Like most of Major League Baseball, the Yankees were off on Thursday. A big interleague series with the Phillies looms this weekend, but before that begins, we have to run through the few big AL teams who were in action yesterday — including a heavyweight bout of two division leaders.

Toronto Blue Jays (61-42) 11, Detroit Tigers (60-44) 4

Whenever you raise an opposing starter pitcher’s ERA by nearly half a run in a single game this late in the season, you did something remarkable. When you do that after being held scoreless for the first five innings of said game, it’s all the more impressive. The Blue Jays began a challenging four-game set at Comerica Park on the right foot, roughing up Reese Olson, who came into this game with a 2.30 ERA at home in 2025.

Olson had allowed only three baserunners through the first five frames, but the Jays hung five on him in the sixth with back-to-back homers from bottom-of-the-order hitters Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfido.

In many ways, the 11-4 score doesn’t even properly reflect the blowout nature of this game. Three of the Tigers’ runs came in the ninth, when they trailed 11-1 but managed to do some meaningless damage off old friend Chad Green. As much as the Jays’ offense deserves praise for scoring 11 at Comerica, Eric Lauer’s outstanding performance can’t take a backseat with the veteran lefty tossing eight innings of one-run ball against the AL Central leaders.

Athletics (42-62) 5, Houston Astros (60-42) 2

They might not have played on Thursday, but the Yankees got a throwback performance from an old friend as Luis Severino delivered an outstanding performance to beat the Astros, allowing just four hits in seven masterful innings against the AL West leaders. He struck out eight in the process, dotting a 98-mph fastball and big sweeper to great effect.

For anyone following the A’s a bit more closely as of late, it was no surprise seeing Nick Kurtz spearhead the action offensively with a pair of extra-base hits including one that drove in a run. The A’s rookie first baseman raised his season OPS to .982 with a strong case as the most menacing AL hitter this side of Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. A pair of sacrifice flies, a groundout RBI, and a solo homer from Luis Urías rounded out the Athletics’ scoring in this one.

A little side note about this game, Mason Miller threw a fastball at 104.1 MPH against Christian Walker in the ninth inning. It hasn’t been the cleanest of seasons for the hard-throwing A’s closer with a 3.86 ERA, but he got the job done for a four-out save.

Other Games

For a game in which they outhomered their opponent three to zero, the Mariners still had a particularly difficult time getting this one over the line against the Angels. The biggest buzz around the M’s didn’t even have to do with this result, but the acquisition of Josh Naylor to bolster this offense that had Donovan Solano playing first in this particular game. Still, they brought out the lumber and smacked a trio of homers from Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, and Jorge Polanco to get the job done.

Logan Evans helped made sure those four runs were enough as he tossed five innings of one-run ball to earn the win. The Yankees recently saw Evans and demolished him for six runs in four innings before the All-Star break, but he’s gotten back to limiting contact and allowed just three base knocks in this outing. After the Angels plated one more against the middle relief of Seattle’s bullpen, the trio at the end of Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, and Andrés Muñoz promptly shut things down.

Yusei Kikuchi, who had up to this point dominated his former club, allowing only one earned run in his first 23.1 career innings against Seattle, couldn’t replicate this success and suffered his seventh loss of the year.