Rivalry Renewed: Red Sox Triumph in First Clash Against Devers Post-Trade

Just when you though it couldn’t get worse for the
Yankees
, they lost the series opener to the last-place Orioles thanks to continued base running errors and inexcusable officiating. They’ve now lost seven of their last eight to see their lead in the AL East shrivel to a game and a half. It was an action-packed day around the AL including the first meeting between Rafael Devers and the
Red Sox
post-trade, so let’s jump right in.

Tampa Bay Rays (42-34) 14, Detroit Tigers (48-29) 8

It’s rather ironic that a game in which Jack Flaherty achieved an important milestone happened to be his worst start of the year. He coughed up eight runs in just 2.1 innings, but by making his 15th start of the season he saw his 2026 player option vest from $10 million to $20 million.

Tampa Bay jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Yandy Díaz leading off with a home run, Curtis Mead knocking an RBI single, and Matt Thais smacking a two-run double with the bases loaded. Díaz and Thaiss would be the big contributors on offense for the Rays, the former hitting a pair of solo home runs as part of a 3-for-5 day and the latter going 3-for-4 with four driven in.

Riley Greene responded with a three-run blast in the third — his first of two home runs on a 3-for-3, four-RBI performance — to cut the deficit to one, but that was as close as the Tigers would come in the game. The Rays would immediately respond with four in the bottom-half including a bases-clearing double by Taylor Walls. Tampa would score one in the fifth, two in the sixth, and three in the eighth to score the most runs of any opponent the Tigers have faced this year.

Houston Astros (44-32) 3, Los Angeles Angels (36-39) 2

It required extra innings, but the
Astros
kept on rolling atop the AL West. It was a tetchy affair, Astros pitchers plunking three Angels including Zach Neto in the third that caused the benches to clear. The starting pitchers were impressive, Hunter Brown allowing one run on two hits in five innings while Yusei Kikuchi went seven strong, allowing two runs while striking out nine.

Houston started the game with a bang, Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes leading off the top of the first with a pair of home runs.

In fact, all of the runs in regulation were scored via the solo home run. Jo Adell left the yard in the fourth to give him a home run in three straight games while rookie Christian Moore hit the first home run of his big league career in the seventh to level the scores and eventually send the game to extras. In the top of the tenth, Peña led off with a single to advance automatic runner Mauricio Dubón to third, who would score the winning run on a wild pitch by Hunter Strickland.

Other Games

• 
  Seattle Mariners
  
  
  (38-36) 9,
  
  
  Chicago Cubs
  
  
  (45-30) 4
  

Cal Raleigh made history hitting his 28th and 29th home runs, the most ever by a catcher before the All-Star break, widening his lead atop the home run leaderboard to two more than Aaron Judge. However, the big day on offense belonged to his teammate Mitch Garver, who also clubbed a pair of homers but drove in five to Raleigh’s three. After falling behind, 4-2, after five innings, the Mariners scored seven unanswered — two in the sixth and seventh and three in the ninth to win this game comfortably.

• 
  Chicago White Sox
  
  
  (24-52) 7,
  
  
  Toronto Blue Jays
  
  
  (40-35) 1
  

The opener strategy worked like a charm for the White Sox, Grant Taylor and Tyler Alexander combining to toss five shutout to open the contest. Their offense did all of its work in the first three innings while the Blue Jays didn’t manage to score until the eighth. Andrew Benintendi opened the scoring with a solo shot in the first. Josh Rojas and Benintendi added a pair of RBI singles in the second. They capped it off with a four-run third, Luis Robert Jr. crushing a two-run bomb and Rojas a two-run double for a comprehensive win over Toronto.

• 
  Milwaukee Brewers
  
  
  (41-35) 17,
  
  
  Minnesota Twins
  
  
  (37-38) 6
  

The most impressive offensive performance around the league on Friday belonged to the Brewers, but that wasn’t even the most compelling story of the contest. Electric rookie starter Jacob Misiorowski opened this game with six perfect frames, becoming the first player in the Expansion Era to begin his career with 11 no-hit innings. Amazingly, this game was just 3-0 Milwaukee through five before both offenses began pouring it on late. The standout performance on offense belonged to Christian Yelich, who tied a Brewers franchise record with eight RBI. He also became the first player in MLB history to drive in eight without scoring a run himself and also without hitting a home run.

• 
  Athletics (32-46) 5,
  
  
  Cleveland Guardians
  
  
  (37-37) 1
  

Athletics rookie Nick Kurtz just keeps on crushing the baseball, hitting a homer in three straight games and his fifth in his last six. This one came in the form of a two-run shot to open the contest, and the A’s didn’t look back from there. Starter Jeffrey Springs gave them 7.1 innings of one-run ball, while Guardians starter Tanner Bibee pitched a complete game but got tagged for five runs on 11 hits to go along with ten strikeouts.

• 
  Boston Red Sox (40-37) 7,
  
  
  San Francisco Giants
  
  
  (42-34) 5
  

In this much-anticipated matchup of Rafael Devers’ first encounter with his old team since his earth-shattering trade, it was the Red Sox who came out on top. Devers went 0-for-5 against his old club and became familiar with the punishing dimensions of his new ballpark, having a ball caught at the wall in left-center in the third that would have been a sure double off the Green Monster. Eight and nine hitters Ceddanne Rafaela and David Hamilton each homered and drove in a pair to power the Red Sox’s 7-5 win.