A weekend that started so promisingly on Friday night ended in frustration, the Yankees blowing early leads on both Saturday and Sunday. They’ll get a day off today to regroup before moving on to a series in Kansas City. Meanwhile, the rest of their rivals were still at it on Sunday afternoon, which featured a number of scintillating pitching performances. Let’s go through what you may have missed.

Detroit Tigers (43-24) 4, Chicago Cubs (40-24) 0

The Tigers bounced back nicely from a tough Saturday loss to pitch their way to a win in the series finale with Chicago. Jack Flaherty turned in another strong start, while Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter paced the offense for Detroit.

Flaherty has been particularly solid over the last month or so, and he shut out the Cubs over six innings to lower his ERA to 3.41. He struck out nine against three walks and allowed just two hits. The first hit he allowed almost let the Cubs onto the board, Pete Crow-Armstrong singling with two on in the fourth, but Carpenter fired a bullet home to gun down Ian Happ at the plate:

Flaherty has morphed into a basically a three-pitch pitcher at this stage of his career, and he was all but a two-pitch guy yesterday, using his four-seam and curve 90 percent of the time. His curve befuddled the Cubs all afternoon:

Cade Horton went for the Cubs and the Tigers struck early and allowed Flaherty to cruise. Parker Meadows led off the bottom of the first with a walk and Gleyber Torres followed with a single, with both scoring on Torkelson’s double to put Detroit up 2-0:

They scored two more off Horton in the fifth, Torres singling again, Carpenter doubling, and Riley Greene’s single making it 4-0. That would be more than enough for Flaherty and Co., with Tyler Hanifee, Tommy Kahnle, and Will Vest each working an uneventful inning each to secure the win.

Cleveland Guardians (34-30) 4, Houston Astros (36-29) 2

The Guardians haven’t had a great start to the year, but there are still days when they manage to Guardians their way to a victory. They snapped a late tie on Sunday afternoon with some small-ball magic, sneaking past the Astros to avoid a sweep in Cleveland.

With the game tied at two in the bottom of the seventh, Johnathan Rodríguez and Bo Naylor singled off Steven Okert to set the Guardians up with none out. Will Wilson put a bunt down to try and put the go-ahead run 90 feet away, but did one better, as Okert threw the ball past Christian Walker at first base to push Cleveland in front, still with two on and none down:

Steven Kwan followed up with a sac fly to give the Guardians a 4-2 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Cade Smith pitched 1.2 scoreless to earn the victory, while Emmanuel Clase worked around a pair of singles in the ninth to secure the save. Earlier, Tanner Bibee and Brandon Walter had cancelled each other out, Walter managing six innings of two-run ball for Houston, striking out five and walking none, while Bibee went 6.1 innings, allowing two runs with six strikeouts against no walks. Naylor had his best game of the year, his two-run homer in the second putting Cleveland up 2-0 en route to a 3-for-3 day. Cam Smith had evened the score in the seventh with a two-run, two-out double that chased Bibee.

Other Games

Tampa Bay Rays (35-30) 3, Miami Marlins (24-39) 2: The Rays faced a stiff test (well, about as stiff a test you can face when playing the Marlins), having to bounce back from a tough 10-inning loss the day before to play an afternoon game in the raw Tampa heat. They did just enough to get back on track and keep rolling, erasing an early 2-0 deficit and holding on to secure a series win and their 14th victory in 19 tries. Yandy Diaz hit a game-tying two-run homer in the fifth, and Brandon Lowe’s sac fly in the eighth proved to be the game winner. Drew Rasmussen was his typically excellent self, allowing two runs over six innings, while Edwin Uceta pitched the final two frames for the Rays to earn the win. Tampa Bay is tied with Toronto in second place in the AL East, 4.5 games behind the Yanks.

Seattle Mariners (33-31) 3, Los Angeles Angels (30-34) 2: This hasn’t quite been George Kirby’s year. The right-hander missed the first two months of the season with a shoulder problem, and when he came back, he posted an 8.53 ERA through three starts and took a line drive to the face for his troubles. But Kirby started to put that all aside, finally looking like himself in a positively dominant start against the Angels, giving up two runs on just two hits and zero walks versus 14 strikeouts.

Kirby’s 14 K’s were a career high, with his only mistake a two-run homer by Taylor Ward in the fourth. He needed to be great, as Seattle’s offense missed a number of chances, but ultimately took the lead for good in the fifth on RBI singles from Jorge Polanco and Donovan Solano. Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz handled the eighth and ninth innings after Kirby to lock down the win.

Minnesota Twins (35-30) 6, Toronto Blue Jays (35-30) 3: The Twins hit Bowden Francis hard and early to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays. Christian Vázquez and Trevor Larnach drove in runs in the second, and Brooks Lee and Vázquez went back to back in the fourth to give the Twins a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Ty France and Byron Buxton drove in insurance runs in the fifth to put Minnesota up 6-3. Joe Ryan was solid for the Twins, giving up three runs (two earned) over five innings while striking out six. The Jays fell into a tie for second place in the AL East, 4.5 games behind the Yankees.