Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Tigers blow ninth-inning lead, win in Baltimore anyway

The Yankees brought the lumber to the yard on Saturday night in Oakland, their penultimate game at the ol' Coliseum. It was the kind of whooping that you always want to see the Bombers drop on sub-.500 teams, and this time, they delivered . Thanks to homers from Aaron Judge (obviously), Giancarlo Stanton (first time in a minute, but fair), and Anthony Volpe (he lives!), it was a 10-0 blowout. Thanks to that and other events, New York's magic number to clinch just their third AL East crown in the past dozen seasons is down to three.

Here's what else was afoot on Saturday in the American League playoff race.

Detroit Tigers (81-74) 6, Baltimore Orioles (86-69) 4 (10 innings) Just when it seemed like the slumping Orioles might pick themselves off the mat with not one but two wins in a row — and with a ninth-inning rally that electrified Camden Yards — they went right back to disappointing the Baltimore faithful.

Cade Povich got the ball for the O's and the Tigers hung a two-spot on him in the second. Riley Greene led off with a walk, and though Cade Povich retired the next couple batters, he ran into two-out trouble when Trey Sweeney doubled and wonderfully-named backup catcher Dillon Dingler came through with a two-run triple. There were no real mistakes here, either! It was a legitimate catcher triple.

Povich locked in from there and didn't allow another run, while the O's eventually tallied two off Detroit's piggyback combo of the recently-returned Reese Olson and oft-used bulk guy Brant Hurter. Olson's one hit allowed through three was a leadoff single to Colton Cowser in the second, and the rookie moved around the bases on small ball. Hurter covered two innings in relief before getting knocked out in his third on a walk and a single. Will Vest allowed an RBI single to Emmanuel Rivera, and the game was tied.

The Tigers took what they hoped would be the decisive lead in the eighth. Cionel Pérez entered and did his team no favors by coughing up three consecutive singles. Detroit took a 3-2 lead and expanded it to 4-2 when pinch-hitter Colt Keith lifted a sacrifice fly off Seranthony Domínguez. The game moved to the ninth with Detroit up by two.

Manager A.J. Hinch felt comfortable calling upon Jason Foley to finish off the game. He's not exactly a menace out there, but he has perfectly solid numbers for a closer: 2.97 and 25 saves in 28 opportunities. The Yankees, however, were the benefactors of one of Foley's few follies in a disastrous no-out, four-hit, walk-off rally on May 3rd . Yesterday was just as terrible, as Heston Kjerstad and Rivera led off with singles and Foley loaded the bases by walking Jackson Holliday. Team MVP Gunnar Henderson then showed his mettle by tying the game with a two-run double.

The time to win was now, even with Foley swapped out for Beau Brieske. Holliday stood 90 feet away with no one out, where just a sacrifice fly would end it. They didn't get it done.

Cedric Mullins hit a groundout to second that Holliday couldn't make an attempt to score on with the infield in, and the former Baby Bomber Sweeney did both his current organization and his old one a favor with a phenomenal catch on a dying quail from Anthony Santander. Sweeney ranged all the way from his position with the infield still in to make an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow left, stumbling over Greene in the process.

That's just a jaw-dropping catch and a helluva play. Brieske ended the inning on a fly to center, and the air went out of Camden Yards like a balloon on Yennier Cano's first pitch of the 10th. Greene's RBI single put the Tigers ahead, and after a Jace Jung double, Zach McKinstry lifted a deep fly ball to plate an insurance run.

Baltimore had a chance in the home half of the 10th with the winning run at the plate following Livan Soto's one-out walk. Kjerstad K'd and the just-recalled Daniel Johnson (not Dan Johnson ) grounded out in his first MLB at-bat in three years. That was game over and officially a win for the O's that slipped through their talons. They're now five games back of the Yankees in the AL East, though still 4.5 games up on Kansas City for the top Wild Card spot. Camden Yards is a near-lock to host playoff baseball in 2024.

By the way, those Tigers are back to within a half-game of the last Wild Card spot. They're going to be in this for the final week, whether the Twins and Royals like it or not.

St. Louis Cardinals (78-77) 6, Cleveland Guardians (90-66) 5 Tigers/O's was the clear-cut Game of the Day and the others were much less exciting, so you'll excuse me if I'm a little more brief in my remarks on these other contests.

