The Yankees went ahead 2-1 in the first when Alex Cobb’s pickoff attempt to first hit Didi Gregorius as he dived back safely.
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With three more against the Rays this weekend and the four teams that NY is chasing all playing one another over that same stretch, this could be the weekend that the Yankees make their move towards the playoffs. For the first five innings, it was a pitchers duel, but the Yankees ultimately got to Archer in the sixth and went on to defeat the Rays 5-1 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Before that he hit 11 homers over 15 games.
The crew pulled a run off the board by overturning a balk call against Holder, and then Tyler Austin homered in the ninth to lift NY over the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Thursday night. Bottom line, the Yankees are thinking win every day and personal feelings may be bruised.
NY moved within two games of Baltimore for the second AL wild card and four games of AL East-leading Boston.
With each passing game, the Yankees sense they have a chance to reach the playoffs.
Taijuan Walker (5-10) shook off two game-opening walks to finish five innings, giving up three runs and seven hits to win for the first time in six starts.
“I’m not overly satisfied with the overall way of pitching, how I’m pitching this year”, Tanaka said. “At the same time, I wanted to be ready”.
Down 3-1 in the eighth with men on second and third, the Rays opted not to pitch to Sanchez, and reliever Enny Romero began lobbing balls over the plate for the intentional walk.
So in typical Gary Sanchez fashion, he swung at the lob over the plate – and hit it deep to center field. “Well, I guess I didn’t, ” he said. On the other hand, he played two outfield balls very awkwardly, to say the least, and each misplay resulted in a run.
Up to a point, that is. “That’s embarrassing, but we’re not going to talk about it any further than that”.
On Saturday, it meant yet another masterful performance by Masahiro Tanaka – now solidly established as one of the best pitchers in the league – and another great game by rookie Gary Sanchez, who seems to have emerged from a brief slump after a brilliant start.
The Rays have dropped five of six since getting the first two from Toronto last weekend and clinched a non-winning season at 59-81. No. 9 hitter Bobby Wilson homered off Tanaka in the seventh and next batter Logan Forsythe was hit in the shirt by a Tanaka inside fastball, ending the right-hander’s day.
Archer is 8-17 with a 4.06 ERA. Despite the loss, Texas still leads the AL West by 8 1/2 games.
Miller’s 26 home runs and.341 wOBA this year are both easily career-highs.
For a moment, it appeared Joe Girardi might pinch-hit Teixeira for Austin in that ninth inning, and the two were seen joking and laughing in the clubhouse just after Austin’s game-winning at-bat. “It was one of those things where you second-guess all of that stuff”.
Said Archer: “A lot of that is in the past”. Last year I didn’t have a good year at all, trying to do too much, trying to be somebody I didn’t have to be.
“I didn’t know how many more grand slams I had left in me”, said Teixeira in the final season of his career.
“It’s a hard decision”, Girardi said who went with lefty Chasen Shreve at the time to attack left-handed Brad Miller (24 of his 26 homers against righties).
Steven Souza/Logan Morrison – Even though the Rays were defeated by the Yankees, they did have two good performers.
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Given a 7-2 lead, Yankees starter Michael Pineda lasted just 4 2/3 innings.
