The Yankees continued their slow descent down the standings, as Devin Williams blew a 5-4 lead in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers on a shocking homer from Joc Pederson (who had a .473 OPS). They ultimately lost in extras when the now-demoted Jake Bird served up a three-run home run to Josh Jung. It was the worst way they could’ve opened up the series, especially after they were just swept out of Miami.

Unfortunately, their own result wasn’t the end of the bad news, as the rest of the league took advantage and pushed them a little further behind.

Toronto Blue Jays (66-48) 15, Colorado Rockies (30-82) 1

A matchup between the team tied for the best record in the American League and the team that is definitively the worst in baseball went about how you’d expect. Toronto jumped on Colorado’s pitching staff right from the start, leading off with a Nathan Lukes double and scoring him on a Bo Bichette single. They added a second run in the second inning thanks to singles from Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider, and then put the game to bed in the third.

Tanner Gordon clearly was struggling, but the Blue Jays took him to the woodshed in this frame: two straight singles, a fly out, a three-run home run, a triple, an RBI single, and an RBI double where the runner overextended trying to go to third before getting thrown out ran him out of the game with seven runs allowed. Ryan Rolison took over and promptly walked a batter before Bichette hit a two-run homer to cap off a seven-run inning and put an exclamation mark on their 9-0 lead.

The Jays took some time off, leaving a few goose eggs on the scoreboard before they erupted again in the seventh. A trio of singles scored the first run, and then Bichette hit his second homer of the game to continue running it up. Daulton Varsho knocked in one more run in the frame, and in the ninth, Ernie Clement doubled in the final run of the game.

Way back in the fifth inning the Rockies got their lone run in against starter Eric Lauer, an RBI single from Ezequiel Tovar that drove in Tyler Freeman. It was an otherwise futile effort from a team just trying to not be the worst in MLB history, but they nevertheless sealed their fate of a losing record with this loss a solid two months before the season ends.

Boston Red Sox (63-51) 8, Kansas City Royals (56-57) 5

The Sox similarly jumped out to a massive lead, though they had to fend off a late comeback against a more competitive opponent. Boston picked up a sizeable lead after the first inning, loading the bases with no outs for Rob Refsnyder to single home a pair. KC Trade Deadline acquisition Bailey Falter induced a pair of pop outs and nearly escaped without any more damage, but Jarren Duran found a slider over the middle of the plate and punished him for a three-run bomb.

Boston added a sixth run in the third thanks to a walk and Ceddanne Rafaela single, but Kansas City got on the board in the top of the fourth. Salvador Perez reached thanks to an error and moved to third on a Mike Yastrzemski double. Adam Frazier lifted a sac fly to score the run, but the damage was limited as Brayan Bello got John Rave and Kyle Isbel to make weak contact. Meanwhile, the Sox got the run right back in the bottom half as Alex Bregman got in on it with an RBI single to make it 7-1. They extended it to 8-1 in the seventh when Wilyer Abreu, and it felt like an afterthought in the moment.

However, the Royals had some life left in them. Jorge Alcaca was summoned from the bullpen for the eighth, and was greeted by Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia taking him deep to cut the lead to 8-3. Perez struck out but Yastrzemski doubled, prompting Alex Cora to go back to the ‘pen and get Justin Wilson. Frazier singled home Yaz, and Nick Loftin doubled him home to make it a three-run game just like that. Wilson got the second out via strikeout before Garrett Whitlock came in, and things became very interesting: a walk brought Bobby Witt Jr. to the plate as the tying run, and he hit a single to right field. Loftin was sent home but was thrown out at the plate with plenty of time. The Royals tried to challenge saying that the catcher blocked the plate, but that’s kind of hard to do when the runner is tagged out a good 10 feet away from the plate.

The fire went cold from there. Kansas City went down in order against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, securing his 21st save of the year.

Houston Astros (63-50) 8, Miami Marlins (55-56) 2

Rubbing salt on the wound, the Astros went into Miami and treated the feisty Fish like a contender is should. They jumped ahead for good in the fourth, scoring five runs against Sandy Alcantara. Jeremy Peña led off with a double and scored on a double from Jesús Sánchez. Jose Altuve and the newly-returned Carlos Correa singled to make it 2-0, and then Christian Walker hit an RBI groundout to add another. Yainer Diaz dropped the final hammer, hitting a two-run double to make it 5-0, and there was little Miami could do to counter.

Alcantara ended up lasting seven innings, hanging in there after that disaster spot, but he gave up one more run on a Peña double in the sixth. Miami got on the board with a pair of solo shots from Javier Sanoja and Derek Hill in the seventh, but Houston got them right back in the eighth for good measure.

Detroit Tigers (66-48) 6, Minnesota Twins (52-60) 3

Minnesota got on the board first in this one, getting a two-out solo shot in the first from Ryan Jeffers, and they extended it to a 2-0 lead when Trevor Larnach hit a solo shot of his own in the top of the fifth. Detroit erased that lead with one swing, getting a two-run blast from Wenceel Pérez in the bottom frame.

The Twins answered back in the sixth, though it could’ve been much more than they hoped for. Matt Wallner hit a solo home run, one batter after Austin Martin erased a leadoff single with a double-play ball. That came back to bite them immediately, as the Tigers hit a pair of singles in the bottom half, brought a run in on a groundout, and then Kerry Carpenter launched a two-run shot to take the lead for the first time all night. Dillon Dingler added some insurance with a solo homer in the seventh inning, but the Twins had no answer: their last chance at a rally in the seventh was brought to a halt by another double play.

Los Angeles Angels (55-58) 5, Tampa Bay Rays (55-59) 1: The lone bit of good news came in the form of the Rays dropping this game to a similarly-hapless Angels squad. Jo Adell hit a two-run shot in the second inning to take the lead, Taylor Ward drove in two more on a single in the third to extend it, and Zach Neto doubled in one more for funsies in the sixth inning. That was more than enough to support Yusei Kikuchi, who rebounded from allowing a run in the first on a sac fly to last six strong and strike out seven.