A light Monday slate, along with some of the Yanks’ rivals facing each other, made for a quiet night. The good news about these teams playing each other is that someone has to lose. The bad news is someone has to win. Monday, for example, Boston and Tampa took down Toronto and Cleveland, respectively.
With any luck, Tuesday night the Jays and Guardians will return the favor, especially since the Rays are lurking behind New York as April comes to a close and I personally hate it when good things happen to the Red Sox. Unfortunately, those BoSox are the story of the night as stellar pitching and timely hitting from some scuffling youngsters propelled them to victory.
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Boston Red Sox (12-17) 5, Toronto Blue Jays (12-16) 0
Both clubs entered Monday gazing longingly up at .500, with the Red Sox going so far as to decimate their coaching staff over the weekend. There was reason to think this could be a good game, however, with Boston sending Ranger Suarez to face off with Dylan Cease.
In the opening innings, that is exactly how the game unfolded with the two hurlers putting matching zeroes in the run column. Once the game hit the middle innings, though, Boston’s young guys got to Cease. First, Marcelo Mayer singled in a run in the fourth. In the fifth, Roman Anthony did the same to make it 2-0 Boston. Wilyer Abreu and Caleb Durbin followed suit, the former with the double and the latter with a knock in the sixth, to extend the BoSox lead to 4-0.
Suarez was the story of the night though. The lefty has been up and down so far in 2026 but on this night he was definitely up. He walked Davis Schneider in the third but as the game progressed, the Jays remained out of the hit column. He finally gave up a single in the bottom of the sixth but quickly worked around it. By the time he was done, he’d spun eight innings of one-hit shutout ball, putting Boston in position to win its third consecutive game.
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Other Games
Tampa Bay Rays (17-11) 3, Cleveland Guardians (15-15) 2: The Rays, annoying as ever, are nipping at the Yankees’ heels early this season and Monday was no different. Cleveland jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Daniel Schneemann home run off Rays’ starter Steven Matz in the bottom of the fifth. But that was basically all the damage Matz allowed, spinning seven innings and keeping Tampa in the game. In the top of the eighth, down 2-1, Tampa broke through. A solo home run from Jonathan Aranda tied the game, then Ryan Vilade singled in the game-winning run. Another night. Another Rays win. Blech.
Seattle Mariners (14-16) 4, Minnesota Twins (13-16) 11: Luis Castillo entered tonight in the throes of an awful start to the season, his fine work against the Yankees in his season debut on March 30th an outlier. He ended his night still mired in a brutal beginning to 2026. Minnesota touched him up for seven runs in five innings, highlighted by a three-run bomb by Kody Clemens and a two-run jack off the bat of Byron Buxton. For a Seattle lineup whose stars are not hitting to the back of their baseball cards, that was a daunting deficit, one much too steep to overcome.