The Angels’ loss to the Yankees on Tuesday ended up feeling like background noise after a much bigger development landed earlier in the day: Rams owner Stan Kroenke agreed to buy the team from Arte Moreno. By night, the Tarps Off crew had already flipped its familiar “sell the team” chant into “ sold the team ” after the deal was announced.
Elsewhere, Gavin Williams kept Cleveland rolling with a dominant start against Toronto. After failing to get through the second inning in his final outing of August, the Guardians right-hander came back sharp to open September, striking out 13 Blue Jays over seven solid innings.
It was the 10th time in 28 starts that Williams reached double digits in strikeouts, and the performance pushed him into a tie with Dylan Cease for the American League strikeout lead, though the Blue Jays righty will almost certainly move back ahead today. The timing mattered too: Cleveland began the series a game and a half up on Toronto for the final AL Wild Card spot, and the Guardians still have a tough run coming with the Tigers, Orioles, and Twins after the three-game set.
Freddy Peralta also had a little extra edge on Tuesday, facing the Mets after his time in New York didn’t go the way he wanted. Since being dealt to Tampa Bay, he’s settled in nicely, and he backed that up with six innings of one-run ball and seven strikeouts against his former club.
The outing started bumpy enough, with Francisco Lindor leading off the game with a homer and the Mets adding two more hits in the first, but Peralta escaped the damage and allowed just one baserunner the rest of the night. He now has back-to-back quality starts and three in six tries with the Rays, a clear step up from the four quality starts he managed in 22 appearances with the Mets.
And then there was San Francisco, where the matchup between Paul Skenes and Logan Webb turned into something nobody could have drawn up. Skenes came in as last season’s NL Cy Young winner, with Webb one of the finalists after finishing fourth in the voting, but the pitchers took a back seat almost immediately.
Webb allowed two runs in the first, his offense answered with five runs off Skenes in the second, and then everything fell apart from there. Pittsburgh exploded for nine runs in the third inning, Webb was tagged for nine earned runs in just over two innings, and Skenes couldn’t get through five innings even with a six-run cushion.
In the end, the Pirates outlasted the Giants in a wild 13-12 game, winning it on a throwing error.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Roster Shift Puts September Upgrades In Focus
The Blue Jays cleared a spot by optioning pitcher CJ Van Eyk to Triple-A Buffalo, a move that fits the way they have handled the late stages of a season when the focus turns from filling innings to sorting out what comes next. Van Eyk put together a solid minor league year, but his brief time in the majors did not amount to much, making him the kind of roster piece Toronto can shuffle without much disruption as the calendar flips toward September.
Toronto is expected to add three players to its 28-man roster for the month, and the timing makes this more than a routine transaction. Ricky Tiedemann is among the names in the mix, along with prospect Sean Keys, giving the Blue Jays a chance to reward development while also adding fresh options for the stretch run. The corresponding move for Van Eyk has not been announced yet, which only adds a little more intrigue to how the roster will take shape from here. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Suddenly Have A Bigger Spencer Arrighetti Problem
Spencer Arrighettis early-season run with Houston looked like the kind of breakout that can change a young pitchers profile quickly, but the last few months have turned into a far shakier picture. Since late May, he has been stuck in a winless stretch while allowing more home runs, and the pattern has been tough to miss for anyone tracking his outings. For the Blue Jays, that kind of slide matters because it puts a spotlight on how a pitchers stuff holds up once opponents begin to adjust.
The biggest concern has been the fastball, which has taken the brunt of the damage as hitters have done more with it than they did earlier in the year. Arrighetti and the team are trying to sort through what has changed and how to get him back on track, but the longer the struggles continue, the more urgent the fix becomes. For Toronto, it is less about one bad stretch than what it might mean if the current version of Arrighetti is the one they keep seeing. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Make A Telling Pitching Change Before Guardians Series
The Blue Jays are trying something a little different as they prepare for their series against the Guardians, turning to right-hander Spencer Miles to open the game and setting up Spencer Arrighetti to handle the bulk of the innings. It is a notable pivot for a Toronto pitching staff that has leaned on Miles as a steady bullpen piece this season, and the move reflects a desire to get more out of Arrighetti after his arrival by trade.
Miles has been one of the more dependable arms in the relief mix, working in 42 games with a 5-2 record and a 2.92 ERA. Arrighettis early run in Toronto has been a tougher watch, and the opener plan is designed to help him settle into a better rhythm while giving the Blue Jays a different look against Cleveland. [Read more 🡒]