Magic Number Counter: Astros get win despite another bad outing from JV, Kansas City starting to slip

Astros number gets lower as the season continues to wine down

Another game, another bad outing from Justin Verlander. At least this time, the team’s offence could back it up. Meanwhile, others around the league are winning and losing and helping Houston make the postseason.

Let’s see what happened around the league on today’s Magic Number Counter.

Houston Astros (84-70): 9, Los Angeles Angles (62-92): 7

Despite another bad performance from Verlander, the offence came out and banged for him, helping him get the win despite the runs he gave up.

The scoring started in the bottom of the second with a sac fly to give the Astros the lead, before the Angles got a run of their own to tie it the next inning. Following these runs, both offence caught fire.

The Astros started it in the bottom of the third when they put up five runs off homers from Alex Bregman and Jake Meyers to put them up 6-1. The Angles answered with two of their own in the top of the fourth, but those two were immediately matched by the Astros in the bottom half.

This back-and-forth continued the rest of the game, but the Angles were never able to take the step over Houston and get ahead of them. Houston finished off their scoring in the sixth inning with a home run off Kyle Tucker to give them nine runs, and after the Angles got their one in the seventh, that was all they could manage, giving the Stros’ the 9-7 win.

With Houston and Seattle’s win, the magic number moves to four.

Seattle Mariners (79-75): 8, Texas Rangers (73-81): 3

Every game for the Mariners now is important. Only two games out from a Wild Card spot, they are looking for every win they can get to try and make the postseason.

The M’s jumped out to an early lead after a leadoff tater in the third by Josh Rojas before Texas took their own lead thanks to a two-RBI Nathaniel Lowe double, giving them a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

The top of the fifth is when the Seattle offence started clicking. A leadoff single and an error put two people on for Julio and he cranked a three-run bomb over the left field fence to give Seattle a lead they wouldn’t end up giving up.

They got two more runs in the seventh, both from another Julio Rodriguez homer, and two more in the eighth, both off sac fly’s, to get their eight runs and but the Rangers out of reach and get to their 8-2 score.

Their win keeps them in the running for one of those Wild Card stop. They are only one game behind the Tigers and two games behind the Twins.

Minnesota Twins (81-73): 4, Boston Red Sox (76-78): 2

An extra inning game that saw the Twins pull it out in the twelfth inning and keep themselves alive.

The first run crossed in the fourth for Boston, giving them a 1-0 lead and that was just about all the offense for most of the game. It wasn’t till the seventh that the Twins finally got on the board, curtesy of a sac fly by Carlos Correa, tying the game at one.

Between the two teams, there was over 30 people left on base in the game, with the Twins collecting 13 hit and the Sox getting nine.

The 1-1 score brought the game into extras, and that was where the Twins finally started to click a little. After not getting anything in the 10^th or 11^th, they led off the 12^th with back-to-back singles to score one and take the lead. They followed this up scoring two more and taking a 3-1 lead into the bottom half.

Boston did get one run across but that was all they managed, giving Minnesota the 4-2 win. This win, paired with the Tigers’ loss, keeps the Twins a game up for the last WC spot and, with the Royals loss, puts them just one game back of the second WC spot.

Games that also matter

Baltimore Orioles: 7, Detroit Tigers: 1

With the Tigers needing to win, they messed this one up and hopefully this won’t reflect the whole series. Going into the game, they were just a game and a half back of the Twins in the WC race after being completely out of it a month or so ago. They have been playing out of their minds and it has gotten them to a point where they have a chance. Their pitching staff needs to stay reliable and their offence needs to produce if they want to be able to make it down the stretch.

San Francisco Giants: 2, Kansas City Royals: 1

The Giants got their two runs and that was all they need as the Kansas city offense was completely silent to whole game. The two seed in the WC right now, the Royals don’t have that much longer in the season, but they are about to keep winning if they want to stay in their spot. Right now, both the Twins and the Tigers are within two games of them and could come for that second WC spot instead of the third. That could be the difference between playing a team like the Astros in the first round or playing another Wild Card team.