The Yankees have won three in a row, with all three being scintillating victories as they started off this West Coast jaunt with a demolition of the Athletics. Jasson Dominguez led the way, the first multi- and three-homer game of this career providing more than enough juice. New York still has a solid hold on the AL East lead, but what else happened around the junior circuit on Friday night? Let’s take a look.
Kansas City Royals (24-16) 2, Boston Red Sox (20-20) 1 (12 innings)
If you scanned the Friday night slate and saw Hunter Dobbins vs. Michael Lorenzen on the card, you probably didn’t circle it as a likely pitchers’ duel. Yet that’s what unfolded at Kaufmann Stadium, with the two sides swapping zeros deep into the night.
Dobbins, a 2021 eighth-round pick of the Red Sox, was making just his fourth start in the bigs, and it was his best yet. He scattered five hits across six scoreless, striking out six and walking none. The Royals threatened just once against Dobbins, with Kyle Isbel tripling in the fifth, but KC ran themselves out of the inning when Jonathan India followed with a bouncer to third that turned into a double play:
Meanwhile, Lorenzen more than matched Dobbins. Lorenzen allowed just three hits and walked none over seven scoreless, striking out seven. The Red Sox never had a rally going against him, yet Lorenzen departed having received no support.
Even once the starters departed, the bullpens kept dueling. The Royals had a chance to open the scoring in the seventh when former Yankee farmhand Greg Weissert walked a pair, but Weissert escaped the threat by inducing a groundball double play from Mark Cahna. The Royals again put two on in the eighth, but there Justin Slaten escaped. We went to extras, still tied at 0-0.
Carlos Estévez did excellent work in the top of the tenth, inducing three easy outs, but Aroldis Chapman was just as strong in the bottom half, recording two strikeouts and a pop out. The deadlock finally broke in the 11th, with two groundouts scoring Ceddanne Rafaela as the zombie runner and giving Boston a 1-0 lead. Yet the Royals tied the score in the bottom half on Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI single. KC had two on and none out with a chance to end the game there, but Garrett Whitlock did a fine job to escape with a pair of strikeouts and a fly out.
A scoreless top of the 11th from Boston gave the Royals another chance, and at last, they put things to bed. With the zombie runner on third and one down, light-hitting catcher Freddy Fermin lined a clean single to left-center to end the game:
The Red Sox remain rather stuck in neutral, unable to break much away from .500. Over the in AL Central, the race remains hot, with the Royals’ victory leaving them still in third place behind Detroit and Cleveland.
Houston Astros (19-18) 3, Cincinnati Reds (19-21) 0
The start to the 2025 season hasn’t been the Astros as their finest. Stalwarts like Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve have scuffled out of the gate, while the newly imported Christian Walker has struggled as well. But Houston has hung in it thanks to some superlative pitching, led by young Hunter Brown, who has emerged as one of the American League’s best starters.
Brown has always had an impressive arsenal, but his six-pitch mix has looked as good as ever this year. He’s upped his velocity, sitting at 97 mph on his four-seam fastball. He used his heat to consistently stay ahead in the count, generating easy called strikes and whiffs:
Brown tossed 5.2 shutout, striking out nine Reds and giving up just two hits. On the other side, though the Astros could never bust out for a big inning against Nick Martinez, they peppered him enough to win the game.
Martinez did his best to scatter ten hits across six innings, with the Astros breaking through first in the second. Walker led off with a double, and Zach Dezenzo drove him home with an RBI single:
Martinez held them down until the Astros struck again the fifth, Brendan Rodgers doubling and later scoring on a Jeremy Pena groundout. Isaac Paredes would drive in another with a dribbling RBI double down the line:
Though they weren’t able to do more damage despite plenty of traffic on the bases against Martinez, Brown and Co. made it stand up. Four relievers combined to shut out Cincinnati after Brown departed, with Josh Hader striking out three in a scoreless ninth to record his ninth save. As uneven as Hader’s first season in Houston was at times, he’s been nails to start this campaign.
Other Games
Detroit Tigers (25-13) 2, Texas Rangers (18-21) 1: The Tigers appear to have picked up where they left off in 2024. Behind another terrific start from Tarik Skubal, the owners of the AL’s top record won their fifth straight. Skubal was perfect through five, with Josh Smith’s leadoff single in the sixth Texas’ first baserunner of the game. The Rangers ended the shutout as well later that inning, with Sam Haggerty’s bloop RBI single cutting a two-run Detroit lead in half. But that was all they’d get against Skubal and two relievers, with Skubal turning in seven brilliant innings, striking out 12 and walking none. Tommy Kahnle pitched a scoreless eighth, and Will Vest a perfect ninth to earn his fourth save.
Los Angeles Angels (15-21) 5, Baltimore Orioles (13-23) 2: In a backwards kind of way, this three-game set in Anaheim could prove to be a useful test for the Orioles. Baltimore has struggled so mightily this season, and if they can’t dispatch the Angels, then perhaps this just isn’t there year. The O’s handled the first game just fine, with rare stellar starting pitching propelling them to a 4-1 win. Tomoyuki Sugano had his best start in the majors, firing 7.1 innings of one-run ball, striking out five and walking none, as he and three relievers combined to hold the Angels to three hits. Gunnar Henderson also showed signs of rounding into form, hitting a solo homer in the first and ripping an RBI triple in the ninth:
Baltimore will need more performances like these if they want to get back into the AL East race.
Cleveland Guardians (23-15) 6, Philadelphia Phillies (22-16) 0: Cleveland is at it again. Just as they did last year, a stellar bullpen has propped up a middling lineup and shaky starting rotation, but if they can get five shutout from their starters often enough, as they did from Gavin Williams last night, they’ll do just fine. Williams struck out eight and scattered four hits and four walks, giving way to three relievers that also held the Phillies scoreless. Kyle Manzardo hit a solo shot off Aaron Nola, his ninth of the year, while young center fielder Angel MartÃnez added a two-run shot, and José RamÃrez a solo homer of his own in the seventh.
Toronto Blue Jays (18-20) 6, Seattle Mariners (22-15) 3: If it weren’t for his implosion against the Yankees a couple weeks ago, Kevin Gausman would be having a heck of a year. He turned in another fine start, throwing 5.1 innings of three-run ball, striking out three and walking none, outdoing Luis Castillo of the Mariners, with the Blue Jays tagging Castillo for five runs over five innings. Addison Barger doubled home two off Castillo in the first, while an Ernie Clement RBI single and Nathan Lukes two-run homer in the third gave Toronto a cushy 5-0 lead early on. The M’s did scratch a few off Gausman, but strong relief work from Brendan Little, Yimi GarcÃa, and Jeff Hoffman held Seattle down and secured the Jays the win.