Rays hit 4 homers, Glasnow fans 10 as Tampa Bay pulls even with Yanks
SAN DIEGO — With their pitching staff providing a record 18 strikeouts, the Tampa Bay Rays showed some pop of their own against the New York Yankees.
Randy Arozarena, Mike Zunino, Manuel Margot and Austin Meadows homered, and Tyler Glasnow struck out 10 to set a postseason record for the Rays, who beat the Yankees 7-5 on Tuesday to even their AL Division Series at one game apiece.
The Rays had enough power to overcome a huge game by Giancarlo Stanton, who had two home runs and four RBIs. His impressive power display included a 458-foot, three-run homer that landed under the giant video board in left field at Petco Park. It was reminiscent of the mammoth shots he hit in winning the Home Run Derby here in 2016.
Each team has hit six home runs in two games at the downtown ballpark, where the outfield once had the reputation as a place where fly balls went to die. The fences were moved in before the 2013 season.
“We had each other’s back,”
Meadows said. “If a guy’s having a tough game, I feel like the next guy up really picks him up. For us, to continue to try to hit the ball hard, especially in big situations, our offense is pretty deadly when we can do that.”
Manager Kevin Cash was relieved with his team’s power display. Teams improved to 16-0 in the postseason when outhomering opponents.
“Randy, it’s unbelievable what
he’s doing right now,” Cash said. “Z came up with just a big homer for us. Meadows, it’s good to see him get going; Manny just separated the game right there was good. Unfortunately we didn’t get that shutdown inning we were looking for. We needed every bit of them.”
Four Rays pitchers struck out 18, an MLB postseason record for a nine-inning game and a postseason record for Yankees batters.
“It’s a credit to our stuff,” Cash said. “And that’s saying something for that group over there because they’re selective and that’s a very talented, very deep offense. But it does speak volumes to the amount of stuff on a given night we can feature.”
DJ LeMahieu had hit an RBI single with two outs in the ninth, but Pete Fairbanks retired Aaron Judge on a grounder with runners on the corners to end the game.
Stanton has three homers this series and five in four postseason games. He became the first Yankees player to homer in four straight games in the same postseason when he lined a shot into the home run porch in right field off Glasnow leading off the second.
Stanton joined Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig as the only Yankees to homer in four straight postseason games overall.
“That was a good swing,” Stanton said of his long homer. “I was just glad to put the barrel on it. I didn’t really care how far it was going. I knew it was out. That’s all I cared about. You kind of black out sometimes on those.”