The Yankees faltered in Gerrit Cole’s debut, coming back from a 5-1 deficit only to lose in extras after an error and a caught stealing damaged their odds of winning in the top and bottom half of the 10th respectively. The loss brought them right back to 1.5 games ahead of the Orioles, but it also opened the door for the rest of the league to play catch-up. Let’s see how they did:
Cleveland Guardians (45-26) 8, Seattle Mariners (44-32) 0
The Mariners have been one of the hotter teams in baseball across June, but sometimes you run into a brick wall and just can’t get anything done. Tanner Bibee was that wall for Seattle last night, as he pitched six shutout innings and struck out a dozen M’s in the process. It was a masterful performance, and at just 93 pitches he probably could’ve gone out for one more inning if the game had been close and if Cleveland didn’t own one of the best bullpens in the game.
Instead, a trio of relievers shut things down and preserved the shutout while their offense went to task on Seattle.
Bryan Woo was not fooling batters on Wednesday. He allowed three of the first four batters he faced to reach resulting in a first inning run, and the scorching-hot Steven Kwan clobbered a two-run blast in the second to add onto the lead. Seattle was already digging into their bullpen to start the fifth, and Mike Baumann was not the answer to start that off — he allowed an RBI Jose Ramirez single and a Josh Naylor two-run bomb to extend the lead to the point of a blowout.
The Guardians tagged on another run in the seventh and eighth innings, the latter of which was another Naylor bomb, before putting this one to bed.
Houston Astros (34-40) 4, Chicago White Sox (20-55) 1
Look out world, the Astros are in a virtual tie for second place. Sure, that still puts them six games under .500 currently, but give them an inch and they’ll take a mile before you know it.
It wasn’t a particularly pretty performance from Hunter Brown for the ‘Stros, but he scattered seven hits over six innings and only got burned on an Andrew Benintendi solo shot in the fourth. Houston’s offense, meanwhile, managed to scratch and claw their way to four runs, getting timely extra-base hits early in innings and then bringing them home on productive contact. Far from their usual method of driving ‘em in, but a run’s a run. Once Houston rolled into their bullpen with a 2-1 lead things felt pretty comfortable, and handing Josh Hader a 4-1 lead for the save is about as textbook as it gets.
Other Games
Boston Red Sox (40-35) 7, Toronto Blue Jays (35-39) 3: The Sox are on a little run pulling away from the .500 line, and they broke out the bats to keep it going on Wednesday. Multi-hit games from David Hamilton, Jarren Duran, and Enmanuel Valdez (the latter two each going yard) pulled through for Boston, and a sloppy four-error night for Toronto compounded Kevin Gausman’s mediocre outing on the mound. Brayan Bello had a bounceback start on the opposite end, going six strong and striking out six.
Tampa Bay Rays (35-39) 3, Minnesota Twins (41-33) 2 (10 innings): Extra innings were necessary after Joe Ryan and Taj Bradley held each other’s offenses in check for the majority of the night. Ryan went six strong allowing one run while Bradley matched him in length and allowed two runs, but Minnesota’s bullpen coughed up the lead immediately. In the 10th, Royce Lewis spiked the would-be third out to give Tampa a free run, and the Twins weren’t able to respond against Phil Maton, going down in order.
Oakland Athletics (28-48) 5, Kansas City Royals (41-34) 1: Former Yankee Miguel Andujar had himself a day, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and run scored for Oakland as the A’s took it to their former partners in misery down at the bottom of the standings. The Royals couldn’t solve Luis Medina (another organizational alum), getting eight baserunners but only pushing across the one run, and that’s a poor indicator for success. They didn’t find any more against Oakland’s ‘pen, and completed their eighth loss in their last 10 games.
Texas Rangers (34-40) 5, New York Mets (35-38) 3: Grimace’s magic ran out on the Mets yesterday, ending their seven-game win streak dead in its tracks. They held a 3-1 lead midway through the sixth after Pete Alonso broke through with a two-run homer off of Andrew Heaney, but Texas answered right back with two runs in the bottom half and gained the lead for good on Leody Taveras’ two-run shot in the seventh.