A couple days after clinching a playoff spot , the Guardians had their targets set on locking down the AL Central. They fell to the Cardinals, but they got to pop the champagne anyway because the Royals lost yet again (more on them in a minute). José Ramírez has seen this team take many different forms during his 12-year career, but he's now been on five AL Central champions in the last nine seasons.

As for the game that preceded the bubbly? Well, it highlighted one of the Guardians' weaknesses heading into October: the rotation. Matthew Boyd has posted decent numbers since coming over from San Francisco, but the mere fact that he's probably getting a playoff start seems unlikely to inspire confidence among Cleveland fans. Saturday was a bit of a grueling effort, as he needed 88 pitches to get through just four innings.

Jordan Walker swatted a two-run shot off Boyd for the Cardinals' only scoring off Boyd, but there was a lot of traffic in those four frames.

Boyd's counterpart, Miles Mikolas, fired six innings of one-run ball, with the only damage coming on a Bo Naylor homer. The capable Cleveland bullpen covered until Nick Sandlin suffered one of weirder pitching lines you'll see in the seventh: one inning, two hits allowed, no walks, and four unearned runs.

If you're wondering "How...?" then you can partially thank the elder Naylor. With one on and two out, Josh Naylor made an error on a Paul Goldschmidt liner, allowing a run to score. Sandlin then caused his own trouble by plunking Nolan Arenado and coughing up a three-run tank to Iván Herrera.

Cleveland would make it close when JoJo Romero had an ugly relief inning of his own (allowing Ramírez's 37th homer of the season in his bid to get closer to the 40/40 Club), but Ryan Helsley struck out the side in the ninth for the save. The Yankees have a 1.5-game edge on the Guardians for the top seed in the Junior Circuit.

Houston Astros (85-70) 10, Los Angeles Angels (62-93) 4 Yes, the Astros are almost certainly going to be stuck in the Wild Card round as the AL's worst division winner, and yes, they're having fun beating up on the Angels. But I am getting some ominous, ominous feelings about this October.

Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker might as well just be tuning up in the orchestra for playoff heroics. They both tallied four-hit nights against the hapless Halos, including back-to-back homers in the seventh to put the capper on this semi-blowout.

Angels starter Reid Detmers got lit up like a Christmas tree, with Houston piling seven runs, nine hits, and three walks on him in just two innings. This was never really close. Early 2024 no-hit hero Ronel Blanco is uncertain for the playoff rotation, though the 31-year-old righty did come through on Saturday with six innings, nine strikeouts, and two runs allowed. Houston's magic number to clinch their seventh AL West title in eight seasons stands at three.

Other GamesSan Francisco Giants (76-79) 9, Kansas City Royals (82-73) 0: Uh-oh. The Royals are one of the feel-good stories of the 2024 campaign, and seemed primed to become the first 100-loss team to immediately go to the playoffs the following season (their first October trip since 2015). However, they've now dropped six in a row at one of the worst possible times. They got blanked on five hits yesterday, with both LaMonte Wade Jr. and Matt Chapman homering twice off Brady Singer. The little Wild Card cushion they'd built has nearly vanished. They lead Minnesota by a half-game in the second spot and the currently-out Tigers by just one. Stay tuned.Seattle Mariners (80-75) 8, Texas Rangers (73-82) 4: The defending World Series champions will have a losing record in 2024. It's hard to repeat, man! Those 1998-2000 Yankees were something else . The M's are still only somewhat alive, but the last week will matter for them. Julio Rodríguez's leadoff homer set the tone for his four-hit night, and a three-run fifth put Seattle in front for good. They still trail Minnesota by 1.5 games in the AL Wild Card and Detroit is ahead of them, too. No tiebreakers will help them.Minnesota Twins (81-73) vs. Boston Red Sox (76-78): Rained out. The Twins and Red Sox will play a doubleheader at Fenway Park today with huge implications for Minnesota, who despite an ugly 8-11 record in September are still right in the heart of the AL Wild Card race (and crucially hold tiebreakers over KC, Seattle, and Detroit).Historically AwfulSan Diego Padres (89-66) 6, Chicago White Sox (36-119) 2: This obviously has nothing to do with playoff contention, but holy hell the White Sox tied the 2003 Tigers' AL record with 119 losses. I remember those '03 Tigers and even though they went on a mini-run at the end to avoid 120 losses, they still only reached 119 with two games left. As a reminder, there are still seven games to go! And the 2024 White Sox have already tied them! Good gravy. The 1962 Mets' modern mark for futility really is toast.