Paredes’ three homers help Rays cool off Yankees 5-4
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 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 multihomer game for Paredes, who hit two against Detroit on May 18. He was hit by a pitch from Ron Marinaccio in the seventh.
“The adrenaline was definitely saying that I should hit another homer,” Paredes said through a translator.
Tampa Bay had lost eight of its previous 10 games.
The Rays acquired the 23year-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.
“That’s what made it very special,” Paredes said. “It’s always a tough series against the Yankees and so it’s very important to win against them. With the series that we’ve been having up to this, I’m just glad we were able to get a victory out of this.”
The Rays led 5-2 before Marwin Gonzalez hit a tworun 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.
“Got off a great swing and just missed tying it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
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 4 1/3 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.
“Obviously I gave up a lot of hard contact. Maybe I didn’t execute to where I wanted to execute. That was the biggest reason why you saw what happened today,” Cortes said. “If I would have executed better it would have been a different story.”
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. The 323-foot drive was the third-shortest home run in the major leagues this season and would not have been out of any other big league ballpark, according to Statcast.
Paredes homered in the third and 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.
“That’s a day he will not forget,” manager Kevin Cash said of Paredes, who became the first player in Rays history to hit three homers through the first five innings.