AL Wild Card Roundup: Yankees skid past A’s, Orioles beat Boston, Rays Gain Ground

The Rays had another huge night, beating Toronto 12-1 and setting the American League record for the amount of strikeouts within a single season with 1,267 K’s. They are inching closer to the second AL Wild Card spot but still have some ground to cover. Let’s see how other AL Wild Card contenders fared tonight.

The Rays celebrate another won after gaining ground in the AL Wild Card race. Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Yankees 2, Oakland 1

Tonight featured a pitcher’s duel between New York’s CC Sabathia and Oakland’s Jarrod Parker. Both went hitless during the first two innings, with Parker giving up his first hit to Ichiro Suzuki in the bottom of the third inning. However, he struck out the next two batters, including Derek Jeter. Nick Swisher scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Curtis Granderson in the fourth inning, making the score 1-0. Rafael Soriano relieved CC Sabathia in the ninth inning, giving up a solo homerun to Oakland’s Brandon Moss. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Sean Doolittle replaced Jarrod Parker. However, Russell Martin hit a walk off homerun in the tenth inning to win the game for New York.

Orioles 4, Red Sox 2

The Orioles win tonight held their lead in the AL Wild Card race. Jon Lester took the mound tonight for Baltimore but gave up his first hit to Adam Jones in the top of the first inning. Baltimore’s pitcher, Miguel Gonzalez, did not give up a hit until the bottom of the third inning, as Pedro Ciriaco doubled, allowing Daniel Nava to score. Balitmore’s J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones scored in the fourth inning off of Matt Wieter’s single. Pedro Ciriaco scored again for Boston in the fifth inning to tie the game. Ultimately, Baltimore was able to pull out the win with Adam Jones and Matt Wieter scoring runs in the sixth inning against Jon Lester.

Detroit v. Minnesota – postponed due to rain

Angels 6, White Sox 2

Chicago began the game with Alejandro De Aza’s solo homerun off of Angel’s pitcher Ervin Santana. However, the Angels returned the favor with Kendrys Morales hitting a solo homer off of Chicago pitcher Jake Peavy. Chris Iannetta and Mike Trout of the Angels scored two runs in the third inning off of Albert Pujols’ single to centerfield. The Angels made the score 5-1 after scoring two runs off of Jake Peavy, which Mike Trout followed with a solo homerun in the seventh inning. Kevin Jepsen relieved Ervin Santana in the top of the eighth inning, only for Chicago’s Danyan Viciedo to score off of a single hit by Gordon Beckham.

Here’s a look at the AL Wild Card Standings:

Orioles –

Athletics –

Angels – 3.5

Rays – 4.5

Tigers – 5.5