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The Rays lost another close game to the Yankees 4-3 on Wednesday night. The loss lowered their record against the Yankees that season to 2-4. In the first six competitions, the Rays were surpassed by a total of six runs.
This latest loss was yet another frustrating reminder that this Rays team has yet to put it all together. Amid an increasing tide of injuries both on the hill and on the field, the continuity we’re seeing on the roster has yet to materialize for an extended period of time.
Nonetheless, the loss still leaves the Rays eight games above .500. The bad news is Rays is now nine games behind first place.
The silver lining? Well, it’s only mid-June and the Rays still have a lot of games left against the Yankees and everyone else.
Now to the game…
*Two Cy Young frontrunners faced each other on the bump, the Bronx Bombers hit a few bombs and the Rays had another costly error.*
Shane McClanahan was mostly his usual self. He went 6 innings again, knocked out 7 and walked 2. He gave up 4 runs, but only one was earned. All 4 runs came over a pair of long balls.
Aaron Judge hit a homer in the 1st inning that just overcame the wall in right field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead that would have been an out at any other ballpark.
After a mistake by Brett Phillips leading from the bottom of 5th and an intentional two-out walk to Kiner-Falefa, Kyle Higashioka hit a 3-run bomb to extend the Yankees’ lead to 4-0.
At the plate, the Rays’ offensive struggled again against Nestor Cortes, who went 5.1 innings and gave up 1 run. He struck 4 and walked 3. The Rays put on 5 zeros to start the game until a two-out double from Manuel Margot scored Yandy Diaz.
The 4-1 result held up to the top end of 8th when the Rays scored two twos thanks to two RBI singles from Ji-Man Choi (who had to wait ages to score because Boone was trying to change). -Out runs scored Kannen after visiting a hill) and Rene Pinto.
A scoreless bottom half of the inning gave the Rays one last chance to scrape past the tie run. After a leadoff single from Taylor Walls and a subsequent fielder pick from Brujan, the Rays had two chances to drive in Vidal. Unfortunately, Clay Holmes would close the door again with a strikeout from Yandy Diaz and a groundball from Mejia.
On the plus side, Shane McClanahan was the first pitcher in baseball to hit 100 punch outs.
On the not so good side, Kevin Kiermaier left the game with an Achilles tendonitis. The baseball gods weren’t happy with injuries to Brandon Lowe, Wander Franco and Mike Zunino…now KK is down for the count too. The entire defense of the Rays in the middle has now fallen victim to the IL.
But there’s not much the Rays can do about it now other than keep trying to weather the storm as it will pass…eventually…hopefully.
Let’s hope they can salvage a win in the series finale.