Rays beat Yanks after Sanchez fails to hustle on final out
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gary Sanchez failed to hustle on a pair of key plays, Jake Bauers hit a three-run homer and scored with some nifty baserunning, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat Luis Severino and the New York Yankees 7-6 on Monday night.
The Yankees loaded the bases against Jose Alvarado with one out in the ninth when Brett Gardner singled, Aaron Judge walked and Giancarlo Stanton was intentionally walked. After Aaron Hicks hit into a force out at the plate, Alvarado got his first save when Sanchez grounded out, a play where Hicks beat the play at second but the Yankees catcher was thrown out at first after jogging most of the way there. Hicks limped off the field after his slide. Bauers made it 4-1 on his sixth homer in the fifth. Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the first when Bauers had a two-out double and aggressively scored from second on Sanchez’s 10th passed ball. Sanchez and Severino got their signs crossed up, leading to the passed ball. Sanchez slowly chased the ball as it bounced away in foul territory, giving Bauers time to score from second base.
Severino (14-3) allowed a season-high seven runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings. The 24-year-old righty struck out eight to reach 504 for his career, joining Al Downing (644) and Lefty Gomez (511) as the only Yankees’ pitchers to reach 500 strikeouts with the club before turning 25.
New York has gone 13-13 over its last 26 games, a stretch that started when Tampa Bay had a three-game sweep over the Yankees June 22-24.
Daniel Robertson, who had a pinch-hit walk-off grand slam in Sunday’s 6-4 win over Miami, got his third hit with a solo homer in a three-run sixth that extended Tampa Bay’s advantage to 7-3.