Yankees hope Voit can spark offense, sore Hicks scratched
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A little Luke Voit didn’t hurt -- but it didn’t exactly help. If the Yankees want to meet their expectations of postseason success and a World Series, first they better figure out how to beat the Rays in a series. They got a good start to that Tuesday night with a 3-1 win at Tropicana Field.
Voit, who had March 29 surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his left knee, was in the lineup for the first time Tuesday night. He went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch.
The 2020 home run king (hitting 22 in the abbreviated COVID-19, 60-game season), went 7 for 18 with three home runs in his rehab assignment with the Yankees’ Triple-A club last week. While he was gone, the Yankees had the lowest OPS in baseball at first base (.494).
And against the Rays, the Yankees bats had gone all but silent. Even without former Cy Young winner Blake Snell, the Rays’ pitchers were holding the Bombers bats to an anemic slashline of .168/.254/.298 with a 58 OPS+.
The Rays took eight of 10 regular-season games last year and won the division. They went on to beat the Yankees in a five-game American League Division Series and claimed the AL pennant before losing to the Dodgers in the World Series. For those keeping track, that’s one more World Series appearance than the Yankees have in the last 11 years.
This year, the Yankees haven’t exactly changed the tone. The Rays have won five of the first six meetings.
Voit is one of the hitters that has helped this rivalry reach a boiling point as the Yankees think the Rays pitchers have taken to pitching inside to him to try and push him back off the plate. He was hit in the right
wrist/hand area Tuesday night.
“I think we avoided an (injury) there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He has big meat hooks.”
Brett Gardner was also hit in the wrist area, but also remained in the game.
Since 2018, the year the Yankees acquired Voit from the Cardinals, the Rays have been hit 31 times by the Yankees. The Rays have hit 19.
The Rays took eight of 10 regular-season games last year and won the division. They went on to beat the Yankees in a five-game American League Division Series and claimed the AL pennant before losing to the Dodgers in the World Series. For those keeping track, that’s one more World Series appearance than the Yankees have in the last 11 years.
This year, the Rays have won five of the first seven meetings.
HICKS SCRATCHED
Aaron Hicks was scratched from the lineup of Tuesday’s game with a sore right shin. The center fielder fouled a ball off his shin in the eighth inning Sunday’s win over the Nationals at Yankee Stadium. Hicks stayed in the game, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone admitted it was a concern after the game.
COLE VS. RAYS
Gerrit Cole has run into the Rays at their best. The Yankees ace went 0-1 in three regular season starts against them last year and after the Bombers won the first game of the American League Division Series behind him, they lost Game 5.
Cole, who is scheduled to start Wednesday night’s game, has a career 3.95 ERA against the Rays in eight starts.
“I think that they play really hard, especially against us, especially every single time they played against me in the last three years,