A quick rundown of games from today’s AL action involving the leading teams.
Tigers 5, White Sox 1 – Detroit closed to within a game of the AL Central-leading White Sox behind Max Scherzer‘s 9 strikeouts and only one walk over eight scoreless innings. It was Scherzer’s 15th win, matching his career high from last season. Since August 15th, Scherzer has four straight starts of 7 innings or more allowing 1 run or less.
Yankees 4, Orioles 3 – New York cooled off the charging Orioles with a 7th inning comeback rally. With a 3-1 lead, two outs and a runner on first, Baltimore starter Wei-Yin Chen walked Jayson Nix and then allowed a run-scoring single by Eduardo Nunez, leading Buck Showalter to bring in Pedro Strop. But, Strop added fuel to the fire with walks to Ichiro and Jeter, before inducing a grounder by Nick Swisher that shortstop J.J. Hardy couldn’t handle, allowing the eventual winning run to score.
Rays 5, Blue Jays 4 – Tampa Bay kept pace with the Yankees by edging Toronto, after losing the first two of a 4-game set. Fernando Rodney reprised the role of fireman with a 5-out save, his first this season longer than an inning. After entering the game with 1 out and the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners, Rodney walked his first batter before escaping the jamb with back-to-back strikeouts. The 9th inning also had its excitement after a lead-off walk to Omar Vizquel, who tried to score the tying run from 2nd on a 2-out Colby Rasmus single but was gunned down at the plate by B.J. Upton to end the game.
Atheletics 7, Red Sox 1 – Oakland crept to within 3 games of the AL West-leading Rangers with their eighth straight win, another thrashing of the sinking Red Sox. The big inning tonight was the third when the A’s pecked away ceaselessly at Felix Doubront with 5 hits, a walk and two stolen bases, good for 4 runs. It might have been more but for Coco Crisp making the first out of the inning by being thrown out at home trying to score from first on a Jonny Gomes double. Rookie A.J. Griffin, returning from the disabled list, retired the first 14 Red Sox en route to the W and a 4-0 record. Griffin, with totals of 40 strikeouts and only 10 walks in 51.2 innings, is the first Athletics pitcher since at least 1918 to start his career with 8 quality starts in his first 9 appearances. Griffin joins Brandon Webb, Michael Pineda and Mike Leake with such a debut since 2000, with only Jered Weaver better with 9 QS to start his career. Boston is now 0 for 5 on their West Coast swing, scoring 13 runs and allowing 48. Sox fans can perhaps take some solace from Boston’s 5 game losing streak in April, scoring 17 runs and allowing 46 – they won their next 6 games after that, outscoring the opposition 45-19.
Indians 4, Rangers 3 – Texas, winners of 10 of their last 13, stumbled in Cleveland as the Indians stopped their 6 game slide. Texas starter Scott Feldman failed to retire any of the first 5 batters he faced as the Indians scored all their runs in the first frame. Nonetheless, Feldman lasted 6 innings, only the 7th time in 18 starts this season that he has gone that far. Texas scored their 3 runs on 2 solo HRs and a sac fly. The latter came after David Murphy advanced from first to third on a comebacker to the mound (would have liked to have seen that). Texas, alone in first everyday since game 4 of the season, have their smallest lead since July 31st and have held a larger lead than they do now on all but three days since April 17th. On the flip side, Cleveland broke their third losing streak this season of 6 games or longer, all of them since late July. With their win today, the Indians are 6-28 since July 26th, the last time they were above .500.
