MLB Games: Simulating opening weekend for the AL
By Bill Felber
Simulating MLB Games
AL East
The Baltimore Orioles rudely welcomed Gerrit Cole to the AL East. In Baltimore, Orioles batters tied into the Yankees’ opening day starter for seven earned runs in just three and one-third innings on their way to a 7-4 victory.
Anthony Santander homered and drove in three runs against Cole.
Baltimore also took the series’ second game 4-3 in 10 innings. Against Asher Wojciechowski and three relievers, the Yankees stranded a dozen baserunners.
Playing without injured stars Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees avoided a season-opening sweep by breaking a 3-3 tie on Gary Sanchez’s solo home run off Alex Cobb. Adam Ottavino, Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman pitched scoreless relief to preserve the 4-3 victory.
Sanchez’s homer was one of three Cobb allowed; D J LeMahieu and Brett Gardner also tapped him as part of an 11-hit New York attack.
In Toronto, the young Blue Jays took three out of four from the visiting Boston Red Sox. Hyun-Jin Ryu out-pitched Eduardo Rodriguez in the 3-1 opening day victory. Boston evened the score on Friday as Nathan Eovaldi delivered six strong innings and J.D. Martinez’ 10th inning sacrifice fly broke a 3-3 tie.
The Red sox carried a 7-4 lead into the ninth inning of Saturday’s third game, but Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel and Randal Grichuk all delivered home runs, Grichuk’s walk-off winning the game 9-8. The Jays won 6-4 on Sunday thanks to home runs by Biggio, Gurriel and Vlad Guerrero Jr.
Bryan Reynolds drove in four runs with two doubles as Pittsburgh beat Tampa Bay 5-3 in St. Petersburg. But the Rays came back to win the series’ final two games, 4-1 behind Charlie Morton and 8-3 on a combined seven RBIs from Brandon Lowe (4) and Yoshitorro Tsutsugo (3).