Paredes’ 3 homers lift Rays, Yanks’ 3rd loss in 20 games
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Isaac Paredes homered in his first three at-bats and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Yankees 5-4 on Tuesday night, handing New York only its third loss in 20 games.
Paredes, who had four RBIs, combined with Harold Ramirez for back-toback homers in the first off Nestor Cortes, then put the Rays ahead 3-2 in the third and added a two-run drive in the fifth on the first pitch after Clarke Schmidt relieved.
It was just the second multhomer game for Paredes, who hit two against Detroit on May 18. He was hit by a pitch from Ron Marinaccio in the seventh.
Tampa Bay acquired the 23-year-old from Detroit on April 4 for outfielder Austin Meadows. Paredes is hitting .209 with eight homers and 16 RBIs, and 10 of his last 13 hits have been for extra bases.
This was the seventh time a Tampa Bay player hit three homers after Jonny Gomes, B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria (twice), Travis d’Arnaud and Brandon Lowe. — the latter two against the Yankees.
The Rays led 5-2 before Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth off Colin Poche, who got his fifth save when pinch-hitter Aaron Judge flied out to the left-field warning track.
Shawn Armstrong (1-1), the second of seven Tampa Bay pitchers, got his first win for the Rays despite giving up DJ LeMahieu’s tying, two-run single in the second.
Cortes (6-3) allowed four runs and six hits in 41⁄3 innings, giving up three homers for the first time in his major-league career. His ERA has risen from 1.50 to 2.31 in his last three starts.
Tampa Bay was 3 for 8 with three homers on Cortes’ cutters, 0 for 11 on sliders, 3 for 9 on fastballs and 0 for 2 on sinkers. Cortes had been 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA against the Rays this year coming in.
Paredes homered in the first and, three pitches later, Ramirez pulled a pitch down the left-field line. Ramirez’s home run had an 85.4 mph exit velocity, the lowest for a home run over a wall since MLB Statcast began tracking in 2015.
Paredes homered in the third and Yankees manager Aaron Boone, not wanting Cortes to face him a third time, brought in Schmidt with a man on in the fifth. Paredes homered on a fastball.
RED SOX 5, TIGERS 4
BOSTON — Trevor Story hit a three-run homer out of Fenway Park, Christian Vazquez added a solo shot for a key run in the seventh inning.
Boston, wearing unusual yellow jerseys with blue trim, went ahead 4-3 in the fourth when Story put a hanging a slider from rookie Beau Brieske (1-6) on Lansdowne Street for his 11th homer this season.
Vazquez lined Andrew Chafin’s first pitch into the Green Monster seats for a 5-3 lead in the seventh.
Rich Hill (3-4) gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings with six strikeouts.
Matt Strahm allowed Jonathan Schoop’s leadoff homer in the ninth — Schoop’s team-high sixth home run this year. John Schreiber got his second save this season when Miguel Cabrera hit a gameending groundout with a man on.
Boston was outhit 11-8 but won for the fourth time in five games and improved to 15-4 in June. The Red Sox are a season-high seven games above .500 at 38-31.
Detroit has lost eight of 10.
Javier Baez tripled and scored in the first and added a solo homer in the third. Cabrera singled in each of his first three atbats and needs three hits to tie Rod Carew for 28th at 3,053.
Riley Greene had a pair of singles for the Tigers.
Brieske allowed four runs and six hits over five innings. In his 11th big league start, Brieske struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.