Arozarena homers, drives in 4 runs, Rays beat Yankees
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Randy Arozarena homered and drove in four runs, Yandy Díaz hit a leadoff shot, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 7-2 on Saturday.
Arozarena put the Rays ahead 4-2 with a three-run homer in the third inning off Nestor Cortes (1-4). The 2023 All-Star has struggled this season — he went 2 for 3 to raise his average to just .154 — but has gone deep four times in his last eight games.
Díaz homered on Cortes' first pitch of the game. Díaz and Arozarena had RBI doubles in a three-run seventh.
Zack Littell (2-2) allowed two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings as the Rays returned to .500 at 20-20.
Rays closer Pete Fairbanks returned after missing 19 games with nerve-related hand issues and struck out one in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Anthony Volpe had a two-run single in the second for the Yankees, who lost for the second time in eight games.
New York slugger Juan Soto failed to reach base for the second straight day and just the sixth time this season. He came close to putting the Yankees ahead in the seventh when his 404-foot, 107.5 mph drive with two on and two out was caught at the wall in center. Cortes gave up four runs and five hits over 5 1/3 innings.
Cortes and Littell were teammates at High-A and Double-A in the Yankees' organization in 2017.
BLUE JAYS 10, TWINS 8
TORONTO (AP) — Ernie Clement broke an 8-all tie with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays overcame a six-run deficit to beat the Minnesota Twins 10-8 on Saturday.
Danny Jansen hit a two-run home run while Bo Bichette and Davis Schneider each hit solo homers for the Blue Jays, who came in having lost six of eight.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 4 for 5 with three RBIs in his 11th multihit game of the season as the Blue Jays used a season-best 16 hits to cool off the Twins, who had won 16 of 18.
Guerrero tied it at 8-all with a two-run, two-out single off Steven Okert in the sixth inning.
After two Blue Jays batters reached against Jay Jackson (1-2) to begin the seventh, pinch hitter George Springer walked and Clement broke the tie with a single to shallow center off Caleb Thielbar. Schneider followed with a sacrifice fly.
Carlos Santana hit a three-run home run and Ryan Jeffers had a solo homer for the Twins, whose seven-game road winning streak was snapped.
Twins batters have homered at least once in 19 consecutive games in Toronto, the second-longest such streak in team history. Minnesota homered in 21 straight games at Kansas City between July 30, 1998, and Aug. 25, 2001.
Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson (1-2) pitched one scoreless inning for the win. Yimi Garcia worked the eighth, his first appearance since April 28 after missing time because of a sore back.
Jordan Romano pitched around a two-out double in the ninth to earn his sixth save in six chances.
The Twins roughed up Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman, who allowed seven runs, six earned, and 10 hits in three innings. Gausman has a 6.94 ERA in 12 career starts against Minnesota.
Bichette's leadoff drive in the second was his second of the season and first since April 9.
Schneider homered to begin the fifth, his fourth. Later in the inning, Jansen hit a two-run home run off Cole Sands, his fourth.
Minnesota's Max Kepler had two hits, extending his career-long hitting streak to 13 games.