Snell, Rays on top; so are White Sox, Yankees, Astros in pleyoff openers
Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the top-seeded Tampa Bay Rays opened the playoffs Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Manuel Margot hit a two-run homer and Randy Arozarena tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give Snell and a dominant Rays bullpen all the offensive support needed to begin the best-of-three wild-card matchup.
The AL East champion Rays will try to advance today in Game 2 at Tropicana Field.
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed one hit and struck out nine — tying a club postseason record — in 5 2/3 innings.
Here’s a look at Tuesday’s other AL games:
YANKEES 12, INDIANS 3
Aaron Judge smashed a tone-setting, two-run homer on Shane Bieber’s fourth pitch, Gerrit Cole struck out 13 in his New York playoff debut and the Yankees opened their AL wild-card series with a resounding win.
Gleyber Torres, Brett Gardner and Giancarlo Stanton also homered for New York. The best-of-three series continues tonight with Carlos Carrasco trying to save Cleveland’s season against Masahiro Tanaka.
WHITE SOX 4, A’S 1
Lucas Giolito released a brief yell of delight and marched quickly back to the dugout, his work day going just brilliantly for the Chicago White Sox.
Giolito simply dazzled in his postseason debut, stymieing the Oakland Athletics through six perfect innings. He didn’t allow a baserunner to the AL West champions until Tommy La Stella’s single up the middle to start the seventh. Giolito gave up one run on two hits over seven innings, struck out eight and walked one before giving way to Evan Marshall after a stellar 100-pitch outing.
“Pretty cool,” manager Rick Renteria said. “It was neat to see.”
Giolito got plenty of support: José Abreu hit a two-run homer and Adam Engel also connected for Chicago. Yasmani Grandal homered in the eighth.
ASTROS 4, TWINS 1
Tarnished by scandal at the start of the year and below average during this pandemic-abbreviated season, the Houston Astros showed up for the playoffs with their usual confidence and poise.
Just like that, they’ve got the edge on the Minnesota Twins in an elimination game.
Jose Altuve drew a walk to force in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning Tuesday after a two-out error by shortstop Jorge Polanco, and the Astros stretched Minnesota’s all-time postseason record to 17 straight losses.