Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays’ winning streak felled by mighty Yordan Alvarez

The Fourth of July was an ugly one at Yankee Stadium. Given a spot start due to Carlos Rodón’s injury, Brendan Beck got absolutely walloped by Minnesota, giving up three homers to put the Yankees in a quick 5-0 hole by the middle of the second. The offense didn’t do much in response, the bullpen was dreadful, and the Yankees quickly went back to their losing ways after Friday’s win snapped a seven-game skid. Now they must beat the capable Joe Ryan today, or they’ll suffer the ignominy of a home series loss to the Twins.

Here’s what else was going on in some of the notable American League action yesterday.

Tampa Bay Rays (52-34) 8, Houston Astros (44-47) 10

If a true Most Valuable Player is someone who can thoroughly take over ballgames and nearly win them on their owns, then Saturday night might have been Yordan Alvarez’s showcase. It’s hard for a primary DH to take home the award, but Alvarez’s first half has clearly made the case that he should end up in the conversation. Voted the starting DH for the American League in the All-Star Game, the man is now hitting .324/.433/.645 with 29 homers, a 192 wRC+, and over 4.0 fWAR in 89 games. Yowza.

Alvarez made his impact on this one felt early. Junior Caminero continued his hellacious run with his 11th homer in 11 games in the top of the first, but Houston was quick to counter. Jose Altuve led off the game against Drew Rasmussen by tripling to left-center, and Alvarez then launched a 403-foot homer to make it 2-1, Houston.

Ace Hunter Brown couldn’t come up with the goods for his team, and the Rays punched back. Richie Palacios belted a two-run homer to regain the lead at 3-2, and Tampa Bay piled on in a long third inning that doubled their run output to six, including a double steal that saw Cedric Mullins swipe home. It was 7-2 by the fourth, though Yainer Diaz launched a two-run dinger for the home team, and through four and a half, Houston trailed by three (Alvarez of course was involved, notching an RBI single as part of the multi-inning rally).

The Rays’ three-run lead vanished after the seventh-inning stretch. Reliever Cole Sulser allowed the first three runners on base, and all came around to score. Taylor Trammell singled, Nick Allen delivered a rare double, and Altuve drew a free pass to load ’em up. Alvarez brought home another runner with a sacrifice fly before Isaac Paredes singled against Garrett Cleavinger to cut the lead to one. Zach Dezenzo did the honors of knotting it up at 8-8, plating Craig Kimbrel’s inherited runner on an RBI knock.

Once Bryan King and Josh Hader kept the Rays at bay eighth and ninth, the stage was set. In the bottom of the ninth, Casey Legumina issued a leadoff walk to Altuve, bringing up Alvarez. Legumina actually got ahead 1-2 with a pair of swinging strikes. Yordan fouled the next two off and then obliterated a fastball down the middle 424 feet over the wall in dead center for a walk-off homer. His final tally on the night: two homers, six ribbies. Pretty good!

The Rays’ AL East lead over the Yankees remained at four.

Other Games

Toronto Blue Jays (42-47) 0, Seattle Mariners (46-44) 11: Do I even need to say that this was all Mariners? Shane Bieber was awful, Logan Gilbert was spectacular, and Seattle won going away, taking a half-game lead in the AL West (Texas lost to Detroit, 3-0). Randy Arozarena cracked a game-breaking grand slam and Cal Raleigh hit just his second homer since the end of April. Gilbert fanned seven and walked none in 7.1 shutout innings, allowing one hit (a Yohendrick Piñango single in the fifth).

Cleveland Guardians (47-43) 1, Chicago White Sox (46-42) 3: Sean Burke struck out 11 in six innings of one-run ball, but a solo shot by Austin Hedges of all people meant that this was a 1-1 game heading into the late innings. However, Colson Montgomery greeted Tim Herrin to the ballgame with a homer to begin the eighth. Tristan Peters came around to score following ninth-inning double, adding insurance as Grant Taylor avenged his Thursday night blown loss by getting the save this time around.