Rays dominate Yankees
Tampa Bay pitchers allow just three hits vs. sloppy New York squad
Brandon Lowe hit a two-run double in the first inning off opener Nick Nelson, and the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays kept up their domination of the New York Yankees with a 8-2 win Friday night that set off frustrated fans who caused a brief interruption.
Tampa Bay arrived in New York with eight defeats in 11 games and had not held a lead in 25 innings. The young, athletic Rays spurted to an 8-0, seventhinning lead and beat the Yankees for the 16th time in their last 21 meetings, including during last year’s Division Series.
New York dropped to 5-8 and managed a triple crown of failed pitching, hitting and fielding. The Yankees walked seven Rays, had just three hits, struck out 14 times and made three errors that led to three unearned runs.
The game was stopped for about 2 minutes, 15 seconds with Clint Frazier batting in the bottom of the eighth when about a half-dozen balls were thrown on the field from the pandemiclimited crowd of 10,202 on a cool, breezy night with a 45-degree temperature at game time.
Michael Wacha (1-1) lowered his ERA from 7.00 to 4.20, allowing one hit in six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.
Frazier was 0 for 3 with three strikeouts and has no RBIS in 63 plate appearances this year. Aaron Hicks was 0 for 3, dropping to 2 for 26 (.077) left-handed this season. And AL batting champion DJ Lemahieu was 0 for 4, ending his 23-game regular-season hitting streak against the Rays.
The Yankees’ Nick Nelson reacts to giving up two runs in the first inning of a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on Friday in New York. He wasn’t given much support from the Yankees’ offense that manged just three hits in the contest. It was the 16th win for Tampa Bay in the last 21 meetings with New York, including last year’s Division Series.
Third baseman Gio Urshela allowed Willy Adames’ grounder to bounce off his glove for a run-scoring error in the four-run fifth, and second baseman Rougned Odor threw past first on what should have been an inning-ending double play grounder by Randy Arozarena, allowing two more runs.
Nelson (0-2) was no more effective than the previous time manager Aaron Boone used an opener, when Deivi Garcia started Game 2 last year against the Rays and was followed by J.A. Happ in a 7-5 loss.
Gerrit Cole, who starts Sunday’s series finale, is 2-0 with a 1.47 ERA, allowing three runs in 18 1⁄3 innings over three appearances. The rest of New York’s starters are 1-5 with a 6.45 ERA, giving up 27 runs in 372⁄3 innings.
Tampa Bay had runners in each of the first six innings.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a tworun homer in the seventh.