It’s official: the Yankees have pissed away their lead in the division by playing some horrid baseball in June and an even worse brand to start July, getting swept in four games by the Blue Jays to hand first place to their Toronto opponents. They now sit in a second-place tie with the idle Rays. Aaron Judge was recently asked about the state of the Yankees after going sub-.500 in June and his response was to query the reporter whether the team was in first place — I’m genuinely curious what his answer would be to the same question now.

Anyway, the Yankees weren’t the only (former) division leader to lose on Thursday so let’s see how those other games shook out.

Colorado Rockies (20-67) 7, Houston Astros (52-35) 6

Astros rookie Brandon Walter had been pretty impressive in his debut season with the club, holding opponents to two or fewer runs in four of his five starts for Houston. However, it appears opponents are starting to figure the former Red Sox prospect out, as he has now given up 13 runs across his last three starts — seven to the Angels on June 21st and now five on eight hits in five innings against the Rockies.

Former Yankee Thairo Estrada had a monster night at the plate, driving in four runs on three hits that included a two-run homer in the first to cancel out Cam Smith’s two-run double in the top-half of the frame. He’d add an RBI groundout in the third and an RBI single in the seventh to account for the majority of his team’s offensive production.

Houston fought back from an early 5-3 deficit, scoring a pair of runs in the seventh on a Jose Altuve RBI double followed by an RBI triple from Smith. However, Colorado answered right back with two runs of their own in the bottom-half, Jordan Beck with an RBI single of his own to immediately precede Estrada’s. Houston drew within one in the ninth on a Christian Walker RBI single and even had the potential winning run on first, but Seth Halvorsen got Cooper Hummel to fly out to end the game.

Washington Nationals (37-50) 11, Detroit Tigers (54-34) 7

The same day James Wood announced he would be participating in the Home Run Derby, the breakout superstar collected his first five-hit game. It was part of a comprehensive offensive blitz of the Tigers, the Nationals putting up their third double-digit scoring effort in the span of a little over a week.

This game had barnburner written all over it from the outset. Spencer Torkelson opened the scoring in the first with a three-run no-doubter, only to watch the Nats respond with five runs in the bottom of the inning on a two-run single from Alex Call and a three-run homer from Paul deJong.

Washington would go on to score four more unanswered over the next four innings including a solo shot from Wood in the second — the 23rd of the year from the soon-to-be first time All-Star. But then it was the Tigers’ turn to score four unanswered in the seventh and eighth innings, Gleyber Torres and Wenceel Pérez with a pair of two-out RBI singles in the seventh followed by a Parker Meadows RBI single and Javy Báez RBI ground out in the eighth. Luis García Jr. and Call responded with a pair of RBI singles in the bottom of the eighth to restore the four-run cushion and wrap up the scoring.

Other Games

What started as a pitchers’ duel between Seth Lugo and Logan Evans ended with a bullpen implosion from the Mariners. Lugo gave the Royals 6.1 innings of one-run ball while Logan Evans tossed 5.2 shutout allowing just three hits and a walk. Jorge Polanco led off the fourth with a home run to open the scoring. But then Mariners reliever Casey Legumina walked three batters in the seventh and three runs would score on a Bobby Witt Jr. RBI single and Vinnie Pasquantino two-run single. Dominic Canzone led off the ninth with a homer to cut the deficit to one and a pair of single by Miles Mastrobuoni and J.P. Crawford put the tying run on third, but Julio Rodríguez struck out and Cal Raleigh grounded out to end the game.