Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Bombers gain ground as Blue Jays fall to Red Sox

Item one on the Yankees’ 2025 postseason checklist has been crossed off: They’re now officially in the playoffs. José Caballero’s walk-off single on Tuesday night completed the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally as they came from behind to beat the White Sox, booking their place in at least the AL Wild Card Series.

However, the Yankees have bigger hopes that just making it, and they still have stuff to play for down the stretch — namely a late bid at a division title and a first-round bye. Let’s take a look at what happened in the other games that impacted the Yankees’ playoff races on Tuesday.

Cleveland Guardians (85-72) 5, Detroit Tigers (85-72) 2

While they still have time to pull it out, the Tigers officially completed their historic collapse as they lost to the Guardians to fall into a tie atop the AL Central with Cleveland.

Things were going fine for Detroit for a while in this one. They got a couple runs courtesy of Wenceel Pérez and Riley Greene and had Tarik Skubal cruising on the mound. Through the first four innings, Cleveland had recorded just a single and a walk. They put two runners on in the fifth, but Skubal managed to escape the jam. Then things flipped in the sixth.

Following a lead-off Steven Kwan single, Skubal himself made an error as he tried to do way too much on a Angel Martínez bunt attempt, setting the Guardians up with two runners in scoring position.

A José Ramírez single scored one run and a Skubal wild pitch brought home another to even the score. Then after a balk from the defending Cy Young Award winner moved a runner 90 feet away, a run scored when Gabriel Arias simply grounded out.

After that, Cleveland tacked on another couple runs, while Detroit only had one runner even reach base over the final three innings. Having once trailed the Tigers by 15.5 games (and 10 as recently as September 6th), the Guardians are now tied for the AL Central, and hold the tiebreaker over Detroit. It’s looking more and more likely that the Tigers are going to have to turn to Skubal again on Sunday at Fenway to save their season in some capacity, meaning that their playoff series chances would take a hit without him going in the opener. It’s a bad scene.

Boston Red Sox (86-71) 4, Toronto Blue Jays (90-67) 1

It’s not often as Yankee fans that we can appreciate a Red Sox win, but they did help the Bombers get within a game of the Blue Jays in the AL East, by beating Toronto ace Kevin Gausman on Tuesday.

The two teams traded runs early, but the score was tied going into the sixth. Then with one out and runners on the corners, Nathaniel Lowe poked through a single to give the Red Sox the lead. A couple batters later with two outs after a play at the plate cost the Red Sox a run, erstwhile Yankee Carlos Narváez came through with a double to score two more Boston runs.

Despite allowing just one run, Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito lasted just 4.2 innings on account of walking four. However, Boston’s bullpen picked up the slack for him. Over the final 4.1 innings, four Red Sox relievers combined to allow just one walk, shutting down the Jays and keeping them from ever really getting back in the game. Boston’s magic number to secure a playoff spot is three.

Seattle Mariners (88-69) 4, Colorado Rockies (43-114) 3

The Yankees’ win opened the door for the Mariners to punch their playoff ticket as well while also taking a step closer to their first AL West crown in 24 years. But it required some late heroics to avoid a loss to the Rockies.

Colorado took an initial lead in the second inning, and regained it in the sixth after the Mariners had come back to tie the game. As that was happening, Rockies rookie starter McCade Brown was shutting down Seattle, having struck out 10 M’s in five innings. Having managed just two hits against Brown and a couple Rockies’ relievers, the Mariners were on the verge of taking a very dumb loss.

In the bottom of the eighth, facing reliever Juan Mejia, the Mariners finally got something going, albeit with some help. Mejia hit two batters and walked another, leaving the bases loaded for Josh Naylor. The Trade Deadline acquisition then recorded Seattle’s third and final hit of the day, but it was a big one. His doubled cleared the bases and in one swing changed the game’s fortunes. Closer Andrés Muñoz came in after that and sealed the deal, as the Mariners sealed their second playoff berth in four years.

Other Games

• Athletics (74-83) 5, Houston Astros (84-73) 1: The Mariners also got a hand from the A’s, who held the Astros in check. Starter Jeffrey Springs and three relievers combined to hold Houston to just three hits and three walks. Meanwhile, RBI from Lawrence Butler, Darell Hernaiz, Tyler Soderstrom, and Jacob Wilson proved to be enough to put the Astros’ AL West hopes on life support. They’re also a game back of Detroit for the final Wild Card spot.