Paredes hits 2 of 3 HRs off Cortes as Yanks fall in Tampa

ST. PETERSBURG — Familiarity breeds home runs? At least that’s what Nestor Cortes thinks after getting hammered by the Rays Tuesday night. Cortes gave up a career-high three homers to the

Rays, including two to young infielder Isaac Paredes, who hit a third later in the Tampa’s 5-4 win over the Yankees at Tropicana

Field Tuesday night.

“I think the game plan they had was pretty good. Obviously facing them three times in a month probably gave them a little bit of an advantage, but if (the pitches) were better located I think I could have done the job,” Cortes said after taking his first loss to the Rays this season.

It was the second loss in the last three games for the Yankees (50-17). They lost to the Blue Jays in Toronto on Sunday but pulled out a win Monday night even after blowing a lead in the eighth. The Bombers still hold an 11-game lead in the American League East, dropping to 25-12 against division opponents. The Rays (37-31) pulled back into a tie for third in the division with the Red Sox. .

The Yankees had a chance to come back.

Colin Poche, the seventh pitcher the Rays used Tuesday night, walked Gleyber Torres to start the ninth. He struck out Aaron Hicks before Marwin Gonzalez homered. Aaron Judge, off for the night, had a chance to tie the game as a pinch hitter but he flew out to the left-field wall.

Cortes had a surprisingly short night.

The lefty, who has been the Yankees most reliable starter of the season, had thrown just 63 pitches and allowed four runs on six hits when Yankees manager Aaron Boone jumped out of the dugout to stop him from facing Paredes a third time.

Cortes did not walk a batter and struck out three over 4.1 innings of work. He was not fooling the Rays, getting just four swings-and-misses the whole night.

Cortes went into Tuesday night’s game with a 1.94. He left with a 2.31 ERA.

It was the second straight start Cortes made against the Rays. He allowed just one earned run on three hits over 5.1 innings against Tampa Bay last Wednesday in the Bronx.

Paredes must have been paying attention that day. He went into Tuesday night’s game 0-for-5 against Cortes.

Monday night, Parades broke up Gerrit Cole’s no-hit bid with a scorched groundball back up the middle. Tuesday, he got the Rays started by turning on a cutter in the first inning for his sixth homer of the season and, it would turn out, his first of the night. Harold Ramirez got a cutter too and hammered it for back-to-back homers.

In the third, Paredes crushed another cutter for his second of the night.

In the fifth, after Boone quickly pulled Cortes in reaction to Yandy Diaz’s hard-hit single, Paredes jumped on Clarke Schmidt’s first pitch — a 96-mile an hour fastball — for his third homer of the game.

In the seventh, Ron Marinaccio plunked Paredes with an 83-mile an hour changeup.

The Rays picked up Paredes in a trade with the Tigers that sent former Yankee-slayer Austin Meadows to Detroit. Paredes came into the game, his 31st of the season, hitting .181/.242/.2398 with a .639 and five home runs.