New York Yankees 1, Tampa Bay Rays 2
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees went down fighting another game on Saturday at Tropicana. The Rays beat New York 2-1 to cut their AL East deficit to four games.
Corey Kluber held the Yankees to two singles over seven scoreless innings.
First-place Yankees have lost now six of seven, letting a 15 1/2-game AL East lead slip away. In the series opener, Tampa Bay blanked New York 9-0 on five hits. Manager Aaron Boone called it “embarrassing.”
The teams played six times in 10 days. Yandy Diaz’s two-run single helped the Rays win on Saturday.
Judge’s ninth-inning homer off Jason Adam boosted his homer lead. But Adam retired three Yankees and made his eighth save.
Since August 3, when they were 10-7, the Rays have had the best record in the AL, with a 20-9 record. It was the 36-year-first old’s pitch in the seventh inning since he threw a no-hitter for the Yankees at Texas on May 19, 2021.
Kluber got 14 outs in a row before Jonathan Aranda’s throwing error let Aaron Hicks reach first base in the sixth. Judge’s single moved Hicks to second, and Kluber got the next 14 outs.
Diaz’s two-run single off Clarke Schmidt (5-4) in the third put the Rays ahead 2-0. Francisco Mejia and Jose Siri began the inning with a single while Taylor Walls sacrificed them over.
Over 4 1/3 innings, Schmidt gave up two runs and four hits.
With one out in the first, Stanton was off to advance on a dirt pitch. The inning ended with Josh Donaldson’s grounder.
Stanton broke his bat when he hit a grounder off a 90 mph pitch from Kluber in the third inning.
Oswald Peraza, a prospect for the Yankees, played shortstop in his first big league game and went 0 for 3. In his first game Friday, he pinch-hit in the ninth and struck out.
UP NEXT
Frankie Montas (4-11), who came from Oakland, will make his sixth start on Sunday. In his first two starts, he went 0-2 and had an ERA of 7.01.
When will you think the Yankees can stop their losing trend? Will the Rays shut them out of the series?
