ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Four things were supposed to go right for the New York Yankees on Friday night at Tropicana Field. The offense was going to shake off its 17-inning scoreless streak in warmer Florida air. Luis Gil was going to announce his return to the major leagues with a competitive start. The Automatic Ball Strike challenge system was going to keep working in New York’s favor. And Aaron Boone’s ninth-inning lineup decision was going to pay off.
None of them did.
The Yankees fell 5-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays in their first game back at the Trop in 638 days, dropping their third consecutive game and falling to 8-5 on the season. Their team batting average now stands at .201, placing them ahead of only the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox in that category across Major League Baseball.
A promising start that evaporated fast
The Yankees actually got off to the kind of start they needed. Aaron Judge singled in the first inning, stole second, and advanced to third on a throwing error. Cody Bellinger lifted a sacrifice fly to put New York up 1-0.
Two batters later, Giancarlo Stanton walked. Rays left fielder Chandler Simpson then attempted a sliding catch on an Amed Rosario liner, came up well short, and watched the ball bounce over his head and roll to the left-field wall. Stanton scored easily. Rosario pulled into third with what was generously ruled a triple, and the Yankees led 2-0.
It did not last.
In the bottom of the first, Gil walked Jonathan Aranda with two outs, then left a slider up in the zone to Yandy Diaz, who punished it to right-center for a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2.
From that point, the Yankees did not score again until the eighth inning. A team that scored zero runs over 17 innings to close its Bronx homestand had arrived in Tampa and managed two runs in the first inning before going cold for the next six.
Gil battles through four innings in his season debut
Gil, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year who began this season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, made his first major league start of 2026 on Friday. He allowed three earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out two in four innings on 88 pitches.
The Diaz homer was the most damaging blow. In the third inning, Taylor Walls scored on a fielder’s choice off Gil to give the Rays their first lead at 3-2. Gil generated only five swings and misses all night, a reminder of the command and swing-and-miss concerns that have followed him since his return from a lat strain injury in 2025.
Still, Gil framed his debut in terms of perseverance rather than frustration.
“It was a battle tonight,” Gil said through interpreter Marlon Abreu. “I can be better. But at the same time, it’s the first outing of the season. I’m happy to be back here.”
On his demotion to start the year, Gil kept his response measured.
“They told me, and I took it easy,” Gil said. “I kept with my routine and kept working so that I could stay on pace to come back up here and pitch today.”
Jake Bird and Brent Headrick combined for 1.1 scoreless innings after Gil departed, but Camilo Doval allowed two more runs in the sixth when Simpson singled in a run and Aranda grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Walls again. Doval’s ERA climbed to 7.20. The Yankees trailed 5-2 entering the seventh.
ABS challenges go cold as the offense stays quiet
Earlier this season the Yankees were one of the most successful teams in baseball at using the new Automatic Ball Strike challenge system, which allows each team a limited number of per-game challenges to review borderline ball-and-strike calls via electronic tracking.
That edge has disappeared. New York has lost 10 of its past 14 ABS challenges since April 4. On Friday, both Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fourth inning and Jose Caballero in the fifth lost their challenges. Boone acknowledged the recent run of failed reviews without making excuses.
“There’s going to be ebbs and flows of that,” Boone said.
Catching coach Tanner Swanson had previously called the Yankees’ early ABS success “very unsustainable,” and that prediction is proving accurate. Wells, who has been central to the team’s challenge strategy, offered a measured reaction.
“We’re told to be aggressive and use them,” Wells said. “There’s been some really, really close ones that haven’t gone our way, but I think that’s just the game.”
Rice’s homer and Boone’s ninth-inning gamble
Ben Rice provided the game’s best moment for the Yankees in the eighth inning, launching the first pinch-hit homer of his career off the center-field wall to cut the deficit to 5-3. Rice admitted he was not certain the ball had cleared.
“I didn’t think it was going to go out,” Rice said. “When he came down on the ground, I really wasn’t sure. I don’t think he was intentionally deking, but I definitely had to pause and wait to look at the umpire to see if it was a homer.”
In the ninth, the Yankees generated genuine pressure. Stanton and Rosario opened with back-to-back singles against Rays reliever Bryan Baker. Chisholm reached on a fielder’s choice that kept the inning alive.
Boone then kept right-handed Randal Grichuk in to bat against Baker, citing Baker’s reverse splits as a righty who struggles against right-handed hitters. The decision did not work. Grichuk struck out. Pinch-hitter Trent Grisham popped out to end the game. The runners never moved past second and third.
After the loss, Boone acknowledged the ABS challenges were “probably not great” and kept his message on the offense simple.
“We’ve got to get some guys clicking and obviously get that big hit,” Boone said. “We’re not hitting a ton of long balls right now. It’s going to happen sometimes from the offense. They’ll get it rolling and some people will pay the price.”
Wells echoed the same resolve.
“We’ve got to hit,” Wells said. “We’ve got to take pressure off these guys on the mound. They’re doing a great job for us. We’ve got to string some at-bats together, hit a couple of big ones and get rolling.”
With a team batting average of .201 through 13 games and a three-game losing streak now in hand, the Yankees need exactly that.
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