleaguered Jeff Hoffman on for the Jays, Matt Vierling hit a one-out single and stole second, setting the stage for Spencer Torkelson. Toronto challenged the erstwhile No. 1 overall pick by intentionally walking Zach McKinstry to face him, so Tork thanked them by lining a walk-off single to right-center.
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Other Games
Boston Red Sox (18-26) 2, Atlanta Braves (31-14) 3: The Red Sox overcame homers against Connelly Early by Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II to tie it up at Truist Park against a fading Spencer Strider and reliever Tyler Kinley. It was a Marcelo Mayer solo shot that knotted it up at 2-2 in the seventh. The bullpens battled from there, with prominent arms like Aroldis Chapman, Robert Suarez, and Raisel Iglesias keeping their opponents off the board. Tasked with stranding Boston’s zombie runner in the 10th, 20-year-old Didier Fuentes was up to the task, striking out Carlos Narváez and getting outs from Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Mickey Gasper. Mike Yastrzemski rewarded the rookie in Atlanta’s first at-bat of the 10th, doubling in Ha-Seong Kim to walk it off.
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Seattle Mariners (22-24) 0, San Diego Padres (25-19) 2: Are the Mariners and Rangers really going to force us to cover the A’s, who still sit in first despite barely sitting over .500? We are getting closer by the day, even in mid-May. Former Yankee Randy Vásquez continued his surpisingly superb first month and a half, lowering his ERA to 2.68 with six scoreless frames, and fellow old friend Miguel Andujar got San Diego on the board with an RBI knock off Emerson Hancock. Andujar was involved in the second run as well, as his seventh-inning single was followed by a Ramón Laureano hit, and Andujar then scored on an out. Later, Mason Miller escaped a mostly-inherited jam by striking out Connor Joe with the bases loaded in the eighth. Then he got out of his own mess by striking out Mitch Garver and Brendan Donovan to end the game.
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Texas Rangers (21-23) 0, Houston Astros (18-28) 2: I’ve made no secret of how much I long to exclude the Rangers from the Rivalry Roundup. Maybe almost getting no-hit by Spencer Arrighetti will be what send them on the role to “uncovered whatever.” Texas was held hitless until Justin Foscue broke up the gem with one out in the eighth. The Astros were backed up an Isaac Paredes blast against Jack Leiter, and Arrighetti made it hold up.
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Cleveland Guardians (24-22) 6, Cincinnati Reds (24-21) 7: The Ohio Cup turned into a minor slugfest on Friday night, but not until the later innings. Entering the eighth, it was a 3-1 Reds lead, with a Rhys Hoskins dinger representing the sum of Cleveland’s offense. But in the Cincy half of the eighth, they scored three, two of them on a blast by Matt McLain. Atrocious relief by Graham Ashcraft and Brock Burke allowed the Guardians to get back into it on the strength of five (!) walks, a single, and a sacrifice fly. Now in a 6-5 ballgame, the Reds got insurance with productive outs following a Dane Myers double, and that came in clutch when Kyle Manzardo tripled in the ninth for Cleveland. Facing Angel Martínez and then rookie Travis Bazzana as the potential tying runs at the plate, Tejay Antone got two groundouts to end it (with a nice play by McLain for the end). To quote Marty Brennaman, this one belonged to the Reds, but boy was it an adventure to get there!
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