It got a little scary in the ninth inning, but the Yankees opened their series against the Guardians with a win on Tuesday night. Jazz Chisholm Jr. marked his return from the injured list with a home run in the 3-2 win over Cleveland.

Elsewhere around baseball, it was a bit of a weird night: the Rockies clinched their first series victory of 2025 (over the Marlins, but still!). Besides that, there was plenty of other action, so let’s see how the Yankees’ AL rivals did in today’s roundup.

Houston Astros (33-27) 3, Pittsburgh Pirates (22-39) 0

A pitcher’s duel between Lance McCullers Jr. and Paul Skenes went the way of the Astros, as they managed to grind out a couple runs and the Pirates could not.

McCullers and Skenes traded zeroes for the first six innings, with the Houston starter allowed just two singles and a walk, and Pittsburgh’s similarly giving up just two hits. The game’s first breakthrough came when Christian Walker hit a one-out solo homer in the seventh. McCullers ended up striking out seven in six scoreless innings, while Skenes ended up getting through eight, striking out that many, with the homer being the only real blemish against him.

The Astros picked up a couple more runs off Pittsburgh’s bullpen in the top of the ninth, including an Isaac Paredes homer. Their own bullpen also continued what McCullers started, as they blanked the Pirates and finished off the win.

Chicago White Sox (19-42) 8, Detroit Tigers (40-22) 1

Shane Smith has been a bright spot for a still quite subpar White Sox team, and he continued that by blanking the Tigers, who boast baseball’s best record, for 5.1 innings.

Despite their very strong rotation, the Tigers went with a bullpen game on Tuesday, and it didn’t go as planned, even though they were facing the White Sox. While they managed to keep Chicago off the board for the first three innings, the White Sox broke through in the fourth, and then poured it on late. Led by a four-RBI game from Michael A. Taylor, the White Sox scored seven runs over the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings.

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ offense couldn’t figure much out against Smith, who allowed just three hits and struck out six in his 5.1 innings. Detroit eventually broke through against Chicago’s bullpen, but it wasn’t enough to overcome their own bullpen’s struggles.

Other Games

Los Angeles Angels (28-32) 4, Boston Red Sox (29-34) 3 (10 innings): With the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the 10th, Taylor Ward could only manage a grounder that was turned for two, but it ended up being enough as neither of the outs came at home. While LA took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, they spotted the Red Sox six frames without scoring after that. However, Boston only managed to tie the game, and finished the game going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

Baltimore Orioles (22-36) 5, Seattle Mariners (32-37) 1: Tomoyuki Sugano’s seven strong innings were plenty good enough for the Orioles, as their offense pulled away against Seattle’s bullpen. Sugano held the Mariners to just one run on five hits in seven innings, while a Colton Cowser home run and 13 Baltimore hits in total allowed the O’s to pick up the win.

Minnesota Twins (33-27) 10, Athletics (23-39) 3: An eight-run barrage over the sixth and seventh innings turned a close game into a Twins’ blowout. Four different Minnesota hitters had multi-hit games, while Trevor Larnach had three. Meanwhile, a struggling Royce Lewis had a big two-RBI double, as the Twins handled business.