Pennant Race Roundup: Astros fall on the road, Guardians come back for late win and Tigers get win

Tigers fans gave a sigh of relief last night watching their game and others

The Mariners day off yesterday was helpful for the Astros after they dropped their first game against the Padres, seeing as it kept them four games back of the AL West. All around, the American League playoff race is getting tighter and tighter as the season keeps winding down day by day.

Let’s see what happened around the league on Pennant Race Roundup.

Houston Astros (81-69): 1, San Diego Padres (86-65): 3

A pitching matchup till the end, Houston’s offense was shut down the whole game and it led to the loss. It was all kicked off by Padres’ starter Yu Darvish, who went six innings of shutout baseball, only allowing three hits.

The Padres got their lead right away on back-to-back two-out doubles in the bottom of the first from Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado, scoring the first run of the game and giving them a 1-0 lead.

They added on another in the fourth with a leadoff home run from Jackson Merrll before the Astros finally got their first run on the board. Altuve led off with a double and Yordan brought him in with a single on the third pitch he saw, bringing the score to 2-1.

The Astros couldn’t capitalize on it anymore though, stranding two runners on base. Profar ended the scoring on the night with a leadoff homer the next inning, giving the Padres the 3-1 lead the game ended with.

The Astros are still four games back of the Mariners with Houston having two more against San Diego and the M’s starting a series against the Yankees.

Minnesota Twins (79-71): 3, Cleveland Guardians (87-64): 4

In a late game rally by the Guardians, they came back to win and bring the Tigers to within a game and a half of the Twins in the AL Wild Card.

Minnesota got their lead with a 3-run third inning, which started with a one-out double and two two-out walks to load the bases for Byron Buxton. Before he had a chance to get a hit though, a passed ball scored the runner from third and put them up one. A few pitches later, Buxton roped a ball in between second and short for a two-RBI single, putting them up 3-0.

The Twins stayed ahead for most of the game, with the Guardians slowly chipping away at the lead inning by inning. They got one across in the fifth, another one in the seventh and finally, in the eighth inning, they completed the comeback and took the lead on a two-run shot by Kyle Manzardo.

The Twins went 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth and lost 4-3, putting them less than two games from the Tigers and two full games back from the Mariners for the last Wild Card spot.

Other games that matter

Detroit Tigers: 7, Kansas City Royals: 6

In a game that was back-and-forth from the jump, the Tigers made the late game comeback and kept their season more alive than it has been all year. With their comeback win over the Royals, the Tigers keep themselves close to the Twins and in contention for the final Wild Card spot. With 11 games remaining in the regular season, the Tigers need to win every game they can if they want that last spot.