YANKS CAN’T SOLVE RAYS
Cole upset he couldn’t finish for Bombers, who’ve lost 5 of 6
Over an hour later, Gerrit Cole was still steaming. The Yankees ace was visibly angry when Aaron Boone came out to get him with two outs in the seventh inning of a tied game. He was still fuming after everything fell apart in the eighth and the Yankees lost to the Rays 4-2 at the Stadium.
“I wanted to finish it,” Cole said. “I mean, I was in a good position to finish it. So….”
The Yankees, however, were not in a good position to finish it.
Zack Britton, who took the loss to the Rays Aug. 9, came in to make a two-base fielding error and throw a critical wild pitch that set up the Rays’ rally. He gave up two runs in the eighth — before walking off with an undetermined left leg injury — as the Rays took their second straight from the
Bombers.
The Rays snapped the Yankees (16-8) a streak of 27 straight series without a loss at Yankee Stadium dating back to April 2019. The Rays (16-9) have not only beaten the Bombers five out of six meetings so far this season, but more interestingly they have tightened up the American
League East division race to half a game.
“It’s very frustrating. We’ve been playing pretty good baseball recently. And obviously didn’t have a good trip down there to Tampa a week, two weeks ago,” Brett Gardner said. “Obviously these last two days haven’t haven’t gone our way. So just something that we got to keep working on and to try and find a way to solve those guys.”
Cole had pretty much solved their lineup.
He made one, possibly two mistakes all night really, pitching the best game of his short, six-start Yankee career.
in 6.2 innings work. The Rays got six hits off him, but scored just two runs — both on homers. He walked one and for the second start in his last three, he struck out 10.
Cole allowed homers to JiMan Choi and Mike Zunino. Choi’s second-inning shot came on an 87 mph changeup that just floated. Zunino turned Cole’s velocity against him. The Rays’ catcher turned on a 98 mph fastball and drove it into
Monument Park in center field.
He had just finished off Zunino in the seventh with a nasty fastball when he saw Boone walking out of the dugout. Cameras caught him yell “Oh My God,” and then he swore. As Boone approached, Cole, who was at 109 pitches, covered his mouth with his glove, but continued talking. He stomped into the dugout and was muttering and gesturing until he disappeared down the stairs and into the clubhouse.
“He made the move before he even got out there. So it didn’t really matter whatever I said to him on the mound and you know, whatever I said to him in my glove,” Cole said. “We’ll just leave it at that.”
It certainly caught Boone’s attention.
“That’s just the competitor he is,” Boone said. “He’s an ace, he wants the ball. I talked to him a little bit after the sixth when he was at 99 (pitches), when I was considering making a move, and you know, he wanted the ball. So, back out he went. It just felt like once it got to (Austin) Meadows though, I felt like that was the time to get through it.”
It didn’t work, but it wasn’t the only reason the Yankees have now lost two in row to the Rays. Their lineup without the injured Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu was not particularly effective.
Luke Voit hit his fourth homer in three games and Aaron Hicks scored on a sacrifice fly after tripling, but the Yankees were 0-for-7 with runners in
scoring position Wednesday night.
They left runners in scoring position in the last three innings, including the ninth, when they led off the inning with two walks only to have Gardner fly out, pinch hitter Miguel Andujar and Thairo Estrada strike out.
“Offensively, we have to do a better job of getting to their pitchers and taking advantage of the opportunities that we do give ourselves,” Gardner said. “We’ve got guys out there on base and having a bit of traffic. So yeah, it’s frustrating, obviously. We’ve got a really, really good team. They’re one of the best teams in the American League and in order for us to get to where we want to be at the end of the year and be the last team standing, this is one of the teams that we’ve got to figure out and get through.”