The Yankees had to scramble for a spot starter after Clarke Schmidt couldn’t go on Saturday, and opted for Ryan Yarbrough. He filled in well, pitching four innings of one run ball, but that meant that the bullpen had to make it through the remaining five without one of their swingmen available, and it cost them when Mark Leiter Jr. wasn’t able to pass the baton in the eighth inning. The Yankees fell 3-2, and gave an opening for the divisional race to tighten up even more. Thankfully, outside of the Rays who were their opponent, the rest of the division had a tough day as well.

Minnesota Twins (14-20) 4, Boston Red Sox (18-17) 3

Bailey Ober and Hunter Dobbins were locked into a tough battle for five innings, each allowing just a single run to that point. Dobbins blinked first though, and the Twins capitalized on a big sixth inning to take and narrowly hold onto the lead.

Dobbins got two quick outs in the frame, but in-between them he hit Ty France with a pitch. That brought up Kody Clemens, son of the infamous Roger Clemens, to the plate. In front of his dad and surrounded by the fans that he put on a Sox uniform for 13 years for, Kody launched a go-ahead two run shot to right field. Minnesota added one more after Dobbins was pulled following a single and walk, as Trevor Larnach singled home Harrison Bader.

Boston still had some fight in them, however. Brock Stewart took over for Ober in the seventh and promptly plunked Connor Wong before giving up an RBI triple to Jarren Duran, and Rafael Devers singled him home to cut the lead to 4-3. In the eighth, Boston got consecutive singles to threaten with one out, but Wong knocked into a double play to end the inning. Then in the ninth, Alex Bregman was intentionally walked to put the winning run on base to face Wilyer Abreu instead. The move paid off, as Jhoan Duran got him to fly out to left to end the game.

Houston Astros (17-15) 8, Chicago White Sox (9-24) 3

Chicago’s main method to sneaking away victories seems to be getting random blowouts, and they started off strong in that regard with a three-run first inning. Three straight singles were capped off by Andrew Benintendi knocking in the first run, before two quick outs nearly extinguished the scoring opportunity early. Andrew Vaughn cashed in with one more single to make it 3-0 White Sox early, and things were looking up.

Reality set in shortly thereafter. Jake Meyers led off the third with a homer to get Houston on the board, and in the fourth inning Meyers tied the game on a two-run triple to center. The Astros took over for good in the sixth, working two walks ahead of Meyers who again homered, this time a three-run shot to left field.

The eighth inning proved to be insurance, as the White Sox only scrounged up two more hits outside of that excellent first inning, but the Astros scored some more runs anyway. Victor Carantini led off with a double and Zach Dezenzo followed up with one of his own to score Carantini. After a flyout, who else but Meyers stepped up to the plate with a runner in scoring position. The hottest bat of the night made good on his seventh RBI, lacing a double out to center — now that’s some incredible production from a nine-hole hitter.

Other Games

Kansas City Royals (18-16) 4, Baltimore Orioles (13-19) 0: The O’s keep scuffling at the bottom of the division, and this time they couldn’t even muster a run in their pursuit of an early lifeline. Gunner Henderson had an excellent night, going 3-for-4, but he totaled half of the Baltimore hits for the game. A Maikel Garcia single in the fourth was all Kansas City needed, but a trio of solo homers from Cavan Biggio, Kyle Isbel, and Vinnie Pasquantino certainly made it a more comfortable win.

Seattle Mariners (20-12) 2, Texas Rangers (16-18) 1: The Mariners bookended this game with scoring, getting a J.P. Crawford solo shot in the first inning and a Rowdy Tellez RBI single in the ninth inning to overcome Texas in a pitchers’ duel. Luis Castillo was up for the task of trading zeroes with Patrick Corbin, going six strong. His lone blemish came in the fourth when Corey Seager led off with a single and moved into scoring position for Jonah Heim to drive in.

Cleveland Guardians (19-14) 5, Toronto Blue Jays (16-17) 3: Kevin Gausman was absolutely cruising for six inning, allowing a single hit and walk against nine strikeouts. He departed the game with a 3-0 lead, but his bullpen ran into some big problems. In the eighth Daniel Schneemann broke the shutout with a solo homer, and in the ninth he returned with the bases loaded and launched a two-out grand slam to bring Cleveland all the way from the brink to the precipice of victory. Three quick outs from Emmanuel Clase secured it, ensuring the rest of the AL East went down on Saturday.

Los Angeles Angels (13-19) 5, Detroit Tigers (21-13) 2: Kyle Hendricks hasn’t been doing so hot in his first year with the Halos, entering this game with a 6.65 ERA while not making it deeper than five innings since his season debut. He flipped the script on Saturday, pitching 7.2 innings of one-run ball while his offense secured him a 5-0 lead with a big four-run sixth inning. Luis Rengifo slapped a two-run single to center and Kyren Paris followed with another two-run single two batters later.