Well, that was excruciating. The Blue Jays’ first five batters yesterday all reached and scored, and after Toronto pulled ahead 8-0 early, it was easy to write off the game as a Will Warren disaster class to push the Jays into a first-place tie. But the Yankees had to lift our hopes up with a huge midgame rally to even the score at 9-9 on a majestic Aaron Judge bomb in the eighth … only for Devin Williams and Ben Rice to team up to give Toronto two quick runs to answer in the home half. The Yanks went down in the ninth and after all that, they took an 11-9 loss anyway.

Technically, the Blue Jays actually hold first place since they have a tiebreaker over the Yanks. New York led Toronto by eight games on May 28th and that’s entirely gone down the toilet. Inspiring. Maybe they’ll win today to get back into first but boy have the past few weeks been a disaster. The Jays aren’t even the only AL East team right there with the Yanks, who could be in third place by this time tomorrow. Ack.

Here’s what else was going on around the Junior Circuit yesterday.

Detroit Tigers (54-32) 11, Washington Nationals (35-50) 2 [Game 1]

The doubleheader opener in DC felt over before the home team even got to bat. Riley Greene and Jake Rogers both hit three-run homers in the first inning off veteran Trevor Williams, whose already-high ERA ballooned to 5.65 to 6.21 by the time he departed. It was old hat for Greene, but Rogers’ first dinger of 2025.

In wake of a slow start, Greene has been on fire the past couple months with an OPS over 1.000 since May 10th, and the 2024 All-Star demonstrated why he was voted onto the team for the second consecutive year by launching another three-run shot — this time off the Nats pitcher who relieved Williams, Jackson Rutledge. He now has 21 homers on the season.

The Tigers led 10-0 by the bottom of the fourth, so it hardly mattered that they ran back their vintage 2024 “pitching chaos” strategy for this one. Tyler Holton, Brant Hurter, Tyler Owens, and Dylan Smith (boy is that a quartet of generic 2025 baseball players) mostly held the Nats at bay. Just for fun, All-Star candidate Spencer Torkelson chipped in the 18th long ball of his comeback season as well, and Detroit got to take an easy win into the nightcap.

Washington Nationals (36-50) 9, Detroit Tigers (54-33) 4 [Game 2]

Give credit where credit is due! After an atrocious first game, the last-place Nats actually got it together to surprise Detroit with a win in the nightcap. A pair of RBI singles from Josh Bell against Jack Flaherty had helped put them up 3-0 early, but by the seventh, it seemed like Washington was on its way to yet another loss since MacKenzie Gore didn’t have his “A” game. Spencer Torkelson, Colt Keith, and Yankees legend Jahmai Jones all gradually chipped away with run-scoring doubles, and though Matt Vierling was thrown out at home as the tying run in the sixth, Jahmai’s two-bagger off Jose Ferrer put Detroit up, 4-3.

In the eighth, the Tigers had another former Yankee, Tommy Kahnle, ready to continue his excellent season in relief, passing the baton to the ninth. This was not to be Kahnle’s night however. Just to play the same game we just did with Trevor Williams, Kahnle entered Wednesday with a 1.77 ERA but departed with a 3.03. That’s still solid, but a game like this will hurt. All five batters reached, he didn’t record a single out, and all five runners scored. Nathaniel Lowe got the big knock with a bases-clearing triple to put Washington ahead, and Bell notched his third RBI with a double to plate Lowe.

Two tack-on runs later, the Nats had a rare comfortable lead and secured the twin bill split.

Houston Astros (52-34) 5, Colorado Rockies (19-67) 3

Hunter Brown was fine
Eight K’s, one Moniak mash
The Rockies are bad

Shay Whitcomb’s first bomb
Four hundred fifty-one feet
The Rockies are bad

This might be lazy
Haikus are fun but a crutch
The Rockies are bad

Other Games

Tampa Bay Rays (48-39) 6, Athletics (36-53) 5: The Rays looked like they had this one in hand. They came back from an early 2-0 deficit against erstwhile Yankees prospect Mitch Spence on the strength of dingers, with Jake Magnum hitting an inside-the-parker off Denzel Clarke’s glove to get Tampa Bay on the board, Josh Lowe tying it with a bomb in the sixth, and Yandy Díaz soon clobbering a two-run shot to put the Rays ahead. The two runs they tacked on afterward on singles turned out to be key because they came as close as possible to falling apart in the ninth despite entering with a 6-2 lead.

Eric Orze and Edwin Uceta were terrible, combining to allow three runs on six hits and loading the bases with one out and the tying run on third. But Brent Rooker helped Uceta out by going down on three pitches, and while rookie Nick Kurtz did work the count full, he fanned as well. With the Yankees’ loss, they’re now just half a game back of the Yankees (and Blue Jays). So fine, yes, we’ll probably have to reconfigure the Rivalry Roundup the next time Tampa’s playing. Grumble grumble.

Seattle Mariners (45-41) 3, Kansas City Royals (40-47) 2: The M’s are clinging to a Wild Card spot and seven games back of the division-leading Astros, but they’re hanging in there. They’re not making it easy on their fans, as they’re playing a close series with an underachieving Royals team and needing some seventh-inning heroics to take a lead. But they got the game-tying dinger from Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodríguez singled in the go-ahead run an inning later. An insurance sac fly was vital with Matt Brash giving up a run before Andrés Muñoz slammed the door.

Boston Red Sox (43-44) 5, Cincinnati Reds (44-42) 3 [Game 1]: Because the Reds and Red Sox actually played three innings of the first game on Tuesday before the rain came and suspended it, this was closer to a “game and a half”-header than a doubleheader. Whatever you want to call it, the Reds began yesterday trailing 2-1 but pulled in front on a two-run homer by Spencer Steer. That was the only hit allowed by Brayan Bello in five innings though, and Boston handled the Cincinnati bullpen to take the lead back. Wilyer Abreu and Trevor Story both delivered RBI hits in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman closed it out against his original team for his 350th career save.

Cincinnati Reds (45-42) 8, Boston Red Sox (43-45) 4 [Game 2]: That’s more like it. Despite the final score, Boston was actually eight outs from a doubleheader sweep with a seemingly OK 3-0 lead in the seventh. A bullpen game had blanked the Reds through six, but Cincy loaded the bases against Greg Weissert in the seventh and Christian Encarnacion-Strand ripped the first grand slam of his young career to turn the game upside down. To add insult to collapse for Boston, their 2025 team’s patented awful fielding led to key Reds insurance runs in the eighth. Watch the CES slam below because it’s a majestic tank, but also make sure to watch the defensive clinic that’s also linked. Yes, schadenfreude will have to do in terms of joy for us today.