April 6-9 AL sim: Here come the Yankees
By Bill Felber
AL East
The Yankees won a 7-0 rain-shortened Monday affair with Baltimore, and the shower seemed to refresh New York’s offense. Stanton delivered his first hit in New York’s 6-2 win behind Masahiro Tanaka, rode Gary Sanchez’ two-out, walk-off home run to a 5-4 win on Wednesday, and completed the sweep behind Jonathan Loaisiga’s 6-0 shutout win Thursday.
The Rays assumed a tenuous grasp on first by splitting four games. Behind Chirinos, Tampa Bay looked great in beating up on Boston 14-3 Monday. Adames, Brandon Lowe, Hunter Renfroe, Ji-Man Choi and Kevin Kiermaier all homered, and Adames drove in four runs.
But Boston recovered to win the Tuesday and Wednesday games 6-3 and 5-4. Worse, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo took a pitch off his forearm and will be sidelined for the better part of a week with a bad bruise.
On Thursday, the Rays opened a four-game series in Cleveland with Brendan McKay out-pitching Mike Clevinger. Choi and Lowe both homered in the 3-0 victory.
The Jays lost their early grip on the division lead in Philadelphia (see link). They then returned home for one more pummeling at the hands of the Royals in the opener of their four-game weekend series. Randall Grichuk’s second inning single was the only hit off Royals starter Jacob Junis and two relievers.
Bubba Starling’s grand slam highlighted his five-RBI night.
W-L Pct GB
Tampa Bay 8-5 .615 —
New York 7-6 .538 1
Toronto 7-6 .538 1
Boston 7-7 .500 1.5
Baltimore 3-10 .231 5