The Yankees had every chance to stride into today’s off-day in style, sweeping away the Twins and perhaps getting their season back on track. As you’ll see later, they even had a chance to make up some ground on some key AL rivals. Instead, it was another stinker, the offense going to asleep against the admittedly excellent Joe Ryan. The silver lining, then, is that they at least didn’t lose ground yesterday. On that note, let’s take a look at what happened across the American League on Wednesday.
Chicago Cubs (69-51) 4, Toronto Blue Jays (70-51) 1
The Cubs put the clamps down on the hot Blue Jays offense, Chicago’s pitching dominating en route to evening this top-tier interleague matchup.
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Cade Horton, the seventh pick in the 2022 Draft, continued his red-hot run, tossing 5.2 innings of one-run, one-hit ball, striking out eight. That run was the first he’s allowed in his last five appearances, over which he’s got a 0.32 ERA.
Kevin Gausman was very effective for Toronto but was the tough-luck loser, allowing just three hits and one walk over seven innings, giving up two runs on a pair of solo homers from Michael Busch and Matt Shaw. The Cubs tacked on two insurance runs on reliever Grant Fisher, with Busch and Seiya Suzuki each driving in one in the eight.
Andrew Kittredge, Braydon Thielbar, Brad Keller, and Daniel Palencia all turned in scoreless relief outings as the Jays went down quietly. The young closer Palencia was typically electric, pumping 102-mph gas in earning his 16th save.
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Houston Astros (68-53) 4, Boston Red Sox (66-56) 1
Houston bounced back from an absolute demolition on Tuesday night at the hands of the Red Sox. It helps to have a young ace on hand to play stopper, as Hunter Brown stepped up and delivered a strong start to pace the Astros.
Brown hadn’t been as dominant recently as he had been at the start of his breakout campaign, carrying a 4.46 ERA over his last seven starts, and he wasn’t perfect last night, but he did enough to keep Boston off the board. He danced around six hits and three walks over 6.2 innings, allowing just an RBI single to Ceddanne Rafaela in the second.
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Rafaela’s single had cut into a 2-0 lead Houston had grabbed in the first off Walker Buehler. Jeremy Peña opened the scoring with a solo homer, and Yainer Diaz added another with an RBI single later in the inning. Diaz got Buehler again in the sixth, his two-run homer providing the Astros some cushion:
Bennett Sousa got four outs in relief of Brown to get the game to the ninth, where Bryan Abreu worked around two hits to earn his second save of the year. Abreu stands to get some more work in that role with All-Star closer Josh Hader on the IL with a shoulder problem.
Detroit Tigers (71-52) 1, Chicago White Sox (44-77) 0
This wasn’t the most impressive series from the Tigers, the AL Central leaders struggling to score against the lowly White Sox. But one run was just enough on Wednesday for Detroit to secure a series win in Chicago.
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Given the 1-0 score line, you may assume that it was Tarik Skubal that led the Tigers to victory, but this time, it was rookie right-hander Troy Melton. The club’s number-four prospect, Melton was outstanding in his third career start, allowing just one baserunner over five shutout innings before getting pulled after just 56 pitches. Melton led with a power fastball, dropping a few impressive breakers and splitters in there along the way:
The White Sox started a rookie of their own in Shane Smith, and he too excelled, matching Melton with five shutout. Martín Pérez came on for the sixth, where we had our only real rally of the game. Pérez immediately found himself in trouble after a single, double, and a walk loaded the bases with none out, and Wenceel Pérez then drove one deep to left-center. Luis Robert Jr. did well just to run it down to hold Perez to a sac fly:
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That’s all Martín Pérez would allow, but it’s also all Detroit needed. Sawyer-Gipson Long fired two shutout innings of relief, and Will Vest handled the ninth for his 18th save.
Other Games
Miami Marlins (58-62) 13, Cleveland Guardians (62-57) 4: The Marlins have cooled off since embarrassing the Yankees a couple weeks ago, but they did New York a solid in battering the Guardians yesterday. They knocked starter Gavin Williams around for four runs on two homers in the first, and had Williams out by the fourth. Eury Pérez couldn’t hold the early lead, giving up four runs in five innings, but Miami’s offense poured it on Cleveland’s bullpen. Young Jakob Marsee had the game of his life, notching four hits, two homers, and seven driven in. Xavier Edwards and Graham Pauley also went deep to power the Marlins.
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Baltimore Orioles (54-66) 4, Seattle Mariners (67-54) 3: The M’s and O’s played a thriller, full of twists and turns at the end. Trevor Rogers and Logan Gilbert were both excellent, shutting out either side through the first six innings. The Mariners got Rogers for a run in the top of the seventh, but the Orioles came back with three in the home half, Ryan Mountcastle hitting a solo shot and Jeremiah Jackson driving home two on a triple to make it 3-1. Yet Seattle came back in the ninth, putting runners on the second and third with none out on Yennier Cano and tying the game on run-scoring outs. Matt Brash entered to try and send things to extras, but Jackson Holliday came through, lining one down the right-field line for a double that scored Dylan Carlson from first to end the game.
Arizona Diamondbacks (59-62) 6, Texas Rangers (61-61) 4: The Rangers, desperate to hang in the AL playoff race, seemed to have this one in the bag. Deadline acquisition Merrill Kelly was solid, holding the Diamondbacks to two runs over six innings, his first quality start with Texas. They led 4-2 into the ninth, thanks to a two-run homer from Jake Burger, as well as RBIs from Josh Jung and Evan Carter. But Phil Maton, another trade pickup for the Rangers, faltered right at the last. Maton retired the first two batters of the ninth before James McCann’s solo homer cut Texas’ lead in half. Then Maton imploded, walking and hitting a batter to bring up Ketel Marte, who brought Arizona all the way back and then some with a three-run homer.