Unfortunately, the Yankees were out slugged by the Rays in a 6-3 loss at Tropicana Field in Tampa, Florida. NY had sent closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs on Monday in a five-player deal.
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Not even a night off could keep Yankees catcher Brian McCann out of the spotlight. “We needed to win, and we didn’t do it”.
Not surprisingly, given the emotional gut punch they absorbed, the Yankees couldn’t avoid being swept by the lowly Rays, who punched them in the mouth again, 5-3. They went into Friday night with a chance to match their season high of four games above.500. Selling off at the trade deadline has been unthinkable for decades, but under the circumstances with this aging team, management recognized the inevitable need to act for the future.
NY was held to five hits and a pair of BB with Brett Gardner clubbing a two run jack while Chase Headley went solo.The Yankees end their series at Tropicana Field with Michael Pineda on the mound.
“I don’t ever wave a white flag”, Girardi said. “That was my expectations coming here”. Obviously, the way the team has performed up to this date – I don’t want to say has made this happen – but it’s obviously a large part of why this has happened. We just haven’t played well enough.
“We’re certainly probably not as good a team as we were 10 days ago or seven days ago”, Chase Headley said.
Rays: RHP Alex Cobb (Tommy John surgery) resumed a minor league rehab assignment after taking 2 1/2 weeks off due to fatigue and struck out two over two hitless innings for Class A Charlotte.
Outside of the home runs, the Yankees’ biggest highlight was watching Didi Gregorius save a base hit by catching a ball that collided with a catwalk over the left-field area in the second inning.
The Yankees had won eight of 11 to get 3 1/2 games behind Boston for the second AL wild card, prompting manager Joe Girardi before the game to call the Rays series “big”. For whatever reason, those runs seemed to break the seal on the scoreboard and Pineda went on to allow a solo home run to Brad Miller in the fifth inning and a two-run single to Luke Maile in the sixth.
Staked to a 2-1 lead in the third, Eovaldi gave up a leadoff single to Tim Beckham, then watched Casali, the No. 9 hitter who entered the box batting.166, drive a 2-2 slider clocked at 86 miles per hour into the left-field seats for a 3-2 Rays lead. But in the bottom of the inning, Pineda gave up a one-out double to Souza and a walk to Kevin Keiermaier. Anthony Swarzak gave up three runs in an inning of work, Richard Bleier failed to retire a batter and Adam Warren pitched a scoreless inning.
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The Yankees added a run in the eighth on McCann’s RBI single, but in the ninth, Alex Colome got pinch hitter Mark Teixeira to ground out and struck out pinch hitter Alex Rodriguez before whiffing Brett Gardner for the final out. But Beltran grounded into a double play, ending a potential rally.
