Meadows, Arozarena homer, Rays continue to dominate Yankees
The Tampa Bay Rays keep finding ways to frustrate the New York Yankees.
Austin Meadows and Randy Arozarena homered off Domingo German, helping the Rays extend their mastery over their AL East rivals with a 4-0 victory on Saturday.
The Rays have won 10 of 12 regular-season games between the teams since the start of 2020. Tampa Bay also eliminated the Yankees from last year’s playoffs in a five-game series that went the distance.
Six Tampa Bay pitchers combined to limit the Yankees to five hits, with an injury-riddled bullpen delivering a strong performance after starter Chris Archer departed with a forearm injury that landed him on the 10-day injured list.
“Any time you shut out a team in major league baseball, it’s saying something,” manager Kevin Cash said. “When you do it in that fashion against that lineup, it’s really saying something.”
Meadows got things rolling for the Rays with a solo homer in the first inning, his third of the season. He had three hits in Tampa Bay’s 10-5 win over New York the previous day and has homered three times in eight career at-bats against German (0-2).
Arozarena, a rookie who keyed the Rays’ run to the World Series with a breakout postseason, hit a 420foot solo shot in the third inning for a 4-0 lead. The ALCS MVP hit .377 with 10 homers and 14 RBI in 20 postseason games last fall.
Andrew Kittredge (2-0) worked 1 2⁄ innings to get
3 the win, replacing Archer when the starter exited with right lateral forearm tightness after allowing three hits and striking out four in 2 1⁄ innings.
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Archer departed after yielding a one-out double to DJ LeMahieu with the Rays leading 3-0 in the third inning.
The two-time All-Star, making his first start at Tropicana Field since Tampa Bay traded him to Pittsburgh in July 2018, signed with the Rays as a free agent in February.
The right-hander missed the entire 2020 pandemicshortened season after undergoing surgery to relieve symptoms of neurorgenic thoracic outlet syndrome.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge returned to the lineup after missing two games due to soreness in his left side. He went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts. His fifth-inning single was New York’s final hit of the game.
“We just couldn’t muster anything with the opportunities we had. … Collectively, we have to be better as a group,” Yankees manager Aaron
Boone said.
German allowed four runs and eight hits in four innings, walking one and striking out five. After looking sharp in spring training, the right-hander has yielded four homers in seven innings over two starts to this season.
After the game, he was optioned to the Yankees’ alternate training site.
German missed all of 2020 while serving the remainder of an 81-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy in 2019. He rejected the notion that there’s some lingering rustiness due to not pitching last year.
“I feel really good … but that’s how it goes,” German said through a translator. “Hitters make adjustments (in the regular season) and pitchers have to make adjustments. It’s up to me to make the right adjustments.”
Mariners 4, Twins 3 (10): Mitch Haniger homered and hit the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, lifting Seattle past host Minnesota. All three of Minnesota’s losses this season have come in the 10th, with the bullpen struggling with baseball’s new-as-of-2020 rule that starts each extra inning with a runner on second base.
A Athletics 7, Astros 3: Ramon Laureano hit a two-run homer, rookie
Seth Brown connected for his first big league home run and Oakland won the series at Houston. Oakland’s offense piled up a season-high 11 hits. The A’s and Astros are scheduled off Sunday.
A Royals at White Sox, ppd.: Saturday’s game in Chicago was postponed because of inclement weather. The game will be made up May 14 as part of a day-night doubleheader. Both games will be seven innings, and the teams can add an extra player for the doubleheader.
ANATIONAL LEAGUE
Brewers 9, Cardinals 5: Avisail Garcia homered, doubled and drove in five runs as Milwaukee ended host St. Louis’ four-game winning streak. Keston Hiura hit a three-run homer that capped a fiverun burst in the seventh inning that made it 8-2. The Brewers won for the third time in four games.
Giants 4, Rockies 3: Brandon Crawford delivered the decisive hit for a second straight day, connecting for a three-run homer in the sixth inning as host San Francisco edged Colorado.
AA