Rivalry Roundup: Orioles demolish Rangers, seize first place

06/28/2024 10:00 AM

Recapping how the Yankees' top AL opponents fared on June 27th.

Generally, when my turn in the Rivalry Roundup comes around, I'll add my own ruminations on the Yankees' activities from the previous night. This time, however, writing up the Roundup coincided with a night that I also tackled the game recap. As I have no real desire to further revisit the 9-2 shellacking of Carlos Rodón, I will simply point you in the direction of the recap if you really want further thoughts. It was unpleasant from the jump.

A bunch of American League teams were off yesterday, but we still have a few prime matchups to discuss. Away we go.

Baltimore Orioles (51-30) 11, Texas Rangers (37-44) 2

2023 was a smashing success for the Orioles. They won 101 games, captured their first AL East crown in a decade, and emerged triumphant from their long rebuild. Then it all came crashing down in the postseason. The Wild Card-winning Rangers had dispatched the Rays and weren't intimidated. They beat the O's in back-to-back games at Camden Yards before polishing off a fairly shocking sweep back in Texas. Just like that, Baltimore's magical 2023 run came to a screeching halt.

So when the O's welcomed the underachieving Rangers to the Charm City on Thursday night for the first time in 2024, they had vengeance on the mind. Boy, did they get it.

Jon Gray started for Texas in wake of six shutout innings against the Royals on June 22nd. In his previous outing though, he'd been blistered by the Mets for 9 runs on 11 hits. That shade of Gray was the one that showed up in Baltimore. The O's plated three in the first with the aid of a two-run double by Jordan Westburg, and after a quiet second, they doubled their lead in the third on some small ball (two singles and a sacrifice fly) and some long ball (rookie Heston Kjerstad's first homer of 2024).

Texas countered with a solo shot by Adolis García in the fourth, but the Orioles had three more long balls in store before the night was over. Cedric Mullins, Adley Rutschman, and Colton Cowser all went deep to push Baltimore into the double digits.

With ace Corbin Burnes on the hill for the Orioles, that was more than enough. Burnes allowed nine hits, but scattered them enough to hold the Rangers to just the García homer, needing only 88 pitches to go seven innings. With the victory, the Orioles moved in front of the Yankees for first place in the AL East. Their 51-30 record is considered roughly equal to the Yanks' 52-31, but they're ahead by percentage points and also hold the tiebreaker over New York anyway. Joy.

Kansas City Royals (45-38) 2, Cleveland Guardians (51-28) 1

Oddly, both the Guardians and Royals had long winning streaks at the same in late May. Cleveland won nine in a row from May 17-26, meaning that Kansas City did not gain a single game in the AL Central standings despite their eight-game run from May 17-25. The Guardians were only ahead by 1.5 games, but the teams have gone in different directions since their winning streaks were snapped. Cleveland has gone 15-10 to seize control of the division, while KC has sagged back with a 10-18 record. They had fallen to 10 games back as recently as Wednesday morning.

But the Royals beat the Marlins that night, and on Thursday, they won a pitchers' duel with the Guardians to affirm that they're not folding on this surprising 2024 just yet. Cleveland's only successful offense against veteran Michael Wacha was a sacrifice fly in the fifth following a leadoff single by Tyler Freeman and a double by Steven Kwan. Wacha stranded Kwan and later José Ramírez, completing 5.1 innings of one-run ball.

The downside was that Wacha needed 99 pitches to get only so deep, meaning that the beleaguered Royals bullpen would have to play a role. This time, they stepped up. Sam Long, John Schreiber, and James McArthur didn't allow a single hit while recording the final 11 outs of the ballgame.

The Royals only got six hits, but their only two extra-base knocks came in a timely manner. Kyle Isbel and Maikel Garcia delivered back-to-back triples in the sixth off Ben Lively (with an assist from bad defense by right fielder Daniel Schneemann on the former), and a deep fly ball from Vinnie Pasquantino made it 2-1, KC. That was all they needed.

Other Games

Minnesota Twins (45-36) 13, Arizona Diamondbacks (39-42) 6: The Twins were off to the races early in Phoenix, running up an 11-0 score by the middle of the fourth inning. Jordan Montgomery's nightmarish 2024 continued by getting smoked for nine runs on eight hits while recording just eight outs, inflating his ERA to 6.03. Yikes! Four different Twins registered multi-hit games, led by Byron Buxton's three-hit, three-RBI game, which also featured a 456-foot bomb.

It was a laugher for most of this one, though the laughs died in the Twins dugout during the seventh, when Carlos Correa was drilled on the arm and had to leave the game. X-rays fortunately revealed no break and it actually seems like he just suffered a bad bruise. So good for Rocco Baldelli, I suppose.