Late in the Evening

The Yankees and Orioles played late into Tuesday evening due to a long rain delay. The Blue Jays and Red Sox played late into the evening as neither team could score in extra innings. Both games featured late turnarounds that gave the Red Sox the advantage in the AL East race.

Boston trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. A walk and a double put men on second and third with no one out, and Boston tied the game on two ground balls. The game remained tied at two until the 19th inning, when a Mookie Betts double and a Hanley Ramirez single won the game. The Red Sox bullpen pitched 13 scoreless innings in the game, walking three and striking out 15.

In Baltimore, the Yankees led 6-1 early, but Orioles home runs against CC Sabathia helped cut the lead to 6-5. That’s what Dellin Betances faced when with two out he walked Tim Beckham and allowed a walk-off home run to Manny Machado. It was Machado’s second home run of the game and brought his season total to 32.

The late heroics and failures mean that the Red Sox lead is 3 1/2 games over the Yankees instead of a mere 1 1/2 games. With the Twins losing to the Rays, the Yankees still hold a three-game lead for the first wild card, but there are seven teams within 2 1/2 games of the second slot.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2eKhFNC