MLB Early Saturday Roundup: Yankees Hang-On Defeat Mets in NY Battle; Blue Jays Down Orioles 4-1

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SteemSports Presenter:@thesportsguy

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SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets

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The second half of the baseball season is officially underway with a full slate of Saturday baseball. In early action today, the Yankees downed the Mets in a "Subway Series" inter-league battle, holding on for a 7-6 victory. The Mets won the opener of the 3-game weekend series last night 7-5 and the two will do battle once again tomorrow in the rubber match. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays got the win over the last-place Orioles in a battle of the birds from Toronto. They will look to complete the sweep tomorrow afternoon and start off the second half of the season on the right foot after a disappointing first half to the year.

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We start in the Bronx, where the Yankees used a big 4th inning to get the festivities going early on Saturday. Shortstop D.D. Gregorius got the Yanks on the board with an RBI triple and Miguel Andujar & Greg Bird promptly followed with a pair of RBI doubles. When the dust had the settled the Yankees found themselves in the lead 4-1 after 4. The Mets were able to chip away a bit in the top of the 6th when Ahmed Rosario brought home a run with an RBI-single and the Yankees followed it up with a throwing error allowing a second run to score.

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The Yanks came right back with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, though, aided by a bomb to left center field by Aaron Judge - his 26th of the season - to seemingly put it out of reach at 7-3. Things got interesting and a bit weird in the top of the 9th, as Yankees' reliever Aroldis Chapman, who is working his way back from some left knee tendinitis, couldn't retire any of the five batters he faced. Chapman exited his first appearance since July 14th, having walked 3, giving up an infield single and then hitting a batter. It was a dreadful outing for Chapman and he - and the Yankees - both insisted they weren't at all worried about the lack of control or any lingering issues with the knee as he left the field to boos from the crowd.

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After Chapman did his best to give the Mets a chance to rally, manager Aaron Boone turned to Chasen Shreve with the bases loaded, no outs and their 4-run lead down to 2. Shreve did what he needed to do - getting a double-play, that allowed the Mets to get within 1 but also shut the door on their rally. He then got Wilmer Flores to follow up with a little come-backer to pick up his second career save. Yankees starter Sonny Gray did enough to get the win, going 5 1/3 innings, surrendering 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and striking out 6 to even his record at 7-7 on the season.

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In Toronto, the Blue Jays used a 3-run 4th and a balk to down Baltimore 4-1. Adam Jones got the Orioles off to a promising start with an RBI-single right away in the top of the 1st to put the visitors ahead 1-0, but the bats went silent the rest of the game. Center-fielder Randal Girchuk got the scoring started for Toronto in the bottom of the 4th with an RBI double to level the score at 1-1. After a run-scoring double play, catcher Luke Maile delivered a 2-out RBI single to put the Jays up 3-1 after 4.

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Orioles starter Alex Cobb then made matters worse on himself when he committed a balk with two away in the bottom of the 5th to allow Teoscar Hernandez to score from third and push the Blue Jays' lead to 4-1. That proved to be the final run in the game as both bullpens performed well down the stretch. Marcus Stroman was outstanding for Toronto, going 7 strong innings, allowing 5 hits, the 1 run, 2 walks, while striking out 7 to get the win. He improved to just 3-7 on the season putting a bright spot on what has otherwise been a mostly disappointing season. Cobb took the loss for the Orioles and now sits at just 2-13 on the season with a 6.17 ERA. They are slated to send Andrew Cashner (2-9, 4.56) to the mound tomorrow as they attempt to avoid the sweep.

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