Rivalry Roundup: O's spoil Scherzer's Toronto's debut

03/30/2025 09:00 AM

Baltimore started hot as they pounded Toronto pitching, with the future Hall of Famer leaving with an injury.

The young season is going pretty well for the Yankees so far. Saturday saw them improve to 2-0, and doing so in quite the impressive fashion. With a franchise-record nine home runs, including three from Aaron Judge, the Yankees cruised to a 20-9 win over the Brewers. Max Fried's debut wasn't ideal and the Yankees' defense definitely left some to be desired, but in general, you can't complain too much about dropping a 20-spot to stay undefeated.

With the Yankees going pretty well so far this season, let's check in on what some of the teams they'll likely be battling with in the standings did on Saturday.

Baltimore Orioles (2-1) 9, Toronto Blue Jays (1-2) 5

Max Scherzer's Blue Jays debut did not got particularly great on the mound and it may have prove costly, as the 40-year-old left early on route to an Orioles' win.

Much like it was in the Bronx, things got started off on a bang. Colton Cowser took Scherzer deep on just the second pitch of the game, as Baltimore scored two quick runs in the first.

Things improved somewhat for Toronto after that, as they tied the game in the bottom of the first and took the lead in the third. However, Scherzer then didn't come back out for the top of the fourth, with the team saying he's dealing with lat soreness. In his three innings, Scherzer allowed two runs on three hits.

Baltimore then quickly struck against the Jays' bullpen, scoring four runs in the fourth, including a three-RBI double from Ramón Urías. They tacked on two more in the fifth and another later in the game, as they were mostly in control of things after the fourth; Jordan Westburg led the way with two homers. While Dean Kremer didn't have the best outing for the O's, their bullpen allowed three hits and struck out eight over the last 4.2 innings.

Kansas City Royals (1-1) 4, Cleveland Guardians (1-1) 3

Bobby Witt Jr.'s go-ahead RBI double in the seventh capped off the Royals' rally as they stormed past the Guardians.

As they got a good first couple innings from Gavin Williams, Cleveland took an early lead. Bo Naylor had an RBI single in the second inning, while a Carlos Santana sacrifice fly in the third gave the Guardians a lead. While KC got on the board themselves in the fourth, Steven Kwan homered to answer back in the fifth.

Williams stayed in for Cleveland to start the sixth, but that's when things started to go downhill for them. He allowed the first two batters to reach, after which he was removed. Salvador Perez got another run back for the Royals, but the big damage then came in the seventh.

With Paul Sewald on the hill for the Guardians, Maikel Garcia led off the seventh with a homer to tie things up. A couple hits and a pitching change later, Witt came through, giving the Royals their first lead. Cleveland put runners on in both the eighth and ninth, but they couldn't muster a rally themselves.

Houston Astros (2-1) 2, New York Mets (1-2) 1

Spencer Arrighetti was excellent for the Astros, as he held the Mets to just one run on one hit in six innings. They needed that performance as well, as their offense eked out just enough to take the game. The Mets' lone hit against Arrighetti—a Juan Soto double—turned out to be their only knock of the entire night

Arrighetti and Griffin Canning exchanged zeroes early, before Houston finally got on the board in the fifth, thanks to a Jeremy Peña homer. The Mets answered right back, thanks mostly to Jose Siri causing some chaos. After walking, Siri stole second, and then moved to third and home on grounders. However, the Astros then answered themselves. Yordan Alvarez hit a booming double that scored Isaac Parades all the way from first.

The game remained a bit of a pitchers' duel after that, although via the bullpens. In the end, the Astros got the better of that too, with just two walks representing the only offense the Mets mustered in the final three innings.

Other Games

• Texas Rangers (2-1) 4, Boston Red Sox (1-2) 3: The Rangers picked up two first-inning runs off Walker Buehler and used that to pull out a victory, as they never trailed to the Red Sox. Adolis García plated two runs in the first thanks to an RBI double that was very nearly caught by a diving Kristian Campbell (who did at least later get his first career homer). While the Red Sox scored a run each in the second and fourth to tie the game, García added a home run, and Texas held on from there.