Yankees Rivalry Roundup: The Rays extend their AL East lead

Sigh. Cam Schlittler goes seven innings, allows only one run to a pretty potent Braves lineup, the bullpen gets six scoreless outs, and the Yankees lose. “You can’t predict baseball, Suzyn.” Also though. Baseball can be profoundly dumb sometimes.

To make matters worse, the Rays won again. That puts the Yanks 5.5 games back of first in the AL East. And even though the Red Sox lost on Sunday—a surprising Fenway series loss against a bad team—objects in the rear view mirror are closer than they should be considering how awful they were for all but 37 games or so this season. The Beantown Boys lurk 1.5 games behind New York in the Wild Card race. Awful, awful turn of events on the whole.

Oh Seattle. What happened to you? Sunday, the M’s managed to get on the board first, thanks to a Taylor Ward triple and an RBI single from Cole Young. But it was all downhill from there. Rays starter Ian Seymour completely shut down the Seattle offense, going six innings and allowing the lone run on his ledger.

Offensively, Chandler Simpson wreaked havoc for Tampa Bay. Not your grandpappy’s No. 3 hitter, Simpson held down that spot in the lineup today. Four hits later, he raised his season average to .304. Considering his .850 OPS in the last 30 games, it’s hard to argue with that lineup placement. Simpson was not alone either. Yandy Díaz notched a quartet of knocks of his own. All told, the top three hitters in the Rays lineup went 9-for-15 on the day. Runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings gave Tampa the lead and they cruised to the win. As an aside, “Mariners Memes” has to be one of the saddest accounts on social media. Be kind to your Mariners fans friends. They are going through it.

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Boston Red Sox (64-53) 3, The Athletics (47-71) 4: A hearty “thank you, kindly” to the lowly A’s, who went into Fenway this weekend and took a series from the incandescently hot Red Sox. Sunday, it was a late comeback that got the job done. Trailing 3-2 in the eighth with two outs, Jonah Heim stepped to the plate for the A’s. His double to left field knotted the score and set the stage for heroics. In the ninth, with old “friend” Aroldis Chapman on the mound and a runner on, Max Muncy clubbed an RBI double of his own. That scored what ended up being the winning run, handing Boston what is a rare loss these days. You love to see it.

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Houston Astros (60-59) 2, San Diego Padres (62-57) 7: With Seattle stuck in the mud at seven games under .500 and four games back, the AL West looks to be shaping up as a two-horse race between the two Texas clubs. Houston’s loss Sunday keeps them a mere half-game up on the Rangers, who also fell to the Orioles. Former Yankee Randy Vásquez, sent to the Dads in the Trent Grisham trade, started for San Diego and other than surrendering a two-run home run to Daulton Varsho in the first pitched very well. Meanwhile, it was home run derby at the dish for the Padres, with four different hitters going yard. Fernando Tatis Jr. provided the key blast, with his three-run shot giving San Diego a lead they never surrendered.

Chicago White Sox (61-56) 5, Cleveland Guardians (58-61) 3: It’s early August and the Chicago White Sox are still atop the AL Central. Who woulda thunk it? Sunday, they really did themselves a favor taking down divisional foe Cleveland. A prolonged rain delay (2:23) meant this became a battle of the bullpens. The ChiSox were up to the task. They bookended the contest giving up a lone run in the first and ninth innings. But that was all. And in the third, Colson Montgomery provided all the thump Chicago needed with a three-run home run, his 26th of the season.

Perhaps most surprising of all about the wacky AL Central: second place is not occupied by Cleveland or even Minnesota; they’re both four back of Chicago. In fact, it’s the now the Tigers, who despite throwing in the towel by trading not only Tarik Skubal but also Casey Mize have suddenly won seven of nine and trail the Pale Hose by 3.5 games. Detroit is also the closest team to the Rangers for the last Wild Card spot, one game behind (for those curious, the Yanks are seven ahead of Texas). Could they be channeling the Tigers club from two years back in going from deadline sellers to a last-minute playoff berth? In this underwhelming American League field, why the hell not?

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